An aspect of Northern Renaissance art or culture

History – An aspect of Northern Renaissance art or culture

Research papers—As the name suggests, these assignments require you to engage in full- fledged historical research. You will read sources (primary and/or secondary), think about them, and interpret them to answer some question about the past.

To begin your research, you will have to read before you write.

Shape a question that your research can answer or comment on.

What do your sources have to say about: Women in Northern Renaissance art, or Images of Death in Northern Renaissance art, for example.

Summarize as many points of view as possible.

Draw forth a list of ideas, new data, new perspectives, etc. that you have gleaned from your reading, analysis and synthesis of your sources.

Using word-processing and double-spacing, each paper will cite no fewer than three (3) authoritative sources, and be approximately five (5) to eight (8) pages in length. All sources must be authoritative, and will NOT INCLUDE YOUR TEXTBOOK, Wikipedia, or similar sites. Do not use your textbook as a source. Make sure you narrow your topic to a manageable size. Each student will also prepare a summary of the paper for presentation in class. The summary will be approximately five (5) minutes. Prepare a power point of this summary even if it consists of text only, and put it on a loop to run exactly five (5) minutes. Be prepared to answer questions from the class. Failure to present an oral summary will result in the loss of fifteen (15) points from the grade of the written paper. Papers will be uploaded to Blackboard and graded using an embedded rubric.

Each research paper will be scholarly and address an aspect of Northern Renaissance art or culture.

You may locate sources through the J. D. Williams Library database JSTOR. To locate this database, go to the J. D. Williams Library homepage. Under Research Tools you will find Database Search. Click on Database Search and scroll down to “J” where you will find JSTOR. You can search for full-text articles here and either read them online or download a pdf copy.

Images for oral presentations are available at the following web sites: To search for images, begin with the J. D. Williams Library Research Guides on the main library webpage. A click on this will open to Subject Guides. Clicking on the Subject Guides link will take you to the Art Guide. Under the Art Guide is a link for ARTstor and a tab for Image Resources. You will need to establish an account to use ARTstor. Clicking on the Digital Resources tab will take you to numerous sites where images are available, many free of charge by merely citing complete identification and ownership and others by asking permission and giving Copyright data. There are also library and museum collections and local and regional image databases on this page. The museum cites are very useful. Search around on these sites to see what you can find. Document fully all images used.