-- Research Paper Process Example --

  FROM A PREVIOUS ASSIGNMENT--FOR THOSE FOLKS WHO ARE HAVING  
  TROUBLE GETTING STARTED:

  One example of Research Process: 
  This morning I was reading a detailed chronology of the early years of 
  American involvement in a book published in 1965. There I read that on 15  
  November, 1963, "a US military spokesman in Saigon reports that 1000 
  servicemen will be withdrawn from Viet-Nam, beginning December 3" (Raskin 
  and Fall 393). I had always thought that this decision was Top Secret and 
  contained within National Security Memorandum 263, and would have been 
  declassified after the off year election. Recall that Diem was assassinated on 1 
  November, Kennedy on 22 November. Kennedy, who was a Democrat, was in 
  Texas campaigning and his decision to withdraw troops was classified so that 
  he would not be accused of being soft on Communism. 

  An examination of this critical period and decision would make an interesting  
  research paper. Oliver Stone made a movie with his hypothesis (JFK). What is 
  yours? Well, you would have to do some initial research. I would start with 
  books on JFK's involvement in Viet Nam. I would also go to the WEB.

  Note how small my area of focus is. There is great JOY in doing 
  narrow research. It is how we generate new knowledge. 

  Last quarter I had a student who did a research paper on what contributed to 
  the American massacre at My Lai. She did original research, much of it by 
  email, with historians, writers, Viet Nam Veterans, and others. Much of the 
  research was open to the class, on the listserv. In her final paper she disagreed 
  with a major author who had sent her his thoughts on why My Lai. It was a 
  splendid paper. 

  Your will be too-if you find a small topic that creates passion. I will certainly 
  take papers on the antiwar movement in the US, or Japan; I will even take 
  papers on Hanoi Jane Fonda. 
  JKS
  __________________
  WORKS CITED:
  Raskin, Marcus G. and Bernard B. Fall. THE VIET-NAM[sic] READER: ARTICLES
  AND DOCUMENTS ON AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY AND THE VIET-NAM  
  CRISIS. New York: Random House, 1965.