Organization and Layout

Your web site should open with a home page which presents the assignment topic and discusses the general cultural significance of this topic for students of American culture.   The home page should also provide a "site map" linking to the other pages of the site, as demonstrated in the Scottsboro Case and the New Deal website.

Your web site should be divided into AT LEAST FIVE well organized web pages, each page devoted to a single topic or theme.

One of your web pages should be an annotated list of links to other web sites and/or printed sources devoted to your subject.  See the following sample.

The layout of your pages should be easy to understand and navigate.  Avoid cluttered pages.  The MARTHA BALLARD web site is an excellent one, but its introductory page is overwhelming and it does not make a good first impression for the site.  Your web pages should be attractive as well as clearly presented.  This web site devoted to Edward Hopper's paintings is a bit too stark.  Examples of web sites with more successful layouts are the Scottsboro Case and New Deal websites mentioned above.
 

Grasp of Historical/ Cultural Context of Your Subject

You are expected to do more than simply to outline the life and accomplishments of your subject or to describe the appearance of your object.  You need to place your topic within the social and cultural trends of the Thirties.  In discussing Frances Perkins, for example, you need to provide links discussing Social Security and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.  In discussing Wright's Johnson Wax Building, you need to provide a link discussing modernism in architecture.  The MARTHA BALLARD web site, criticized above for its cluttered and confusing opening page, does an excellent job of placing Martha Ballard in the context of her times.  Ballard was a midwife in Maine in the late eighteenth century, and the web site discusses the changing role of midwives at that time.  A BENJAMIN FRANKLIN web site (created by three high school students) provides links to help viewers understand Franklin's accomplishment more fully.
 

Research

Your completed assignment should show evidence of your having consulted a number of scholarly books, articles, and web sites to find information about your subject.

(Note:  the first place to look for articles on American Studies topics is on AMERICA:  HISTORY AND LIFE, on the "Title List" under "Electronic Resources on the PC Library web site.  A good place to find good web sources is by clicking on "web links" on the on-line entry for your subject on ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANA.)
 

Citation of Sources

You should cite the sources of all material quoted, paraphrased*, or summarized from any work consulted--on- or off-line; and you should also cite the sources of all images inserted into your web pages.  If you fail to cite a source, whether deliberately or accidentally, you are guilty of plagiarism.  You do NOT have to cite the sources of facts which are common knowledge about your subject (basic biographical details, for example), but you DO have to indicate the source of distinctive ideas or interpretations of specific writers or web creators.
 

Writing Style

Written material on your web pages should demonstrate proper use of grammar and punctuation and correct punctuation.

Your text should show your ability to write clearly and logically.

Your writing should have been carefully proofread for careless mistakes prior to final posting of your web pages. 
 
 

Note:  *"If you substitute synonyms or re-arrange the words of a sentence taken from a source, you are merely paraphrasing the work of others. When this is done extensively -- that is, for a whole sentence or more -- it is plagiarism, even when there is a footnote. The goal of an analytic paper is to use sources to develop your thinking on a topic. If you merely restate what others have written, you do not show any development of your own thinking. Doing research often may be a necessary part of an assignment, but not to the exclusion of your own thinking."  (Statement taken from the Academic Policies section of Dr. Robert H. Trudeau's Sixties course.)