Name: American Literature

Name: American Literature Ms. Zarkh 1920s Museum Project

Imagine yourself as a museum curator. You are being asked to help create an exhibit about American culture and history during the 1920s. In order to do so, you will need to identify important artifacts from the time period to display in your section of the exhibit.

Your Task: You will create an exhibit that will include the following components:

1. Overview: Write an introduction to your exhibit. Explain key facts and cite your sources using parenthetical citations. Your overview should be no longer than one page (double spaced, 12 point font). You may wish to mount this on a small piece of poster board or mounting paper. Remember, your reader knows nothing about this topic, but does not want to be overwhelmed with information, so make it readable! 2. Three Artifacts: Find/create at least three objects representing your topic. Consider the kinds of things you might see in a museum: memorabilia, personal effects of famous people (including letters and other papers), examples of “typical” items from a particular era, photographs, multimedia displays (music or video). Be creative! 3. Explanatory Cards: For each object, write an explanation identifying the object. State what the object is, where it came from (hypothetically or actually), what its approximate date is, and a one-paragraph explanation of its significance, with citations. These should also be typed and mounted on index cards or small pieces of mounting paper. 4. Works Cited: On a separate sheet of paper, write a Works Cited page listing all of your sources, including sources of images. Use a variety of sources—online databases, books, websites. Format your Works Cited correctly.

Topics:  Music and dance (What was popular during the 1920s?)  Sports (Consider especially the Black Sox scandal of 1919)  Organized crime and Prohibition  Cars and car culture  Social and cultural effects of World War I  Immigration and life in cities  Women’s suffrage  Big business, industrialization, and the stock market  Long Island’s Gold Coast  Fashion  Trends, fads, and popular culture (Why were they called the “Roaring ‘20s”?)  The Lost Generation  F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald  The Harlem Renaissance Name: American Literature Ms. Zarkh

Research Tips:

First: find out general information about your topic. Second: decide on three artifacts that will effectively represent some key ideas/highlights of your topic to your classmates. Third: Create your objects, write your overview and explanatory cards, and compile your Works Cited page.

Remember, research writing is:

analyzing and gathering synthesizing information information

conveying information in writing

1. As you read sources, take notes. Don’t simply print and highlight—that’s the first step to a cut and paste job.

2. Once you’ve read all your sources, organize your notes. Decide on the most logical way to convey the information you’ve found. Make an outline.

3. Ask yourself if there is any key information missing or if there is more that you need to add. If so, find some new sources and take more notes.

4. Based on your outline, write your overview. Once again, if there are any gaps to fill in, go back to your sources.

5. Keep track of bibliographic information for your sources as you read them. That will make writing the Works Cited easier.

6. Most important of all, remember your purpose and your audience. You are providing information to your classmates, so everything you write should be easy to read and digest. For this assignment, there is no need for direct quotations, except from primary sources, so nearly everything should be in your own words.

Submit all written work (overview, cards, works cited) to turnitin.com as a single document. Name: American Literature Ms. Zarkh

Formatting Citations

 After a direct quotation or a specific piece of information that is not general knowledge, include the author’s name and the page number in parentheses. Please note punctuation:

At Gatsby’s parties, “men and girl came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (Fitzgerald 39).

 If your source has no author, use the title or a shortened version of the title:

Flapper fashion rejected constricting Victorian corsets (“The Jazz Age”).

 For all other citation information, including how to cite web pages or sources without page numbers, go to: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/

 Your Works Cited page provides full citation information for your sources. It says Works Cited at the top of the page (centered), and lists, single-spaced, all of your sources in alphabetical order.

Works Cited

Fields, Jill. "'Fighting The Corsetless Evil': Shaping Corsets And Culture, 1900-1930.” Journal of Social History. Winter 1999. Web.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Collier, 1986.

 The basic format for a book entry is below. Note punctuation and indentation.

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Book in Italics. Place of Publication: Publisher, year of publication (most recent year or year of edition you are using).

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Collier, 1986.

 For information about how to format sources other than books (CD-ROM, online databases, encyclopedias, websites, etc.), go to: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/ and follow the relevant links.

 You may also use EasyBib.com or BibMe.com. These links are all available on the Writing Center website.