The Year I Was born An Autobiographical Research

The Year I Was born: An Autobiographical Research Project 2 nd Semester – World Literature Major Project

Student Objectives • Conduct research (personal interviews, primary documents, and online research) • Demonstrate an understanding of point of view by adopting the voice of a family member or another adult • Write an autobiographical research paper • Evaluate research

Research Project: The Year I Was born • What happened the year that you were born? What was going on in your town? Were there important events going on in your state or country? • For this project, you’ll find out all the answers! You’ll interview family members and adults, search for information at the library, and look for details on the internet. .

Procedure • Record your information using the research form. • Include all information you will need to prepare a Works Cited page. • Interview your family and other adults about your birth and first year of life. • Brainstorm a list of questions to ask.

Choose a Storyteller • Person has to be older • It can also be a friend, than you so he or she or a community will know about the member or adult, year you were born. religious leader or neighbor. • It can be a family member (older • Interview your sibling, a parent or storyteller about the grandparent, etc) year you were born.

Research • In the library, consult • Look for periodicals such as commercials, slogans, Time, Newsweek, U. S. birth, deaths, sports, News and World news, movies, books, Report for the month plays, music, and year you were financial, , national born. news, international news, and religious events.

Internet Research • Search for your birth date on the Internet, using sites given to you. Many of these sites give information for your birth date throughout history. • To find more details for the month and year you were born, search your birth date and the following days for one month and choose only those events that occurred in your birth year.

Year I Was Born • Weave all of the information you find together into an interesting story and include a works cited page. • If desired, add a picture of yourself as a baby.

Research Paper Guidelines • A research paper is a carefully planned essay that will share information or prove a point. It will include ideas from books, Web sites, documents, interviews, observations, and so on. • This research paper should be at least three pages long and also require a title page, an outline, and a list of works cited.

Writing 1 st Draft • Develop your Introduction…… • First part should say something interesting, surprising, or important about the subject to gain reader’s attention. • Start with a revealing story or quotation • Give important background information • Offer a series of interesting or surprising facts

Writing the Body…… • The next part is to • You can write the main part of systematically, your research paper, carefully following the part that supports your notes and writing or proves your thesis. plan. • You can write freely as ideas come to mind.

Writing the Conclusion • The final section of your paper should leave readers with a clear understanding of the importance of your research. • Summarize the main points • Draw a final conclusion. • Discuss how your research has strengthened or changed your thinking about your subject. YOU

Documenting Your Sources • Give credit in your • Put the works-cited paper for ideas and section together, direct quotations that listing all of the you have used from sources you have cited different sources. in your paper. • Make sure that you have copied this information accurately.