Assignment Expectations: As part of your Research Project, the fourth assignment requirement expects students to complete a Scholarly Article Review of two peer reviewed scholarly secondary sources. For this assignment, you will do a search of UMGC’s databases for two (2) scholarly source articles in peer reviewed journals on your chosen topic – please note that you must find articles which are available in full text on the UMGC library databases. After reading and analyzing your two sources, students will write a 250-word analysis for each scholarly article. Keep reading to find out more about where to find sources for this assignment and what your analysis should include. As always, if you have questions, please feel free to reach out to your instructor.

But First, What Exactly is a Peer Reviewed Scholarly Article? Scholarly Articles are accounts of the past written by historians who use primary sources as evidence. For example, secondary sources consist of books, articles, essays and lectures. For this assignment, students should select peer reviewed articles. I would encourage you to stick with articles, since these sources can be easily found by way of UMGC library databases. Moving forward, if you still have questions about peer reviewed scholarly sources, please email me with questions. If you prefer further verification, please feel free to email me the sources that you plan to use.

Where can I find a Peer Reviewed Scholarly Articles?: Where should students look for peer reviewed scholarly secondary sources?? Well, the UMGC LIBRARY, of course!! Why, you ask? Well, the UMGC library subscribes to many databases that contain such resources and are available to you in full-text and electronic format.

Students can find these sources by searching through the databases at the UMGC library. Here are some helpful links to get started with the research process.

Please note that you must find articles which are available in full text through the UMGC library databases. Do not use articles from history.org, Britannica.com, online encyclopedias or similar tertiary sources. While these tertiary sources are useful for general knowledge, they are not scholarly secondary sources. Should students use one or more of these sites, then they will not receive credit and the instructor will ask you to redo this assignment. 

Assignment Directions: After selecting, reading and analyzing your scholarly article, please make sure that both analyses follow the format below and includes the following information.

• Format: Each scholarly article should be typed in a word document, with 1-inch margins, double spaced, and include no less than 250 words.
• Bibliography: At the top of each Secondary Source Analysis, students should provide a complete bibliographic entry. This complete bibliographic entry should include a formal citation, including the URL and your date of access. You should note that the required style for this class is Chicago Humanities Style (not the author/date variant). The Effective Writing Center created a short overview on using Chicago Humanities Style called “Brief Guide to Citing Sources in Chicago.” It includes a list of sources formatted in this style. The examples labeled N=footnote/endnote format and those labeled B=bibliographic entry. A copy of this guide is located in the Writing Resources section of Course Resources under Content of this LEO class site.
• Analysis and Content: Each Scholarly Article Analysis should include a detailed summary of the main points of the article – in your own words. Ultimately, this should be written within the first two paragraphs of your analysis and include:
  • The author’s thesis and supporting arguments
  • Strengths and Weaknesses of each article, with an attempt to note any commonalities or specific trends
  • Sources used and opinion of the article
• Each scholarly article should explain how the article pertains to your research
  • Ideally this information would be stated at the end of your analysis
  • It is important that students share more than a simple sentence in this analysis. I would like to see a paragraph dedicated to this portion of the assignment.

Submitting Your Work: Students can submit their work under the Scholarly Article Review Assignment directions. Click on this assignment, scroll to the bottom of the page where you see “Add Attachments,” and then attach assignment here. Students can also submit this assignment through the Assignment tab. Students will also see the rubric attached to this assignment. Please make sure to review the rubric before submitting your final draft.