Major Project for United States History 121

The field statement is intended to get you close to history, engaging you with the past in a way not possible in the classroom. To that end, you are to go out into the "field" and visit a local museum or historic site and then write a report on your findings. If you visit a historic site, your report is to include a description of the site, why you chose it, what interested you about this site during your visit, other specific observations you made, and what you learned.

If you choose to visit a museum, you should narrow your focus a bit. Choose a specific period of time, an exhibit or even artifact, rather than the entire museum itself. For example, you might visit the National Museum of American History and focus your field statement on the Civil War or weapons of the Revolutionary War. You should address the questions of why you chose your subject matter, describe it, your observations and what you learned.

Some historic sites include:
Manassas Battlefield, Fort McHenry, Mount Vernon, Gunston Hall, the National Portrait Gallery, the U.S. Capitol, Old Town Alexandria, Georgetown, and others. Or, if more adventurous, you could go to Gettysburg, Independence Hall, or Monticello.

Some museum suggestions include:

National Museum of American History, National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Museum of the Marine Corps to name a few.

The field statement must be 5-7 typed, double spaced pages and follow the Modern Language Association (MLA) format for writing scholarly papers. This includes MLA formats for citing sources (parenthetical, endnotes or footnotes), and bibliography. Go to the Citing References link on NOVA’s library site and choose one of the links referencing MLA. A good reference book is A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, sixth edition, by Kate L. Turabian (The University of Chicago Press, 1996). You will use it throughout your college career. Another resource for you to use is NOVA's Writing Center. Personnel at the Writing Center will review your paper, checking spelling, grammar and making suggestions on how to improve it. You will need to make an appointment at the center in order to have them look at your work. Projects will be graded as follows: Clarity and presentation of your topic (50%). This means how you structured your paper, presented your information and how well you used your sources. Grammar, sentence structure and punctuation (50%).