Tracing My Family's Immigrant Experience

Selecting Relevant Peer-Reviewed Academic Sources

Story of your family’s immigrant experience Do some research into your own personal or family ‘immigrant experience.’ Write an essay  that summarizes your personal or ancestral immigrant experience. Use at least 5 peer-reviewed academic secondary sources (other than textbooks), such as books and articles. In addition, you can use oral sources, diaries, and any other materials that can shed light on your family’s immigrant experience. If you can’t find much specific information about your family’s immigrant experience, then write a paper that puts that particular history into a larger context that might focus on time period, place, reasons for migration, for instance. It doesn’t matter if you are 1st generation Canadian or 10th generation Canadian or of Aboriginal background (in the latter case you might reflect on the impact of Canadian immigration on your ancestors). You can choose to write about just one family line or about several. Your essay should try to address the following questions: from where did your ancestors immigrate? When and why? Where did they establish themselves? What was their experience? Your essay must include the following: A title page with your name, ID, course number, date, and title of paper. Footnotes or endnotes that cite sources using Chicago style for Notes and Bibliography. A separate bibliography. Page numbers. Your essay must rely on peer-reviewed academic sources. You must have citations in your essay. Otherwise, your essay will not receive a passing grade. Do not overuse quotes. It is better to use your own words (rather than the authors’) and then cite this information properly Make sure you have title page and a descriptive title (unique title) for your essay. Assignments must be typed and double spaced.  Make sure to have a title page with your name, name of course, essay title, and the instructor’s name. A minimum of five (5) texts (books and/or journal articles) must be used in writing the essay. (The textbook may be used but it does not count towards the five required texts). Make sure that you choose the most appropriate books/journal articles. Internet sources should not be used. Only use the Internet to locate and read scholarly journals. You will find that there are differing interpretations of issues and events, and a good essay will show awareness of these. You may argue whatever you position you like, as long as you can back your arguments with reasonable and credible evidence. Please note that the key to good research is to be as exhaustive and critical as possible. Selecting a few random sources off the shelf will not be productive. Good research requires skill. It will take time and effort to locate and read the best research possible. A good essay is like a courtroom argument—it is based on the presentation of proof conforming with the rules of evidence in an expositive argument. The way hearsay is not admissible in court, Wikipedia for example, is likewise not admissible as evidence in scholarly discourse. Just as court evidence is presented in a disciplined system: Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exhibit C, etc, in the written historical argument, the Chicago Style footnoted citation is used to lead and guide the reader through the evidence backing the persuasive discourse of the text above it. Essays MUST provide bibliographies of all works consulted, whether or not they have been quoted directly in the citations. An adequate bibliography for this assignment will contain no less than five books or journal articles related to the topic. General books, dictionaries, atlases, textbooks and/or encyclopedias DO NOT count towards this minimum number of sources, and their inclusion in citations will NOT be considered as constituting research.