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World War II: Home

Welcome!

This research guide was created especially for your WWII research essay. Within this guide are several excellent information resources, along with helpful tips for citations and works cited creation. If you have any questions or come across broken links, please see Ms. Pronovost. Happy researching!

Your Assignment: Write a 5 paragraph essay including an introduction and a conclusion paragraph, and 3 body paragraphs. Each body paragraph will need 2 pieces of cited evidence to prove your topic sentence.

All sources should be cited in MLA format, and you will need a Works Cited page in MLA format as well.

Due Dates

Rough Draft: April 12

Final Draft: April 29

Topic Choices: Your choices are listed below with some points you may want to consider in your research. Remember, you will need evidence to prove every one of your arguments.

1. African Americans and WWII

  • Write about how the events of WWII influenced the lives of African Americans and their rights.
  • Were there any special units that were all African American?

2. Native Americans and WWII

  • Write about how the events of WWII influenced the lives of Native Americans.
  • Was there a special role that Native Americans played in the war?

3. Women and WWII

  • Write about how the events of WWII influenced the lives of women.
  • Write about the role that women played in the war.

4. Animals and the war

  • Write about the usage of different animals during the war. What roles did they play? Were there any heroic actions performed by animals in the battlefield?

5. The war and art

  • Write about stolen or hidden art during the war. Who took what and was it ever recovered?
  • Write about the development of art during the years of the war. Did any new movements arise at that time? What artists were inspired by the events of WWII?

6. The war in the sky

  • Explain why WWII is considered to be the golden age of aviation. You may choose a particular battle to better illustrate your arguments. 
  • What new aviation technology was invented during the war? How did it change the course of the war?

7. New inventions and products

  • Write about products that were created during the war and what roles they played in our society's popular culture.

8. Victory gardens

  • Write about how victory gardens were encouraged by the government, and why.
  • Write about the social effects of victory gardens. 

Need Help?

If you have questions about research, citations, or just need some guidance while completing an assignment, don't hesitate to ask! I'm always available to help out, either in person or via email.

- Ms. Pronovost

epronovost@shschools.com

Library hours: 7am-3pm Monday-Thursday, 7am-2pm Friday

Helpful Hints

Whenever you do research, it is important to spend some time thinking about how you will approach your topic. Read through your topic 2-3 times, then brainstorm. What do you already know? What keywords or search terms come to mind? How can you make your topic less specific or more specific? Write down all your thoughts! This step will help you when it comes time to search for information. Also, consider the fact that research is more effective with strong search strings. Avoid typing your entire topic into Google or a database search- you won't get very good results.

Here's an example:

My chosen topic from the assignment sheet: African Americans and WW2

  • Write about how the events of WW2 influenced the lives of African Americans and their rights
  • Were there any special units that were all African American?

1. Highlight important words and phrases

  • Write about how the events of WW2 influenced the lives of African Americans and their rights
  • Were there any special units that were all African American?

 

2. Brainstorm possible search terms, keywords, and broader/narrower terms, prior knowledge

  • WW2 - Second World War, World War II, American involvement in World War II, World War II and the United States, military
  • lives - daily life, laws, jobs or careers, health, family
  • African Americans - soldiers, black soldiers
  • rights - civil rights, discrimination, laws, segregation, Jim Crow, rights at home vs. rights as soldiers 
  • special units - Tuskegee Airmen? (I've heard this term but I don't know much about it... I need to research more)

 

3. Possible search strings to try 

Hint: use the words AND/OR to help piece your search terms together. Use parentheses to separate term clusters.

  • World War II AND African Americans AND discrimination
  • World War II AND daily life AND African Americans
  • World War II AND African Americans AND special units
  • World War II AND African Americans AND civil rights
  • WWII OR World War II AND African American soldiers
  • (African Americans AND WWII) discrimination OR segregation OR civil rights