Research Project
The research project was one of the hardest assignments in this course but also the most rewarding. All those reading logs helped prepare us for this assignment. The assignment was to pick any topic that we were interested in that happened in pre-confederate Canada.
There is a cool story on how I choose my topic on researching. Earlier in the semester we had an assignment to find a primary source and analysis it. So I decided I would love to learn more about the history of Vancouver Island before confederation. So I looked for a primary source from the first governor of Vancouver Island, James Douglas.When I was looking for a primary sources from James Douglas I discovered a letter that talked mentioned ‘The Pig War’. By enjoying learning history of war this sparked my attention and was instantly interested. Having this interest helped motivate me while researching for my research paper. Once I had my topic I had to plan out my research paper. Here was my plan for my paper
the-pig-war-research-paper-outline
Once I had my research paper planned out it was time to do it. I instantly looked on the TRU library website for sources. We had learnt how to do this earlier in the year when the librarian taught us in class. I found some secondary sources that helped me have a better understanding on the Pig War. I also found some other sources by looking at the footnotes of the articles I read. While reading these sources I highlighted the information I would use in my research paper that supported my ideas. This was the same strategy I used when doing reading logs. After reading many sources I was ready to write my research paper and had evidence to prove my findings.
The Pig War was one of the strangest wars. It took place in 1859 when a death of a pig almost lead to a war between United States and Britain. Here is my Research Paper, “The Pig War of The San Juan Islands”