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> I am writing a political science paper on Thomas Jefferson, I have tons of > material but i can''t norrow down a subject. any suggestions? Thanks > The problem is one of an abundance of riches. Probably the simplest solution is to go to my website, The Jeffersonian Perspective (see my sig. below for URL). There I have over 40 essays that I wrote on contemporary political topics "from a Jeffersonian perspective." From the Contents page, you might be able to pick out a topic or two that appeals to you. Then you could use my essay as a starting point and develop your own approach. If you wanted to do a NEW topic from a Jeffersonian perspective, you might try one of these that I am contemplating myself: Affirmative Action vs. Equal Rights Drugs and the War on Liberty Public Works & Public Waste You will note that my idea of such an essay follows a pattern. I look for the fundamental, "Jeffersonian" issues involved, find what Jefferson has to say about those fundamental issues, and then connect them into a reasoned, sequential argument. It's the most difficult thing I've ever tried to do in my life, but with Jefferson as a guide, you can sometimes come up with some pretty good stuff. Whichever approach you take, I would be happy to see the results. And if you choose to do one of the NEW topics and it turns out pretty good, I would be happy to put it on my website and give you full credit for it, of course. If you have any further questions, I would be glad to help if I can. If you want to do a more "academic" paper, like "Jefferson's Concept of Good Government," you could go to "Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government" and look over Section 10 on "Good Government," and from that you could piece together such a paper. Probably every section on that website could be used as the start for such a paper. If the "tons of material" you have collected are basically secondary sources, i.e., what other scholars have said about Jefferson, you could probably have fun weaving that into any of the approaches I describe above. And if one of those scholars disagrees with the basic sources, then you have the makings of a fun contest on paper. Don't be afraid to refute a "reputable Scholar," because often they are full of it.
> Here is my almost finished paper, please let me know if i did something wrong > using qoutes and stuff. i am not trying to plagerise or rip anybody off. if i > did i apologies really. i will be online until about 5:15 pacific > time........can't wait to hear from you.... Without seeing your paper, I can tell you that if you use quotes and put the material in quotes, you are acting entirely properly and have nothing to worry about. If you use other people materials and do NOT put it in quotes, then you are plagiarizing. It's just that simple. I once made a statement to a class of college students as follows, which is quite correct: "If you use other people's writings and put their exact words in quotes, or if you paraphrase what they write and make a footnote reference to the source, THAT IS CALLED SCHOLARSHIP. If you use the exact words of others or paraphrase what they write and do NOT make references to the source, THAT IS CALLED PLAGIARISM!"