Here is the pattern that we will be following most days of the course:

• Each day your team will select a question and will prepare a response to this prompt in a Prezi presentation for the entire class.

• Your team will look over the materials available for the day and decide which seem most promising as sources on which to present the argument in its presentation. Each member will be allotted several of these sources to examine in detail.

• You will read each of your sources carefully, thinking about how it might or might not be useful in answering your team's question.

• Then you will go to the Assignments section of our Canvas site and find the Research Report section for the day.  You need to respond to the prompts, describing each of the sources you are responsible for and explaining how it might be useful to your team for developing a response to the question.
  • You should include examples of evidence or arguments that might be useful in develop an argument. If there are images that you think might be useful in the presentation, describe them as well.
  • In some cases, you may be decide that a particular source has nothing that is relevant to your team's task. In that case, just describe what is in this source and why it is not relevant. 
  • Be sure to keep a separate copy of your report so you can share it with your team later in the day.

• In the afternoon, your team with reassemble and use the evidence collected by its members to create a response to its question. This presentation will be critiqued by other teams, by the TA, and by me.

• Research Reports will be given an individual grade, and these will provide 30% of the final grade. The Team Presentations will be given a collective grade, and these collectively will count for 25% of the final grade. The grades on the Research Reports will be based on your ability to demonstrate an ability to recognize and to explain how evidence can be used to support (or to contradict) an argument.

An Example of a Research Report

To give you a better sense of what is needed in the research reports, I have provided an example of a very good one from a previous semester. It may take a few tries before you are able to get to this level, but it should give you a target for your work.

This student's team was asked to present arguments for and against this thesis:  "Modernism and the culture of Montmartre represented a fundamental challenge to both middle class and aristocratic notions of respectability and social order. This was particularly true in the area of gender and sexuality where traditional norms were flaunted openly in a manner that was unprecedented."

  Here is the research report that the student shared with the team:

The last decade nineteenth century in Paris saw a sudden change in thinking and a rising liberty in women’s role in the society. Paris was considered a ‘leisure capital’ of the world. People seeking leisure were catered the best here. Montmartre, being a very beautiful place, became very popular around this time.

● Raymond Rudorff, The Belle Epoque; Paris in the Nineties (1) The World of
Montmartre THE PLEASURE CAPITAL

○ Raymond Rudorff has correctly described that situation of Montmartre in the last decade of the nineteenth century. We can see that Montmartre had become a place of drugs, prostitution, and theft, and all these activities went against the social norms. We can deduce from his
statement that “With the wine shops there came a floating population of prostitutes, thieves and smugglers, tricksters, conjurers, pimps and singers, gypsies and dancer”. However, it is not correct to claim that these activities were unprecedented. All these activities, even more, used to happen even before the re-establishment of the Montmartre in Paris. The perfect example for this is the creation of Brothels. Brothels were already a place of prostitution, drinking, and smoking. We know this by the claims in the article named the ‘Drink and prostitution: The Belle Epoque Hooters’. The claims were stated as follows, “Serving in a brasserie was no sinecure. Twelve hours a day in the noisy and smoky atmosphere, where the women were required not only to serve, but to sit at the tables and match the patrons drink for a drink, took a heavy toll on their health”. These claims imply that there was excess prostitution and drinking brothels, and all this was taking place in the early part of the second half of the nineteenth century.

● Raymond Rudorff, The Belle Epoque; Paris in the Nineties (2), The Moulin
Rouge and the Can-can.

○ Raymond Rudorff, in this article, has conveyed a story that effectively states that Montmartre was not a fundamental challenge. Even though a lot of it was spoilt with prostitution and drinking, places like the Moulin Rouge, which protected the decency at the Montmartre. We know this from the article The Belle Epoque; Paris in the Nineties (2), The Moulin Rouge and the Can-can by Raymond Rudorff. In his, Raymond states that “there was a vast new clientele to be attracted from the nearby
cafe-concerts, cabarets and music halls and he knew that only some good "public relations" work was needed for the tout-Paris and the more respectable public to come to an establishment”. This clearly tells us that the Montmartre was not completely spoilt, but it was also populated with respected population.

● Raymond Rudorff, The Belle Epoque; Paris in the Nineties (3), The Image
and Reality of Montmartre

○ There is another evidence that can be given to prove that Montmartre did not represent a fundamental challenge to both middle and aristocratic notions of respectability, and the evidence can be found in the article listed above. Raymond states that “The Moulin Rouge gave immense impetus to the diffusion of a great erotic myth--the myth of a naughty, free, uninhibited city of frou-frou and champagne, of the wild music of the quadrille which seemed to urge rich and poor alike to forget their cares and live for love and laughter only”. This explains us that the rich and the poor that is the middle class and the aristocratic class both enjoyed the events at the Moulin.

In conclusion, the prostitution, theft, trickery, and smoking did violate the norms of the long known and trusted tradition; however, it did not pose a challenge the stature of the middle class and the aristocrats. So, in this case, I am partially opposing the above interpretation.