Process Paper
The name
and story of Jesse James stood out to us. We quickly identified the most
interesting part of his story; he was both regarded as a hero and a
cold-blooded criminal. Opinions differed depending on which source
was consulted.
For research, we first skimmed encyclopedia articles like Wikipedia to get James’s overall story, gathering potential sources and learning the life of Jesse James. Using databases and search engines like Google, we searched for primary and secondary sources. We realized that many sources were very subjective and one-sided regarding the issue of James being a hero or criminal. While some facts were presented, most of them were opinions. To address this problem, we compared the source to others to be able to look at the information with an objective view. Many of the sources had questionable reliability and didn't prove their credibility. Sources were compared when this problem arose prove consistency in the facts. One of the most valuable sources we found was a book written by the author T.J. Stiles, the official biographer of Jesse James. Primary sources were found in the book, including the famed “Robin Hood” letter from James himself. Through more research and discussion, we realized that James is seen as a hero not only because of his Robin Hood image, but also because he continued fighting against the Union when everyone else gave up. After we created the outline for the website, we found a few more sources about the events before Jesse James. We then only found more when we needed more information to complete a page. The most recent find was a scholarly journal about the Missouri Compromise. After, we mainly just read through already found sources to comprehend as much information as possible about Jesse James in order to broaden our understanding.
The group format was chosen because we thought we would enjoy working together. The group format also allowed us to understand multiple perspectives on the same topic, therefore creating a stronger argument.The presentation of our argument was a website, as required. We organized the main categories of information into before/context, Jesse James's life, and after/effects for chronological clarity.
Jesse James was introduced to the public firstly as a hero. He was the “Robin Hood of the West”, though there was no proof of James giving money to the poor has actually been found. He was also a hero for his rebellion against the Union when everyone else had stopped fighting. However, some regarded Jesse James as simply a criminal. There existed two different perspectives of Jesse James, the cold-blooded criminal and the honorable one, so we decided to answer why that was. Our thesis statement was, "Although he was just another outlaw, Jesse James was portrayed as a hero because of the South’s still-resonating anti-Union feelings and influence from the values of frontier culture that glorified adventure." We made a generalization about Jesse being simply a criminal, based on evidence of his life's events provided in our sources. He was seen as a hero to the South because of his continuing rebellion against the North and frontier culture that glorified conquest and glamorized Jesse James as the American spirit of adventure.
For research, we first skimmed encyclopedia articles like Wikipedia to get James’s overall story, gathering potential sources and learning the life of Jesse James. Using databases and search engines like Google, we searched for primary and secondary sources. We realized that many sources were very subjective and one-sided regarding the issue of James being a hero or criminal. While some facts were presented, most of them were opinions. To address this problem, we compared the source to others to be able to look at the information with an objective view. Many of the sources had questionable reliability and didn't prove their credibility. Sources were compared when this problem arose prove consistency in the facts. One of the most valuable sources we found was a book written by the author T.J. Stiles, the official biographer of Jesse James. Primary sources were found in the book, including the famed “Robin Hood” letter from James himself. Through more research and discussion, we realized that James is seen as a hero not only because of his Robin Hood image, but also because he continued fighting against the Union when everyone else gave up. After we created the outline for the website, we found a few more sources about the events before Jesse James. We then only found more when we needed more information to complete a page. The most recent find was a scholarly journal about the Missouri Compromise. After, we mainly just read through already found sources to comprehend as much information as possible about Jesse James in order to broaden our understanding.
The group format was chosen because we thought we would enjoy working together. The group format also allowed us to understand multiple perspectives on the same topic, therefore creating a stronger argument.The presentation of our argument was a website, as required. We organized the main categories of information into before/context, Jesse James's life, and after/effects for chronological clarity.
Jesse James was introduced to the public firstly as a hero. He was the “Robin Hood of the West”, though there was no proof of James giving money to the poor has actually been found. He was also a hero for his rebellion against the Union when everyone else had stopped fighting. However, some regarded Jesse James as simply a criminal. There existed two different perspectives of Jesse James, the cold-blooded criminal and the honorable one, so we decided to answer why that was. Our thesis statement was, "Although he was just another outlaw, Jesse James was portrayed as a hero because of the South’s still-resonating anti-Union feelings and influence from the values of frontier culture that glorified adventure." We made a generalization about Jesse being simply a criminal, based on evidence of his life's events provided in our sources. He was seen as a hero to the South because of his continuing rebellion against the North and frontier culture that glorified conquest and glamorized Jesse James as the American spirit of adventure.
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