"the truth is out there"   (from The X Files)

"What if...?" questions are not always about the future. Some are directed backwards, at the past. For example, Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle and Norman Spinrad's The Iron Dream are just two of many novels that imagine how the world would be different if the Axis powers had won World War II.

Conspiracy theory
refers to some incident that was reported to have happened one way but actually happened another, and the truth about the situation has been intentionally covered up.

The word conspiracy, literally "to breathe with," refers to the people who plotted and planned and manipulated and covered up. For example, it's speculated that Marilyn Monroe did not actually die from a suicidal or accidental drug overdose; many theorize that John and Robert Kennedy had her murdered, though they did not actually commit the murder themselves. The trick is to discover how and why they would do such a thing. There are actually several different theories that appear in books, movies, magazines, websites.

NOTE: since some conspiracy theories can sound pretty wild, people who support the theories are often labeled paranoid or just nutty. Occasionally, however, the theories do prove to be right.

yes, there is a lot to read here (this is partly a reading course); please read it all very carefully

Your research topic is going to ask you to look at some recent historical event (between 1952, the year I was born, and the present) that may not have happened the way we have been taught to believe, the way it was reported. This topic requires you to research and support one event, one popular conspiracy theory.

A quick GOOGLE search for "conspiracy theories" will take you to a lot of pages that list some popular claims; here is one:

Although the military claims that it was just a weather balloon crash, in 1947 near Roswell, New Mexico __________ and __________ covered up __________ because _______________.

Now wait a minute. What are those blanks? Conspiracies are committed by people, and the people cover up the truth for a reason. It's up to you to do the research to find out just what happened, who was responsible for it, and what the reason was. Those first two blanks will contain names of people (actual individuals you name by name, not groups/organizations) involved in the cover up; the next blank explains what the conspiracy (cover-up) theory is; that last blank is where you write the motive. Once you've done that, you actually have a ready-to-prove thesis statement for your paper. For this topic (the Roswell cover-up) there are actually several conspiracy theories. If we do some research, the sources might lead us to fill in the blanks like this:

Although the military claims that it was just a weather balloon crash, in 1947 near Roswell, New Mexico President Harry S. Truman and General Roger Ramey covered up the crash landing of an alien-occupied U.F.O. because they feared a general panic, and they wanted to keep the alien technology secret for the United States.

RATHER SAD NOTE: the Roswell theories are terrific. There are massive amounts of reasonbly-credible sources available, and the WHO? WHAT? and WHY? blanks can be filled in pretty quickly. Unfortunately, you will not be allowed to write about Roswell. Nearly all of the student samples relate to Roswell, so that has been done for you; you need to pick a different topic, and a newer topic as well, something that occurred between 1952 and the present (yes, alas, that also leaves out Shakesepare, Lincoln, Pearl Harbor, and a lot of other great conspiracy theory topics).

Don't fret; there are still many more great topics to choose from. Here are two more:

For these two I've filled in one blank in each of the thesis statements for you, and you are welcome to use either of these two topics if you wish. Before moving on, I want to answer a few questions that students often ask:

  1. Q: Is there only one "right" answer for each of the blanks?
    A: Absolutely not! Many of these topics have generated multiple theories; for example, among those who believe that JFK was not mudered by a lone gunamn--Lee Harvey Oswald--there are theories that LBJ was partly responsible, that J. Edgar Hoover was partly responsible, that mob boss Sam Giancanni was partly responsible. Some topics, such as the World Trade Center bombing, have generated multiple motives, and so on. You will fill in the blanks based on what your sources consistently suggest to you.

  2. Q: Are there always just two conspirators?
    A: No. For example, covering up something as big as the moon lnading would have taken many people; your task is to lay the blame at the feet of those who would have had the power to pull off such a big cover up, so even if Neil Armstrong was part of the plot, he would have been an actor; it would have taken someone as powerful as the president or the head of NASA or (?) to pull this off. Try to find those "big" players.

  3. Q: Can we fill in one of the conspirator blanks with a group, like NASA or The Government or MI6 or The CIA?
    A: No. You must name two (or more) responsible individuals by name. In 2009, it was estimated that a little over 1% of the U.S. workforce (in other words, about 2.8 million people) worked for the U.S. government. If you blame "The Government" for the moon landing hoax, you are accusing over 2,000,000 people of getting together in a very large secret location and plotting this. That is untrue, silly. Name individuals by name.

  4. Q: But what if I can't find exact names?
    A: Then your choices are these: keep looking, or change topics.

  5. Q: If there are multiple theories, is it OK to write about more than one?
    A: No. Think about it. Your thesis is accusing some people of wrongdoing for some motive. If you use your source evidence to make a strong, clear case against those people, then introducing different people, a different theory, a different motive will invalidate that case you just made.

  6. Q: Why do all of these thesis statements start with "Although"? Do we have to do that same?
    A: Reversing the answers, yes, you must use this fill-in-the-blank format for your thesis statement; it will insure that you will have all of the necessary elements in your thesis. The reson for using and "Although" clause before the WHO? WHAT? and WHY? sections is that it sets up your paper as an argument (something you must support with evidence); it shows you know the "accepted historical" version, but it also asserts that you are going to provide evidence that tears that historical side down; you are arguing on the "theory" side.

  7. Q: Is it OK to take the historical side and show the theory is not reasonable?
    A: No. That does not accomplish anything. You would merely be making a case for the side most people already believe; you would be making a case that does not need to be made. Choosing the "theory" side, you must find compelling evidence to make your side seem believable. You have a reason for doing the research.

  8. Q: Well, if I am taking what some might call "the losing side," is it even possible to prove it?
    A: Probably not, but you are not really being evaluated on "proof" (you will likely not convince me to change my view of the world); you are only being asked to make as solid a case for your theory as possible, to make it sound like a reasonable line of investigation, to make the reader consider that this is not as impossible as some historians might want people to believe.

There are likely loads of other questions, and I encourage you to ask me if you have them. I want to clarify another point and then suggest a few more possible topics.

it's pretty easy to get confused here

Keep in mind that your paper must support a recent popular conspiracy theory. Since these are often considered sort of nutty, they sometimes get confused with papers about odd phenomena (Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle, the Mayan Calendar, and so on). Those are different topics; you are not writing about weird phenomena.

Consider the following two possible thesis statements (which will not work):

"Aliens have visited the planet Earth"

"On June 17, 1972, Virgilio Gonzalez and four other broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel at the direction of President Richard Nixon; following the break-in Nixon and several others, including G. Gordon Liddy, John Mitchell, conspired to cover-up their illegal activities.

The first statement is too broad and does not suggest any cover-up or plot (there is no conspiracy mentioned so there are no names of conspirators and no motie given), does not mention a specific incident. This will not work for this assignment. It's just a phenomenon paper (like Big Foot). It is not a conspiracy theory.

The second statement seems pretty promising, but it's not. It is not a conspiracy theory. It is a fact. It is the officially-accepted historical view, an actual conspiracty, not a conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theories contradict official versions of events, and once there is enough evidence to prove they are no longer theories, they become historical truth (Roosevelt's foreknowledge of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, for example, was long considered a rather hare-brained theory, but now it's widely accepted as historical truth).

what you will be turning in (you will be doing this in steps)

More information on each step can be found by clicking on the various assignments (such as Research Proposal) on the Class Schedule page, but, basically, there are three steps that require you to turn in "something":

But it might get even longer. A lot of topics greatly benefit from charts, graphs, photographic evidence and other images. Pictures (and such) do not count as pages of text, so let's say you have a 7-page paper on the Moon Landing Hoax (8 pages with the Works Cited page), and you ADD TO THAT two pages of photographic evidence (flags that don't hang correctly, shadows that don't make sense--that sort of thing) from your sources. Well, now your paper is 10 pages (7 of text, 1 for the WC page, 2 pages of pictures). Note: I like pictures; don't you?

The paper and the Works Cited pages must both be in MLA format.

Since this is a research paper, be sure there is sufficient documented secondary source material supporting and illustrating your claims throughout the essay; I prefer direct quotations rather than paraphrasing and/or summary. Summarize video sources (DVD's, YouTube clips), but, otherwise, make sure you use direct quotations.

Very important notes:

Save the file as a Word (.doc, .docx or .rtf) or .pdf document and attach it to an e-mail you send me; include the class and assignment in the subject or body of the e-mail, please.

samples

These projects take more time than non-research essays. Much of the time is spent locating examples, selecting details, revising your argument as new evidence shows up, building up notes, and so on. A number of our course lectures and samples will guide you, and you'll need more or less guidance depending on how much experience you've had doing research arguments in the past.

There are samples of each stage you will be turning in on Etudes under Resources > Essay Assignments > Research Paper.

a few more topics; there are many, many more out there

Remember that you will need to generate a thesis with the same fill-in-the-blank structure as the examples above for any of these topics you select; all of these have been done successfully (multiple times), and most of them have multiple theories you can investigate before picking just one theory:

Two perennial favorites are the JFK assassination and the murder of Marilyn Monroe. Both topics have many sources (lots of book-length-books),and both have multiple theories to choose from (you must choose just one, remember).