Originally I had submitted a proposal about the history of jazz in Kansas City and my professor asked how will my research differ from other stuff written on the topic and how will it be original.
Below are the instructions for the paper
1. Choose a subject. Please select any topic concerning the history of the Kansas City region from the arrival of the Chouteau’s to present.
• Remember that you want to place your topic firmly within the existing historiography and research that already exists. Begin by familiarizing yourself with what is readily available. Do not overlook the readings that have been assigned for this course – your work should be grounded somewhere within those works.
• Discuss your possible topic with the instructor, others who have done research on Kansas City (you’d be surprised how willing people are to answer e-mails when it comes from one of the 12 people who have actually read their research), and those in charge of archives and collections.
• Look for the availability of sources related to your topic in area archives, collections, and libraries.
2. Chose something that will:
• Make a contribution to what we know of the history of Kansas City. This
could be a completely new and as of yet unexplored subject. You could take a trend or development we have seen in the wider urban history of the United States and look for signs of it existing or not existing in Kansas City.
• Allow you to craft a strong thesis. Which should then also be conducive to an organized research proposal that begins to set the foundation of a defense of your thesis. This is not a paper that should be filled with disjointed things you have discovered about the city.
• Become the basis for further research.

All papers must be in Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins for all margins.
• You must use Turabian as your format style guide. This should include a title page in Turabian style.
• Use footnotes, in proper Turabian format, to cite your sources, both primary and secondary.
• Your paper should be 8-12 pages in length (12-16 pages for graduate students) and should also include a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. Primary and secondary sources should be listed separately in your bibliography.
• You must draw from at least six different primary sources in your paper and at least three different secondary sources.