Research Plan

Instructions: Prepare a research plan for a contextual historical narrative report on the history of “AU Ranch,” an imaginary heritage ranch in Southern Alberta.

Length: 4,000 (excluding assignment references, endnotes or footnotes notes, and front matter)

Terms of Reference (open word docs for ref links and readings to inform this work in detail and please reference the readings)

The AU Ranch is situated on four acres in the foothills off Highway 22, 96 km south of Calgary. It is owned by a local heritage group, the AU Heritage Ranch Society. The site has a large two-storey four-square style ranch house (1912) and two large frame gambrel-roofed horse barns (1916 and 1924). The ranch was established in 1894 and operated until the late 1940s. No artifacts remain at the site, but the interior of the house has changed little, perhaps because it has had only two owners since. The barns are also in fair condition. It is known that four men who worked on the ranch during the 1940s are still alive and that a granddaughter of the original owner lives in Calgary.

The AU Society requires a comprehensive background report that will be the starting point or basis for a number of other research projects in support of the intended restoration of the ranch (both the house and outbuildings) to its working condition of the late 1920s. The final report will therefore provide a historical narrative of the ranch, as well as addressing its material culture.

The AU Society has a research budget of not more than $20,000 and wishes to employ a contract researcher to undertake the work with a six-month time frame. The AU Society requires a bibliography and a schedule that includes two interim draft sections of the report for review, a complete draft for review, and a final report.

Your assignment is to produce a plan for undertaking the research necessary to fulfill these terms of reference. Your research plan should show that you understand the requirements of the project and that you have thought through how to tackle it. Remember you are not actually doing the detailed research; you are conducting preliminary research in order to identify sources and get a sufficient feel for the subject so that you can put together an informed plan as to how you would undertake the research.

Your research plan should include the following components:

Introduction: Identify the purpose of the project and the project requirements.

Approach and methodology: Discuss how and in what order you will tackle the research and the methods you will use (archival research, oral history interviews, community consultation, etc.). Make specific reference to this course’s required readings, where appropriate, as you frame your approach and methodology.

An annotated bibliography of both primary and secondary sources:

• Secondary sources: Working from the Glenbow website , first indicate the scope of what has already been written on the topic of ranching in Alberta. Then select ten published books and/or articles and explain why you think at first glance each should be useful for establishing the historical context for this research project.
• Primary sources for initial investigation: Working from the Glenbow website, identify specific archival collections that may be useful and explain why you think they will be useful. Select ten primary sources. You can include archival and published primary sources, but you must include at least ten archival collections or selected parts thereof. Use the detailed online finding aid if it is available.

Preliminary visual images: Select fifteen low-resolution images from the Glenbow photograph collection, paste them into your assignment, and briefly indicate in a sentence or two why you have chosen them as representative of the range of preliminary visual records available for the project. These photographs should supply the historical evidence for your selection of material culture resources.

Initial themes and topics: Identify what aspects of the ranch’s history you will focus your research on and why.

List of potential material culture resources to support furnishing the site: Select fifteen key preliminary items that might be relevant for furnishing the site from either an online museum collection or from an online historic retail catalogue (you must provide the museum accession number and/or publication details). Briefly describe each item; include what it looks like (design/style), what it is made of, how it works, and how it was used. You may choose to select house furnishings OR items that would furnish the barns with artifacts for the ranching business.

Schedule: List of research tasks on a weekly basis (i.e., month 1 through month 6), indicating deadlines for your interim and final products.

Budget breakdown: Indicate a ballpark fee plus expenses: travel for research and interviews etc., accommodation, photocopying, etc., as relevant. Assume for the purposes of this assignment that you live in Lethbridge, Alberta. Use the Alberta Government travel rate (2015) of 50 cents per km for your calculations.

Assignment Parameters

Assume that no records of the AU ranch are known to be in any public archive; your research sources will necessarily be comparative and will cover ranches and ranching in general for the years under review. For the purposes of this exercise, restrict your search for library and archival documentary materials to the Glenbow website.

For sources on material culture, you may additionally use Artefacts Canada  (use records with images only) and retail catalogues  online.

Assignment Format

The assignment is essentially a proposal in response to a basic terms of reference, but a proposal that incorporates a detailed research plan. There is no standard presentation format, as long as the contents called for in the request for proposals are addressed. You may use headings as set out or report format 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, etc.

Because this is a university assignment for evaluation, you must show understanding of the concepts, issues, and information presented in the readings and commentary throughout the course units. This means that you must provide a more detailed discussion than a research plan might normally incorporate. The introductory section and more specifically, the discussion of approach and methodology should be comprehensive. Be sure to reference the readings appropriately, in endnotes or footnotes.

Chicago Manual of Style , (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html), is used in this course. See unit 2 for how to reference primary sources. Alternatively, you may use APA style, but you must be consistent.

Consult Dalhousie University’s Guide to Archival Research , (http://dal.ca.libguides.com/archivalresearch/citation), for the difference between the two styles for archival research.

A reference list (distinct from the annotated bibliography for the plan) can be placed at the end of your plan.

The instructions for this assignment, which appear lengthy, mirror a terms of reference that you would encounter in the heritage field. They are designed to lead you though the process of submitting a research proposal/plan. Please consult with your tutor, especially about length and format, as you begin this assignment.