Vietnamese Immigrants: Your Assignment

35 Vietnamese refugees wait to be taken aboard the amphibious command ship USS Blue Ridge. They are being rescued from a 35 foot fishing boat 350 miles northeast of Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, after spending eight days at sea. Photo by PH2 Phil Eggman.

Understanding Your Assignment

Before you begin looking for information you should make sure you understand your assignment. Some good questions are:

• How many pages?
• How many sources?
• What kinds of sources?
  
  • Books
  • Articles
  • Websites
    
• What format?

Your professor is your best resource to answer these questions.

Your project will concentrate on the challenges facing Vietnamese immigrants to the U.S. during the 10-year period after the end of the Vietnam War. You will have the choice of two topics:

• The resettlement policies of the U.S. government to Vietnamese immigrants who arrived in 1975 and then in 1978-80 (the so-called “boat people.”)
• Explore the challenges facing the Vietnamese-America children whose parents arrived between 1975-80. Some of these stories were not published until later; but they should refer to those years when they first came in contact with American culture. You’ll find academic as well as first person material of the sort that Lac Su wrote (but you can’t use that book).

There is a third possible topic that you may examine relating to the siege of Leningrad. If you choose to investigate topics related to this, you must come and see me to discuss possibilities.

• There is no question that the suffering endured by the people of Leningrad was severe. Over 1,000,000 people starved to death, many during the bitter winter of 1941-1942.

You must use at least five sources: one book (digital or hard copy), one scholarly journal, one newspaper or magazine, one website, and one video.
Your paper will be 2,000 words long. You will use Times New Roman, 12-point type, and MLA format and citation rules.

Breaking Down The Research Process  

The following outline gives a simple and effective strategy for finding information for a research paper and documenting the sources you find. Depending on your topic and your familiarity with the library, you may need to rearrange or recycle these steps. Adapt this outline to your needs. We are ready to help you at every step in your research.

1. Choose a topic - or have one assigned
2. Understand your topic
   • Background reading
     
   • Consider a main focus
   • Refine your topic
   • Make a list of your keywords and concepts
     
3. Search Sources
   • Find Books
   • Find Articles
   • Find Websites
4. Write your paper - Informative, Analytical, Argumentative, Critical
5. Cite your sources

Need Help 

The Cerritos College Librarians can help you with your research in a variety of ways:

• In person
• By email
• By phone
• Chat

Librarians are available during library hours to answer your questions by phone or chat.
(562) 860-2451 x2425