Luis Costa and Zach Chorost Process Paper

Senior Division, Group Website

While discussing possible topics for a project, Zach and I found that we each had done our fair share of research in the field of civil rights and attempts of authority to limit our liberties. Here, we decided that we would combine interests and integrate wars and propaganda into the project. Thus, we chose Wartime Rights as our topic. Now we faced a difficult challenge in deciding what events and cases to specify onto. Zach found himself fascinated by the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Japanese Internment camp system. I was drawn in by the case of Schenck v. U.S. and the Homeland Security Act so we split up the work evenly and both went about our ways. These events stood out to us because of their magnitude and significance in American History. For example, in recent news the NSA spying campaign has made headlines so I wanted to look further into its origins and found myself in 2002, with the Homeland Security Act. Our next step was to deeply look into the topics. We began by gaining general understanding through online encyclopedia entries and historical videos and interviews. Then we made rounds to our school's library to check out books that had to do with our topics and read several online database articles. The most important step in the research process was to find and analyze the primary sources like President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066. These sources proved to be the most helpful in deciding how we would present the information. Out of the possible choices, the group website seemed to be the most logical since Zach and I make a nice team. In addition, Zach had his fair share of experience on Weebly. The idea of combining visuals, text, and technology was irresistible. With the format chosen, we then discussed how to make the format easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. We chose to use political cartoons and other symbols in our headers and tabs across the top because this would allow visitors to easily navigate and not have to handle pictures all over the site. Our theme, Wartime Rights, connects to the NHD theme, "Rights and Responsibilities," because the cases provided demonstrated conflicts between the rights of American Citizens and the responsibilities of the federal government.