Paper instructions
The first paper due date is coming up in a couple of weeks. Students are to write 4-6 pages on one or more of the supplemental readings, using topics that will be posted here. Time to start posting.
Papers should be double-spaced, with one-inch margins, printed in 12 pt. Times New Roman or a similar proportional font. Since the book(s) or documents you are writing on should be your only source (unless otherwise specified), the basis for your assertions and the sources of your examples and quotations may be cited by simply listing the author and page numbers in parentheses, for example (Rowson, pp. 23-24). If there is a specific document or section within the book (as in the various chapters of Kramnick or Calloway), that should be mentioned in the text.
This is not a research paper. The idea here is not to pack in as much information as you can, but instead to present a thoughtful and clearly-written analysis. The best essays will thoroughly answer the question and make a clear, well-defined argument, supporting the author's point of view with specific factual or textual evidence. For your information, rely on the book you are analyzing and other materials used in this course (textbooks, lectures, and online readings). You may use sections of the course books that were not assigned to the whole class, but you MAY NOT bring in any outside secondary works without permission of Prof. Pasley or one of the TAs.
Papers focusing on the Calloway (Indians) or Kramnick (Enlightenment) or the Moretta book on William Penn are due in your section meeting the week of October 18-19. The Enlightenment topic will also be available for the second round of papers for those who don't do it this time.
The topics will be presented in the separate posts linked above. As always, ask any questions by commenting on this post.
Papers should be double-spaced, with one-inch margins, printed in 12 pt. Times New Roman or a similar proportional font. Since the book(s) or documents you are writing on should be your only source (unless otherwise specified), the basis for your assertions and the sources of your examples and quotations may be cited by simply listing the author and page numbers in parentheses, for example (Rowson, pp. 23-24). If there is a specific document or section within the book (as in the various chapters of Kramnick or Calloway), that should be mentioned in the text.
This is not a research paper. The idea here is not to pack in as much information as you can, but instead to present a thoughtful and clearly-written analysis. The best essays will thoroughly answer the question and make a clear, well-defined argument, supporting the author's point of view with specific factual or textual evidence. For your information, rely on the book you are analyzing and other materials used in this course (textbooks, lectures, and online readings). You may use sections of the course books that were not assigned to the whole class, but you MAY NOT bring in any outside secondary works without permission of Prof. Pasley or one of the TAs.
Papers focusing on the Calloway (Indians) or Kramnick (Enlightenment) or the Moretta book on William Penn are due in your section meeting the week of October 18-19. The Enlightenment topic will also be available for the second round of papers for those who don't do it this time.
The topics will be presented in the separate posts linked above. As always, ask any questions by commenting on this post.
posted by Jeff Pasley at 11:15 PM
11 Comments:
hello,
I was wondering what the paper topics are for the calloway book. I did not see a link on the website.
Thanks,
Brian Klarfled
Did you mean 3-5 pages? or 3-5 papers?
Pages, obviously. Calloway topics will be up in a few minutes.
I was just wondering, for the enlightenment, if we choose a topic do we need to critique it or analyze and describe it.
I was wondering if it was completely out of line to ask if you could perhaps post an essay from a former student as sort of an example of exactly what it is that you're looking for? Or is that too "high-schoolish?"
In answer to Rob, your question is not "out of line," but I really don't have such a sample essay available. The papers do not come in electronically and I would have had to get someone's permission last year to post their work here. In any case, there is usually a new or partially new set of TAs each semester, so it would not do all that much good in terms of telling you "exactly" what your grader will want.
What is more, it is just the wrong approach to think so mechanically about this assignments. There is no one right answer we are looking for with these papers. The questions are very open-ended and designed to allow you lots of flexibility to right about something that interests you. Your main tasks are to make an argument we can understand and back it up with evidence (examples) from the reading. I would not want this assignment to become a matter of trying to mimic the sample paper.
I can suggest various guides to writing history papers that exist out there if that would help. You are also welcome to ask your TA or myself to comment on a draft or outline of your paper while you are working on it.
I had a question about the Enlightenment topic. Are you saying that the Enlightenment papers can be turned in as the second paper? Does that mean we only have to do 1 paper or would we turn in 2 papers at that due date? Also, if the Enlightenment paper would be due with the second set, could we do a paper over William Penn for the first paper and then do the Enlightenment topic as our second paper?
Once we cite a book as our source in paranthesis once, do we continue to put the Author's name with every page number or is that considered redundant? For example: (Calloway, 185) and then (186).....or....(Calloway, 185) and then (Calloway, 186)
If you are writing about one book, then just page numbers will do. If you are also using the textbook or online reader, then you will need to use the last name always. In addition, if you writing about one of the anthology books (Calloway or Kramnick), you will need to specify the particular reading within the book. The easiest way to do is mention the author and title in the text of your paper: "As we in Powhatan's speech to Captain John Smith, . . . " (Calloway, 39).
On the calloway indian book, I am looking at number three. If we just talk about te difference in culture, is that essentially the same thing?
Im still unsure where the topics are that we are supposed to be writing about. I know that I should have looked for this alot sooner but I forgot about the paper. I have been busy and everytime I have tryed to start my paper, I have been getting really confused. Sorry for the late question, but can you help me?
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