11 Jun Assignment Historical Final Essay
3 rd Required Class Assignment Historical Final Essay/ Written Primary Sources Analysis = 270 points/27 % of the overall course grade Understanding history is more than dates and facts, so this exercise is designed to assess your historicalskill, ability to evaluate/interpret primary written sources and to compose an argument which uses them, as appropriate, for support, to place developments into their wider historical context, to compare and contrast historical continuity and change, and to think critically about historical questionsthrough the evidence presented in sources. Sources, at best, provide raw materials (metaphorical clay) that historians fashion into evidence (bricks) to assemble a historical argument (structure). Primary sources help you also develop and refine cognitive, investigative, deductive reasoning and problem-solving skills -how it relates to the history in which it was produced. In order to collect this evidence, you need to interrogate sources by reading closely and asking critical questions. In this type of skill based exercise, you will continue building upon the skills you have learned in this class – demonstrating critical thinking /analysis, communication skills, and developing multicultural /global awareness; reflecting upon and appreciating the complexities of world history material, seeing how each of our themes or topics fit into the larger picture, recreating and imagining history, making connections between primary source documents, my notes/ commentaries, videos and chapter readings, connecting past to present- to apply, integrate, and demonstrate the knowledge and skills you have acquired –this transformative learning is a holistic process that places you at the center of your own active and reflective learning experiences. Over the courseof thissession, we will discuss many world historicaltopics and themes. This assignment is to meantto provide you withan opportunity to explore importanttopicsin a greater depth and to engage in task o f interpreting historicalevidences and assessing historicalinterpretations. It will allow you to demonstrate to mastery of the historical content, context and methodology as well as help you to think more deeply about some of themost important historical developments. You willhave many choices of prompts for the essay, but you need to complete only one and needs to be no less than 5 pages in length-double spaced. Essayprompts are located under―Submit Final Essay tab and also under our last Course Content tab –Required Assignment sub-folder as well as under Syllabus tab. You will havemany optionsto choose from -somewill require you to answerquestions by analyzing primary source documents(formof written documents from theperiod and in some prompts with addition of visualsources too)that historians use when reconstructingthe past. Someof the choices areorganized around a roleplaying or inquiry exercisesthat ask you to take on thepersona and perspective of a historical actor. Other choices will ask you toexaminehow historians interpret the past or what if history diverges into different direction,etc. Important- Final Essay End Reflection-Regardless of the prompt you choose (no less than five pages answer to the prompt), after you have written the essay based on one of those prompts, please end with your brief reflection (no less than one substantive paragraph-if missing, it is 20 points deduction from an essay grade)– reflect on how working on the this essay expanded, challenged, or reaffirmed your understanding of the topic under the examination, what college level skills you had to utilize to complete the essay, why you think is important to use primary historical sources when learning about histories that might be different from our own? Why is important to practice Cultural Relativism? What have you learned from this exercise -how what you have done connects to our class? I’mless concerned that youmemorize every fact, event, or development that we come acrossin this course, and more concerned that you engagewith a series of broad big picture themes. In other words, this assignment doesn’t ask you to summarize the learning (if you wish higher grade), but for you to dig deeper into the materialwe have been studying and to build upon the skillstaught in the class; critical and creative thinking, analysis and synthesis,globalcompetence, as those are some of the skills every college student needs to gain. Through this process, I want you to make this material your own –to guideyourthoughts even after this classis over. Thus, draw directly on thematerial that you read/watched/or experienced in this class. Asin the Bb DiscussionBoard forum, your critical thinking /analysisand your understanding of text/evidence will be central to my evaluation. You need to provide a well –crafted piece of writing that is thoughtful; that demonstrates sophisticated understanding and awareness of themain arguments or themes of the text, identifies and analyzesmajor ideas and supporting points, and shows capably how the latter relate to former, observesthe rules of grammar, good organization, and that includes complete documentation of borrowed sources along withWorks Cited page. Critical thinking, analysis, synthesis, evaluation of sources and then drawing conclusions (analyticalskills)from yourfindings need to be at the heart of this historical inquiry. Since I ask you to demonstrate a careful examination/evaluation of primary and secondary sources readings, make sure that your essay actually points to and incorporate evidences from various class documents, and that your interpretation of history is well argued and documented; develop an argument of your own. As you write this essay, you should keep in mind those factors and others such as: the clear, comprehensible and sustained thesis, the logical validity of the argumentsthat proves the themes in discussion, depth of critical analysis, synthesis of varied evidences/sources used to substantiate your writing, and the effectiveness of the writing style. Note that the analysis of primary source material involves a process of close reading, with attention to thedetails of how things are represented. Bringing/integrating primarysource materials into your writing will help you better connect and analyze history, explore your own hypotheses, and draw insightful conclusions that are placed in a proper historical context. It’s not justsummarizing and parroting ideas back to me.” Essay meansto “weigh, to evaluate (in writing). That is what’s most important. Note that class textbook has a section on “Working with Evidence” and in class booklet called “Thinking through Sources” primary sources are included -it is crucial that writing points to evidence from theprimary and secondary documents. This is not research based writing -you must only use course sources, but if you do include additional sources beyond thematerial assigned in the course, you need to provide proper documentation. Since this assignment provides an exercise in reading /evaluation of primary sources, reflecting upon, and analyzing historical evidences/data, please draw directly on thematerial that you have read/watched/or experiencedin class.Be expansive. Show complexityof yourthought. This essay needs to be no less than 5 pagesin length (due 7/1 by 11:59 pm), 12 pt.font, double-spaced, completed in MS Word (Google Doc) and with MLA or Chicago Manual/Turabian citation style-Title Page with student’s name, professor’s name, class, and correctly cite and document sources using both in-text citations (if MLA) and the Works Cited page needs to be included. The essay should follow a traditional paperstructure, comprising of thesis /introduction, body (incorporate your critical thinking approach about the topic), and conclusion paragraph. Itmust have an introduction paragraph with the last sentence clearly stating the topic to be discussed throughout the essay. Also, each body paragraph should support themain thesis statement of the essay. Finally, the concluding paragraph should discuss your findings. Submission of Essay -Must be submitted through Safe Assign (under Submit Essay tab) and the content of your essay will be automatically checked for plagiarism. Safe Assign compares your submitted assignments against a set of academic papers to identify areas of overlap between the submitted assignment and existing works. By submitting your writing, you agree to grant the institution permission to retain a copy of your paper to be used for future matching. Safe Assign is used to prevent plagiarism and to create opportunities to help you identify how to properly attribute sources rather than paraphrase. If your originalsubmission identifies what could be interpreted as plagiarism, I will contact you and ask you to submit additional copies to correct those issues. Of course, I and not Safe Assign willmake the final decision about plagiarism. I reserve that right because, as you all know, plagiarism is a serious academicoffense. If necessary, please consult with a writing tutor (available online) or refer to Bb HistoricalResourcestab and Syllabustab for more information on writing process, citation, etc. Of course, I would be happy to help you! Note Check out Bb HistoryResources & Tips Tab and review -howto critically analyze and synthesize history, howto read and interpret historicalprimary sources, guidelines for primary source analysis and using historical evidence effectively, how to integrate sources within your writing, how and when to cite sources, guidelinesfor good writing, howto use and create MLA and /or Turabian citation guide, and much more
