Description: For this class, you are required to write a number of essays based on the historical readings from the course. There are no outside sources required for these papers. Based on your reading and analysis

Essay Instructions and Rubric

 Description: For this class, you are required to write a number of essays based on the historical readings from the course. There are no outside sources required for these papers. Based on your reading and analysis of the historical documents, write an essay based on a thesis statement. A thesis is a focused argument based on your reading of the historical documents. The essay should use evidence from the historical documents to support your thesis (please see helpful hints below on writing this assignment). Please see the Comprehension sections of applicable weeks for more details on each essay assignment.

Requirements: The essays should be 1000-1250 words in length. While lectures may be utilized, the paper should primarily rely on the historical documents to support your thesis.  

Citation: Any form of citation is allowed as long as you remain consistent throughout the paper. Citations, including in-text citations, do not count towards the overall word total.  

Writing a Thesis and Essay (Helpful Hints)

What is a Thesis Statement?

Almost all of us—even if we don’t do it consciously—look early in an essay for a one- or twosentence condensation of the argument or analysis that is to follow. We refer to that condensation as a thesis statement.

Why Should Your Essay Contain a Thesis Statement?

•        to test your ideas by distilling them into a sentence or two 

•        to better organize and develop your argument 

•        to provide your reader with a “guide” to your argument 

In general, your thesis statement will accomplish these goals if you think of the thesis as the answer to the question your paper explores.

Develop a strong thesis statement. Give some thought to your thesis before taking notes and outlining, lest you end up with pages and pages of pointless evidence. Ask yourself, "What is the main question that I am trying to answer in this paper?" "What is the one point that I want the reader to come away with after reading my essay?" If you are writing an essay based on numerous historical sources, consider a theme that unites the documents. Your thesis is like a coat tree or clothes line upon which you will hang your supporting evidence. Without it, the essay has no direction and no purpose. It should present your analysis of the meaning and significance of the source(s). Accordingly, your thesis should be argumentative, not descriptive. 

Example of a descriptive "thesis": "In Common Sense, Thomas Paine presented his views on why the American colonists should break with Great Britain" (Note: no one would ever disagree with this statement; it only tells us what the author did and it says absolutely nothing about the meaning or significance of Paine's work). 

Example of an argumentative thesis: "Thomas Paine's use of plain language, biblical analogies, and egalitarian rhetoric explains the enormous appeal of Common Sense" (Note: one could easily prove this argument by examining, in the subsequent paragraphs, the three points listed in the sentence). 

A strong thesis statement expresses one main idea. Readers need to be able to see that your paper has one main point. If your thesis statement expresses more than one idea, then you might confuse your readers about the subject of your paper. 

A strong thesis statement is specific. A thesis statement should show exactly what your paper will be about, and will help you keep your paper to a manageable topic. 

Don't summarize-analyze! An historical source essay should not be a restatement or summary of the document's content. Essays typically call for a close analysis or dissection of the texts' meanings. 

Use strong topic sentences. "What is the main point I am trying to make in this paragraph?" The first sentence in the paragraph-the topic sentence-should announce not only the subject of the paragraph but also the significance of the information that follows it. The topic sentence is essentially the thesis of an individual paragraph. Do not place your strongest points in the middle of or at the end of the paragraph lest the reader wonder why he/she is reading your evidence. 

Use quotes judiciously. The essay should present your analysis of the sources; overuse of quotes reduces the amount of space in which you have to develop your arguments and shows that you have nothing more to say than the original document. Refrain from using block quotes in shorter essays (those that are fewer than eight pages long) unless the complete quote is indispensable to your analysis. If your quote is longer than four lines, then you should use a block quotation. Block quotes are single spaced, indented, and do not need the telltale quotation marks (" . . . "). Be sure that you provide citations and that your quotations do not take the words, phrases, or sentences out of context.

These helpful hints brought to you by: Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/thesis_statement.shtml; College of William and Mary http://www.wm.edu/as/history/undergraduateprogram/historywritingresourcecenter/handouts/primar ysources/index.php

GRADING RUBRIC 

100 points total