HIST 1201 Spring 2020
Finished Essay Assignment
Directions: Please write a 5-6-page paper based on either your Deconstructed Essay 1 or Deconstructed Essay 2. Papers should have a title but do not require a title page; should be double-spaced in 12-point font; should use either MLA or Chicago (but be consistent); and should be uploaded as Microsoft Word documents. Please save the document as LAST NAME Finished Essay.
STEP 1: READ MY COMMENTS on your Deconstructed Essays. This is a requirement for me to grade your Finished Essay – Brightspace keeps track of this!
STEP 2: Start a new document and put your paragraphs into the right order: Intro, Thesis, Context, Evidence paragraphs (including direct quotations, summary, and analysis), Conclusion. Save this as “Finished Essay 1.”
You will need to SHOW CHANGES. To SHOW CHANGES, you may either:
A. After making “Finished Essay 1” as described above, create a new copy by saving it as “Finished Essay Revised.” When you are done with “Finished Essay Revised,” go to Review/Compare Documents.
OR
B. In “Finished Essay 1,” go to Review/Track Changes to show changes as you write.
STEP 3: Revise the resulting essay by reading through and editing:
A. Have you addressed my comments from the deconstructed essay?
B. Your own REVISIONS as you put all of the parts together:
INTRO:
a. Your introduction announces what you will be writing about. It is NOT the same as your thesis.
b. Your introduction might:
• Ask a question
• Identify a debate
• Give a comparison
• Explain a situation
• Describe a problem
• Quote an authority
• Cite an example (e.g., a specific text, incident, event, source)
• Set up an intellectual problem
THESIS: Your thesis should refer to specific sources (or types of sources), events, movements, and/or ideas to explain something about the past, using environmental causes, consequences, and/or comparative practices. This is what you will be supporting in the rest of the paper: it is the result of your reading and thinking about this topic.
CONTEXT: What does your reader need to know to understand when and where you are writing about? What is going on, and when and where are we?
EVIDENCE AND ANALYSIS: This is probably where most of your revision will happen, because you want to make sure that the evidence you have chosen and your analysis of it directly supports and relates back to your argument. You will usually have 3 paragraphs of evidence.
CONCLUSION: A conclusion may:
a. connect the paper’s findings to a larger context, such as the wider conversation about an issue as it is presented in a course or in other published writing.
b. suggest the implications of your findings or the importance of the topic.
c. ask questions or suggest ideas for further research.
d. revisit your main idea or research question with new insight.
General tips:
CITATION: You may use either Chicago or MLA – just be consistent!
Read your primary sources critically, for the intended audience and perspective of the author.
What are the goals of this document? How does the author try to achieve those goals? Can you take this information at face value? What is the author choosing to present, and/or how is the author framing this information?
Support your claims with information from lectures and the assigned secondary sources (including the material in Discovering the Global Past).
Proofread!
GRAMMAR
LEAD = a metal
Past tense of TO LEAD is LED
Apostrophes
It’s = it is
Its = possessive
No apostrophes for plurals except single letters (“mind your p’s and q’s”).
Possessive
The waiter has eaten the customer’s food.
The waiter has eaten the customers’ food.
Remember to cite (including page numbers) even when not quoting directly.
Lecture citation format (Works Cited):
Chicago:
Lecturer Last Name, First Name. “Title of Lecture.” Course or Event Name. Description at Venue, City, State, Date.
Woodson-Boulton, Amy. “Title of Lecture.” HIST 1060/EVST 1998: Modern Global Environmental History. Class lecture at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California, DATE.
MLA:
Lecturer Last Name, First Name. “Title of Lecture.” Course or Event Name, Date, Venue, City, State. Descriptive Label.
Woodson-Boulton, Amy. “Title of Lecture.” Modern Global Environmental History, DATE, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California. Class lecture.