Each
student will write one
Primary Source Project Plus Essay (PSPP) – check the calendar for the due
date. The essay will be based on
one Primary Source Project of their choice [except
PSP 7] from the end
of a chapter in Exploring
American Histories and two outside sources. Make sure that you have the correct
volume for the appropriate course. You
should have an e-book already embedded in Blackboard. The publishers made the entire textbook
available, so make sure to pick a project that aligns with the
chronological parameters of the course.
For HIS 201, it’s chapters 1 through 14. Do not choose PSP 7 over ratification
of the Constitution, however. The
Founding Documents essays address those issues; I don’t want any
double-dipping.
Dimensions: double-spaced, 1200 words
or more, and normal margins – one inch left and right. Going
over 1200 words is okay; I am more concerned about brief papers below the
minimum, which carries a penalty. And
any title page, which isn’t required, does not count. I suggest Times New Roman, 12pt
font.
The Primary Source
Project at the end of each chapter contains four or five
primary sources about a certain topic, usually with different or contrary
viewpoints and/or divergent details about what happened and why. These are not to be confused with the Guided
Analysis, Comparative Analysis, or Secondary Source Analysis sections in
your textbook under the Explore tabs or any combination of other documents/graphs/maps,
etc. posted on Blackboard or in the relevant chapter, or any additional
documents outside of those under official review.
In
addition to the documents/sources in the primary source project, students will
also research and incorporate one outside primary source, and one secondary
source from databases provided by the library. What is the difference between a primary source and
a secondary? There is a link with
details under a folder entitled TIDUS Categories and Primary Source
Interpretation within the larger PSPP folder.
These
two additional sources are meant to provide additional detail and points of
view about the topic that the sources in the textbook may lack, or give support
to an underrepresented perspective in the PSP. The information shared in the essay should
provide additional facts, points of view, or interpretations that cannot be
gleaned from the editor’s introduction to the primary source project.
The library
databases often sort the sources into categories, like primary or secondary
sources. The secondary source should be
a peer-reviewed article from an academic journal or a portion of a book
published by a reputable author and publishing house. In
other words, don’t designate encyclopedia and/or historical dictionary entries
about the topic that the sources address as your official outside secondary
source – or articles from popular magazines for a general audience (those
may be useful for your own understanding, however). For popular articles, I do consider
justifications if the student evaluates the source’s credibility by consulting
the About Us section of the website or identifies the credentials of the
author. The outside primary source
should not duplicate any primary source in the selected project with a longer
version of, or a different excerpt from, it – or any source from another
location in the chapter or a source the instructor has posted for the weekly
discussion post. At my discretion, I may
allow the above for good reasons, though; for instance, the authors and editors
of your book left out a key passage that substantially changes our view of the
document based on the edited version of it in the textbook. That’s just good analysis and comparative
detective work. By the way, I use “documents” and “sources”
interchangeably in the instructions.
INTRODUCTION
(THE FIRST PARAGRAPH):
In
your introduction, you will want to concisely identify these:
The topic
The primary sources
in the project: the authors and the document types (letter, journal entry,
text of a speech, newspaper article, court transcript, etc.)
The two outside
sources, one primary, one secondary, that you have selected
A brief contrast of the
documents’ viewpoints about the given topic and a thesis statement
or your assessment about the topic based on these sources. A
thesis or assessment is your central message, basically, that you want to
get across to your readers. It should be more argumentative
than declarative. For example, “In Common Sense, Thomas Paine
presented his views on why the American colonists should break with Great
Britain” is declarative. You are
just stating what Paine was doing in his source. An argumentative thesis would look like
this: “Thomas Paine’s use of plain language, biblical analogies, and
egalitarian rhetoric explains the enormous appeal of Common Sense.” To
generate ideas about what your thesis statement will be, you can
a) draft it by contrasting the project documents
in relation to one or more of the TIDUS categories on Blackboard (a link near
the instructions link)
b) use your answer to the prompt
question at the very beginning of the project
c) use your answer to the Put It in
Context question(s) at the end of the project
d) focus on contrasting or differing
values in the sources
e) (or) creatively draft your own
THE BODY OF THE ESSAY:
The body of the essay will consist of
summarizing, analyzing, and comparing the sources under review, both those
in the project and the two outside sources you have found
·
Summary:
Summarize each document in the
Primary Source Project and your two outside sources. You may choose to address
them in the order that they are listed in the textbook or rearrange your
treatment of them in a different order reflecting the perspectives you have
perceived regarding the topic. The
summaries should be document-dependent and address the content in the particular excerpt of that source in
the Primary Source Project; in other words, summarize the main points of
the document itself, not provide a rehash of the editor’s introduction/annotation
to the document (if there is one). The
editor’s introduction is useful for understanding historical context, but it
should not be the primary basis of your summary of the document. Also, your summary is not to be “a series of
mini-essays on each source glued together.”
In addition, do not overquote: I do not consider stringing
together some multi-sentence quotes and tying them together with a sentence or
two of your own as proper summarizing.
·
Analysis:
Interlace your own analysis of the documents while summarizing them. The content in the Blackboard link, Interpreting
Primary Sources, may prove useful. There
is also a useful guide at the very beginning of the textbook. I do not expect you to identify the audience
and purpose of every document since there are between four and six to
cover. Focus on those documents with an
audience or purpose that stands out the most in influencing the content. Each source may have more than one audience
or purpose. Summarize all of the
documents, yes, but you can strategically pull out the ones that will provide
the most fruitful analysis regarding audience and purpose (or other elements of
analysis that you have utilized from the guidelines for posting discussion
posts each week – for those of you in the online class). Throughout the essay, provide evidence from
the documents that supports your thesis or central message.
Comparison:
Highlight the viewpoint of each document about the topic and how it
differs from, or is similar to, the others
The questions at the
end of the PSP under the heading, “Interpret the Evidence” can be helpful
in crafting your summary and analysis of each document
CONCLUSION:
Connect the documents and their content with the major
themes, issues, and debates of US history (a link in Blackboard near the
instructions link). If you forged a
thesis statement with one or more of the TIDUS categories in your
introduction and throughout the essay, drive it home in the conclusion
with further insights and connections.
How do the documents contrast in relation to the
themes/issues/debates (if not already addressed in the body)? To signal me that you are considering
this as directed, you can use the bolded words on the TIDUS list: “These
documents clearly relate to the historical debate of different, competing notions of progress. On the one hand, Johnson in his letter
sees the telegraph as progress because . . . . On the other hand, the
petition . . . .”
· What
kind of values are conveyed by a few of the documents, especially those that
conflict (this focus can also be contained in the body of the essay)? Narratives, often embedded in historical
documents, have unstated or overt values.
For instance, one source may value economic efficiency while another
dealing with the same event exalts economic justice. What’s economically just may not be
economically efficient, and what’s economically efficient may not be, or seen
to be, economically just. Or one source
values innovation as creatively destructive while another dealing with the same
event values tradition, stability, and continuity.
Include any other insightful analysis beyond
examining point of view, audience, purpose, and values. For example, what are the author’s
assumptions? Is one or more of the
authors of the sources under review biased in some way? Were there any contradictions in
detail or reasoning? What was
surprising or odd to you about one or more of the documents? Was the
author convincing or credible, and why?
Bring closure
Reflection
·
Why did you choose this primary source
project?
·
Did your perspective about this topic
change as a result of reading these sources and writing up an essay? If yes, then identify the former perspective
and how it has undergone modification, with elaboration. If not, then you still need to identify the
existing perspective and how these sources reinforced it. If you had no perspective on this topic, what
perspective has formed, if any? If you
still have no perspective, indicate why.
·
If you have not done so in the conclusion,
identify the values on display in these sources, especially those that seem in
tension with each other. Make sure to
connect those values to specific sources in the project/essay.
·
What skills or processes have you drawn
upon from other courses you have taken (or work-related or life-related
experiences)? How useful were they in
evaluating historical sources and writing about them in a coherent essay? Provide examples of types of analysis or
evaluation from these other areas/courses that could be applied to the critical
reading of an historical source.
·
How would the bolded angles of analysis
deployed throughout this course in the discussion posts and the essays be
useful in evaluating social media, online news articles, etc.?
Your
essay will be graded based on the following components:
Introduction (needs
to be a distinct paragraph, the first)
Summary
Analysis and
Comparison
Conclusion (needs to
be a distinct paragraph, the last)
Reflection
Grammar,
Organization, Spelling, and Citation: See the citation example in the
sample essay. The two outside
sources can be cited in either MLA or Chicago Style. I realize this class is not an
English class – but it is a college class.
I will look for the common errors: comma splices/run-on sentences,
subject/verb disagreement, sentence fragments, fused sentences, misspellings
and diction, etc. Regarding
sentence fragments, I realize that students sometimes use them
intentionally to vary the tempo of the prose. Use them sparingly in an academic paper. Yes, published writers, especially of
fiction, use them, but those authors are not in a college class; they
don’t need to demonstrate the skill of written communication as a
component in determining a grade (well, a few of them still do).
I will add the additonal materials/documents needed once some is selected.
