These are the instructions from my teacher:
One of the important skills that we can sharpen through the study of history is pattern recognition — learning to sort events into patterns and to filter out the background noise that makes events seem random. There’s simply too much going on in history to focus on all of it at the same time. So I’m going to ask you to find a pattern — or to put it another way, a storyline, and follow it through time.
Huh? Here’s what I mean. Choose a particular topic that’s of interest to you. It could be resistance to slavery, or the argument for/against slavery, or the impact of changing technology, or opportunities for women, or the role of the military, or the reform impulse, or religion, or the development of the system of government, or changes in political philosophy or political participation; or it could be something else. Think about that particular topic as a storyline in American history. Identify four or more events/people/turning points where that topic is especially interesting or important. Be sure to space those points out over time (our course spans the colonial period, through the Revolutionary and early National eras to the Civil War / Reconstruction era — your topic may not fit all those eras, but do try to spread out over a century or more). And then write an essay of about 5 or 6 pages in which you use those events or people to tell a story about how America changed (or didn’t change) during that span of time. Not the whole story, just a story, centered on your chosen topic.
Still confused? Here’s an example of a topic for the essay. Feel free to use it if you want:
An essay on “troublemaking” women and their impact on America. After a paragraph introducing the theme, stops along the way could be: Anne Hutchinson + the “Daughters of Liberty” + Seneca Falls Conference + Harriet Beecher Stowe. To pull the pieces together, think about: How did America change over that span of a couple of centuries? Did these women reflect those changes, or help cause those changes? (Or did they do both?)
If you find yourself without enough material for 5-6 pages, you can add another “stop” or two in your story (or if you’d rather, you can do a little outside research to bulk up your essay).
Again, I’m looking for the equivalent of around 5 to 6 pages, double-spaced. USE QUOTATIONS TO SUPPORT AND ILLUSTRATE YOUR POINTS. Cite pages or sections in our textbook where appropriate, my slides by chapter number, videos from the course by title, and any outside sources (not required) should be cited by author/title and page number or web address. (Don’t copy and paste from Wikipedia or anything else; that will get you an F for the paper.) I don’t need any particular scholarly format, just make sure I can see where your material is coming from. I don’t need a works cited page unless you’re using outside sources.
My instructions:
Please try to use only the information that can be found in my history book. Also I recommend using only 1-2 quotes per page in the essay, but if you need a 3rd quote then that’s fine. I will upload or send the pdf version of my history book.
