The thesis statement is the most important sentence in an academic essay. It is the arguable claim that the writer is defending throughout the essay. A thesis is a unique kind of statement in that it is neither an opinion nor a fact. It is a claim that must be defended.
For this assignment please write an arguable thesis statement for the first paper assignment that you can defend with evidence in the body of your paper. Then, submit your thesis statement and I will provide you with feedback and suggestions for improvement. This will help you narrow your focus and help you write a much better paper.
The assignment is graded. It is worth ten points. You will earn the full 10 points for submitting your thesis statement. However, for the final version of your paper that you submit, you will be graded for the quality of your thesis statement.
For the second paper you will compare, analyze, and interpret a World War II-era debate between Henry Luce and Vice President Henry Wallace about America’s future role in the world. Both of these texts were part of the reading assignments for week 9 on World War II:
Henry R. Luce, “The American Century” (1941), in Foner, Voices of Freedom.
Henry A. Wallace, “The Century of the Common Man” (1942), in Foner, Voices of Freedom.
Your task is to compare and contrast the sources, and formulate your own interpretation of the issues presented in this debate between the authors. You do not necessarily have to agree or disagree with one side or the either. A very good paper, for instance, will formulate an interpretation that shows how these debates fit into the broader global political context, not only about America’s relation to totalitarianism generally, but also of the changing role of the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, from being allies during World War II to enemies during the Cold War.
Here are some questions to help you think about the two sources (you don’t necessarily have to answer these questions in your paper):
Luce wrote his piece in 1941; Wallace his in 1942. Both writers think the role of the US will change after the War. How does each writer imagine the changed role of the United States in the world once the War is over? What events or circumstances lead the writers to rethink America’s role?
How did Luce and Wallace each characterize the threat of totalitarianism? What do they think is the relation between the global threat of totalitarianism and American interests?
Who are their audiences? What is the message each writer is trying to convince their readers? Are they effective? Why or why not?
For the paper it is absolutely imperative that you cite your sources using one of the acceptable academic citation styles (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.), and that the citations appear correctly in the body of your paper. If you fail to submit a paper with citations you will fail the assignment. You must cite your sources.
Your paper must be submitted to Turnitin. There is a link to upload your paper on this page.
The paper must include the following:
A descriptive title.
A thesis statement and an argument. Do not simply summarize or describe the sources. Provide an analysis of the meaning and significance of the texts. In other words, form an interpretation of the texts.
Provide evidence from the text to support your thesis statement. The evidence must come from the text itself.
Use in-text citations when quoting or paraphrasing a source.
Include a bibliography at the end of your paper.
750-1250 words (a minimum of 3 full pages, roughly, 3-5 pages).
10 or 12-point readable font, double-spaced, with 1” margins
Submit your paper on Canvas using the Turnitin link. You will only be able to submit your paper once. You must submit the file in a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file format, but not in a .pages format or with a Google Docs link.
