LINK TO VIDEOS~~~. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvpOJUzRPGlTqkbDYIW5bLgdSXqJYlQGp In our class, the words “essay” and “quiz” are interchangeable. A. Basics: Ten, open-book essays. Each based on at least 3 sources from the list provided in the weekly lecture (or select your own, with approval). Each essay has five paragraphs and at least 9 citations. Rough drafts are welcome. Use the Discussion Board to help each other find articles. Grades based on 1. Following the format (below). 2. The specific examples used to prove your point. SEE E AND D BELOW. SERIOUSLY. I AM NOT KIDDING. I REALLY MEAN IT. TRULY! That’s it! B. Readings: 3 sources (or more) chosen from the list in each lecture, or (with approval) you may choose your own. Information about accessing Boyer and the videos is in part 1 of the syllabus. There are no links to the articles. That is intentional. You are historians and I want you to dig around in sources as historians do. To access any JSTOR article, follow these steps. 1. Go to the Muntz Library page. 2. Choose “databases by title.” 3. Choose the letter J, then click on JSTOR. 4. JSTOR is not the easiest thing to navigate. Hence, the incentive to share info on the Discussion Board. 5. I have found the best thing to do is a simple search for the author’s name. If it is something like “John Smith” you may have to use the filters on the left hand side of the page. But, usually, a search for the author’s name will give you the correct article in the first 5-10 returns. 6. Again, use the DB to make this so much easier for everyone. C. Required Essay Format: 1. Each essay will have 5 paragraphs. An introduction, a conclusion, and three arguments. 2. You are not writing for yourself and you are not writing for me. Your audience is people who are interested and intelligent, but know nothing about THIS history. Your essay must make total sense to this unknown reader. 3. To do this, the structure of your essay is critical. It serves as a road map for your readers as you teach them what you know. 4. The acronym writers use for intros is KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid). Intros have two goals — to establish the context and to state the thesis. Use two or three sentence to establish context — WW 2 ended in 1945, but it produced profound changes in US Foreign Policy. Be informative, but brief, save most of your info for the arguments, and use dates. The last part of your intro is your thesis statement. Give a date or date range! 5. The thesis statement is the most important sentence in the essay. It explains (briefly) what you will prove and how. It is basically a statement that says X because A, B, and C. “ The end of World War 2 led to the Cold War and Containment Policy. That tried to stop the spread of Communism by buying friends, building alliances with our friends, and producing weapons for our friends.” That’s it. 6. Those three things — buying friends, alliances, and weapons — are your arguments. They are the basis of the next three paragraphs. 7. Each of those paragraphs begins with a topic sentence. For example, “The US tried to control Communism by using its resources to purchase the loyalty of other countries.” The topic sentences are a critical part of the road map you are building for your reader. They should read the topic sentences and know that this is the place that you will prove Containment meant buying friends. The topic sentence MUST include the word/topic you are writing about — friends, alliances, weapons. 8. After each topic sentence, you must provide three specific examples which prove your argument. Three examples of buying friends might be the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and Berlin Airlift. 9. Then, do the same for alliances (stuff like NATO, SEATO, and the OAS). Then, your fourth paragraph does the same thing with weapons (NSC-68, arms and space race, military-industrial complex). 10. Then, you are ready for your conclusion (5th paragraph). Once again, KISS. Your conclusion should simply restate your thesis with a sentence or two about why this matters. 11. I give really bad examples. If the whole thesis/arguments/topic sentences thing isn’t clear, tell me! People lose a lot of points not following the format. Let’s not do that! D. Specific Examples: Specific examples are how you prove your argument. Each argument should have three specific examples. These can be events, statistics, quotes, anything that illustrates the point you are trying to make. The allowed texts are listed in each weekly lecture, unless you get permission to use something else. That’s it. The use of any unapproved source will be considered cheating and punished according to university guidelines. At any time, you may be asked to provide photographic proof of your citations. If you cannot provide proof, you will fail the course and be referred for Honor Code violations. There must be at least 9. citations and at least 3 examples per argument The info in the lectures and messages is yours. You bought it. Please cite as (lec) or (msg) so I can see what is resonating. But, these do not count to your total of 9 citations. Your citations need only be: for Boyer, edition-page number (8-435). For an article, Author, page number (Green, 216). For a video, (vid), unless there is more than one per week. Then, give (vid #)Please provide links or full bibliographies for your article as at the end of your essay. Citations should come at the end of the sentence. When you quote someone, or quote a document, you MUST identify the speaker. This can be very brief, but remember you are trying to educate the reader. They don’t know who these people are. What will more helpful to them, “Dewson said,” or “Mollie Dewson head of the Women’s Division of the Democratic Party” said? I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO ADD RULES AS WE PROGRESS.REMEMBER! IF YOU DON’T FOLLOW THE FORMAT, YOU GET A ZERO!!!! FINALLY, YOU ARE EXPECTED TO HAVE READ AND TO USE THE WHOLE READING! WHERE YOU DRAW YOUR EXAMPLES FROM WILL BE NOTED AND CRITIQUED. Don’t expect to do well if you draw all your evidence from the same page or pages. E. Rough Drafts: Because this class is, essentially, a group independent study, rough drafts are very strongly encouraged. If you submit your draft by 10am Friday, you will get it back before the deadline. I can’t tell you what grade your draft essay would earn, but I can tell you if your essay is going in the right direction, if you interpreted the question correctly, and if you have omitted anything important. I think this is a very important part of the process of learning. But, drafts are not required. Always ask questions — at any time — if you don’t understand an essay topic or something you read. That’s what I am here for and I truly want to help!! submit rough drafts — cut and paste — in a canvas message. Don’t forget to make your name the subject F. How to Submit an Essay: Write and proofread your paper. It is all open-book. Open the test portal — it will be available from Friday morning until 11pm Sunday night. You have seven minutes to cut and paste your prepared essay into the quiz box. Submit. Start the grind all over again with the next essay!!! When your graded essay is returned, read the comments. I give good feedback!!! G. A Few Random Things: 0. There is no specified length for essays. Some people (me) just need more words. As long as you stick to the 5 paragraph, 9 citation format you should be fine. 1. I know canvas says you may submit an essay until 11:59 on Sunday. Canvas lies for fun. It will not accept anything after 11:45. So, be safe and pretend the deadline is 11pm. 2. Also, don’t trust canvas for your final or average grade. Until the very end of the semester, it gets confused by EC, skips, and all kinds of things. Today (8/1) it tried to tell me it was 1902:) 4. Please read the fine print. When you do an essay, the instructions in the portal will say, “by submitting an essay,you confirm you have read and understood all the essay instructions in the getting started module, that all your questions have been satisfactorily answered, and that you know that not following the instructions will result in zero points being awarded.” 6. Unless you sell antiques, it is virtually impossible to write a date with an apostrophe. An 1920’s table is correct usage. But, there are very, very few other cases in which an apostrophe is used. Express dates as, the 1920s. The 20s were a really, really long time ago! 7. As you can tell, I am not too finicky about typos. 8. I am very finicky about essays not having any dates. 9. Also, incorrect usage of the future conditional tense is wrong. You can’t write history using the word “would.” History has already happened! Please ask questions. I am here to help.
