Assignment Instructions/ Description
The primary source analysis essay introduces students to the very basic elements of historiography. A primary source is any piece of evidence produced directly from the historical period and people being researched. Most of time, historians seek written works and documents and leave the artifacts to archaeologists. Research composes a large portion of any historical project and often times, elicits some of the greatest rewards for the historian. Unfortunately for our purposes here, due to “just a few” constraints, we won’t be traveling the globe scouring through archives. Instead, we’ll use sources available to us electronically or in our own local libraries (UCCS, PPLD, CC). If you struggle to find one of interest, you can use any of the primary sources from Chapter 14-on in your book Voices of a People's History or in our course shell on Canvas. Just like historians, we’ll take the sources available to us and critically analyze them, formulate our thoughts on their intents, purposes, and effects, and construct our own historical interpretation of them. We will essentially answer the question: Why does this source matter? From this question we formulate a thesis. Your essay must be thesis-driven. In other words, you will take a position regarding the source, its aims, and its historical relevance. The thesis must be clear, concise, and defensible (in regards to evidence in the source and/or historical context). Most theses appear near the beginning of papers (after the introduction) so that the historian can spend the body of his/her work evidencing his/her position. It should also be related back to at times and most certainly reiterated in the conclusion to cement the historian’s stance. Helpful Steps: *Identify the author’s goals within the document/work and be able to summarize his/her points. *Look for the author’s ‘voice’ within the work and juxtapose it upon their stated goals or intentions. *Situate the work within the larger historical context in question. For example, if you are analyzing Common Sense, you must integrate Thomas Paine’s argument(s) into the social, political, economic, and/or temporal situation of revolutionary America. *Form your own analysis of the source and what it meant/contributed to (that) history. Again, using Common Sense as an example; how did this work effect social or political life in revolutionary America beyond the Paine’s intended aims? How did his rhetoric speak to an independence-minded ethos? Keep in Mind: You will draw most of the content of the paper from the steps listed above but it should include historical context from the class readings/discussions or your own secondary research. Details: *Three to Four (3-4) pages. *Punctuation, grammar, and spelling are of the utmost importance and will weigh heavily on your grade. *You are to cite all quoted material and/or content that is not your own using the Chicago Manual of Style (instructions in Rampolla’s A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, online or in the Writing Center or here: Chicago Sample Paper.pdfPreview the document). *You are to use twelve-point (12) font, double space, and one inch margins.
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