Prepare
an essay responding to one of the questions linked below.
You may draw upon any of the materials assigned for the class or on
class lectures and discussions. Your grade will be based primarily on
your use of these materials and not other materials you may refer to.
If, however, you do make use of material that is not assigned, be sure
to footnote your sources very carefully.
Essay To Be Turned in Electronically through OnCourse and a Paper Copy Submitted in My Box in the History Department (Ballantine 742) by 3:00 P.M. Tuesday May 4.
[Links to the questions themselves and other potentially useful information about this paper are at the bottom of the page.]
For suggestions about the form of the paper and ideas about writing it, go to Research and Writing Resources for History J300 and J400 (Note that some of the advice on this site is only relevant to courses in which students are seeking their own sources, rather than using those provided in a course.)
I. The Form of
the Essay:
– Papers
should be typewritten or printed on a computer and double-spaced
-- Include a
cover sheet with your name and write your name on the back (but not
the front) of each sheet of the essay. [This will assure anonymity
in grading.]
-- Any ideas
or information used in your essay that are not common knowledge (e.g.
that you did not know when you began the course) must be clearly cited.
A simple form may be used In the case of materials from the course
reader (e.g. Becker, "History of the Future Reader," p.19.),
other assigned readings (e.g. H.G.Wells, The Time Machine,
p.68), the lectures (Pace lecture, Sept.10), or the web site (Thomas
Ewbank, The World, a Workshop, History of the Future Web site,
Week 4) Any other material that influenced your ideas or provided you with
examples should be clearly cited in notes that provide all the information
needed to find the original source. (There is certainly no expectation
that you will need anything except what has been provided in this
course, and, even if you make some use of other sources, the majority
of the essay should be based on the course materials.)
-- All papers
must be securely stapled together
II. Length --
Five Pages
-- All papers must be no more than five pages long. The cover page and a page with works cited or end notes does not count towards the page limit. (NB Unless you are using material beyond those assignment in class or available on our web site you will not need to add a works cited or endnote page will not be necessary.)
-- We will cease
reading essays at the end of the fifth page, and nothing that follows
will be considered in determining your grade. You should use standard
margins (at least one inch) and fonts no smaller than 12cpi.**
III. Extra copy
It is your responsibility
to keep an extra copy of the final draft of the paper until the original
is returned to you.
IV. Plagiarism
and Late Papers
Be sure that
you thoroughly understand the course policies on plagiarism and late papers. (Click on the words
to reach a statement of these policies.) If anything is not clear,
please let us know. If you are confused, you are almost certainly
no alone.
V. Submitting the paper
You will in need to submit your paper in both paper and electronic forms:
1) Electronically via Oncourse (Go to the Oncourse site for our course. Click on the "Assignments" tab and then on "Paper 2 Spring 2010." Then upload your paper, using the "Add Attachment" button.)
and
2) Hand in a paper copy in my box in the History Department (Ballantine 742) on Tuesday March 4May 4.
Click
here for the questions
Click here for some suggestions about how to go about writing this paper.