Assignment

Select one primary source, either from the "Sources of the Making of the West, Vol 1," book, or from the primary sources that will be posted on Blackboard to supplement the "Sources" book. It does not matter, for the purpose of this assignment, whether you choose a source that was also assigned for class discussion or not. Read this primary source carefully, and reflect on its themes, goals, style, tone, and the kind of arguments or persuasion it might make use of.

Then, select a primary source from the present day (present day being, for this assignment, the Twentieth or Twenty-First Century) which you feel has some common points with your historical primary source. The primary source you select could be a book, an article, a short story, a poem, a song, a movie, or any other present-day form of media. Write a comparison and contrast of your historical primary source and your modern-day primary source, including side-by-side comparisons of your sources' intentions, content, style, rhetoric, and other other points which you feel might be useful to compare and contrast.

This paper should be five pages long, double-spaced, with normal margins, in Times New Roman or a similar font. If you use sources other than your two primary ones, be sure to properly cite them. Since this paper is meant to be an analysis of two primary sources, please do not spend a lengthy amount of time in simply summarizing your two sources- summary should be a paragraph or two at most. Your paper should be well-organized, with an introduction and conclusion, as well as a clear thesis which states the central point of your paper.