Final Essay Instructions

Before you get started, read the Writing Tips and the assignment instructions very carefully.

Note: You will not be able to submit your final essay until you have submitted all the other written assignments for the course. After you submit the final essay, you will not be able to submit any of the quizzes, so make sure you have completed them before you send in the essay.

Writing Tips

-Notice that the essay is open-book and open-note.

-There is no time limit for writing the essay. Be sure to consult your notes as well as the readings as you prepare your essays.

-Prepare an outline, write a draft, let it sit for awhile, and then complete the final version before proofreading, editing, and rewriting.
Note that worst case scenarios arise as the essay progresses. Computing systems fail regularly; protect your work by making backups as you proceed.

-Note too that these questions involve a great deal of material; you could write a book on any one of them. Your job is not to fill two pages with the first ideas that pop into your head but to answer the questions as thoroughly and comprehensively as possible and then refine and perfect your sentences until your ideas are expressed in just two pages. It is much more challenging to write a good two-page essay than a mediocre six-page essay. As you write and rewrite, cut dead wood in the writing rather than the good ideas in order to make everything fit.

-Any time a question asks "Which is better?" you should identify the standard on which you base your judgment. One who values security will likely answer differently than one who enjoys unrestricted opportunity. Do not assume that the reader automatically shares your assumptions about what constitutes "good" or "bad."

Assignment

First, select one question from the list A: Political/Economic Questions and one question from list B: Social/Cultural Questions below (two questions total)

A. Political/Economic Questions

1. Discuss the relationship between the barbarian nations and China. What advantages, if any, did this relationship offer China in the long term?

2. Discuss the features of a dynasty in decline and explain why the Sung Dynasty avoided the standard problems that plagued other dynasties before and after.

B. Social/Cultural Questions

1. Using examples drawn from the various readings, contrast what life was like during the Sung Dynasty to that during the Three Kingdoms. Which was better? For who? Why?

2. Drawing on lectures, Daily Life in China, and The Inner Quarters, compare and contrast the role and experience of women in the T'ang Dynasty to those of women in the Sung Dynasty. What might have been the advantages enjoyed by each?

3. Examining details from Genghis Khan and Daily Life in China, contrast life on the steppe to life in China. Which might be better and why?