Interpretation Papers:
Three interpretation papers, three to five pages in length, double spaced, 12-point font, and free of typographic and syntax errors (Queen's English). Interpretation papers are your chance to formally respond to something from the text/lecture slides/readings/websites. They require no additional research. Instead offer YOUR interpretation and analysis of any event, trend, person, or ideology we cover. As such, a major thesis around which you structure your argument is often appropriate, but other styles work, too. One paper must be submitted by 1 October and another by 1 November. The third may be submitted by the last day of class.
Term Paper Guide:
The term paper is due 30 November.
1. Six to eight pages, double spaced, standard margins and standard English. Absolutely NO mistakes in spelling, grammar, punctuation, casual phrases, or syntax. This is what we sometimes refer to as the Queen's English.
2. All papers must be submitted as a Word document.
3. Your task: Select a topic and propose a thesis.
4. Select four scholarly articles or books. Articles will simplify your task as they make for a much quicker read. This is very important. Almost nothing you have viewed on the History Channel or in many of the history books you might own is actually considered scholarly. It's what we scholars call popular history. Popular history doesn't cut it at university. So, to simplify your task, here are some hints:
a. Scholarly books are almost always written by Ph.D. historians and are published by university presses. Popular presses such as Knopf, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, etc. are generally NOT scholarly. No academic cares a whit about what the History Channel or PBS or Simon & Schuster think. Neither should you.
b. You will be able to find scholarly articles through the university's subscription to JSTOR and EBSCO, among other databases. The librarians at the library will be happy to walk you through using the JSTOR database. It's actually quite easy. You can only access JSTOR and the others if you are actually using a campus computer or are linked to the campus server.
c. You are more than welcome to email me the full citations of your sources to confirm they are scholarly.
5. Explain what each article says about your thesis. Compare the articles to one another and analyze their evidence and, if you detect what your view as a bias, explain that bias. What data do the authors use (check their bibliography) Who are the authors and what are their credentials? This will likely take about a page to a page and a half per source.
6. Make a conclusion about your thesis by deciding what your articles say about it. This conclusion should be at least one paragraph in length.
7. Example: One of my students selected the battle for the small Pacific island of Iwo Jima, which figures heavily in the iconography of the American military. His thesis was that the battle was a turning point during the Pacific portion of the Second World War. His four sources, however, indicated that the battle, though memorable, was not a turning point or decisive battle of the war. His thesis was proven, at least according to these sources, incorrect. Which is just fine. This student was only confirmed to have a flawed thesis after taking about a page to examine each article. This accounted for a little more than four out of the final seven pages of his essay.
My papers will be on Real Estate inequalities of inequities from about 1850 to present.