Instructions for the Analysis of Primaries

Please ask if you have any questions. You can ask at any time in the process—but asking earlier is better than asking late.
Reminder: There are instructions for the 5 Good Habits for Evidence in the Evidence Matters folder.

Before You Start to Read and Write, Be Sure You Are Going in the Right Direction. 1

Proposing Your Own Topic and Identifying the Primary Sources You Will Use and Then Writing Your Analysis of Primaries. 2

These are the links available from these Instructions. 2

What Is a Analysis of Primaries in This History Class?. 2

A Simple Method of Citing You May Use in This Course. 3

 

Before You Start to Read and Write, Be Sure You Are Going in the Right Direction

1

Examine how your instructor will grade this writing assignment.

Click here for the rubric used to grade this writing. (This opens in a New Window.) Notice that whether you follow all of the 5 Good Habits for Evidence determines your grade on the content and that if you don’t follow all of them, you do not earn any of the points for the Good Habits for Evidence part of this assignment.

2

This is an Analysis of Primaries for a history class. Don’t assume a prior writing assignment for an English class is what is needed since the goal is reading and writing that help you learn history.

Click here for what does your history teacher means by the word analysis. (This link stays on this webpage.)

3

Is there a required, preformatted file that I must write in for my proposal for this assignment?
Yes. It is in this folder immediately below this link.

If you cannot think of a proposal, there is a Safe Topic available.

4

Is there a required, preformatted file that I must write in for this written assignment?

Tips:

·         Do not start to write until you have feedback on your proposal.

·         Do not add anything to the file that is not in the file.

·         It has pre-set margins (with the left one being wider because I write there in my feedback to you) and pre-set font and font size.

5

Should I type my name on my paper and write a heading like I do for my English class?
No, for 2 reasons.

1) This paper has a specific preformatted file with the heading provided.

2) This paper is also used for a peer review so—unless you want others to know what you wrote—don’t put your name on it.

6

Do I have to cite a page number for each fact and quotation?
Yes.

 

Disciplines vary, but history requires citations for both:

·         A quotation

·         A fact - You may not make statements of fact without a citation to a specific page from the required pages. (Don’t assume your version of common knowledge matches the textbook.)

 

Click here for the simple system you can use to cite any of the listed types of sources that you want to use with these written assignments in Turnitin. (This link stays on this webpage.)

7

Do I have to use endnotes for citation?
Yes, endnotes only. Your endnotes will then be after the last word in your paper.

Tips:  Endnotes are done with software automatically:

1.       By placing your cursor immediately after the fact you want to cite

2.       By clicking—if you are using Microsoft Word—References and then on Insert Endnote

3.       By typing whatever your instructor requires.

 

What’s the maximum length? 330 words for your writing, but the endnotes may continue to the next page.

 

Proposing Your Own Topic and Identifying the Primary Sources You Will Use and Then Writing Your Analysis of Primaries

1

You propose your own topic by completing a form in the folder for Planning the Analysis of Primaries and then submitting it through Turnitin

2

Once you get feedback from me, you can begin writing. (The earlier you submit the proposal, the earlier the feedback.)

The Course Schedule describes what you could do to expedite that.

3

When the Turnitin assignment becomes available on the date in the Course Schedule, go submit your file. Use Turnitin’s feedback to correct errors and strengthen your analysis.

Caution: You will not see that Turnitin Assignment until your Proposal is approved and the full points are entered for its content. (FYI: you will get the Good Habits for Evidence points after your Analysis is graded. The points for the 5 Good Habits for Evidence for the content are the same points for the Good Habits for Evidence for this proposal.)

 

These are the links available from these Instructions

What Is an Analysis in This History Class?

Sometimes it is clearest start with what an Analysis is not. An Analysis in this class is:

 

This is a history class and the goal to help you learn history. One of the hardest things for students to understand about history is that it what was true at the beginning of a time period can be amazingly different at the end of it—sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. History changes! If it didn’t, humans could never have a consequence on the present and future. What makes history change is something worth noticing if you want to survive your present and, perhaps what is more important, if you want to try to maintain what is good in your present.

 

What do you do when you write an Analysis for this history class? You:

1.     Choose a topic you want to examine. The form immediately below this link will help you do that.
If you can’t choose a topic using that form, take a look right below that at the Safe Topic and see if that interests you or gives you an idea. If you choose to do the safe topic, you must provide the page numbers from the textbook that support what you plan to write.

2.     Read the textbook for that topic and those primaries.

3.     Work until you figure the topic out well enough that could explain it (to use a phrase I use elsewhere) to your smart cousin who wants to understand.

 

A Simple Method of Citing You May Use in This Course

In this course, when using a quotation or a fact, your endnote states a specific page from the required textbook (or primaries or other documents listed as resources to use for the topic you chose. If a primary source has no page numbers, click on File and the Print Preview to get an estimate of the page you want to cite.

What You Want to Cite

Example of What You Want to Cite

Example of What You Place in the Endnote

A page from one of the required primary sources that has a phrase in the proposal you submit for the Analysis of Primaries

To cite the primary 1660 to 1732 Laws about Slaves and Indentured Servants  (Laws-Servitude)

Laws-Servitude, p. 1

For the phrase to use for the other primaries possible for the Analysis, look at the right column of the form you use for the Proposal—the column named “Phrases When Citing.”

A page from our textbook

To cite page 42 from our textbook for a fact

Essentials, p. 42

A specific definition from one of the resources provided

Definition servitude slavery indentured servant vassal subject and Related Terms

Definition-indentured servant