Instructions for the Major Comparison

Please ask if you have any questions.
Reminder: there are videos to answer different kinds of questions in the Good Habits for Evidence folder in Getting Started, including how to use endnotes.

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 Major Comparison. 2

These are the links available from these Instructions. 2

What Is a Comparison 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 basic rubric used to grade this writing (although the points vary with the assignment). (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 a comparison for a history class. Don’t assume a prior comparison 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 comparison. (This link stays on this webpage.)

3

Is there a required, preformatted file that I must write in for this written assignment?
Yes. It is in this folder.

Tips:

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

·         Each comparison has its own file that you must use. 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.

4

Should I type my name on my paper?
Yes, it is fine to do that OR you can write your name on your paper when you bring the print to me on the due date in the Course Schedule.

5

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.)

6

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.

7

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 Major Comparison

1

You propose your own topic by completing a form in the folder for Planning the Major Comparison 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.)

3

Work in a consistent way. For some of you this link will help: click here for 9 Steps to Successful Reading FOR Evidence and Writing WITH Evidence

4

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

 

These are the links available from these Instructions

What Is a Comparison in This History Class?

Sometimes it is clearest start with what a comparison is not. A comparison 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 a comparison for this history class? You:

1.     Choose one of the listed topics asking you to compare 2 things.

2.     Read exactly the required pages in the textbook for that topic.

3.     Read or watch everything required.

4.     Work until you figure it out stand it well enough that you can identify 3 to 5 facts that you can compare about the things so that you could teach another person what changed and why.

 

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 Major Comparison

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

Laws-Servitude, p. 1

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