Sometimes it is clearest start with what a comparison
is not. A comparison in this class
is:
·
Not a paraphrase
of each sentence of a page of the required readings and not even a summary of
that page
·
Not a formal
English paper with specific requirements for number of quotations and your
personal interpretation of those quotations
·
Not a comparison
of the sets of pages of the required readings
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 is a comparison in this class? It is:
1.
Focusing on one
of the listed possible Comparison Topics so you can observe how history changed
over the time period on a specific issue or a specific group of people
2.
Using the exact
pages of the required readings from our textbook and—with some comparisons—from
primaries provided in the course
3.
Reading those
exact pages FOR evidence (As the Good Habits for Evidence link shows, that means such things as no assumptions, no
misreading, no embellishing, and no cherry-picking of atypical facts.)
4.
Examining the
evidence so you figure out how history changed
5.
Deciding from
that evidence what two or three things you would teach others if you were trying to help them understand how
history changed on this issue or for this group in this time
6. Writing WITH evidence one (1) page and using endnotes to cite following a very simple version of the Chicago Manual of Style, the standard used for the discipline of history. 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.)
In this course, when using a quotation or a fact, your endnote state a specific page from the required
textbook (or primaries). For example, if you cite page 42 from our textbook for
a fact, your endnote is simple: Ayers, p. 42.
In the Good Habits for Evidence link, you can find out
how to reduce the number of those endnotes (Habit 3) while still clearly
showing your evidence. The required citation method is the Chicago Manual of Style, the standard used for disciplines such as
history. For how to cite using a simple version of the Chicago Manual of Style, use the example from the A paper provided here and from several locations within the Good Habits for
Evidence, including its checklist. The Good
Habits for Evidence checklist also provides a brief description of how to do an
endnote with Microsoft Word.
|
Tip: If you are concerned about writing a
comparison, consider this approach with this 60-point assignment: ·
Write two
summaries that are factually accurate. The “C” column of the Good Habits for
Evidence rubric shows this qualifies for a C (70%). ·
Be sure you
follow all of the 5 Good Habits for Evidence (no marks in the “D” and “F”
columns of the rubric). This qualifies for 30 points on this
Comparison. 42 For writing 2 factually accurate summaries – 60
points X .7 (C) = 42 if the lowest C and 47.9 if the highest 30 For
following the 5 Good Habits for Evidence 72 |
The files differ for the Comparisons. For this
Comparison, you must use the file
provided in this folder as a template for what must be in your file from
the heading area to the font and including any additional requirements
(such as the 2nd part of this Comparison).
You do not submit a 5 Ws chart for this Comparison. You
may want to do it for yourself by following the method and looking
at the example of a
5Ws chart provided
with the Introductory Comparison.
For the Major Comparison, you prepare in the provided
two parts:
·
The 1st
part is your 1-page comparison on the comparison topic you chose.
·
The 2nd
part is your under ˝-page examination of how the history you covered in the
comparison reveals how “to connect choices, actions, and consequences to
ethical decision making,” a phrase from the Texas Standard for Personal
Responsibility.
Tip: This may seem difficult unless you ask
yourself what made history change from those two broad time periods and how
much did individuals’ actions have to do with those changes. Sometimes things
work well and sometimes they don’t and frequently human action or inaction
makes that difference.
The required citation method is the Chicago Manual of Style, the standard
used for disciplines such as history. For more about these requirements, see
above.
In this Comparison you use citation in both the 1st
part and the 2nd part of your Comparison
You can find the rubric and how it is used for grading
in the Good Habits for Evidence or in this direct link to the
explanation of the rubric.
You do 1 of the
2 choices exactly as written. In each
these 2 choices for Comparison Topics, make sure you meet the listed
requirements above.
|
Tips about
Content: ·
Make sure you remember
that what happened after 1901 was new
for labor. See the Reminder about Backgrounds from Unit 1. ·
The word laborer in this question refers to
people who work for wages from an employer—in other words, not farmers or
tenant farmers or sharecroppers. ·
Congress also
passed laws to protect business and farmers throughout this time, but do not
cover those. If you believe there is enough information to cover
an equivalent Comparison Topic to the one above about business or farmers,
email me your planned pages and primaries. Be sure to get my OK before
starting to write and to give me enough time—36 hours—to reply before you
start to write. I’ll only say No if I think you don’t have enough information
available. |
|
Aid to Help You
Copy the Exact Comparison Topic in the File: When you
copy the exact Comparison Topic into the file for the Major Comparison, you
can copy this version without bullets: Compare these three periods on one or two issues of
interest to you: consumerism in the 1900s to 1920, consumerism just before
the Great Depression, and the laws that Congress created to protect laborers’
hours and wages in the New Deal. Particularly in the Great Depression, what
did laborers themselves do to solve the problems they faced? |
|
Tip: You may cover African Americans in the South from
1890 to 1901 and then use information from North or South in the two later
periods. |
The folder of primaries lets you read the words of
people living during the era you are examining
If you use a primary, you can cite by using the last
words of the title of the link. For example, if you used the first page of this
link:
1895: B.T. Washington (1895: Washington), then your citation
is
1895: Washington, p. 1
If there is no page number in the document or no
section number in the document, you can click on File and the Print Preview to
get an estimate of the page that you need to cite.
If there is no page number in the document or no
section number in the document, you can click on File and the Print Preview to
get an estimate of the page you want to cite.
You use a minimum of 2 primaries. If applicable to the
issues you are interested, you may use the Constitution. The other primaries
for the 2 possible Comparison Topics are in two separate folders:
·
Other Primary
Sources for Comparison Topic 1
·
Other Primary
Sources for Comparison Topic 2
In this folder, the last item is the file you download
so you know such things as the margins, font, and heading for your comparison,
and the parts required for this comparison.
As shown in
the Course Schedule, you use a separate folder for:
·
Planning a
Comparison, such as Comparison: Planning Your Introductory Comparison
·
Submitting a
Comparison, such as Comparison: Beginning to Submit Your Introductory
Comparison
Tips about submitting:
- The Course Schedule tells you the day that Turnitin opens (at 12:00 am) and
the day it closes (at 11:59 pm).
- You can—and should—submit your initial drafts to Turnitin assignment when it
opens so you get feedback.
- Submit your final submission a minimum of one hour before Turnitin closes.
The
Submitting folder includes Turnitin’s instructions
for uploading your file. You can:
1.
Submit your
Comparison early to Turnitin so you can have Turnitin’s
feedback:
·
on language use
·
on originality
(plagiarism or “half-copy” plagiarism if you have not used quotation marks
correctly with another’s words)
2.
Correct your work
before the final submission date
In general,
the Turnitin assignment for one Comparison closes and on the next day the
folders for the next Comparison open. Although the Submitting folder opens, its
Turnitin assignment does not open until the date in the Course Schedule.
The Texas Standard for
Personal Responsibility asks you—to quote the
Texas standard—“to connect choices, actions, and consequences to ethical
decision making.” I am not just using the
standard because it's a standard (although that is an honorable reason), but
because it is my experience with history.
History teaches the
consequences of actions (and inaction). It teaches how things work. If we read reliable sources and we
read to figure out what the sources actually say, then we will know much more
about how things work in the world
and be better to protect ourselves, our families and our nation and to preserve
those that are essential to the general welfare of all of us.
We don't have to live
through every vile event in the world to learn how to try to protect our
families from vile events. We can examine with care what happened to others and
what others caused and see what makes (or didn't make) an ethical decision (or
a vile series of events).
|
Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2015 |
|
WCJC Department: |
History – Dr. Bibus |
|
Contact Information: |
281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu |
|
Last Updated: |
2015 |
|
WCJC Home: |