Writing Assignments

Good historical writing is analytical, precise, accurate and interesting. Once they have completed their research, the best historians are able to construct a compelling narrative that makes sense of the evidence they have gathered without forcing the facts to fit into a predetermined analytical structure. The hardest part of this process is deciding what to include and what to leave out, since there is usually far too much evidence and not nearly enough space on the page (or in the book).

During the course of the semester you will have two opportunities to confront this basic dilemma faced by all historians by writing essays of between five and seven pages. I expect you to use the essays not to answer questions that I pose in class, but rather to answer questions that you have about the primary evidence made available to you via this web page. All of the writing assignments are based on these source materials and so you should not spend time in the University Library investigating the opinions of others on these topics. Your analysis is what I am interested in. In addition to these longer essays, during each of the seven week segments of the semester, you will write a one-page reaction paper that in some way addresses either an issue raised in class or that deals with one of the documents we are analyzing.

Before you begin to write, please consult the Student Guide to Writing a Paper that is a part of this syllabus and read pages 1-71 in Richard Marius’ A Short Guide to Writing About History. I will know immediately if you have not consulted these two sources and I can guarantee that your grade will suffer if you skip them. Also, please contact me whenever you have questions or concerns about this assignment. I am happy to review first, second and even third drafts of papers before they are due.

Late papers will be accepted. However, for each day the paper is late, one-half of a letter grade will be deducted from your final grade. In other words, a paper that would have received an A-, but was two days late, would receive a B- instead.

First Writing Assignment:  Your first assignment, as we discussed in class, is to take one primary source document from the Inheriting the Wind? portion of the class website, analyze it, and then write a one-page essay in which you discuss the thesis or main idea found in that document and how what you found in the document can help us to understand the big issues we've been discussing in class relative to the relationship between science and society in modern Europe. 

Second Writing Assignment:  Your second assignment, as we discussed in class, is to take one primary source document from the The Rights of Man portion of the class website, analyze it, and then write a one-page essay in which you discuss the thesis or main idea found in that document and how what you found in the document can help us to understand the big issues we've been discussing in class relative to the development of constitutional systems in modern Europe. 

First Major Paper:  The description of your first major paper can be found by following the link in this sentence. 

Third Writing Assignment: Your third assignment, as we discussed in class, is to review the final letters of Milada Horáková and then write the first page of her biography.   Remember, you are writing page one of a book that could be as long as 300 pages, so be sure to reach out and grab the reader, convincing him or her in those first few paragraphs why he or she should read on.

Fourth Writing Assignment: Your fourth assignment is described in the section of the syllabus called Right vs. Left, at the bottom of the page. 

Second (and final) Major Paper: You can read all about your second major paper by following the link in this sentence.