Writing Exercise Paper #1 - Analyzing a Primary Source

Please submit a docx or a Google Docs link, so that I can easily annotate or leave comments if necessary. I really do not enjoy reading it in the Moodle text boxes. Thank you! 

Writing Exercise Due 11 September, by 11:59pm

Based on the background context of the secondary readings and the primary sources for Week 2, I’d like you to compose a brief 1-2 page (between 300-500 words) piece of writing in which you analyze one (or more) sources provided.

Please refer to the handout I have also posted on steps for analyzing primary sources. If you feel experienced in these steps already, I suggest you jump to the steps in the second half of the document, which even professional historians have to remind themselves of sometimes. You may want to do a quick read over all of the sources, and then settle on one or a couple you would like to read much more thoroughly. Your writing should not comprehensively address all parts of a given source but instead focus on one theme or aspect of it. Draw on the contexts from the secondary sources to analyze the source, going beyond summarizing to tease out a layer of deeper meaning and significance. F For more detail on these writing exercises, please consult the syllabus. You can email me with any questions or concerns. I’m looking forward to reading your papers! Submit it under the Assignment tab I have included under the readings for Thursday. Please send it as a docx or as a Google Docs link, so I can more easily provide comments (I don’t enjoy reading in Moodle text boxes). 

This 1-2 pages of writing can take multiple forms.

-       It can be a version of “free-writing” where you brainstorm your way through the sources and what they mean. This means you can hand in raw, unedited train-of-thought writing. I want to encourage more of you to use writing as a tool for thinking and brainstorming and not just for producing carefully formulated prose the consumption of a reading public (i.e. me).

-       However, I understand not everyone wants that right now, so the exercise can also take the form of a formal argument where you make a claim about the meaning of the sources that is both not obvious and not explicitly stated.  Whatever you choose, please include a note explaining to me what type of writing you intended.  

Please do not fret too much over this assignment or spend too much time on it (max 2.5 hours! But 1 hour should be sufficient). It is one of the many more casual writing parts of the course that will help develop your skills for the formal papers. The paper will be a diagnostic for me, allowing me to begin to get to know your writing and voice. As a reminder, these writing exercises are graded for effort and engagement on a check, check-plus, check-minus, etc. scale.