This assignment asks you to write an essay consisting of approximately 750-1,000 words (may not exceed 1,500) on one of the following prompts (i.e. you either do Prompt #1 or Prompt #2, not both!).
Papers should be double-spaced with 1” margins and written in size 12 Times New Roman font. They should include a title that indicates which prompt you are answering and page numbers in the bottom right hand corner. Papers should be submitted to D2L.
What is the purpose of this assignment?
To explore and interpret the past and the perspectives of Spanish and English colonizers and colonization advocates
What is the context of this assignment? Why are we doing it?
To verify that you understand and are able to articulate what motivated the colonization of the Americas and/or how Spanish and English colonizers viewed indigenous peoples
What is the audience for this paper?
Your professor, TAs, and a general readership within the historical discipline
What genre conventions do papers need to follow?
Papers should be in standard English. They should follow the general format for an analytical essay in that they should include an introduction that provides some basic context for the paper and makes an argument, body paragraphs that support the argument, and a conclusion that reinforces or summarizes the argument. All quotes and paraphrases from text should be cited using Chicago Style citations, which are explained in detail under the Guide to Citing Your Sources.
Using materials from course readings (especially Columbus, Las Casas, and Hakluyt) and lectures, compare and contrast Spanish and English reasons for colonizing the so-called New World. How did Spanish and English motivations for colonizing the new world shape the kind of colonial societies they created in the Americas and/or the Indies?
Here are some suggestions for breaking down the prompt:
Step 1: Brainstorming
Begin by thinking about each empire—Spanish and English—individually. You have already written paragraphs that should begin to address questions of why the English and Spanish wanted to colonize the New World and where you can find evidence for their motivations in the readings you've completed for this class. Consider what you might add to or modify in those paragraphs. You should take into account the feedback that you received (or will shortly receive) on from your TA and lecture materials.
Step 2: Finding Connections
Once you have thought about the Spanish and English colonial projects individually, you can begin to think about how they relate to one another. How, if at all, were the Spanish motivations for colonization similar to those of the English. How were they different? Remember that compare and contrast papers require you to make connections between subjects as opposed to discussing them separately.
Step 3: Doing the Analysis
Once you have some basic ideas about each European power’s motivations for colonizing the New World, you can begin to answer the “how” question at the center of the prompt: how did these motivations shape the societies that the Spanish and England formed in the Americas and/or the Indies? You might consider the ways in which colonial societies reflected the stated motivations for colonization as well as the ways that they did not.
Now that you have developed your ideas on these subjects, you can begin to craft a thesis and outline a paper.
Remember that the basic structure of an analytical essay is as follows:
Introduction
Your introductory paragraph briefly familiarizes your reader with what you will be writing about and, crucially, introduces your central argument or thesis. In a compare and contrast essay, your thesis usually takes the form of a statement that follows a basic "A and B are similar in the sense that ____________, but different in the sense that A _______, while B ________" model. This is not an exact formula, but it it can be helpful to think this way if you're struggling to come up with a central argument. Remember that you also need to state how you think the Spanish and English motivations for colonization shaped the types of colonial societies they created.
Body Paragraphs
These paragraphs support your central argument by elaborating on it and providing evidence in the form of specific textual references, including quotes and paraphrases. Each body paragraph should have a central idea that is expressed in its opening sentence, which is also called a topic sentence. Your paragraph should elaborate on that idea. When you are done elaborating and ready to move on to a new idea, start a new paragraph.
There are no firm rules for how long paragraphs should be, but here's a tip: if you find yourself taking up almost an entire double-spaced page of text with one paragraph, something is probably wrong. You need to break up your paragraph into more manageable chunks and make sure you're grouping your ideas under clear topic sentences.
You should be able to use parts of your existing paragraphs that you wrote for Week 2 and Week 3 in the paper, though it is likely that you will have to edit, revise, and add transitions to them in order to make them fit.
Conclusion
This paragraph briefly sums up your argument. It's often rather short in a paper like this.
Compare and contrast Christopher Columbus, Bartolome De Las Casas, and John Smith’s descriptions of the indigenous peoples of America. Analyze the relationship between each writer’s characterization of indigenous people and his motivations for producing the document you read. In other words, make an argument about how each writer’s goals and purposes might have shaped what they chose to highlight or ignore about indigenous peoples.
Suggestions for breaking down the prompt:
Step 1: Brainstorming
Begin by thinking about each author—Columbus, Las Casas, and Smith—individually. You have already written paragraphs that should begin to address the question of how each writer discusses indigenous peoples. Consider what you might add to or modify in those paragraphs. You should take into account the feedback that you received (or will shortly receive) on from your TA. You might also think about the following questions:
o What qualities of indigenous people or their societies does each writer most emphasize?
o What, if anything, do the writers have to say about indigenous peoples’ religious and political structures?
o Would you characterize the description as positive or negative? Why? What are some key passages that led you to form this idea?
Step 2: Finding Connections
Once you have some ideas about what you would like to say about each individual, start thinking about how the descriptions relate to one another. Are the authors’ descriptions similar to one another in terms of what they notice or do not notice about indigenous peoples? Do the authors emphasize similar characteristics for different purposes?
Step 3: Doing the Analysis
Once you have some ideas about how you want to characterize each author’s descriptions and relate them to one another, you should begin to think about why you think the authors chose to highlight what they did about indigenous peoples. In order to do this, you should think about what purpose each author had for writing. Was it to convince people in Europe that the New World was ripe for colonization? Was it to criticize colonial efforts? Was the author advocating for a specific policy or approach toward indigenous peoples? How might their descriptions of the people they encountered in the New World have suited these goals?
Once you have developed your ideas on these subjects, you can begin to craft a thesis and outline a paper.
Remember that the basic structure of an analytical essay is as follows:
Introduction
Your introductory paragraph briefly familiarizes your reader with what you will be writing about and, crucially, introduces your central argument or thesis. In a compare and contrast essay, your thesis usually takes the form of a statement that follows a basic "A and B are similar in the sense that ____________, but different in the sense that A _______, while B ________" model. This is not an exact formula, but it it can be helpful to think this way if you're struggling to come up with a central argument. Remember that you also need to state how you think the Spanish and English motivations for colonization shaped the types of colonial societies they created.
Body Paragraphs
These paragraphs support your central argument by elaborating on it and providing evidence in the form of specific textual references, including quotes and paraphrases. Each body paragraph should have a central idea that is expressed in its opening sentence, which is also called a topic sentence. Your paragraph should elaborate on that idea. When you are done elaborating and ready to move on to a new idea, start a new paragraph.
There are no firm rules for how long paragraphs should be, but here's a tip: if you find yourself taking up almost an entire double-spaced page of text with one paragraph, something is probably wrong. You need to break up your paragraph into more manageable chunks and make sure you're grouping your ideas under clear topic sentences.
You should be able to use parts of your existing paragraphs that you wrote for Week 2 and Week 3 in the paper, though it is likely that you will have to edit, revise, and add transitions to them in order to make them fit.
Conclusion
This paragraph briefly sums up your argument. It's often rather short in a paper like this.
Grading Rubric
Essays will be graded based on all of the following criteria:
Ability to Follow Directions
Does your paper follow the basic length and formatting requirements for the assignment?
Do you conform to based genre conventions of an analytical essay?
Do you address all parts of your chosen prompt? That is, do you answer the question posed to you fully?
Quality of Thesis
Does your paper have a thesis statement?
Does that thesis accurately capture the perspectives of the historical figures about whom you are writing? That is, is it a historically sound interpretation?
Quality of Writing
Are your sentences grammatically correct and easily understandable?
Is your paper relatively free of typos and spelling errors?
Does the organization of your paper make sense? Does it flow logically?
Evidentiary support
Is your thesis supported throughout the paper?
Does you paper make appropriate use of historical evidence to support its claims?
Are your sources cited correctly using Chicago-style footnotes?
Historians do not make claims about the past or about their sources without offering evidence for their positions. When you make claims in your paper, you should support them with specific references to lectures or passages from our course texts. You can do this either by including direct quotes from the text or by paraphrasing.
For example, say you were writing about Columbus’s rationale for colonizing the Indies.
Example claim: Columbus, hoping to generate interest in the New World among Spaniards, proposed that colonization would present opportunities to spread Catholicism among indigenous peoples.
Appropriate support through quotation: In a journal that he intended to be read by the monarch, Columbus wrote of the Taíno people, “I believe that they would easily be made Christians, as it appeared to me that they had no religion.”
Appropriate support through paraphrase: In a journal intended to be read by the monarch, Columbus noted that indigenous peoples appeared to have no religion of their own and that he believed on this basis that they would be receptive to Christianity.
Note that you should never let a quote or paraphrase speak for itself. You must interpret it. Additionally, in a paper as short as this one, you should also be careful not to quote excessively. Reserve direct quotations for instances in which the specific wording of a statement is important or in which the statement is articulated so perfectly that you could not improve on it. Otherwise, paraphrase.
All quotes and paraphrases should be cited using Chicago-style footnotes. See the Guide to Citing Your Sources for instructions.
DO NOT USE OUTSIDE SOURCES IN THIS ASSIGNMENT. Use only assigned readings, American Yawp suggested readings, or lecture materials.
If you find yourself struggling with the mechanics of writing, the University of Arizona has a free resource for students called the Writing Center. You can make an appointment with a writing tutor to receive feedback on your paper and help with your writing. The Writing Center tutors will not be able to provide feedback on the historical content of your paper, but they can help you with organization and writing style.
Find out more here: https://thinktank.arizona.edu/writing-center