This assignment asks you to write a 4-5 page, double-spaced essay that showcases your ability to do all of the following:
Make a historical argument
Support that argument with quotes from our primary source texts and examples from lecture
Write in ways that conform to the genre conventions of a college essay.
Because this is our first paper, we're not going to start entirely from scratch. Instead, I'm going to present you with a proposed essay outline that ChatGPT provided when I fed our essay prompts through it. You are then going to use that outline as a starting point for crafting a paper by revising it, reorganizing it as needed, and adding supporting quotes.
Here are the steps to completing this assignment:
Choose one prompt from the two listed below--NOT BOTH--and download the document with ChatGPT's essay outline for that prompt (also linked below).
Read over the comments and suggestions for improvement that I wrote on the ChatGPT outline.
Expand the outline into a circa 4-5 page essay using my feedback to ChatGPT as a guide. You can also change, reorganize, or delete things from the outline as you see fit if you disagree with anything ChatGPT had to say or if you simply want to talk about a point it didn't raise. You may use language from ChatGPT's outline in your essay, and you do not need to cite it in this case because I understand the use of such language to be part of this assignment.
Papers should be double-spaced with 1” margins and written in size 12 font. They should include a title that indicates which prompt you are answering and page numbers in the bottom right hand corner. All quotes should be cited and should come from our course readings (and specifically from the excerpts of those readings that were assigned to you, not other parts of the longer texts). Papers should be submitted to D2L.
Using materials from course readings (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?
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.
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 with quotes from our course texts? Each paragraph of your essay should feature at least one quote that is from our course readings and, where appropriate, specific references to lecture material. Do not use outside sources or readings.
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.
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. Papers that do not use our materials will not receive passing grades.
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
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
To help you practice structuring an essay and supporting analytical points with evidence from the text
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.