Paper #2

This assignment walks you through the steps of writing an analytical essay consisting of approximately 1,500 words (may not exceed 2,000) that addresses the essay topic and central question outlined below. 

For this assignment, you will need to turn in not only the essay itself, but also a worksheet that shows your brainstorming process. Your essay should be double-spaced with 1” margins and written in size 12 Times New Roman font. It should include a title, page numbers in the bottom right-hand corner of each page, and correct citations. Brainstorming sheets and papers should be submitted to D2L.

The documents you will be using to write this essay are your readings for Week 12: Frederick Douglass’s Fourth of July Oration and the Declaration of Sentiments from the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. Start by reading over each piece. Then, fill out this worksheet. You must turn in the worksheet to receive a grade on the essay.

Write an essay that includes

• An introduction that briefly introduces the documents you will be discussing and includes a thesis statement. This thesis statement should take the form of a sentence that gives your answer to the question above. Ultimately, that is what thesis statements are: the answers to a research question. Please do not restate the question in your introduction.

• Body paragraphs that support the answer (thesis) using evidence from Frederick Douglass’s Fourth of July oration and the Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments

• A conclusion that sums up your central argument and elaborates on why the activists you read may have chosen to reference the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or the framers in the ways that they did.

What is the purpose of this assignment?

• ·To explore historical perspectives through the lens of humanistic methodologies.

• To develop an understanding of how members of marginalized groups—in this case, Black Americans and women of all races—experienced and resisted discrimination

• To strengthen your writing skills

What is the context of this assignment? Why are we doing it?

• We want to verify that you understand and are able to articulate how activists in the nineteenth century used, challenged, or modified the language of the founding documents (i.e. the Declaration of the Independence and the Constitution) and the principles these documents espoused to further their causes and to persuade other Americans to support abolition or the expansion of women’s rights.

What is the audience for this paper?

• Your professor, TAs, and a general readership within the historical discipline

What genre conventions to 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” on D2L. You can find this by clicking “Content” and then scrolling down. It is on the left-side navigation bar just under Week 16. It is also linked under the assignment on D2L.

All quotes and paraphrases should be cited using Chicago-style footnotes. See the instructions or the video contained in the Guide to Citing Your Sources to refresh your memory on how to insert a footnote. 

Sources used in this assignment should be cited in footnotes as follows:

First Citation of Douglass:

Frederick Douglass, Oration, Delivered in Corinthian Hall, July 5, 1852 (Rochester: Lee, Mann & Co., 1852).

All subsequent Citations of Douglass:

Douglass, Oration, Delivered in Corinthian Hall, July 5, 1852.

First Citation of the Declaration of Sentiments:

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, et al, Report of the Woman's Rights Convention, held at Seneca Falls, New York, July 19th and 20th, 1848. Proceedings and Declaration of Sentiments (Rochester, New York: John Dick and the North Star Office, 1848).

All subsequent Citations of the Declaration of Sentiments:

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, et al, Report of the Woman's Rights Convention, held a Seneca Falls, New York.

You do not need to cite lecture materials. Do not use outside sources on this assignment. Use only assigned readings and  lecture materials.

Essays will be graded based on 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 the prompt? That is, do you answer the question posed to you fully?

Quality of Thesis

• Does your paper have a thesis statement that answers the question posed to you and makes an argument?

• 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?

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.

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.

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