FIRST PAPER ASSIGNMENT: the Early Middle Ages
Due-Date: Monday October 1, in class
Format: a 3-page, typed, double-spaced, well-written and carefully proofread paper! Citations to texts should be informal: use parenthetical citations with a shortened, but still indicative name of the text and a page number. For instance: (Einhard, p. 123) or (Asser, p. 129) or (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 159), etc.
Assignment: Write a 3-page response to one of the following questions. Make sure to use primary sources as evidence for your argument. Make sure, too, that you state and defend an argument/thesis.
1.
Both Charlemagne and Alfred were given the nickname “the Great”. What were
the criteria for greatness in the 8th and 9th centuries? Compare
and
contrast Alfred and Charlemagne with regard to what their biographers felt
made them great.
2.
How do authors shape the way in which history is written? Approach this
question by examining Asser and Einhard as historians. [Here I want you
to
critically read the text and consider how the authorial interests and pre-suppositions
may or may not have shaped the image of each author’s subject]
3.
Is history made by great individuals, or by impersonal underlying forces?
Address this question by considering whether or not Alfred and Charlemagne
were ‘great men.’ That is, were they responsible for their success
(and if so, how and why), or were they simply the product of underlying
forces?
Whichever way you decide to argue, I want to see you, however briefly,
discuss both sides of the issue.
Reminders:
1. This is a formal paper, and should be written in grammatically complete,
formal prose. That means that you should eschew figures of oral speech,
colloquialisms, and informal comments.
2. Make sure you understand the possessive. “Its” is the possessive
of ‘it’. Hence you would say “The cat is playing with its toy” (‘its’
shows whose toy it is). On the contrary, “it’s” is ONLY a contraction
of the words ‘it is’. For example, “It’s raining today” (which really
means “It is raining today.”).
3. Many students also confuse plurals with possessives. With
ordinary nouns, apostrophes only mark the possessive form, never the plural.
For instance, “The cat killed many rats,” NOT “The cat killed many rat’s.”
And, “The cat’s dish was blue” NOT “The cats dish was blue.”
4. All papers should follow the standard format for essay writing
a. introduction (about a paragraph in length), in which you state
the topic and then state very directly
what it is you are going to prove in the paper. [this
is your argument]
b. the body: a series of paragraphs in which you present evidence
from the sources that supports the
argument you advanced in the first paragraph. Don’t forget to
actively explain your examples; don’t just assume that they speak for themselves.
c. the conclusion: a single paragraph in which you remind the
reader of your argument and then explain
how your evidence (from the body) has proved it.
5. Learn how to employ evidence. Evidence, in history classes, comes
from primary sources. This means you need
to find examples from the text that support whatever proposition you
are trying to make. Some students think that this means they have to provide
lengthy quotations from the primary source. This is not the case. If your
reader wanted to read all of Einhard, he/she could do so. He/she wants
to read your analysis of Einhard. So you should briefly mention the relevant
example, perhaps using a short phrase from the text (in quotation marks
if they are the direct words of the text), and then proceed to explain
in your own words what that example means.
6. Doing history really means learning how to interpret and analyze.
Your essays should therefore be interpretive and analytical, not
narratives or summaries. Again the easiest way to remind yourself
to do this is to make sure you explain the meaning of every example you
produce (and your explanation should help prove your argument).