IMPORTANT NOTE:
Make sure you are reading the assignment sheet for the right class.
History 221-01 meets TR at 9:30; History 221-02 (writing intensive) meets
TR at 2:00.
FINAL ESSAY (Synthesis) for HISTORY 221-01 (TR 9:30-10:45)
Due-Dates:
Tuesday, May 7th: essay due by noon in my
office or mailbox
Format: 6-8 full pages, typed, double-spaced, with standard 1-inch
margins. When you cite sources, please use endnotes or footnotes (consult
the
assignment sheet for the 2nd essay for proper style)
Assignment: choose one (1) of the following questions and write
a 6-8 page essay in response to it. Be sure to use as many specific examples
from
primary sources as possible.
1. A certain professor has maintained that “dependence was a universal
fact of life during the middle ages.” Do you agree? In your answer
please consider the following: kingship, religious belief or practice,
lordship and the role(s) of women.
2. How were the developments in kingship between 1050-1200 connected to
the rise of the papacy over the same period? Please consider both
the
goals and methods of royal and papal reformers, as well as the influences
each may have had on the other.
3. Power comes in many shapes and varieties. Choose three of the following
four categories of medieval persons and compare and contrast
the types of power exercised by each category: kings, popes, aristocratic
women, religious women. Be sure to consider the sources of each
category’s power as well as the means by which that category of person
exercised their power. Also be sure to use concrete (specific) examples
to illustrate your points.
Notes:
1. Remember to argue something. Make sure that your essay possesses
a strong opening paragraph that states a specific argument, a series of
closely-linked paragraphs demonstrating the validity of that thesis, and
a final conclusion.
2. You must use specific examples from the sources we have read.
3. Compare and contrast questions (see number 3 above) require active
comparisons and contrasts. An essay that talks about kings, then about
popes and then about queens without making active interconnections and
comparisons between them is not going to receive a very good grade.