EUH 2001
Reaction Paper Assignment
Essay Assignment:
The object of this assignment is to get you to think actively and creatively about the text you have read. After reading the assigned text, reflect on which subjects or themes interested you the most in your reading. Pick one of these topics and write a 500-750 word essay that argues a new, inventive significance of the focus you have chosen to examine. It may help to ask yourself several questions:
Essays should be argumentative and must include a direct thesis statement. DO NOT just write a summary, book report, or merely recapitulate the arguments of the text.
What is a thesis statement?
A thesis statement is a succinct synopsis of the core argument of your paper. A strong thesis will draw a specific, creative conclusion resulting from reflection on the assigned text. Originality, specificity, and insight is the key here. A thesis is neither an essay topic description nor summary of the arguments of the assigned text. It is instead an active statement demonstrating a causal relationship or evincing some deeper significance of the topic at hand. It is then the task of the body of your paper to support your thesis statement. A thesis statement therefore should usually appear in the first paragraph of your essay (especially for short assignments) and inform the organization of your argument.
Paper Requirements:
Students must use the assigned text in construction of their responses. Students must demonstrate a familiarity with the assigned text and use evidence from the text in support of their central thesis. Outside sources will not be needed for this assignment. If outside sources are used, students should cite all sources and be careful not let the information and ideas of outside sources overshadow their own arguments or their use of the assigned text. Students are strongly discouraged from using websites in the construction of their papers as information from websites is often unreliable. All essays must have an introduction, body, and conclusion, and use standard paragraph format. Students will be graded on the originality of their thesis as well as on their use of evidence, their writing style, and their overall presentation (i.e. organization, grammar and spelling). Language is expected to be formal, academic, and detached; students should not write in the first/second person nor make ad hominem remarks. Students must adhere to the following format guidelines:
Failure to follow to any of these requirements will result in a deduction from the assigned grade. The instructor reserves the right to submit any paper to http://www.turnitin.com to check for plagiarism. Any case of plagiarism discovered will result in immediate failure of the paper assignment and potential failure of the class.
Things not to do:
1. "Since the dawn of time..."
Any time you make a large sweeping claim like this (such as "always" and "never"), you are setting yourself up for failure. There are very few things in history that have remained static and constant, and you have very little page space to prove otherwise.
2. "I feel
that the king should have been nicer to the peasants."
No one cares how you feel; they care about what you can prove. Opinions about the past, though great fodder for class discussion, should not enter into your formal writing. Make sure you are being analytical about history, not judgmental.
3. "Death. Destruction. An alleyway filled with corpses. This was Cholera, 1832."
While allowable in some disciplines (and for tenured professors), sentence fragments like these are discouraged in formal historical writing. It makes your paper sound like a movie trailer.
4. "So that's how it was way back then. Can you believe it!? That's something that just wouldn't fly today, no-sir-ee."
Please avoid conversational tone (this includes contractions and colloquialisms/slang). Your argument might be brilliant, your grammar technically correct, but informal language will not play well to a formal audience (i.e. me). Fine for class, not for papers. No-sir-ee.
5. "Columbus gets on his boat and sails to America. He looks about and notices that this really does not look too much like the India he has heard so much about. He shrugs and gets down to the business of trading and slavery."
History, for the most part, takes place in the past. Keep it there. Unless you are very skilled (assume you are not) at determining those exceptional cases when present tense is appropriate, be sure to use the past tense throughout your paper.
6. "According to the principles of Social Darwinism, Cholera can only be seen as a boon to our nation because it got rid of all the lazy Irish"
Er...no. Social Darwinism has fallen out of favour with western historians since roughly WWII, 'round about when Hitler gave eugenics such a bad name. It resides on a "natural fallacy" that what occurs in nature is both proper and most beneficial to mankind. While I am generally supportive and encouraging of papers which use novel approaches -- even if I disagree with them -- I will have to nix this one if I see it, if only for the fact that it is my job to teach the standards of the profession. Plus, I am half Irish.
7. "Yankee-doodle stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni. Obviously, he was silently showcasing his homosexuality."
Nothing is as obvious as you think it is. Walk me through your thought process step by step. Like in math class, the right answer is only half the battle. Show your work.
8. "And now as I wrap up this twenty-seven page paper, I know I can be assured of an A+ because I went shockingly over the word count and used 8-point font all the way through (despite my argument being little more than book report)."
No. You can't. The word count is there for a reason. If you find yourself drifting onto four or five pages, perhaps you need to focus your thesis more tightly.
9. "According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary, a trite opening is defined as..."
Seriously people. You're in college.
10. " 'This is a quote from the text that I have not set up and will not explain,' writes historian Ayne Terceira. Things having to do with history are often written about by historians. Another quote by a historian is...."
Some notes on quoting the text:
Never start a paragraph with a quotation. Never place quotations back to back . It is usually bad form to end a paragraph with a quotation unless you have explained the cited text in your own words first. Never use quoted material unless you are USING the quoted material; that means setting up the context and explaining it in your own words. Use only the part of the text that supports your argument; long excerpts for the sake of filling up the word count will cost you points. If, however, the material you cite is longer than four lines long, please use a block quote.
11. "Why use rhetorical questions when one can state an argument plainly and to greater effect?"
Why, indeed.
12. "A personage of the masculine persuasion whose nomenclature identified him as Dick utilized his podiatric implements to motivate a spheroid object (known colloquially to be used for recreational activities) towards an entity of feminine qualities here christened simply Jane."
Foe, thy name is MSWord Thesaurus! There is a common misapprehension among students (and some academics) that good, scholarly writing equals convoluted writing. A good rule of thumb is: if you can say it in 3 words, don't say it in 30. Sometimes Dick really does just kick the ball to Jane. Another good rule of thumb is: if you have never used a word before, now is not the time to test it out. Some words have nuances of meaning and usage that cannot be explained just in their definition. The best way to expand your vocabulary is not to make SAT word lists, but to read widely so that words can be used appropriately. Just because the animated talking paperclip in your word processor says it's a synonym does not mean it is.