Essay Questions (50 points each): Answer two of the questions below in essay form (i.e. two separate essays) by drawing on information from lectures, your textbook, class discussions, as well as docum

Essay Questions (50 points each): Answer two of the questions below in essay form (i.e. two separate essays) by drawing on information from lectures, your textbook, class discussions, as well as docum
HIS 201 Take Home Exam Tips: As you’re working on these, I’m more than happy to answer questions about them, but I can’t look over drafts and comment on them for an out of class essay exam (just like if you were in class and asked me to proof your essay during an exam). So feel free to ask questions to help you understand the material, or questions about what might be good to talk about in your essay, but I just can’t proof your actual answers. What I’m testing you on is how well you are mastering the materials in this class. With that in mind, it is not generally helpful to bring in examples or materials from outside of this class. For instance, going to Wikipedia or other websites for your answers will not result in you doing well on the essay (see the note on plagiarism at the end too!). Use your book, your lectures, your primary source readings, and the class discussions. You can absolutely disagree with any interpretations or arguments I present in lectures, discussions, etc. (or that your textbook presents), but you need to show that you understand what those arguments are and the examples and materials that were given in class in order to refute them. There is no set length for these. You need to be as thorough as possible, be sure to answer all parts of the question, and back up your points with examples drawn from all available course materials. In general, you’re probably looking at writing at least a couple of double-spaced typed pages per essay to do a decent job answering them. You have no other readings or posting requirements for this week, so make sure to take your time and use it wisely. When you use examples in your essay, make sure to explain your examples as well. So for instance, if you’re writing about the laws that colonists rebelled against, don’t just list the laws that upset them, explain what those laws did and why those particular laws upset them. As you prepare to write these essays, go back through all the documents we read, skim back through the lectures and discussion boards, and through your textbook and jot down notes on which sections could be useful. Don’t just go to the obvious places (i.e. the question on the American Revolution will likely draw heavily from the lecture on the Revolution, but some of the material from the previous weeks will probably also be helpful. Or to give another example, if a question asks about Native Americans or asks about slavery, don’t forget about Spanish America as well—that’s part of this history too!). When I grade these, I’m going to grade them based on how well you answer the questions (do you answer all parts of the question? Do you provide specific examples for all of your arguments? Do you adequately explain your examples and reasoning?). What I’ll be much less concerned with is issues of grammar, style, etc. That will be more important on an actual paper, but for the exam I’m treating these more like I would an in-class essay. As long grammar or spelling, etc. does not affect my ability to understand what you’re trying to say it won’t count against you. You don’t have to use direct quotes and you do not have to provide citations, however, it can be helpful to say where you’re getting your examples from, “Like we read about in the Las Casas document…” Part of what I’ll be grading on is whether or not you’re using all available materials, so while I generally can tell where you’re getting examples from, it can be helpful to point that out too (i.e. this is where I want you to show me you’re reading all those documents and textbook chapters ). However, if you are drawing on any outside materials, then you do need to say where you are getting that information from. Also, if you do use any direct quotes, you must put them in quotation marks. With that said, plagiarism on either essay will result in a zero for the entire exam and may result in even further disciplinary actions. Your essays need to be your own words and your own arguments. If you cut and paste someone else’s writing into your essay then that’s obviously plagiarism, but if you take another person’s essay and just change the words around without crediting them (but are using their ideas, their examples, etc.) that is still plagiarism! All the materials you need and that I expect you to use are provided to you in this class. If you ever have a question about whether or not something is plagiarism (or anything else) feel free to ask me.