US History Essay (Only Pick 1 Topic)

1. Addresses the stated writing prompt(s) associated with the specific essay assignment and selected documents.
2. Exceeds the stated MINIMUM length requirement for the associated writing prompt(s). 
 
The Writing Assignments for this course should be written and submitted with the following formatting rules:
1. The essays should be Double-Spaced and written in Times New Roman font with a point size of 12.
2. The top, bottom, left, and right margins should all be the standard 1″ in size.
3. The single-spaced header on the first page should include your Name and Document # from which your analysis is drawn. There is no need for a header on any subsequent page. There is also no need for a Title. Please be aware that if you should decide to include in your submission a Title that this will NOT be counted towards your minimum length requirement.
4. You will be penalized for any submission that does not meet the stated minimum length requirement.
5. Because of the short length of these assignments, please avoid directly quoting the document unless it is absolutely essential to your argument. Instead, briefly paraphrase the passage(s) and focus instead upon providing your analysis and supporting your argumentation.
6. There is no need to provide a citation for the single document you are analyzing. However, if you have used outside sources beyond the document provided, please include citations using the MLA Format. This will include in-text citations and a Works Cited Page. The Works Cited Page should be on a separate page at the conclusion of your essay and will not count towards the minimum length requirement.
 
If you need any help with the above formatting guidelines or citing your sources, please do not hesitate to email me. A very good online resource for any college-level writing assignment is the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL).The following URL will lead you directly to their pages related to MLA citations: Click Here
 

To begin, the essay is an analysis and not a summation. I do not need to be told what it says. I need to be told what it means. (In the business world, your boss may ask you what you think of something, and if you can only summarize what your boss handed you, your boss is not going to be happy. Analysis is an essential skill to master.)
Each document is trying to say something about an issue. That is what I want. If a document makes two or three points about an issue, I expect to see all of them, not just one or two. (In the business world, bosses expect you to be thorough. If you only provided a partial response, your boss may be unhappy with your performance.)
I do not expect to see any opinion. This is an analysis paper. (In the business world, you are often given parameters by which you must operate. If you exceed those parameters, your boss may frown upon your work.)
I expect little to no grammatical mistakes. (In the business world, a poorly written paper/email/report reflects upon you.)
I do not want any outside research. I want to know what you see in the document. You may use the knowledge that you have gained from the course to add background, if necessary. (Again, in the business world, you are often given parameters by which you must operate. If you exceed those parameters, your boss may frown upon your work.)
If, for some reason, you go beyond what is in the document, I expect the information to be factually correct and relevant to the discussion. I also expect to see the proper citations.

Finally, there should be no excuses for attempting to use the ideas and/or words of any of your sources and attempting to pass them off as your own. Plagiarism will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Simply citing your source(s) does not give you permission to copy them word-for-word unless they are being directly quoted and placed in quotation marks. Even attempting to adjust the sentence structure or altering a couple of words in a source will not absolve you of charges of plagiarism. The skill of paraphrasing (or putting a source’s words or ideas into your own words) is not a simple one to acquire. The Purdue OWL provides some helpful hints and exercises to work on this: Click Here