Writing a document analysis

History 2360

History of Europe, 1870-Present

For this assignment you are asked to write a 1500 word essay (with double spacing and normal margins this is six full pages) using at least three (3) or more of the documents found in one of the chapters of David Welch’s Modern European History, 1871-2000 (attached along with file). You will use the documents from your chosen chapter, along with at least three (3) secondary sources (Peer reviewed), to make an argument about what these documents can reveal about era and place in which they were created. Your paper must have a thesis statement explaining what these documents can tell the reader about your when and where they were created, and you will defend this thesis statement in your paper. The essay should analyze and establish the historical context in which the documents were produced (“Who created this? When? Where? Under what circumstances? Why? What does it ‘say’? What was its purpose?”) and should provide some background as to their historical significance. The expectation is that you will examine, identify, interpret and provide the historical contexts for understanding some of the documents that you select.

To find three secondary sources to help contextualize your reading of the primary source documents you should use the library catalogue and E-Libraries Databases. You might also mine the footnotes at the back of the book or the read the “Further Reading” section at the back of the book.

After analyzing the documents in your chosen chapter or sub-section, and doing a bit of background reading in the secondary sources to help you contextualize these documents, you will need to come up with a thesis statement that tells the reader your argument about the insight that these documents provide (or don’t provide) into the time and place where they were produced. You will be graded on your ability to make a clear and well organized argument, and upon your ability to support your argument with a thoughtful and careful reading of the primary documents. You may paraphrase and footnote the documents, or use short quotations from them and footnote them, but make an effort to avoid large block quotes from the documents. Style, grammar, and spelling will also be a part of your grade, so please budget your time so that you have time to spell check and thoroughly proof-read your paper. Ideally, you should do at least one re-write before handing your paper in. As always, I am happy to read rough drafts of your work before the due date.

Be sure to read pp. xv-xvii in your Welch book for ideas on how to analyze documents.

Suggestions for Thinking about Primary Sources:

The work of historians is done principally through the interpretation of primary sources. A primary source may be a government document, a letter or a diary, a photograph, a film, a pamphlet, a newspaper or magazine article, a doctor or social worker’s report, a novel or autobiography, or even a scholarly article as long as it is from the period under investigation. Although most historians focus on written material, primary sources can also include visual or oral artifacts, such as advertisements, photographs, paintings, films, music and folktales.

Because we all bring different assumptions and analytic skills to our data, it is quite possible (and very common) for historians to draw opposing conclusions from the same source. There is no single “right” interpretation of any document. However, there may be many wrong ones. A convincing analysis of a primary source must be grounded in (1) an understanding of the document itself, and (2) knowledge about the era it represents.

You should begin your analysis of the primary source by coming to grips with the document itself. Try to suspend your beliefs and let the material “speak” to you. Keep an open mind. Later, you will have to develop an argument or interpretation of the source. Here are some questions that may be helpful to you as you begin your analysis. Not all of these questions will be relevant to your assessment of the document, but some of them might help you to begin to think critically about the primary sources:

A. What kind of source is it (a novel or autobiography, a court document, a letter, etc.)? Does it provide information about experience, ideology, and/or behavior? Is it prescriptive literature (such as a sermon or a medical tract) that describes how people should behave? Or is it evidence about lived experience (an oral interview, an autobiography, or testimony)? Does it tell us about the beliefs or experiences of ordinary people or about those who are elite or well known? The answers to some of these questions will give you indications of what the document can tell you, and what it cannot.

B. When was this document made or published? How much time passed between the events the author described and the time the author composed the document? Do you trust the author’s memory? Historians sometimes use the “time and space” rule when considering primary sources. This rule says the closer in time and place a source and its creator were to an event in the past, the better the source will be. Based on the time and place rule, better primary sources (starting with the most reliable) might include direct traces of the event; (1) Accounts of the event, created at the time it occurred, by firsthand observers and participants; (2) Accounts of the event, created after the event occurred, by firsthand observers and participants; (3)Accounts of the event, created after the event occurred, by people who did not participate or witness the event, but who used interviews or evidence from the time of the event.

C. What do you know about the author of this primary document? What was the purpose of the person in writing this document? Under what circumstances was the document composed and how might this be relevant to the document’s creation (example, a court document will be shaped by the structure of court proceedings and the motivations of the litigants)? Was it created through a spur-of-the-moment act, a routine transaction, or a thoughtful, deliberate process? What was the gender, race, class, religion, and political orientation of the author? In what ways might this relevant to the document’s contents? What might have motivated the author to include certain stories, and exclude others? These questions will also contribute to your understanding of what the document can tell you, and what it cannot.

D. Who was the author’s intended audience for this document? Was the source intended for public consumption? Is the author trying to get a specific message across, and how might this have affected the construction of the document? Did the recorder wish to inform or persuade others? (Check the words in the source. The words may tell you whether the recorder was trying to be objective or persuasive.) Did the recorder have reasons to be honest or dishonest? How might this affect the way in which the material was presented? Was the recorder a neutral party, or did the creator have opinions or interests that might have influenced what was recorded?

E. What can a close reading of the “text” tell you? Who are the important characters in the document? How does the author use language in conveying meaning? What are the important metaphors used by the author? Pay attention to the author’s choice in words and the author’s biases? Also consider the silences: what is not in the document can sometimes be as revealing as what is there.

F. The questions from Sections C, D and E are intended to get you to think about what historians sometimes refer to as the bias rule. It says that every source is biased in some way. Documents tell us only what the creator of the document thought happened, or perhaps only what the creator wants us to think happened. As a result, historians follow these bias rule guidelines when they review evidence from the past: Every piece of evidence and every source must be read or viewed skeptically and critically. No piece of evidence should automatically be taken at face value. The creator's point of view must be considered. Each piece of evidence and source must be cross-checked and compared with related primary sources and other pieces of evidence when reaching conclusions.

G. After you’ve understood the source on its own terms, you should evaluate it as historical evidence. Is it a good source? Is it one commonly used by historians? What historical questions can be addressed by using it? What questions cannot be answered? What other sources would supplement this one? How does this source support or challenge the conclusions that you have drawn?

Footnoting Primary Sources:

In this assignment when you quote directly from, or paraphrase, primary sources from the text you will be required to footnote them. To footnote the primary source you only need to copy the citation given in the Welch Reader:

Example:

From pp.4-5 of Modern European History:

The 1878 anti-socialist law prohibited the printing of social democrat, socialist or communist literature.1

At bottom of page:

1. Reichsgesetzblatt, no 34, 21 October 1878. Cited in David Welch, Modern European History, 1871-2000: A Documentary Reader (Heinemann Education, 1999), 4-5.

For a second citation of the same document, you could do as follows:

2. Reichsgesetzblatt, no. 34, 21 October 1878. Cited in Welch, 4-5.

Academic Honesty and Footnoting Secondary Sources:

Copying the writing of others, in whole or in part, from a book, encyclopedia, article, web-site, CD-ROM, etc., and passing it off as your own is plagiarism. Handing in essays from cheat sites on the web, in whole or in part, is plagiarism. Handing in the same essay for credit in two different courses is plagiarism. Failing to cite the sources you used properly is plagiarism. Plagiarism is not giving credit to the other authors who have informed you about the topic you are writing about.

You must footnote all quotations, all paraphrases, all factual information that is not generally known, and any ideas and interpretations that are not your own. Footnoting sources is essential.

Use Chicago Style. This is the style that you will use for this course. Below are some examples of how to use this style correctly.

In the text if you had a quote that you wanted to footnote, you would insert a number at the end of the quote.

Example:

At the battle of Agincourt the French lost over 5,000 men, 90 Barons, 5 counts, and 3 Dukes.2

At the bottom of the page (if you are using footnotes) or at the end of the paper (if you are using endnotes) your citation would look like this:

If this were the first time in your paper that you cite the book:

2. Damian Lillard, The Battle of Agincourt in 1415 (Portland: Church of Elvis Press, 2001), 77.

Note: Either underlining the title or italicizing the title are acceptable, but not both.

If you cited this book two or more times in a row, the second citation would look like this:

3. Ibid., 79.

The second time that you cited a book, if it was non-consecutive, it would look like this:

4. Lillard, 73.

If you used two books by the same author, then for subsequent citations you would need to include an abbreviated title of the book, so that readers could distinguish between the two:

5. Lillard, Agincourt, 88.

6. Lillard, Henry V, 62.

To cite a journal article for the first time the format would be:

7. Brandon Roy, “The French Military Strategy at the Battle of Agincourt,” Journal of Military History 42 (1998): 77.

Note the 42 after the journal title is the volume number of the journal, in the parentheses is the date of publication, and after the colon is the page number that I used.

A second citation would look like this:

8. Roy, 81.

If you come across sources that are difficult to cite (edited collections, collections of primary sources, etc.) please consult Lester, Lester and Mochnaz. The Essential Guide to Writing Research Papers. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada, 2002. Chapter 12.

Writing Advice:

Format

---Your paper should have a title page that includes the title of your paper, the course title

and course number, the date, the professor’s name, and your name and student

number.

---Academic paper should almost always be double spaced.

---The first line of every paragraph should be indented 5 spaces.

---There is no need for additional spaces between paragraphs

---Avoid large and/or distracting fonts or excessive margins.

---Your paper should have page numbers, but not on the first page.

---If your paper uses direct quotes from another source that are longer than 4 lines in your

text, they should be indented five spaces from each margin on each side and

single spaced. These block quotations do not need to be enclosed in quotation

marks, but must be footnoted. Such long quotations should be used sparingly in your writing.

---All rules relating to academic honesty and footnoting should be scrupulously followed.

Spelling and Grammar

---Be sure to look for spelling errors that your spell-checker will not catch, particularly

words that sound the same in spoken English, but have different spellings in

written English (examples: lead/led, there/their, etc.).

---Look for words that are misused.

---Make sure possessive nouns are handled properly (belonging to one worker= worker’s;

belonging to many workers= workers’).

---In your sentences, make sure that verbs agree with their subjects, especially in longer,

more complex sentence structures. Plural verbs need to have plural subjects, and

singular subjects need singular verbs (pay particular attention to the use of

was/were in long sentences—students often lose track of subjects and verbs in complex sentence structures).

---Make sure that all sentences are immediately clear and unambiguous in their meaning.

---Avoid run-on sentences.

---If you use parallel sentence structure, make sure you use it correctly. Example:

Which of the following two sentences is grammatically correct?

“Richelieu wanted three things for France: authority for the king, an end to

religious strife, and he also wanted secure “natural” frontiers.”

“Richelieu wanted three things for France: authority for the king, an end to

religious strife, and secure natural frontiers.”

Style

---You should use quotations from the text to prove your argument, but you should also

try and keep them short and integrate them with your own prose.

---As much as possible, formal academic writing should be done in the third person

(with the possible exception is in the essay map statement or the thesis

statement).

---You should avoid phrases like “I think,” “I believe” or “I find.” They are redundant

and tentative. It is your paper, so of course it is what you think.

---When speaking about the past, be sure to use the past tense.

---Keep your tenses consistent.

---Avoid the passive voice unless there is a clear reason for using it (active voice: Sparta

defeated Athens; Passive voice: Athens was defeated by Sparta.). Historians

dislike the passive voice because it often obscures responsibility for actions, and

at times can be cumbersome to read.

---Avoid contractions in formal academic writing (“do not” rather than “don’t”).

---Avoid colloquial phrases or slang (“Shifting gears….”).

---Avoid clichés (“avoid…like the plague”).

---When first introducing an essay, book or author to the reader, use the full title or

full name. In subsequent usages you can use an abbreviated title or the last name of the author.

---Try to keep pronouns gender neutral unless referring to someone specific (not all

workers are “he”).

---Pronouns should have clear antecedents so as not to confuse the reader.

---The tone of your paper should be formal, consistent, and even-handed.

Organization

The Introduction

---Your introductory paragraph should tell the reader the topic of your paper, and give

some suggestion as to why that topic is important enough for the reader to spend

time with your paper.

---Your introductory paragraph should contain a thesis statement that clearly and

precisely announces to the reader what you intend to argue in the paper. This

thesis statement should be clear and focused--at most one or two sentences long.

A vague or unclear thesis statement will mean a weak or unclear paper. “This

paper will look at the popular beliefs of English women after 1500” is not a thesis

statement. It needs to be an argument that you can defend with evidence.

---Your introductory paragraph should contain an “essay map sentence” that tells the

reader what the main divisions in your paper will be. It will show the reader the

order in which you will present your evidence. Your arguments and evidence

should appear in the same order in the paper as they do in the introductory

paragraph.

---Your essay should stick to the topic and thesis statement presented in your

introduction.

Paragraphs and the Body of the Paper

---Every paragraph in your paper should be a group of sentences that are tightly bound

together by a controlling idea. This controlling idea should be in the topic

sentence of the paragraph. It is important for the organization and clarity of your

paper to have strong topic sentences.

---Every sentence in each of your paragraphs should be connected together to guide the

reader through the topic contained in the paragraph in a clear and logical way. Stray sentences addressing ideas not related to the topic of the paragraph should

not appear in the paragraph---your paragraphs should operate as a coherent whole

---Because every paragraph should focus on the controlling idea in the topic sentence of

the paragraph, you should not have paragraphs that go on for several pages, nor

should you have paragraphs that are only one or two sentences long.

---The last sentence of every paragraph should be a transition sentence that provides the

reader a bridge between the topic of the first paragraph to the topic of the second

paragraph.

---Every paragraph should have a clear connection to your thesis statement and essay

map. Every paragraph should either support your thesis or address a counter-

argument to your thesis. If it does not do one of these things, you need to ask yourself whether it belongs in your paper.

Concluding Paragraph

---Your paper should have a concluding paragraph that directly connects to your

introductory paragraph. You should use your concluding paragraph to show the

reader that you have fulfilled all of the promises contained in your introductory

paragraph. The reader should be able to have a pretty good sense of the paper and

what you are arguing simply by reading the introductory and concluding

paragraphs. The reader should definitely understand your point of view from

reading the first and last paragraph.

---Oftentimes concluding paragraphs will also contain a broader statement pointing out

the larger implications of the argument that you have made.