ULE OF THREE THESIS - Do you have a well thought out and clear overall thesis in your introduction? Do you have a thesis statement for your paragraph?...

RULE OF THREE THESIS  - Do you have a well thought out and clear overall thesis in your introduction? Do you have a thesis statement for your paragraph? Does the paragraph organization follow the thesis statement?

EVIDENCE - You must have solid evidence for each point you raise in the thesis. Evidence is not simply a statement, there must be an explanation of how that evidence supports the thesis statement. 

Example: If you were writing a paragraph on the causes of the Cold War, you might use the Baruch Plan as an example. Simply writing "the Baruch Plan was a cause of the Cold War" in your paragraph would not be enough and would not be analytical. However, the following sentences do provide a good analysis of this piece of evidence:

"One cause of the Cold War was the failure of the United States and the Soviet Union to agree upon a plan for nuclear disarmament after World War II. The Baruch Plan, presented by the US, would maintain the American atomic weapon advantage for the foreseeable future. This played into Stalin's suspicions of the Americans' true motivations toward the USSR."

Did you use the minimum number of primary sources? secondary sources?

HISTORICAL ACCURACY, CLARITY, AND LOGIC 

Is your argument clear and does it make sense? Is it historically accurate? Does your evidence prove your point? Does your analysis answer the prompt? Have you considered change over time and geographic differences in your essay? 

PROPER CITATION 

Have you properly cited? Have you used Turabian/Chicago? You must also FOOTNOTE. Parenthetical cites are NOT allowed

 How did conflict along frontiers lead to instability in the English colonies?