How did the Civil War Affect the Environment?
This is when all your hard work from stages 1-3 will pay off! In this stage you will weave together a narrative for other readers that explains what you’ve found in your research. You have a fair amount of creative freedom in terms of how you write and structure your paper, as long as you make sure that you have a clear thesis and that you support that thesis with convincing evidence. Think about all the different writing styles we’ve explored in your Course Reader this semester, and use these authors’ work as models for writing your own paper. Below are reminders on how to structure a good paper.
I. Introduction:
“hook” your reader
give a brief overview of the theme and question, explaining why it matters
clearly state your thesis
II. Body:
logically organize the key evidence that supports your thesis (explain to your reader how you arrived at your answer/argument)
*Tips on presenting evidence:
Explain if a better understanding of the time period (zooming in/out, more context) helped you arrive at your argument.
Explain if a comparison to other events/times/places helped you arrive at your argument.
Explain if you arrived at your argument by testing generalizations and assumptions made by other historians—did you re-categorize, ask “why” when no one else did, etc….
If you are making a new claim, explain how the work of other historians was lacking; if you are using another historian’s claim, explain why their particular claim is more convincing to you than the arguments presented by other scholars.
III. Conclusion:
Restate your thesis, but using stronger more complex description that can only be understood by the reader now that they have all of the evidence.
Stage 4: Requirements for Final Draft
5 sources total (these must be scholarly, peer-reviewed sources. If in doubt, check with me. You may use additional sources beyond these 5 if it useful for your paper. Your textbook and Course Reader articles do not count towards the required 5 sources.)
6-8 pages (this does not include the title page or bibliography); the formatting needs to be Times New Roman 12 pt. font, double spaced; standard 1 inch margins
Please do not use block quotations—this is a short paper, and you should not be quoting anything that extensively. Paraphrase more than you quote.
Academic Citations: use whatever academic format you are comfortable with. MLA, APA and Chicago (also known as Turabian) are the most familiar and straightforward. Of course include a proper bibliography. You need to pay careful and considerable homage to the source of your knowledge; even when it’s just an “idea” and not specific words that you are borrowing from another scholar, give credit where it is due.
Plagiarism of any part of this project will result in a zero for the entire assignment.
IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT YOU USE SCHOLARLY WEBSITES!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU!!! I REALLY APPRECIATE YOU!!!
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