SEMESTER PAPER
SPECIFICATIONS
Length: 5-7 pages typed (I will not accept handwritten for this
assignment without a special written petition, 1 page long, explaining the
hardship you would face in typing the assignment.)
Font: 10-12 points, readable font, black
Margins: 1” top and bottom, 1 – 1.25” left and right
Spacing: Double-spaced, except for block quotes
All
quotation and attribution specs from your Response Papers apply to this
assignment.
Footnotes/ Properly formatted in Chicago
Bibliography:
Sources: Minimum of three, one of which must be a print book
(except for #3)
OPTION #1
Choose any
influential person in modern world history (not
from the United States). Describe
that person’s contribution to the present state of the world or any changes in
the world this person caused or advanced.
This assignment is not a
biographical sketch. You may include
biographical information, such as birth and death dates, but they should not
bookend the paper and you should not rehash the person’s biography. The bulk of this paper should be your
interpretation of this person’s actions and his/her contribution to the
world. You may even speculate about what
direction(s) that person’s country or the world might have gone in if that
person had never existed or had behaved differently. I also invite you to consider what other people around the main person you
select may have helped her/him achieve what s/he was able to achieve. Could this person have been so influential
without the support of those around him/her?
OPTION #2
This
assignment will require you to choose a broad topic in modern history (e.g.
role of women, government structure, religion, literature, military tendencies)
and examine it comparatively. The most direct way to do comparative work is
either to examine the topic in two places at the same time or the same place in
two different time periods but there are other ways to do comparative work
well. It would be best for you to work out
your topic and run it by me. This is the most difficult of the options, and as such, will be graded with a lot of understanding and respect for effort.
OPTION
#3
Complete an
alphabet booklet in which you list and explain a person, place, thing, or
concept we have discussed in the second semester for each of the letters of the
alphabet (you may skip any two letters—I recommend X be one of them). The booklet will be graded fairly strictly on creativity, art,
pictures, color, and content accuracy and relevance.
To create the booklet, hamburger-fold seven pieces of 8.5 x 11 inch paper. The outside front will be the cover and the first two inside pages will be your table of contents. That leaves pages for 24 items to include in the booklet.
NOTE: If you use a person for any of the letters, that person can only be used for the initial letter of their last name (or family name). For instance, Deng Xiaoping could only be used for 'D' and Josef Stalin could only be used for 'S.'
To create the booklet, hamburger-fold seven pieces of 8.5 x 11 inch paper. The outside front will be the cover and the first two inside pages will be your table of contents. That leaves pages for 24 items to include in the booklet.
NOTE: If you use a person for any of the letters, that person can only be used for the initial letter of their last name (or family name). For instance, Deng Xiaoping could only be used for 'D' and Josef Stalin could only be used for 'S.'
