25 Sep Grading Rubric for Final Essay

Grading Rubric for Final Essay (270 points max) : Although, in an effect, essay might be reflective in nature (interpreting /reimagining

/recreating history), it is not just a personal reflection. You need to provide evidence to support your arguments/assertions/observations and conclusions.

Detailed information about thisclassassignment is listed in the Syllabus. The essay should answer all the prompt questionsthoroughly. The writing must be no

less than 5 pages in length (if you wish to do more-feel free), double- spaced, 12 pt. font, with page numbersincluded, completed in MS Word, and MLA

or Chicago /Turabian citation style with Works Cited Page included. The main textbook has a section on “Working with Primary Sources” and assigned

booklet has all primary source documents –it is called Thinking Through Sources, so it is necessary that your writing pointsto primary source evidence

from the booklet and primary sourceslocated at the end of each chapter in the main textbook, and secondary documents(chapters -class material). Be

sure to support your analysis with specific illustrations drawn from the sources/evidence, information gathered from the textbook, booklet, and if necessary,

from Bb resources as well.

This is not research based writing so you must use course sources but if you do include additional sources beyond the material assigned in this course, you need to provide

proper documentation. Important –Regardless of the prompt you choose (no less than five pages answer to the prompt), after you have written the essay based on one of

those prompts, please end with your brief reflection (no less than one substantive paragraph-if missing, it is 20 points deduction from an essay grade)– how did working on

the essay expand, challenge, or reaffirm your understanding of the topic under the examination, what college level skills you have utilized to complete the essay, why you

think is important to use primary historical sources when learning about histories that might be different from our own? Why is important to practice Cultural Relativism?

What have you learned from this exercise -how what you have done connects to our class?

This assignment provides an exercise in reading/interpreting primary sources, reflecting upon, and analyzing historical text/evidences/data. Draw directly on the

material that you read/watched/or experienced in this class.

The following are serious content and writing errorsthat will lower your grade.

− Content Errors

o Unclear, imprecise, or over-simplified arguments or general points

o Argumentsthat aren’t substantiated with good examples or other analytic details

o Lack of proper bibliographic references

o Incoherent arguments, in which point B does not logically follow from point A

o Inaccurate historical facts, or lack of citation/evidence for a historical interpretation

o Focusing too much on summary at the expense of analysis and/or argumentation

− Writing Errors

o Misspelling or typos(use your spell checker)

o Incomplete sentences or fragments and/or run-on or fused sentences