Grading Criteria and Expectations
This assignment will be assessed using four categories, each weighed equally, as follows:
1.
Introduction and Conclusion
a. The introduction provides historical context as appropriate, introduces the source (including author, title, date, and genre), and offers an argument. The conclusion reflects on the overall significance of the source both at the time the document was written, and to modern historians.
2.
Critical Description
a. The key themes, ideas, topics, arguments, and intended audience of the work are identified in a manner that goes beyond mere description. Quotations are used wisely to show comprehension and to reinforce evidence.
3.
Critical Analysis
a. The analysis engages with the source in a critical manner. As appropriate to the source and the argument, this may include purpose, reliability, bias, strengths, weaknesses, originality, and evidence.
4.
Style and Format
a. Paragraphing, sentence, structure, prose style, and punctuation are clear, concise, and precise. Length and format are consistent with the assignment, the sample, and Additional sources, if used, are listed in the bibliography.
Þ The analysis should be between 1000 to 1200 words or 3 to 4 double spaced pages.
Þ It should present arguments and criticism as well as reflect on the value of the source, both at the time it was written and to modern historians.
Þ The source should be between 25 and 50 pages in length, written by a single individual, between 1300 and 1980.
Þ If you are using a source edited by a historian, please remember that your task is to analyze the primary source, not the edition in which it is found (that is, do not interrogate introductory material or scholarly apparatus.)
Þ Examples of sources include, but are not limited to autobiographies, diaries, legal cases, legislative acts, letters, novels, pamphlets, public records, and treatises.
Þ It is acceptable to use English translations of foreign sources or modern editions of earlier sources.
Þ It is also acceptable to undertake additional research in order to contextualize your source and enable criticism, in which case such works must be listed in a properly formatted bibliography.