Essay Guidelines

HST501 American Civil War
ESSAY INFORMATION AND SUGGESTED THEMES

Suggested Essay Themes & Assignment Instructions

Here are a few ideas and themes describing some possible topics for an essay.

1. A biography of a lesser known Union or Confederate military figure, politician, business figure, writer, journalist, or civilian, male or female, Black or White, American-Indian, who might have made a contribution to the history of the American Civil War.

2. An exploration of a particular theme, policy, crucial moment or aspect in the biography of a more prominent figure. For example, Lincoln’s presidential nomination; Robert E. Lee’s decision to join the Confederacy; the assassination attempt on William Seward, the relationship between Generals Sherman and Grant, Grant's drinking, Nathan Bedford Forrest's atrocities, etc. Do not attempt to write a complete biography of a major figure—pick a decisive moment in their life or a particular theme. Remember—you only have 10 pages!

3. A particular battle or campaign, significant to the outcome of the war or to military tactics or technologies. Explore the historical debates about a battle and the elements attributed to its outcome.

4. An exploration of a military technology and/or the individual designer behind it, a development in military management—logistics, medical care, prisoner-of-war policy, recruitment, transport, espionage, aerial surveillance, naval issues.

5. A look at a particular social, business, or political institution and its relationship to the American Civil War—either before, during, or after the war: the Catholic Church, the Quakers, the Supreme Court, Congress, slavery, the press, photography, advertising, the financial markets, real-estate, abolitionist movement, temperance, nativism, freedom of speech, the Habeas Corpus act, the draft, monetary policy.

6. The effect of the Civil War on a foreign policy issue or foreign relations with a particular country and the US or the Confederacy – or even between them – how did the Union and Confederacy communicate with each other during the war? Could the war have been halted earlier?

7. A look at cultural institutions of the period—music, art, theatre, literature, photography. Perhaps a comparison of one of these between the South and the North.

8. A look at a service or institution in the period and its relationship to the Civil War: nursing, hospitals, orphanages, social policy, policing, health care, telegraph communications, railways, banks. How did they impact the conduct of the war? What effect did the war have on them?

9. The role of professionals in the Civil War: doctors, lawyers, journalists, scientists.

10. An exploration of one of the historiographical themes of the Civil War -- "cracker culture" -- "ethno cultural divide" -- "economic determinism".

11. The direct effects of the Civil War on American culture or politics today.

12. A topic of your own suggestion.

ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS

There are two parts to the essay assignment: the outline and the essay.

Part 1: The Essay Proposal (10%)

The outline should consist of one double-spaced page with a description of your proposed essay, an argument if you have one and/or your approach to the subject and its significance to the course if not immediately evident. (Approximately 250 words.)

A one or two page annotated bibliography of six sources at least should accompany the essay description. This should consist of the author, title, publisher, city, and year of publication of the book, journal article, or other source and a short commentary on what the source offers to your essay. Outlines submitted with no annotations to the bibliography will be heavily penalized. Sources should be current academic monographs or academic journal articles -- not popular works like Time-Life Books, Complete Idiot’s or Dummies Guides, Colliers Children’s Encyclopedia, Encarta, Wikipedia, Historyplace.com, etc. Journalistic works with citations are acceptable. In general, if your source does not provide detailed references in the form of footnotes, endnotes or specific page references, which you can verify, it is unsuitable as a source. This especially applies to websites. If you intend to include websites, provide their URLs in the proposal for approval. No essay can be entirely based on websites without permission from the instructor. (“Websites” does not mean internet databases of journal articles like MUSE or JSTOR, for example.)

You will be assessed on the uniqueness of your topic and on the depth, currency and academic quality of your sources. The use of academic journal articles, many of which are available online through the Ryerson Library is highly encouraged. If you are not familiar with academic article databases like JSTOR and Project Muse, go (run!) immediately to a librarian at the Ryerson Library and ask them to show you how to use these databases. You can access them from home and many (but not all) articles are available for downloading in full text. A link on the course website also provides you an introduction as to how to enter the online journal interface.

You may at any time after submitting a proposal, change your approach, your sources, and even completely change your essay topic without submitting a new proposal, but I strongly suggest to check with me first on such topic changes.

Part 2: The Essay (35%)

Essays should be 2,500 words in length (approximately 10-12 pages not including your title page and bibliography and appendix if any.) Standard 12 pt font, cursive or non-cursive, double spaced text, standard 2.5 cm margins, 11” X 8 ½” paper. Pages must be stapled (no binders or paperclips), paginated, and submitted with a cover page containing no art or decorative elements. The cover page must have: your name, student number, course number, and essay title. Essays not conforming to these standards will not be accepted and late penalties will be imposed until the essay is resubmitted in the required format.

Essays must be based on a minimum of six sources (not including course texts but seminar readings are acceptable), and should not include, encyclopedias, textbooks, or general or popular histories, or unapproved websites, (2 marks deducted for every Wikipedia or like citation) etc., as described above in Part 1.

Paragraphs are to be indented without any additional spaces between paragraphs, unlike in this course outline, for example. Any relevant images, maps, graphs included in the essay are to be placed into an Appendix at the back.

The essay should have a single descriptive title or a creative title with a descriptive subtitle. For example: Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders or The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution, etc. “History Essay” is not a title. Marks will be deducted for essays submitted without a title and/or title page.

Any paper not conforming to the above standards will be penalized.

Essay Progressive Creation History File Requirements

As I do not use Turnitin, students must "save as" a minimum of ten different progressive versions of their essay as they research, write, and edit their work and save all their research notes as well. I recommend that you use the "save as" command every time you finish a new page and for every subsequent edit of your finished essay. If there is any doubt to the authorship of any submitted essay, you will be asked to submit all the copies of your essay files as you saved them through the research, writing, and editing phases.

Failure to submit upon request the minimum number of progressive files will constitute evidence of plagiarism with all its consequences. DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR PROGRESSIVE CREATION FILE HISTORY UNLESS REQUESTED.

Chicago Style Reference Citations (read carefully)

A history essay is like a courtroom argument—it is based on the presentation of proof conforming with the rules of evidence in an expositive argument. The way hearsay is not admissible in court, Wikipedia for example, is likewise not admissible as evidence in historical discourse. Just as court evidence is presented in a disciplined system: Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exhibit C, etc, in the written historical argument, the Chicago Style footnoted citation is used to lead and guide the reader through the evidence backing the persuasive discourse of the text above it.

Why Chicago Style Footnotes? http://ctl.yale.edu/writing/using-sources/why-are-there-different-citation-styles
Some of the journal readings for seminars will have been pointed out to you as appropriate models for the citation style required for your essay.

Essays must have a bibliography and have footnoted citations in the Chicago style (at the bottom of the page). Parenthetic in-text or inline style citations (APA for example) are not unacceptable for a history essay. A well researched essay integrating multiple sources into its argument contains on average five to six citations per page -- approximately 50 to 70 citations per essay but this is a 'rule of thumb strive for' target to bear in mind. It depends on the density of your sources and essay how many citations will result.

As a general rule, references should be given for direct quotations, summaries or your own paraphrases of other people’s work or points of view, and for material that is factual, statistical, controversial, assertive or obscure. You must cite more than just direct quotes. WHEN IN DOUBT, IT IS BETTER TO PROVIDE A REFERENCE. You do not need to cite items of general knowledge like, for example: water is wet, fire is hot, the sun rises in the east or Elizabeth II is the Queen of England.

Essays submitted without specific page references in the Chicago style footnote format in each citation as per instructions herein will be automatically failed without any further opportunity to resubmit.

Basically, the first citation of a source should have the full bibliographical data in it, while in subsequent references to that source, just the name of the author and page number(s) will suffice. (If more than one source by the same author is used, then include the title as well.) This is an example of the basic required style for citations which are to inserted at the bottom of each page:

¹Jane Doe, The ABC's of History (Toronto: Ontario Publishers, 1997), pp. 20-21²Jane Doe, p. 43

To create numerically sequential footnotes in MS WORD 2007 go to the “References” ribbon and select [Insert Footnote]; in earlier version of MS WORD, go to the “Insert” menu and then select [Footnote]. The citations should be formatted to “Arabic numerals (1,2,3, etc.)”

It is not necessary to use deprecated citation terms like ibid or op cit. and they are even discouraged as word processing drag or cut-and-paste editing can easily displace the logic of these citation terms as you edit your work.

Titles of books are to be put into italics or underlined. Journal article titles are put in “quotation marks” while the journal titles are in italics or underlined. See the below webpages for further details and formats as to how to cite journals, multiple authors, collections, etc. or search “Chicago style footnotes” on Google.

Essay Style and Footnote Examples

http://www.okanagan.bc.ca/Assets/Departments+(Administration)/Library/PDFs/chicago.pdf

Chicago Manual of Style

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

Chicago Manual Of Style

http://www.msvu.ca/site/media/msvu/StyleGuideChicago(1).pdf

http://www.douglascollege.ca/library/chicago.html

Bibliographies

Essays MUST provide alphabetically ordered by author’s surname, bibliographies of all works consulted, whether or not they have been quoted directly in the citations. An adequate bibliography for this assignment will contain no less than six books or journal articles related to the topic. General books, dictionaries, atlases, textbooks and/or encyclopedias DO NOT count towards this minimum number of sources, and their inclusion in citations will NOT be considered as constituting research. Seminar readings are acceptable as citable sources.

An example of a bibliographic entry is as follows:

Smith, John. History of Canada (Toronto: Ontario Publishers, 1997).

Helpful Websites on How to Write History Essays

The History Student's Handbook on Essay

http://hist.ucalgary.ca/macmillk/sites/hist.ucalgary.ca.macmillk/files/Handbook.pdf

How To Write A Good History Essay

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/haywardp/hist213/writing.htm

What is A Good Essay

http://history.berkeley.edu/faculty/Brilliant/Keys%20to%20a%20Good%20Essay.pdf

How To Write History Essays

http://historyprofessor.org/organization/how-to-write-an-essay/

How To Write A Good History Essay

HOW TO WRITE GOOD HISTORY ESSAYS - Google

Submission of Essays

Essays are to be submitted to the instructor on the due date in lecture in hardcopy with pages stapled together. Folded, pinned, paper-clipped, bound in covers or loose pages, will be refused and will accrue penalties until submitted in the required format.

Electronic Submission of Essays

If you find it necessary to submit an essay by e-mail, the following file naming protocol is to be used:

"Last Name_First Name_CourseNumber _Essay"

Any attached file not using this exact naming protocol will not be accepted.

Only MS Word files (preferred) in .doc or .docx format or PDF files will be accepted.

A hard copy of the e-mailed assignment is to be submitted at the next opportunity in lecture. Indicate on the front of the hardcopy the date you had e-mailed the essay to me previously. The e-mailed essay will secure your submission date. Obviously the hard copy is to be exactly identical with the e-mailed copy. Hard copies of previously e-mailed essays not indicating the e-mail date on the cover will be assigned the date of the submission of the hard copy with no appeal.

Keep e-mail submitted essays in your "sent" folder until the final course mark is issued. Any e-mailed submissions that are inexplicably 'lost' or fail to arrive, will only be accepted as "forwards" of the original submitting e-mail with its original attached file.

Essays will not be accepted by any other delivery method other than in lecture or e-mail/lecture unless previously arranged by e-mail with your instructor

Late Penalties and Extensions

Extensions may be granted on medical or compassionate grounds but will be automatically penalized three (3) marks regardless. Students requesting an extension should submit an e-mailed request to me before the deadline specifying precisely the date to which they are requesting the extension. After the due date, students need to provide appropriate documentation relating to the extension request (i.e. doctor’s note, death certificate of relative, police report on their stolen laptop, repair bills for their crashed hard disc, veterinary reports on the contents of Fluffy ’s stomach, etc). Essays submitted under an extension must have my written response to the extension request attached to the front of the essay. E-mailed submissions are to be attached as a ‘reply’ to my earlier response to the extension request. Submissions without my extension approval attached to their front will be penalized as late with no opportunity of appeal afterward. No late assignments will be accepted after the last day of lectures (not exam day) or extensions granted beyond the last lecture day, including scheduling of missed midterms. Midterm makeup exams must be written before the final exam day.

Three (3) marks per/day are deducted from your essay mark for late submissions, weekends included, until the day the essay is submitted to me. If I do not acknowledge the receipt of your e-mailed essay within a few days, it is your responsibility to ensure I have received it. Keep copies of all work, including marked assignments returned to you and e-mails of your submissions until your final course mark is released. Re-submissions of earlier e-mailed essays "lost" in transmission, should such an unlikely scenario occur, will only be accepted in the form of a forwarded copy of the original e-mail. There are no exceptions to this. Outstanding assignments will not be accepted after the last day of lecture, before the day of the final exam.

Hard disk failure, theft, damage or loss of your computer is not an acceptable cause for an extension beyond twenty-four hours. All assignments must be backed-up regularly to a safe storage area on the cloud or physically away from your main computer.

After the last day of lecture, no outstanding assignments will be accepted or missed midterm exams rescheduled for a make-up exam. No outstanding assignments will be accepted or midterm make-up exams scheduled after the last day of lecture or extensions granted beyond the last lecture day. All assignments must be completed in order to pass this course.

Earning Marks

The evaluation of your research, content, evidence, originality and argumentation is of primary concern in marking as is the quality of your sources as described above. Equally important is the syntax, style and structure of your work. Marks will be deducted from work containing excessive grammatical/spelling mistakes, typographical errors, from work that is excessively long or inadequately short, or which fails to provide properly formatted footnoting/bibliography. Essays that consist of a frequently quoted passages or sentences, even if footnoted, will be severely penalized. Be selective in direct quotations. Ask yourself, “can this be said in my own words and then cited?” Is there a stylistic or argumentative reason for quoting the source directly? Be sure to edit and check your work carefully. Do not simply rely on your computer’s spelling or grammar checker.

Grounds for Assignment Failure

Essays which do not supply proper and adequate references and bibliographies as described above or submitted after the final day of lecture will be failed. Essays based entirely on websites without the instructor’s permission, will be failed. Any written work that quotes directly from other material without attribution, or which paraphrases extensive tracts from the works of others, or is written by somebody else in part or in whole without attribution, is plagiarized and will be failed with no opportunity to re-submit and may result in additional severe academic consequences. Please consult the Ryerson academic calendar for further information on plagiarism. If you have any questions or doubts about how to cite material, please feel free to contact me.

Essays that do not provide specific page references in each citation will be automatically failed without an opportunity to resubmit. Go to the above links for a guide to the required citation format.

Late Penalties and Extensions

Extensions may be granted on medical or compassionate grounds but will be automatically deducted a three (3) mark administrative tarrif. Students requesting an extension should submit an e-mailed request to me before the deadline specifying precisely the date to which they are requesting the extension. After the due date, students need to provide appropriate documentation relating to the extension request (i.e. doctor’s note, death certificate of relative, police report on their stolen laptop, repair bills for their crashed hard disc, veterinary reports on the contents of Fluffy ’s stomach, etc). Essays submitted under an extension must have my written e-mailed response to the extension request attached to the front of the essay. E-mailed submissions are to be attached as a ‘reply’ to my earlier response to the extension request. Submissions without my extension approval attached to their front will be penalized as late with no opportunity of appeal afterward. No late work will be accepted after the last day of lecture or extensions granted beyond the last lecture day.

Earning Marks

The evaluation of your research, content, evidence, originality and argumentation is of primary concern in marking as is the quality of your sources as described above. Equally important is the syntax, style and structure of your work. Marks will be deducted from work containing excessive grammatical/spelling mistakes, typographical errors, work that is excessively long or inadequately short, or which fails to provide properly formatted footnoting/bibliography. Essays that consist of frequent long quoted passages or sentences, even if footnoted, will be severely penalized. Be selective in direct quotations. Ask yourself, “can this be said in my own words and then cited?” Is there a stylistic or argumentative reason for quoting the source directly? Be sure to edit and check your work carefully. Do not simply rely on your computer’s spelling or grammar checker.

Grounds for Assignment Failure

Essays which do not supply proper and adequate references and bibliographies as described above or submitted after the final day of lecture will be failed. Essays based substantially on websites without the instructors permission will be failed. Any written work that quotes directly from other material without attribution, or which paraphrases extensive tracts from the works of others, is plagiarized will be failed with no opportunity to submit and will result in additional severe academic consequences. Please consult the Ryerson academic calendar for further information on plagiarism. If you have any questions or doubts about how to cite material, please feel free to contact me.