History Snippet Assignment

Snippet Assignment

Due dates:

Draft: March 29 (minimum 4 pages)

Final: April 10

Assignment overview: Write a 8-10 pages essay related to an assigned ‘snippet.’ This essay

must achieve two things: 1) it should make a structured argument about a particular historical

problem related to your ‘snippet’; and 2) it should detail your research process – how you made

your decisions, why, and how you made adjustments during the course of your research. The two

parts of the essay can either be presented separately (i.e. as a 4-5 page “Research essay” and a 4-

5 page “research diary”), or they can be presented together as a single narrative.

How to begin the assignment: To begin the assignment you will be randomly assigned a

‘snippet’ from a primary source. The ‘snippet’ will include a passage from the source and the full

citation information for that source. This ‘snippet’ is the starting place for your research; to

proceed with research you will need to identify a ‘problem’ or ‘question’ related to the snippet,

and then work through ways to solve that problem or answer that question.

Basic expectations: You should use – at minimum – three primary and four secondary sources

(including the original primary source from which the snippet was drawn). However, more than

QUANTITY of sources, I am interested in seeing QUALITY discussion of how you analyze the

sources, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and apply them to your own research.

Hints:

 Get to work early on this project, and work consistently on it.

 Be clear about what ‘problem’ or ‘question’ you are looking at, and adjust it as

needed.

 Be creative in how to look for sources, and what kinds of sources to look for

 Use secondary and primary sources

 DO NOT LEAVE IT TO THE DAY or WEEK BEFORE IT IS DUE – this project

will benefit from sustained, careful, thinking, not a last minute scramble