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HST 104D World History to 500 CE

Historical Argument Paper (15%) Due: Monday, 5/16/2016

Via Moodle, 10pm

1

Background:

In this paper, you will expand your ability “to do history,” by working with multiple primary

sources and secondary sources (scholarly essays) in order to understand a topic across multiple

societies. For this paper, you will be comparing the ideal and practical roles of women in at least

two Ancient and/or Classical Civilizations: Ancient Babylon, Ancient/Classical India, Han

China, Classical Greece, or Rome. For this topic, there is an assigned collection of primary

sources and scholarly essays (listed below and provided as pdfs in Moodle’s Assignments block).

For this paper, you will need to analyze at least 3 of the primary sources in the collection and

draw support for your primary source analysis from at least 2 of the essays in the collection.

Your goal for this paper is to construct an argumentative analysis of the historical topic, guided

by a thesis statement. Support for your interpretation should come from the primary sources

themselves and the secondary sources (scholarly articles) in the collection, supplemented by your

textbook, and class-notes (with limited outside references, if needed).

Primary & Secondary Sources 1

Primary Sources:

R.K. Narayan, ed. “From The Ramayana,” in Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader, ed.

Kevin Reilly, 3 rd

ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2009), 164-167.

Ban Zhao, “Lessons for Women,” trans. Nancy Lee Swann, in Worlds of History: A

Comparative Reader, ed. Kevin Reilly, 3 rd

ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press,

2009), 169-173.

Aristophanes, “From Lysistrata,” trans. Douglas Parker, in Worlds of History: A Comparative

Reader, ed. Kevin Reilly, 3 rd

ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2009), 174-176.

Livy, “Women Demonstrate against Oppian Law,” trans. Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B.

Fant in Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader, ed. Kevin Reilly, 3 rd

ed. (Boston:

Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2009), 178-181.

“Code of Manu,” in Encounters in World History: Sources and Themes from the Global Past,

Volume I: To 1500, ed. Thomas Sanders, Samuel N. Nelson, Stephen Morillo, Nancy

Ellenberger (Boston: McGraw Will, 2006), 173-175.

1 Each of the sources listed has been provided in a standardized, Chicago-style, full foot-note citation of the entire

source. This format is appropriate for your first full footnote citation of a particular source. You will need to adapt

the format for the subsequent, shortened-format footnotes. See the PDF on Chicago-Style Footnotes and

Bibliography provided on our course Moodle page or consult Purdue OWL website for more assistance.

HST 104D World History to 500 CE

Historical Argument Paper (15%) Due: Monday, 5/16/2016

Via Moodle, 10pm

2

Primary Sources (cont’d):

“Letters of Royal Women of the Old Babylonian Period,” ed. Stephanie Dalley, in Perspectives

from the Past: Primary Sources in Western Civilization, Vol. I: From the Ancient Near

East through the Age of Absolutism, ed. James M. Brophy, Joshua Cole, Steven Epstein,

John Robertson, Thomas Max Safley, 4 th

ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company,

2009), 39-40.

Secondary Articles:

Kevin Reilly, “Historical Context,” “Thinking Historically,” and “Reflection,” in Worlds of

History: A Comparative Reader, ed. Kevin Reilly, 3 rd

ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s

Press, 2009), 155-156.

Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 143-

145, 201-211.

Sarah Shaver Hughes and Brady Hughes, “Women in the Classical Era,” in Worlds of History:

A Comparative Reader, ed. Kevin Reilly, 3 rd

ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press,

2009), 156-163.

Style:

This paper should be written as a formal writing assignment. Avoid informal expressions,

including first and second person (I, we, you, etc.), contractions, and colloquial expressions.

Formatting:

Use 12-inch Times New Roman font, with 1-inch margins on all sides. Double-spaced, except

for Name, Course Number, and Title. Your paper should be ~1200 words (excluding footnotes,

headings, etc.) Upload to Moodle as a Word Doc or PDF.

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. The pdfs for these collections are available on Moodle, in the Assignments & Directions

folder.

2. Draw your evidence from at least 3 of the primary sources, considering their details, ideas, and language, etc. Keep in mind that each of these sources is a product of a very

specific society, at a specific point in time, with its own religious beliefs, economic

system, rules of government, customs of social interaction, gender roles, etc. (Use the

process delineated in the Primary Source Evaluations to understand each primary source

individually, before beginning your comparative analysis.)

HST 104D World History to 500 CE

Historical Argument Paper (15%) Due: Monday, 5/16/2016

Via Moodle, 10pm

3

Step-by-Step Directions (cont’d):

3. Directly draw on the historical context provided in at least 2 of the scholarly articles in the collection that you have chosen.

4. Develop an interpretive question(s) about this set of sources, and create a focused thesis statement that provides an argumentative answer. Consider the questions scattered

throughout the selected collection as you begin to analyze these documents. These big-

picture questions should lead you to focus your analysis and to create your thesis

statement.

5. Write a 1200-word argumentative essay, guided by a thesis statement, in which you

create an historical interpretation of the topic that compares multiple societies or cultures.

This paper is not intended to be a research paper, but rather a close reading of the

sources themselves, guided by the secondary scholarship.

6. For this paper, we will use Chicago-style footnotes. Cite all direct quotations, paraphrases, and references to other scholars’ works, ideas, or interpretations. When in

doubt, cite!

7. You may wish to consult the relevant material in Traditions & Encounters or draw on

your lecture notes or our class discussions to help formulate an argument. If you do use

any additional references to support for your argument, you should attach a bibliography

in which you provide a full citation. (Remember, Wikipedia is NOT an acceptable

outside resource for formal, academic papers.) However, your paper must be original, in

your own words, and reflect your understanding of the ways in which primary sources are

used to construct an interpretation of a particular historical question, problem, or period.

Content:

In the course of your paper, you should address all of the principle questions used for analyzing

primary sources (see “Analyzing Primary Sources Handout” and/or “Primary Source

Evaluation” directions). Remember, your goal is to write a coherent essay, NOT a list of

answers to these questions. You may want to use an outline as you write your paper, which can

help to ensure that your paper is well-structured and coherent.

HST 104D World History to 500 CE

Historical Argument Paper (15%) Due: Monday, 5/16/2016

Via Moodle, 10pm

4

Structure:

Introduction:

 Identify: Introduce the topic, as well as the societies and the scholarly authors that you will address in your paper. Your introduction paragraph lays out your argument, its

significance of how it fits into the context of the topic being studied, and how the paper

will go about answering the question. Provide any essential background information that

your reader needs in order to understand your thesis. An introduction paragraph often

concludes with a thesis statement, in which your argument is condensed to a single

sentence.

 Thesis: Your paper should be structured as a historical argument based on a single

primary source. An introduction paragraph for academic historical essays often concludes

with the thesis statement, in which your interpretation of the source is condensed to a

single sentence. (A thesis statement may address the author’s purpose in writing the

source, may make a claim about the relevance or significance of this source to its own

society, etc. A strong thesis statement answers not only “what?” but also suggests “how”

and “why”).

Body:

 Sub-arguments: The body of the paper is where you lay out the evidence and construct

the comparative argument you are using to answer the question. You should not,

therefore, merely be reciting “facts,” you have found in your sources. Rather you should

make specific assertions about what those “facts” mean and then support them. Keep in

mind that each body paragraph should have a topic sentence that introduces its specific

focus, a sub-point of your larger historical interpretation, as laid out in your thesis. You

may want to use an outline as you write your paper, which can help to ensure that your

paper is well-constructed and coherent.

 Using Evidence: o Primary Sources: Each time you introduce a new primary source in the paper,

provide a critical overview: what is the title or larger work from which the excerpt

has been taken: indicate the title (if it has one) and the author (if known), the time

and place of its composition, its genre, and its relation to a broader historical

period.

o Summarize: How much summary is needed? You should be able to summarize,

in your own words, the main points of a primary source. This should be no more

than 2-3 sentences of your entire paper. You may find this information fits more

naturally in either the introduction or the body of the paper.

o

HST 104D World History to 500 CE

Historical Argument Paper (15%) Due: Monday, 5/16/2016

Via Moodle, 10pm

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 Using Evidence (cont’d): o Analyze the sources closely. How do particular details of the different sources fit

your larger comparative interpretation of the topic? Do all the details of a

particular primary source fit this cross-cultural interpretation? If there are

contradictory details, do you address the counter-arguments? Do you need to

adjust the argument for a better fit? (Don’t pretend that counter-arguments or

contradictory evidence does not exist: address it in some way.)

Conclusion: Your paper should conclude with a conclusion in which you recap your

question and argument, and show how your evidence supports the answers you have offered

the original historical problem you posed or historical question you asked.

Assessment Criteria:

Your paper will be assessed according to the following criteria:

 Does it demonstrate a solid understanding and analysis of at least 3 primary sources and

their cultural contexts?

 Does it engage the ideas of at least 2 scholarly articles?

 Does it present a thorough analysis of the chosen topic by engaging more than one world

culture?

 Is it organized to make a main point, supported by arguments and evidence?

 Does it flow logically from one point to another?

 Is it generally free from errors of grammar, usage, and spelling?

 Does it meet assignment requirements, including Chicago-style citations and length?