History 1123

Informal Writing #3: How Can One Narrative Be Drawn From Many?

General Instructions:
As we have seen in our discussion of sources so far, different sources contain different perspectives.  Each source is, in a sense, like the person(s) who created it, unique and idiosynractic.  Yet historians have to compose a narrative with one general trend or narrative to nevertheless while still representing as much of the individuality as possible of each of the sources they use.  In your next formal paper, you will be writing about perspectives on European/Native American or European/African encounters in the Atlantic world using the sources assigned for 2.7 or 2.21 respectively.  In this informal writing, then, I want you to practice the skill of representing a combination of sources within a single narrative by assembling ALL of the primary sources (i.e. documents, so do not use Ways of the World) assigned for either 2.7
(World History in Documents, 163-176; the New Laws of the Indies (Spanish):
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1542newlawsindies.html
) or 2.21 (World History in Documents, 177-189; Thomas Bluett, Some Memoirs of the Life of Job, the Son of Solomon at: http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/bluett/bluett.html**, Section 2, pp. 19-24.) into a short, 1-page, double-spaced paper in Times New Roman 12-pt. font that does the following:

1. Presents a brief overview of what the sources show about European and indigenous perspectives.

2. Discusses the general trend in the sources, but also the individual perspectives on the encounter from the indigenous perspective, being careful to identify any assumptions underlying this perspective or world view.

3.  Discusses the general trend in the sources, but also the individual perspectives on the encounter from the European perspective, being careful to identify any assumptions underlying this perspective or world view.

4. Discusses any general conclusions you drew from these perspectives (here you might restate your overview and add any additional insights that emerged).

5.  Provides footnotes for the two middle sections of the paper:

The main entry for the reader should look like this:

"Title of Document Section," in World History in Documents: A Comparative Reader, 2nd ed., edited by Peter N. Stearns (New York: NYU Press, 2008), page #.

The short form for the reader (to be used after you have created the main entry for a source and then interrupted its citation by citing another source) would look like this:

"Title of Document," page #.

For the web-related source I would like you to try your best to use the following resource to come up with your own footnote formatting for the main entry and the short form using the following resource (consult example #35): http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch10_s1-0001.html

Remember, for consecutive citation use. Ibid. or Ibid., page # as appropriate (and note that there are no page numbers for web-based sources so stick with Ibid. there)


Submitting Your Assignment:
You may submit your assignment person through February 28th
(in class or to my departmental mailbox in 633 South Shepler Tower) or online through the class Blackboard module via the Paper Submission Portal through 2.28 @ 11:59 p.m.



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