Unit 1 Lesson Six
Answering an Historical Argument
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Steps to Making and Supporting an Historical Argument
Critical Focus Question:What were the political, economic, and social motivations that contributed to the extreme actions taken by the United States, Germany, and Japan during WWII?Task:After reading primary and secondary sources on the political, economic, and social motivations contributing to WWII write an informational/explanatory essay in which you compare and contrast either the political, economic or social motivations of the United States, Germany, and Japan during WWII. Support your discussion with evidence from the texts.
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What makes a good historical essay?
It answers the question being askedIt contains analysis rather than narrativeIt includes specific evidence to support your argument
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6.1 Prewriting
First, let’s analyze the task:Basically, what are you being asked to do?What is the question?What were the political, economic, and social motivations that contributed to the extreme actions taken by the United States, Germany, and Japan during WWII?
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Break Down the Question
What were the political, economic, and social motivations that contributed to the extreme actions taken by the United States, Germany, and Japan during WWII?What is the main topic?What are key words?
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Brainstorming
Write down your ideas in your Academic NotebookNow, share your ideas with a partnerShare with class
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How will you answer the question?
Look at the evidence you have linked with the key concept and word and see if you see any themes.Write them down in your graphic organizerDo you understand what the question is asking you to do?
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What questions do you have at this point?
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Activity 6.2 Writing Your Thesis
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What is a thesis?
You learned in the last unit what a very basic is:A thesis is a specific statement that establishes the main topic for the essay and lists the ideas, points, and details that are discussed throughout the rest of the essay.In this lesson, we will build upon that and learn about writing a thesis specifically for a historical essayA historical thesis should explain how or why something happened
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Thesis Practice
Work together with your partner/groupRead your thesis aloud – does it make sense?Can your group/partner understand what you are going to write about?How will you defend your thesis? Is there evidence to support your position?
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Finalizing your Thesis
After discussion with the class, do I want to revise my thesis?Does my thesis state support the argument that I want to make?What questions do I have after completing this activity?
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In-text Citations
MLA
What are in-text citations?
When you include sources in your writing, you need to cite (or give credit to) the original author. In-text citations allow authors to credit their sources immediately after they quote them in the text. This method allows the reader to immediately see the author’s source. In-text citations may also be called parenthetical citations.
When should in-text citations be used?
An author should include in-text citations whenever he or she directly quotes, paraphrases or summarizes a source.
EXAMPLE
During the sixteen and seventeen hundreds, one of the most sophisticated and influential political organizations was the Iroquois Confederacy. It included the tribes of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora("Northeast Indian").These tribes controlled land all along the eastern seaboard as well as for hundreds of miles inland("The Role of Women in Iroquois Culture").“In the Iroquois community, women were the keepers of the culture,” writes historian Katsithawi Thomas. “They were responsible for defining the political, social, and economic norms of the tribe”(Thomas)."Northeast Indian."Encyclopedia Britannica Online School Edition. 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2012"The Role of Women in Iroquois Culture."H2g2 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 13 Jan. 2003. Web. 19 Feb. 2012Thomas, Katsithawi A. "Gender Roles among the Iroquois."Vanier's Native Circle. 2010. Web. 19 Feb. 2012
How are in-text citations generally formatted?
MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:Wordsworth, William.Lyrical Ballads. London: Oxford UP, 1967. Print.
In-text citations for print sources with known author
For Print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number.If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation. **Human beings have been described byKennethBurkeas "symbol-using animals" (3).**Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry in the Works Cited:Burke, Kenneth.Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. Berkeley: U of California P, 1966. Print.
In-text citations for print sources with no known author
When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name. Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number.We see so many global warming hotspots in North America likely because this region has "more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study environmental change . . ." ("Impact of Global Warming" 6).
Continued
In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title of the article appears in the parenthetical citation which corresponds to the full name of the article which appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:"The Impact of Global Warming in North America."Global Warming: Early Signs. 1999. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.
Citing authors with same last names
Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. For example:Although some medical ethicists claim that cloning will lead to designer children (R. Miller 12), others note that the advantages for medical research outweigh this consideration (A. Miller 46).
Citing non-print or sources from the Internet
Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).However, at times it was necessary to group clans into larger units. If the clans were evenly distributed, groups called moieties formed; if they were unevenly distributed, groups werephraties. “Among many Iroquoians, for example, an important moiety responsibility was to bury the dead of the opposite group” ("Northeast Indian,")."Northeast Indian."Encyclopedia Britannica Online School Edition. 2012. 19 Feb. 2012
Continued
You do not need to give paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, likeCNN.comorForbes.comas opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.
What else should I know about in-text citations?
When citing research sources in the text, you will need to include a works cited page which will list all of your sources ALPHABETICALLY. The purpose of a Works Cited page is so the reader can look up your sources for further information.
Works Cited
Burke, Kenneth.Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. Berkeley: U of California P, 1966. Print."Northeast Indian."Encyclopedia Britannica Online School Edition. 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2012"The Impact of Global Warming in North America."Global Warming: Early Signs. 1999. Web. 23 Mar. 2009."The Role of Women in Iroquois Culture."H2g2 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 13 Jan. 2003. Web. 19 Feb. 2012Thomas, Katsithawi A. "Gender Roles among the Iroquois."Vanier's Native Circle. 2010. Web. 19 Feb. 2012Wordsworth, William.Lyrical Ballads. London: Oxford UP, 1967. Print
Sources
http://www.sophia.org/tutorials/in-text-citations--5https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/
6.3 Creating a Box Outline
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Box Outline for Essay Construction
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Organizing Your Essay
Turn to the outline in your Academic NotebookThesis statementParagraph topicsAnalysisConclusion
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6.4 Writing Your First Draft
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Refer to Your Box Outline
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Introductory Paragraph
This paragraph introduces the audience to the topic and invites the reader into the essay by stating your purpose and claim. It should have as a minimum three sentences. More is better as long as you are not repeating what you have already said.
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Supporting Paragraph 1
This paragraph begins to introduce the evidence you have for your claim. Your topic sentence should come first and be supported by your evidence. This evidence might be cause-effect in nature.
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Supporting Paragraph 2
Basically same as above as you continue to reinforce your position. Continue until you have used all of your best evidence. DO NOT present evidence text by text. Rather, combine the evidence for the same reason across texts.Do you need more paragraphs for support?
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Conclusion
Refer back to your thesis but also include a brief summary of what you just said and explaining “so what.”Why should your audience care?
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Checklist of Indicators on the Essay Scoring Rubric
Controlling IdeaDevelopment/ Use of SourcesOrganizationConventions
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Peer Review
Exchange your essay with two other peopleRead each other’s essays and give feedbackComplete the check off in your Academic Notebook
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Now, write your final essay and good luck!
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