Women in Victorian ScotlandPaper Assignment
(Optional 3
rd paper deadline is Thanksgiving Day)
The stated goal of this course is to learn about the public and private lives of Scottish women during
the nineteenth century. Because this is a 100-level course, we have a specific learning objective to
achieve – learning how to critically analyze and interpret primary sources, and then construct
history using these sources. When you encounter sources that provide different interpretations of
the women you are studying, you will need to compare and contrast these sources. Everything in
the course has been designed to help you build these skills, just as other historians have been doing
for centuries (with the benefit of 21
st
-century technology, of course).
To this end, you will need to write two papers drawing together the themes we have discussed in
class, and adding in some additional primary source research of your own. For each of your papers,
you will need to analyze three sources from a chapter of the textbook that we will not be reading
during the course – so either chapter 5, 6, 7, or 8. For each paper you write you will need to use a
different chapter of the book. Connect the three new documents to at least three that we have
discussed in class in some fashion. It is fine to use well more than six sources in total if you like. ?
You are required to complete two papers for the course. If you are unhappy with your grade on one
of them, you have the option of writing a third and replacing an earlier grade.
Technical specifics:
Your papers will each need to be at least 1200 words in length, with no use of the first person. You
must use Chicago Manual of Style footnotes for all the information you utilize (see details on
reverse). Papers must be typed, double-spaced, and in 12-pt. font with 1-inch margins. In your
introduction, you will need to have a clear thesis statement that explains what topic is being studied
and what the paper will be attempting to prove. You should then move on to your supporting
evidence, which will make up the bulk of your paper. Each paragraph should focus on a single subissue related to your overall argument. Finally, your conclusion should discuss why these
documents are important to someone’s understanding of Scottish women during the Victorian Era.
Document Analysis:
The basis of your paper will be the primary source analysis we will be working on together as a
class. Although much of this will be done collectively, you will need to present one document that
you analyze on your own to your classmates. You will be graded on the thoroughness of your
analysis (both on the worksheet and verbally), your ability to connect it to our class discussions, and
how well you do fielding questions from the audience.
Step #1: Choose a source.
Step #2: Complete an analysis worksheet. A link has been provided for you at the course
webpage to the National Archives Document Analysis Worksheets, and it will be up to you to use
the appropriate worksheet for the type of source we are working on. You can either type the
answers in and then print the sheet, or print the sheet and write them in by hand.
Step #3: Copy the source you are analyzing so that you can have it with you in class. If you
would like Dr. Myers to make copies for your classmates, make sure she receives your original no
later than Noon on the day you are scheduled to present.
Using Footnotes:
For any piece of information or ideas you use from another source, you must provide a reference.
Let me repeat that…for any piece of information or ideas you use from another source, you must
provide a reference.
In addition, you must place quotation marks around any direct wording you take from a source, even
if it is only three or four words.
As a general rule, you should have at least one footnote per paragraph in your paper. You may list
more than one source in the footnote to save you making too many of them, but you must have all
the knowledge you have “borrowed” properly cited.
Your computer will automatically insert footnotes for you. To insert a footnote, place cursor at the
end of the sentence and do as follows:
? In the newest version of Microsoft Word (for Windows)…go to the Reference tab.
? Click on “Add Footnote…”
? Automatically a new “footnote” will come up at the bottom of your paper, set to the correct
footnote number you should be on. At that point you will type in your reference information
according to The Chicago Manual of Style. After you are finished, you can move your cursor back
to the main text of your paper with your mouse. It is also good to know that you can cut, paste,
and copy footnotes just as you can any other text (by highlighting the number in the paper itself
and performing whichever function you need) and all the reference information will move along
with the number.
? Footnotes are normally in 10-pt. font.
? Do not change the default settings the computer uses for your footnotes, they should all be
correct already.
? There will NEVER be two footnotes with the same number.
? Finally, footnotes are NOT footers and should not be in your footer.
If you have questions on the proper way to format a particular source, be sure to ask, but here are
some examples to help you in laying out your references:
1History 130: Women in Victorian Scotland, October 30, 2014.
2
Jane Hume Clapperton, Scientific Meliorism and the Evolution of Happiness (London: Kegan, Paul, Trench and Co., 1885)
in Esther Breitenbach, Linda Fleming, S. Karly Kehoe, and Lesley Orr, eds., Scottish Women: A Documentary History, 1780-1914 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013), 55-6.
3Class notes, November 11, 2014.
4Clapperton, 56.
5 Advertisement for Towle’s Pennyroyal Pills (c. 1890) in Scottish Women: A Documentary History, 1780-1914, 69.
6
Annie S. Swan, “Over the Teacups,” Woman at Home, Vol. 111 (1893) in Scottish Women: A Documentary History, 1780-1914, 97-8.
7
Towle’s Pennyroyal Pills.
8
Swan, 98. OR “Over the Teacups,” 98.
No Bibliography or Works Cited page is required for this assignment.
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