World History

Primary Source Essay
https://www.milestonedocuments.com/
Write a 5-7 paper thoroughly covering the subject matter. Papers are to be single-sided, typed in a 12 point standard font (Times New Roman or Arial), double-spaced, with one inch margins and page numbers. No title pages or bibliographies are necessary.
When writing, you must support your own ideas by citing short passages from the primary documents in our class’ Milestone Documents online collection. Please note, however, these citations should be short (ranging from just part of a sentence to a full sentence or two at the very most). Be sure to include the cited text inside quotation marks (showing the reader you are not using your own words), and then place “Milestone Documents” and the name of the particular passage in parentheses. For example, if you were discussing the differences between the historical writing of Herodotus and Thucydides, you would cite a passage from the online reader in the following manner:
Whereas Thucydides’ histories were written in a detached, unemotional and objective
manner, focusing mainly on causation and the motives of statesman, Herodotus
frequently explained historical events using supernatural and mythical concepts. For
instance, in his description of the Battle of Marathon, Herodotus evoked the Olympian
gods when he described how the Athenians “as their camp at Marathon had been
pitched in a precinct of Hercules, so now they encamped in another precinct of the same god at Cynosarges.” (Milestone Documents, Herodotus: “The Battle of Marathon”)
No secondary sources of any kind (not even the introductions to and overview of the primary sources) should be quoted and cited. You may draw upon what you have learned, but the information you use must be put in your own words. This is explicitly not a research paper, but an exercise in primary source analysis. However, be sure you are always writing in your own words, and not stealing the words of others.
Topics (choose one): {To writer: Please feel free to choose}
1. Compare and contrast the following four ancient and early-modern societies: Egypt, India, Classical Greece, and Europe (Renaissance and/or Reformation Europe). Among other things, be sure to consider each region’s social structure, religious practices, and political organization. In your discussion, include relevant primary source quotes and their corresponding citations from at least four different readings in our class’ Milestone Documents specific selection of readings.
2. What was life like for women in the ancient and early-modern world? Compare and contrast (don’t just describe, but analyze) the roles that women played in the economic, political, religious and social life of the following four civilizations: Mesopotamia, India, pre-Christian Rome (not including Israel), and Europe (Renaissance and/or Reformation Europe). In your discussion, include relevant primary source quotes and their corresponding citations from at least four different readings in our class’ Milestone Documents specific selection of readings.
1. Common grammatical mistakes:
a. Do not use contractions. Type out “did not” or “could not.” Do not use “didn’t” or “couldn’t” in formal historical writing.
b. Do not use slang.
2. Do not use the first-person voice (i.e. “I” or “we”).
a. Do not judge. As an offshoot of trying to be objective as possible, it is not the historian’s job to be judgmental of people and events in the past. History is about trying to understand what
happened. It is not about making subjective qualitative statements about whether or not
something was “good” or “bad.”
3. Do not get lost in overly-complex sentences. It is a common pitfall in formal historical writing to dance around a subject, to try and flower it up with fancy subordinate clauses and drawn-out metaphors. Stay on topic, and get to the point in as clear and concise a manner as you can. Historical writing is meant to educate and to convey meaning. If you are not direct and clear in your writing, you are doing your audience a disservice.
a. Only quote primary sources.
b. Do not quote a primary source, then just move on to another idea. Be sure to explain your
quote’s significance to your argument. Quotations from primary sources are meant to bolster
your argument, not make it for you.