The Early Republic
Assignment Prompt
In this assignment I want you to take on the persona of a Patriot. Be sure to briefly explain who you are (social status/profession) and where you live. Choose to be a member of one of the groups listed in the Discussion 3 assignment.
In the late 1760s and early 1770s (between the end of the Seven Years War and the beginning of the Revolution) you were upset with the imperial/colonial government. It is now a quarter-century down the road from your youth, you are well into your middle-aged years, with idealistic children, and a grandchild or two, of your own. You and your generation have sacrificed much to bring about the United States and its new government under the Constitution. President George Washington’s Administration is in place, Congress has been elected, and the form of the new government is taking shape. Are you satisfied with the new government under the recently ratified Constitution? Do you think your 20-something year old self (the protester from the 1760s) would be happy with the way things turned out? You have decided to write a treatise (a fancy word for an essay) upon this subject as a gift to your grandchildren. In it you will think about your main social, political, and economic grievances from the 1760s in relation to your current beliefs. Have things turned out well for you and your group? Have your grievances from the 1760s been redressed (or are no longer relevant)? Have new political, economic, or social issues replaced them for your socioeconomic group in the 1780s? Has your group met their social responsibilities to the new nation, have they compromised where needed for the greater good or selfishly looked after their own interests? What, if anything, is left to be done for your group? Most importantly, would your 1760s self believe that you held onto your ethics even as war raged around you; have you remained true to the ethical stands you took in the 1760s or have you grown more pragmatic with age and experience?
Be sure to use the Rule of Three in this assignment. You should have an intro with thesis statement, at least three paragraphs in the body (one old for each point of the thesis) and a conclusion. The best way to organize is to use political, economic, and social as your thesis points.
This essay should be a minimum of 5 paragraphs long. The first paragraph is your introduction with thesis statement. The second through fourth paragraphs (the body) will discuss social, economic, and political reforms (you should organize in this way, minimum of one paragraph on economic, one paragraph on social, and one on political). Each paragraph of the body must have its own thesis statement and there should be at least three pieces of evidence (properly cited in Turabian format) in support (the “rule of three” for analytical writing). The last paragraph is the conclusion.
You will be using modified Turabian FOOTNOTES in this assignment. You must provide the footnote, including locating information, for each of your three pieces of evidence per body paragraph (so a minimum of 9 footnotes required).
THE “RULE OF THREE”
You will need to use an analytical writing style in this class. The basic form of analytical writing utilizes the “Rule of Three.” Simply, there should be at least three key points/pieces of evidence in a piece of writing introduced by a strong clear thesis.
This is a 2-3 page essay length assignment. Your paper should begin with an Introduction which sets the prompt in the historical context, the LAST sentence of the intro paragraph is the thesis statement which lists the (minimum of) three points (X,Y,Z) that will be more fully developed in the paper. The first paragraph of the body (paragraph 2) would discuss key point X (this paragraph would have its own thesis as the first sentence, followed by three pieces of evidence/analysis in support), then a paragraph on Y, and finally one on Z. An essay ends with a conclusion paragraph – which sums up the argument you made and ties X, Y, and Z together. The conclusion is NOT the place to introduce new arguments or evidence.
Another way of thinking about it is that an essay is comprised of three paragraphs in the body of similar composition to the one paragraph you wrote in the Reaction 1 exercise.
So Rule of Three means three key points in a thesis, a body with three paragraphs (one for each of your key points), each paragraph has a thesis supported by three key pieces of evidence. Followed by a conclusion.
Important notes
All information you need to respond to the prompt is contained within the materials assigned in the 1311 course module. I want you to react to the assigned materials. DO NOT DO OUTSIDE RESEARCH or seek your answer on the internet.
I also want to know what YOU think, therefore DO NOT DIRECTLY QUOTE SECONDARY SOURCE MATERIALS. Most students use quotes as fillers, this is unacceptable in a college history course and does not reflect upon YOUR understanding of the topic at hand. The only acceptable use of a quote is a short (phrase or sentence) quotation from a primary source document (properly identified and cited) that you immediately discuss and is part of your analysis.
PRIMARY SOURCE = Something produced in the historical era under study
SECONDARY SOURCE = Something produced at a later date. A history textbook, a documentary film, etc.
