History 271

Devine

Spring 2013

PAPER 2 OPTION A – Russell Baker, Growing Up

INSTRUCTIONS

This essay is due April 3^rd in class. You should also email a copy to this email address: twd4747@gmail.com. There will be a 24-hour grace period thereafter during which you can turn in your paper. Five points will be deducted from your grade. Any papers not turned in by this point will receive a grade of zero and therefore you will have to do OPTION B or OPTION C. Once again, you can submit a draft and make an appointment with one of the writing tutors, but please be sure to indicate on your paper that it is a DRAFT.

How Long?

Papers MUST be 1500 words and no more than 1900 words.

Format?

• Typed, double-spaced, 12-point font with one-inch margins all around.

• Please number your pages

• Give your essay a title that indicates what the paper is about. (Choose something more revealing than “Essay” or “Growing Up”) Clever titles will be duly noted.

• Base your essay entirely on the assigned and optional course reading, our class discussion, and your own thinking. Don’t go to the internet to do your thinking for you.

Don’t forget to put your name at the top of page 1 of the essay before you email it. (People actually forget to do this.)

How to cite?

If you are quoting directly from the book, cite the author and page number in parentheses within the body of the text, i.e. (Baker, 47). All direct quotes MUST be in quotation marks and must be cited. Paraphrases of ideas drawn from the book MUST also be cited.

If you have any questions or are in any way unsure about what you are being asked to do, be sure to speak with me or one of the TAs via email or in person.

How will I be graded?

You will be graded on:

1) focus (do you have a thesis statement and does it answer the question asked?)

2) evidence (do you back up your argument with specific information from the reading?)

3) coherence (is your argument consistent and understandable throughout the piece?)

4) scope (does your paper deal with the question in appropriate depth and breadth?)

THE ASSIGNMENT

Answer ONE of the following three questions:

1. During the late 1930s, a noted sociologist remarked, “The depression has killed the American family. Unemployment, dislocation, and the inevitable interpersonal tensions that hard times produce have all combined to rend the social fabric of the family. It has been a national tragedy. It is difficult to say if the institution of the family will ever recover.”

To what extent do you believe this statement applies to Russell Baker’s family?

[In answering, be sure to start out by saying explicitly the extent to which you think the statement applies to Baker’s family (this is your thesis). In the body of the paper, address each of the issues raised in the quote and indicate by using specific references to the book whether you believe they apply to Russell’s family.]

2. Drawing from what you’ve read in Growing Up, what were the most significant ways in which the Great Depression affected people’s everyday lives?

[In answering, you should take into account that not all of the effects need be negative – perhaps the Depression had some indirect or unintended positive effects. You may also want to group the ways the Depression affected people – their economic situation, their family lives, their political views, etc.]

3. To what degree is Russell’s success in life attributable to his mother? (After all, he did become an internationally known journalist and writer.) What other family members do you believe also deserve credit for positively influencing Russell during his childhood?

[In answering, cite specific examples from the book to show how Russell’s mother and other family members had a positive influence on him. You might also argue that Russell achieved success in spite of his mother’s influence. This is an acceptable approach, but you will still need to cite specific examples demonstrating how her influence was negative or how, by ignoring his mother, Russell ended up better off.]