History 342

Devine/Dufresne

Fall 2014

Paper Assignment #2 Option A

This essay is due Sunday, November 16. You may email your essay to me as an email attachment. If you choose not to do this assignment, you may complete Option B.

If you are submitting this essay as a draft and intend to work with a writing tutor on a revision of your essay, please indicate in the subject line of your email that the document you are submitting is a draft. Your final version will be due ONE WEEK after your appointment with the writing tutor. To make an appointment, call the History Department at 818.677.3566.

How Long?

• Papers MUST be a minimum of 900 words.

Format?

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

• Please remember to number your pages.

• Give your essay a title that indicates what the paper is about. (Something more revealing than “Essay #2”)

• Base your essay entirely on the assigned course reading. You should not draw on any outside sources.

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 a source, cite the author and page number in parentheses within the body of the text, i.e. (Drakulic, 47). All direct quotes MUST be in quotation marks and must be cited. Paraphrases of ideas drawn from the readings MUST also be cited.

How will I be graded?

You will be graded on:

1) focus (does the paper make a clear argument that answers the question posed in the prompt?)

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

3)  coherence (is your argument consistent? do all of your sentences and paragraphs make sense? do your paragraphs flow in a logical order?)

4)  scope (does your paper deal with the question in appropriate depth and breadth? or is your argument superficial and backed up only with the most obvious evidence that we went over in class?)

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 via email or in person. 

THE ASSIGNMENT

Answer ONE of the following questions:

1. Choose an “every day” word or phrase from Slavenka Drakulic’s book How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed – strawberries, golub, sanitary napkins, doll, or red hair dye, for example – and indicate how, in the context of Drakulic’s book, this word or phrase can explain the failure of the Communist system in Eastern Europe.

2. How did women “survive” Communism in Eastern Europe? How did they maintain meaningful relationships with men and other women? How did they retain their personal dignity and sense of individuality no matter how hard the Party sought to deprive them of such things?

3. Drakulic makes clear that the Communist system in Eastern Europe made everyone miserable, but especially women. Why were women particularly hard hit by the failings of the system?