History 371

Devine

Spring 2014

Paper Assignment #2 Option A: Jeffrey Moran, The Scopes Trial

This essay is due Monday, March 24th. You may email your essay to me as an attachment (the preferred method), turn it in to the History Department office (Sierra Tower 610) during business hours, or hand it to me in person.

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 or on the first page of the hard copy of your paper that the document you are submitting is a draft. To take advantage of using the Writing Center, you must submit a complete 1500-word draft on March 24^th. 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.

All students are welcome to make an appointment with me to go over a draft before submitting a revision and the same deadline will apply.

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 remember to number your pages.

• Give your essay a title that indicates what the paper is about. (Something more revealing than “Essay #2” or “Scopes Trial”) Clever titles will be duly noted.

• Base your essay entirely on the assigned course reading. You do not have to (nor should you) draw on any outside sources. Don’t go to the internet to do your thinking for you. I am familiar with all the material on the Scopes Trial that can be found on the web, so I will know you’re just regurgitating someone else’s ideas and your grade will reflect that.

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. (Moran, 47). All direct quotes MUST be in quotation marks and must be cited. Paraphrases of ideas drawn from the book MUST also be cited.

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?)

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. Though the teaching of evolution in the public schools was the immediate issue at stake during the Scopes Trial, this court case revealed deep divisions within American society during the 1920s that mirror the so-called "culture wars" of our own time. Beyond each side's views on the teaching of evolution, what other beliefs, principles, and values divided Darrow and his supporters from Bryan and his supporters? Why was each side's world view so threatening to the other side?

2. Why did Bryan and his supporters accuse Darrow and his supporters of being "anti-democratic"? Were such charges legitimate?

[In answering you might reflect on the following questions: Should the theories of science be subject to a popular referendum? Is it a threat to democracy for lawmakers to accept the views of "experts" if the experts' views differ from those of the people who live in a local community? Should the people who are paying the taxes have the power to determine what is taught in the schools? Or, does legislating based on popular ignorance end up depriving people of their democratic rights?]