History 476

Devine

Fall 2013

 

Essay #1 (Option B)

 

This essay is due Sunday, October 20th by 11:59 pm. (Note that this is one day later than the deadline that originally appeared on the syllabus.) You may email your essay to me as an attachment (the preferred method), turn it in to the History Department office (Sierra Tower 610), or hand it to me in person. When you email your essay, send a “CC” copy to yourself so you will have proof of the time you sent the email if, for some reason, I do not receive it. There will be an Option C paper due on November 2nd, so this paper is not mandatory.

 

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 on the paper or in your email that the document you are submitting is a draft. Note that to take advantage of the opportunity to revise your draft, you must submit a complete draft. (If your draft is not complete, I will simply grade what you have handed in.) Your final version will be due ONE WEEK after your appointment with the writing tutor. To make an appointment, visit the writing center web site at http://www.csun.edu/social-behavioral-sciences/history/make-appointment

 

 

DIRECTIONS

 

HOW LONG SHOULD THE PAPER BE?

 

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

 

HOW SHOULD I FORMAT THE PAPER?

 

• 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. (Something more revealing than “Essay #1” or “Youth Culture”) 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.

 

HOW DO I 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. (Kelley, 67). 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 and is the supporting information especially effective in making your case)

 

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 questions:

 

 

1.    Historians have argued that many African-American and Latino youths developed an “oppositional sub-culture” during the 1940s. What (or who) were these sub-cultures opposing and why? How and in what ways did these young people employ the components of their sub-culture to express their opposition?

 

[HINT: This question is asking you to do three things: 1) to explain what the sub-culture was opposing and the reasons for the opposition; 2) to identify the various elements of the sub-culture which might include, among other things, hairstyles, clothing, favorite dances or kinds of music, slang, attitude toward work and attitude toward the war; and 3) to explain how the various elements of the sub-culture came together to become a means for expressing opposition.]

 

2.    Drawing on specific evidence from course readings, explain why a “youth market” emerged in the years following World War II and make the case for whether this market was driven from the “top down” (by merchants, magazine editors, and advertisers) or from the “bottom up” (by young people themselves).

 

[HINT: In your introductory paragraph you must first tell the reader first why the youth market emerged. Then you must address the “top down” or “bottom up” issue. You need not take one side or the other. In fact, a compelling essay will advance a more complicated thesis than exclusively “top down” or exclusively “bottom up.” Regardless of what you argue, however, the reader should know what your argument is by the end of that first paragraph. In the rest of the essay, you will need to introduce a wide range of specific evidence from the readings to show your reader that your argument is valid.]

 

3.    Why were so many Americans worried about juvenile delinquency in the 1950s?  What factors had provoked these worries? Why did elements of mass culture – comic books, movies, rock’n’roll – contribute to parents’ anxieties?

 

[HINT: In the first paragraph of your essay, articulate as precisely as you can an overall answer to these three questions. (You will need to do some thinking before you begin writing.) Then, divide the rest of your paper into three sections in which you address each question in more detail, using a wide range of evidence from the course readings to show that your answers are plausible.]