History
476
Devine
Spring
2016
Essay #1
This
essay is due February 27th by
11:59 pm. 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.
WRITING CENTER
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 to me on February 27. 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.
DIRECTIONS
(follow them)
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. (Nasaw, 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 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.
How
did urbanization, industrialization, and immigration give young people more freedom
at the turn of the 20th Century? In particular, how did these forces
give them leverage over their parents that children had not had previously?
2.
How
did the city streets and the broader urban environment acculturate the children
of the city to the capitalist, consumer society that was emerging at the turn
of the century as well as to the gender roles they would be expected to adopt
as adults?
3.
Why
did urban children and adolescents come into conflict with Progressive reformers
during the early part of the twentieth century?
4.
How
did money – having it, not having it, working for it, spending it – shape the lives
and values of the children discussed in David Nasaw’s
Children of the City?
5.
Most
scholars agree that “masculinity” is not a fixed concept, but a social construct
that changes over time. The very qualities that make one a “real man” in one
era could get one tagged a “sissy” in another.
How do
the course readings on boys and male college students at the turn of the 20th
century confirm this view?
NOTE: In answering these questions – except for
question #5 – you should cite specific evidence from David Nasaw’s
Children of the City. If you believe
that you can provide a more thorough and compelling answer to the question by
drawing on evidence from other course readings, you are welcome to do so.