Description
Incorporate ALL of the sources for each day into one reading response. Your thesis aims to explain what the primary sources tell us about their time period.
BRIEF (1-2 sentences) SUMMARY of the set of sources, assigned chapter, or chapter section: What time period and place(s) are these sources from? What are they about, or what issues do they raise?
REPRESENTATIVE QUOTATION that you would like to discuss in class from 1 or 2 of the sources in the assignment.
ARGUMENT.
What can these sources help us understand about the time when they were written? Choose one of the models below to write a draft thesis statement that uses your evidence to make an arguable claim to explain COMPARATIVE PRACTICES, CHANGE, or CAUSATION. You may wish to draw out differences among a set of sources rather than make a claim that they all provide evidence of the same practices, historical changes, or causes.
Some things to look for: religion, cultural forms, economics and trade, social/class structures, ideas or power differentials around identities (e.g. gender, class, race, religion), technology, war/military/conquest, the role of animals and natural resources, geography, and political systems.
OPTION A: COMPARATIVE PRACTICES AND IDEAS
THINK ABOUT HOW THESE SOURCES PROVIDE EVIDENCE OF DIFFERENT SOCIAL PRACTICES, CULTURAL FORMS, and/or IDEAS.
Put these ideas into a thesis statement that draws out similarities and/or differences between 2 or more sources, e.g.:
While [primary source A] give us evidence of _ [example of social practices, cultural forms or ideas], [primary source B] shows us _ [counter-example of social practices or ideas].
OPTION B: CAUSATION
THINK ABOUT HOW THESE SOURCES ARE EVIDENCE OF CAUSATION.
How do these sources provide evidence for what caused a movement, idea, or event?
How do these sources help explain why or how a movement, idea, or event caused, contributed to, or affected changes in structures of power and privilege?
Put these ideas into a thesis statement, e.g.:
[A, B, and C primary sources: use author, title, date] _ provide evidence that caused [e.g., a new movement, event, or idea]. [The evidence: something about these sources] __ helps explain _.
OPTION C: CHANGE
THINK ABOUT HOW THESE SOURCES ARE EVIDENCE OF CHANGE.
What evidence do these sources provide of the effects of a new movement, idea, or event?
Do these sources help show how this change affected social, political, or cultural institutions, human practices, or ideas about power and privilege?
Put these ideas into a thesis statement, e.g.:
[A, B, and C primary sources: use author, title, date] _ provide evidence of _ [e.g., a new movement, event, or idea]. [The evidence: something about these sources] _ helps explain .