Week 3

Writing Assignment:

There are two parts to this week’s assignment.

First, write a practice thesis statement for one of the first paper topics using the Thesis Guidelines handout from Week 2 (you will not be held to writing on this topic for the first paper and can change topics later if you like). Your thesis statement should summarize the argument you would make for this paper topic and should contain an argumentative word or phrase such as because, due to, or as a result of. You will peer review your thesis statements in section, so bring this with you on Friday in addition to submitting it online.

For the writing assignment proper (250-300 words), give two specific examples of differences you see between Utopian society and the idealized version of English society that Thomas Smith described in last week’s reading. What kinds of critiques of More’s own society do the examples you have chosen reveal? (For example, Utopia doesn't have a monarch but Tudor England did, so do you think Thomas More was being critical of the monarchy?)

Answers should be 250-300 words and include specific details and page numbers from the reading.

Grading:

The purpose of these assignments is to demonstrate that you've done the reading and learned something from it. You should make sure to address all parts of the question and provide specifics like names, places, context, and page numbers in your answers.

For example, if you say that someone gave a speech before a battle, I'm going to want to know who gave the speech (names), which battle it was (context), and where it was (places). I also want to know what page(s) this material is on. Although these are short writing assignments, you still want to provide details (history is all about the details).

100% - addresses all parts of the question and provides details like names, places, context, and page numbers.

90% - addresses all parts of the question, but may lack some detail -OR- provides great detail but does not answer part of the question.

80% - answer is correct, but vague, one or more parts of the question may be unanswered.

70% - answer is very vague and multiple parts of the question are unanswered.

50% - I suspect that you read the source, but your answer totally lacks detail and doesn't demonstrate that you learned anything from the reading.

0% - It's clear that you didn't read the source, or you didn't turn in a writing assignment.