Final Essay
For your final paper, you will answer a question of your own design. In designing a question, keep the following points in mind:
1. Select a topic that you’re interested in. No, I mean actually interested in – a question that you would like to answer (not one that you already know the answer to). A question that likely has come up over the course of the semester and hasn’t been answered to your satisfaction. It can be on a topic that we have covered in class (e.g. why was it that the populists failed? Was the Cuban revolution socialist? A revolution? Democratic?) or something that we haven’t covered at any length in class (e.g., why did Chile develop a strong socialist labor movement and Argentina a strong anarcho-syndicalist labor movement? Why did Zapatismo fail in the Mexican Revolution? Did it fail?).
2. Find a topic that can allow you to synthesize, refer to, and think about what we have covered in the class. In other words, find questions that allow you to use what you have learned over the course of the semester (referencing discussions we have had or authors we have read) rather than picking a topic that seems disconnected from anything we’ve examined. If you design a question about something we haven’t examined in the readings or discussions, make sure that it is linked to those areas we have studied, so that your answer will be informed by things we have read/discussed. Ask a question that will require you to go back over the readings and class notes. In sum, if you answer your question in a way you could have done without having taken the course, you won’t do well.
3. To repeat that point a different way: You need to ask an analytical question, not a descriptive one
4. And yet another way: Whatever your question, it is important for you to situate it historically. Exactly how you do it depends on the topic you choose, but think about how we talked about the Cuban Revolution in class: locating it in relation to populism in Latin America, to its own history of relations to the United States, and to the particular history of the guerrillas in the Sierra Maestra.
5. Your questions (and answers) should be (fundamentally) about Latin American history. As important as U.S. policy toward Latin America is, this paper shouldn’t be about U.S. policy (except insofar as it impacts the developments in Latin America that you are examining). For example, you can write about how the leadership of the Cuban Revolution developed a particular approach to economic development because of U.S. policy, but not about why (or how) U.S. policy toward Cuba developed as it did.
Your final essay comes in two parts:
a) Due on Monday, April 27, at the start of class: The question that you will answer in your final essay. This can be either the topic alone (for example): In this paper I will examine the impact of the Cuban Revolution on events in Chile from 1970 to 1973. Or, you can pose the topic and address why you think the question is a good one to answer (for example): I will examine “X” because it helps explain the way that different political struggles inform each other.
b) Due no later than Thursday, May 14 at 11:00 AM: A 6-8 page essay in which you answer the question/address the topic you pose.
Addressing your topic:
A good paper will:
1) Set out a clear thesis in the first paragraph. You are welcome to use the following formula at the start of the paper if it helps you organize: “In this paper, I will argue that …” Follow that by a brief summary of the steps you will take to argue your thesis. If this formulaic approach doesn’t help you, you don’t have to use it. But I do want to know what you will be arguing in the first paragraph and how you plan to go about it.
2) Include definitions of any terms that are critical to your paper;
3) A solid argument will be always be supported by evidence
4) All evidence and arguments or approaches that are taken from or informed by sources that you read, as well as all directly quoted material, must be documented by use of footnotes or endnotes. NOTE: Use footnote/endnote format, not bibliographic formatting. You can find the proper footnote/endnote style in “Citations/Footnotes” at the top of the digital syllabus or at: http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/svolk/citation.htm . You do not have to provide a Bibliography or “Sources Cited” page: your footnotes/endnotes are sufficient.)
My citation format is essentially the Chicago Manuel of Style format used by historians. Please note: NO parenthetical citations even if you are citing different pages from the same source; every note carries the next successive number (don’t use the same number more than once even if the source is the same); only one number at a time. If you are citing multiple sources, they appear in the same footnote, not multiple footnote numbers at the end of a sentence. If you have any questions, just look at almost any of the sources we have been using or ask me.
5) You must sign an Honor Code.
6) Turn in your paper via Blackboard as you did with your midterm. If you have any trouble with this, particularly if you turn it in at the last moment, feel free to send me a copy by email attachment.
Papers are to be 6-8 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt. font, 1” margins. Use Word if you have access to it, otherwise Pages. Please avoid GOOGLE DOCS as it seems that the footnotes are getting lost in that format.
You final paper is worth 35% of your final grade (5% on the question; 30% on the answer).
You are not required to do additional research to answer this question, although you certainly may. You are strongly advised to use a variety of materials that we have used in the class and not over-rely on one or two sources. If you select topics that we haven’t covered in the class, you will need to do additional research – two-three sources would be advisable.
All papers must be turned in no later than Thursday, May 14 at 11:00 AM
PLEASE NOTE: I will NOT read or accept any paper turned in later than that time unless you have applied for an INCOMPLETE in the course (which I will grant) or unless you have received an EMERGENCY INCOMPLETE. This is college policy – NO exceptions.
As always: Please see me with any questions you have, either about asking or answering your own question.
Finally: I typically don’t write many comments on final papers because students don’t often read them. If you would like comments, please indicate that on your paper.