HIST 40733
Kerstetter

Historical thinking

Write an historical essay (no more than 250 words) based on two William Ranney paintings: A Trapper Crossing the Mountains and Advice on the Prairie.

Historical essays can be written in a number of ways. For this course, work on writing essays that make an argument to answer some question using primary source documents as evidence. Put another way, the essay offers your interpretation of history. If you're having difficulty getting started or are not quite sure what to do, try following these steps:

1. Read the documents. In this case, you'll be reading paintings, which can be deceptively tricky. Take time to think about what the image depicts. What did the painter have in mind? What role did the people in the image play in creating it? Did the painter catch them in a candid shot, or did they pose? If they posed, why did they agree to sit for a portrait? When was the image made? What does the image depict? What items appear in the image? How does the artist use light, shadow, and color?

2. Take a break. Go exercise. Call home. Let the information in the images roll around in your mind. When you're ready, formulate a question of historical interpretation the documents can answer. Below are some sample questions.

a. What year did William Ranney make these images? This isn't such a great question for this assignment. It's easy enough to answer, but it doesn't require much thought and it doesn't allow for any interpretation.
b. Who was the best painter of the 19th-century American West? That's an interesting question, but it would be very difficult to answer. It might be a good subject for a book, but not for this essay. Furthermore, it can't be answered using only these documents.
c. What kind of people lived on the Great Plains in the 1800s? Now we're in business. This question can be answered, at least in part, using our documents and it leaves room for interpretation. This could make for an interesting essay.

3. Now, go back to the documents. At this point, you're looking for answers to your question. The conclusion you settle on will provide the thesis (another word for your argument or interpretation) for your essay. In your paper you want to pose and defend an arguable thesis that at least partially answers the question.

4. Once you settle on your thesis, start writing your essay. Be sure to cite examples from the documents to support your thesis. Within reason, the more evidence you cite, the more convincing you'll make your argument. Also, make sure your thesis matches the information available in the documents and that the evidence you cite supports your interpretation.

Style guidelines
Please type or word-process your essay. Set margins at one inch and use double spacing. Write in the third person and do not use contractions. Staple pages together. Cite your sources in footnotes in this style (George Catlin, Mah-To-Toh-Pa, 1844..)

Evaluation rubric
I will be looking for the following in your essays:
* comprehension: accuracy of author's understanding of the documents;
* question/thesis: sophistication of inquiry and elegance of argument;
* analysis-connecting: essay links information from various sources (compare and contrast, corroboration);
* analysis-sourcing: essay identifies and analyzes sources for bias, reliability, point of view;
* analysis-proof: essay supports thesis with evidence; and,
* prose style: clarity and elegance of writing.

This assignment adapted from material developed by Lendol Calder and presented in "Uncoverage: Toward a Signature Pedagogy for the History Survey," Journal of American History 92(March 2006): 1358-1870 and on a related Web site http://www.indiana.edu/~jah/textbooks/2006/calder/index.html.