Essays

A/P Ian Gordon

Guide to Essays

Students for HY/AS2236 are required to write an essay of at least 2,000 words, but it should be closer to 2,500 words and certainly no more than 4,000. What this means is anything less than 2,000 words is not acceptable and I will not read more than 4,000 words.

The HY/AS2236 essay for Semester Two 2002-2003 is due at 5pm on March 14, 2003. Essays can be handed in at the History Department General Office. Also you must upload a soft copy to turnitin.com. You will need the following information:
Class ID: 54183
Enrolment Password: 2236

Essay Topics:

Choose a topic from this list, or devise your own question. All students must consult me about their essay before February 2.

Media can be analyzed through its context, content, and impact. Make an argument for using one, two, or three of these approaches in analyzing media, or a media event.
Does the media in the USA influence the values of American society or does it simply reflect already existing values?
Can changes in American society and culture since the 1950s be linked to changes in media forms such as the development of television?
Did Rock 'n Roll music change the shape of American culture and society?
Does the Internet (including the World Wide Web) extend the influence of American media to the globe in a new and unprecedented fashion?
What role has the American media played in shaping perceptions of an American war such as WWI, WWII, Vietnam, the Gulf War, and the War in Afghanistan? (Focus on one)
Is the American movie industry truly American or in fact a global industry?
Can media be used in historical analysis?
The media is sometimes described as the 4th Estate. Is this an adequate description of the role media plays in American society?

Students should note that academic papers require footnotes or endnotes, and bibliographies. Click here for my brief guide to footnotes and bibliographies.

Basic Guide to writing Essays: Liew Kai Khiun's Tips for Written Assignments

Writing Interpretative Essays Evaluating Internet Sources

Planning Your Essay Essay Criteria

The Department of History's On Writing Essays offers a detailed guide for History majors, which contains hints, tips, and instructions that may be useful for non-historians.

A very detailed guide to writing critical analytical essays can be found at: http://www.eslplanet.com/teachertools/argueweb/frntpage.htm

Plagiarism, defined as "the act of taking the writings of another person and passing them off as one's own" will result in a zero mark (0). As a rough guide when you use more than five or six words in a row that you take directly from someone else use quotation marks. When you paraphrase someone's writing put a footnote.

Read a New York Times article on the issue.

The Faculty takes this matter seriously. Click here for the Faculty statement.

All essays will be checked using a web based plagiarism detection service. See Plagiarism.org for a sample.

http://courseware.nus.edu.sg/plagiarism/

http://courseware.nus.edu.sg/plagiarism/Documents/student_tutorial.pdf

Because I will show you how to footnote and how to compile a bibliography those WITHOUT FOOTNOTES AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY WILL AUTOMATICALLY RECEIVE AN F GRADE!!!! If you have problems with footnotes and bibliographies see me.

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Writing Interpretative Essays	Evaluating Internet Sources
Planning Your Essay	Essay Criteria