This final project is intended for you to bring all you have learned in the course and apply it to a single topic.

• For this project, select a topic and then identify four different historians who wrote about this topic from at least three different decades.
• You will then read at least one chapter from an author’s book or journal article (e.g., Journal of American History) and compare and contrast the authors and how they engaged in the craft of history.

Essay Project Requirements:

• Write a 3-page essay including the following:
  • A thesis paragraph toward the beginning of the paper.
  • A brief biography of each author (no more than one paragraph for each author)
  • Compare/contrast their writing styles.
  • Analyze of their sources.
  • Analyze their effectiveness.
  • A discussion of how the authors conform to the ideals set forth by Evans and Gaddis.
  • Conduct and include additional research beyond your textbooks and include in the essay.

Use this checklist to guide your writing:

• THESIS - Easily identifiable, plausible, sophisticated, insightful, vividly clear.
• STRUCTURE - Paragraphs within the body of the essay are logical and appropriate for the thesis. Excellent transitions from point to point.
• EVIDENCE - Information from course texts are used to buttress every point with at least one example. Examples support the thesis and are appropriate for the paragraph.
• ANALYSIS - Clearly relates evidence to thesis. Analysis is fresh and poses new ways to look at the material. Ideas flow logically and the argument is reasonable and sound. Counter-arguments are acknowledged and, where possible, refuted.
• MECHANICS - Sentence structure, grammar, and diction are excellent. Uses correct use of punctuation and there are minimal spelling errors.

All written assignments in the history major should be formatted using Chicago Style. For assistance with Chicago Style, please refer exclusively to The Trailblazer Handbook and your professor.