The purpose of an analytical paper is to give you an opportunity to apply and test the knowledge you gain from lectures, readings, and discussions on particular historical documents or images.

Write a 5-page paper analyzing the images or texts in the chapter about WWI propaganda (in Module 5).  In the paper, you need to analyze three examples (i.e. advertisements, posters, cartoons, photographs, speeches, or poems) and answer the following questions.

(1) What are the images or texts?  Briefly describe them. 

(2) What messages do the images or texts try to convey? 

(3) How did the images or texts help the United States government mobilize public opinion during World War I?

(4) What were some of the positive and negative consequences of this type of propaganda?

Guideline: First, pick three examples that you think could help you explain the above questions.  Read chapter 4 closely and carefully.  It will inform you how to analyze the selected primary documents.  You are also encouraged to read relevant lectures and chapters in Give Me Liberty! because they will help you analyze documents.     

Second, make a logical connection between the examples and your answers to the above questions.  You need to answer all four questions and spend more time analyzing the first two questions.  Analyze each document and contextualize it in the historical context.  Focus on the pattern(s) you have seen from the selected documents.  Choose one or more from the categories of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and national origins to help you interpret each document.  Form an argument.  Make sure that you have evidence to support your argument.

Third: Your answer will be judged on the following criteria: the coherence and tightness of its argument and the skill with which you use the information provided in lectures, discussions, and readings to analyze the documents.  The paper needs to use one of the analytical categories mentioned in guideline 2.  It should follow the form of academic writing.  That is: it needs to have a clear thesis and contains an introduction, a conclusion, and a body that provides examples and evidence to support the thesis.  Topic sentences should reflect the central idea of each paragraph.  The paper should also have transitional sentences that will enable you to link one idea to the next.  It should be double-spaced and paginated and include citations.  Your paper should be well-organized, well-written, and contain thoughtful analysis.  If you need more assistance, please see the professor, or make an appointment with the Writing Center at the Love Library.   

Fourth: Whenever you borrow ideas using direct quotes or paraphrasing, you must cite/document the source of the idea(s).  Every piece of information that is not common knowledge needs an attribution in a citation.

The easiest way to avoid problems is to provide a citation that will tell readers where the above information came from at the end of the sentence.  For example, (Wheeler and Glover, 146). 
If the next citation also comes from Wheelers book, you dont need to repeat the authors name.  For example, (153).
If the next citation is from a different book, you need to include the authors name.  (Foner, 700).
A work cited page is not required.
Fifth The length is 5 pages.  (You need to write at least 4-and-a half pages but no more than 5 and half pages.  If you do not write at least 4.5 pages, you will receive an F for not fulfilling the requirement.)

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