The essays are NOT to be a summary but your personal opinion to what you have read or seen. You should comment on a moral or ethical issue raised in the assignment. How does the material influence your emotions? How do you feel after being exposed to the assignment? These are examples of how to approach an essay. You are to write about a personal reaction including any ethical or moral concerns. Form an opinion and support it with historic fact from the assignment. This is your thesis statement.
You must refer to two original historic facts (examples) from the assigned essays in Canvas reading/article or a documentary film to get credit for the assignment. These facts must be directly linked to the opinion you wrote about in part one of the essay for you to get full credit. An original fact is from the time period studied, not a summary or a generalization from current commentators. Always ask yourself if you have answered “for example” in your essay.
Part of every essay grade is how well you use facts to support the point you make.
A complete fact includes as much as possible of a WHO, WHAT, WHERE and WHEN. These are the 4Ws. Unexplained quotes are not facts. Quotes from the assigned authors are not facts. All quotes must be explained with the 4Ws. Quotes will not count toward length of the essay.
