The goal of the Midterm Essay is for students to evaluate Black life at the turn of the twentieth century in an analytical essay. One of the most critical aspects of an analytical essay is the thesis statement in which you present your argument. To effectively support your argument throughout the essay, students will then:
Introduce American society and race relations at the turn of the twentieth century.
Need to include a brief overview of The Souls of Black Folk and your opinion.
Need to include a brief overview of the journal article on The Souls of Black Folk and your opinion.
Discuss the three primary sources you found, how they relate to your topic, and what they taught you about the period being studied.
When using sources in academic writing, you need to introduce the source, the author/creator, what the source says, and how it relates to your argument. Finally, you will close out the Midterm Essay with a strong conclusion paragraph that restates your thesis statement. Students also need to include a bibliography at the end of the paper. A bibliography only includes the references; it does not include the annotations. In other words, this is different from the annotated bibliography (think Works Cited).
A paper of this length is usually 5- 6 pages, double-spaced. The cover page and bibliography do not count.
