Do you think the laws in Hammurabi’s Code were fair or unfair? Pick one side and make an argument for it in a 2-page paper. No matter which side you pick, make sure that you cite and discuss specific laws to support your opinion, and that you clearly show the relationship between how each was either just or unjust.As the Guide explains, for Hammurabi’s Code, your citations should look like this:As the Code explains, “If patricians will be punished, their punishment will be half,” (HC, 102).General GuidelinesStudents in History 1130G are required to complete two short (2-page) response papers. For the first paper, you will write an ungraded first draft, and I will give you feedback before you hand in the final draft. These papers are designed to teach you how to read and think critically about primary sources. When you learn to do this, you are working in the same way that professional historians do.Historians tend to almost always write in a style of writing called documented argument. The goal of documented argument writing is to persuade your audience to accept your conclusions about your topic. It uses researched information about a well-defined issue on which you take a stance. The goal is not to simply report on your findings, but to argue a thesis. In this way, documented argument writing is very different from narrative writing, expository writing, or creative writing, which have very different purposes. Your paper should not be a simple free-flow of ideas/narration/re-telling of the story, but instead should use evidence to prove a claim.It is very important that you only pick ONE side. Students will often say “well, but the correct answer is a little bit of both.” While that may be true, the exercise here is to argue for your case. In this way, historians are very similar to lawyers (in fact, many lawyers get started as history majors!); historians and lawyers are both trying to convince their audience that their interpretation of past events is the most correct. A lawyer would not be successful in defending his or her client if they were to say “well, maybe they committed the crime, and maybe they didn’t; there is evidence on both sides.” Successful lawyers, like talented historians, make an argument for one side and defend it.Getting StartedLet’s say I asked you to respond to the prompt “Did the Roman Empire Fall, Yes or No; pick a side and make an argument for it.” You should begin by noting the essay prompt BEFORE you do the week’s reading; that way, you can keep track of all the potential information you might want to use in this essay. Once you have completed the reading, on either a computer or a piece of paper, make two columns, one for evidence on each side of the question. So here, you’d have a column that says “Rome fell”, and another that says “did not fall”, and you would put ideas and piece of evidence in both columns, until you have used all the evidence you have.Then, evaluate your evidence. Which column is longer? Which side convinces you more? That will be the side you will argue. Your thesis statement should be the last sentence in your introductory paragraph. To make sure that both you and I know where your argument is, it’s best to underline your argument/thesis in the final draft of your paper.Your next step is to group like information or similar evidence into groups. So for instance, where the fall of Rome is concerned, you might have examples having to do with the law and legal history, linguistic evidence having to do with the persistence of Latin, and religious evidence having to do with the survival of Christianity and Christian culture beyond the fall of Rome. Try to find the best way to group your evidence into logical subsets; these will become your paragraphs.Next, draft your paper. Start with a brief introduction, not more than a few sentences, that introduces the question. Do NOT start with broad statements like “Since the beginning of the Roman Empire,” or “Throughout history,” etc. Get right to the question at hand. You should NOT cite and discuss sources, for the most part, in your introduction. Save this for body paragraphs. The last sentence in your short introductory paragraph should be your (underlined) thesis.Then, pick the first group of evidence you have. Here, perhaps you’d like to start with legal evidence. Beyond your thesis statement, your topic sentences (the first sentence of every body paragraph) are the second most important component in documented argument writing. They tell the reader what the next paragraph will be about, and connect the evidence in the paragraph to the overall thesis. In documented argument writing, especially when historians get into longer pieces like articles and books, topic sentences serve a very important purpose: they allow busy readers to SKIM quickly, only reading the topic sentences, so that they can quickly and easily get a sense of what is being argued. If a paragraph interests them, they can slow down and enter down into the paragraph and read the evidence.So here, for instance, with a prompt about the fall of Rome, my topic sentence might be “Legal culture demonstrates that the Roman Empire did not fall.” With this topic sentence, right away, I know what the whole paragraph is about (the law), and how it’s connected to the overall argument (it proves Rome did not fall). Remember that topic sentences should always sound argumentative; they should sound like they are staking a claim. They should never be narrative, or telling a story (see below). If you are having trouble with topic sentences, use the crutch/tip of repeating the language of your thesis in every topic sentence, as I did here. In addition, see Example Documented Argument Paper II: What do I Mean By Alignment?Strong topic sentence: “Perhaps the best way we can see that Rome did not fall is that Christian culture and administrators tied pre and post-Roman culture together.”Weak topic sentence: “Rome fell in 476, and afterwards, would never be the same.” (with this topic sentence, I really have no idea what you will argue…you are just telling me a story.)Next, put your evidence into the paragraph, using the citation method above. After your topic sentence, you should proceed in an ABABAB pattern by introducing a piece of evidence and then discussing how it proves your argument. Evidence, discussion, evidence, discussion. Do this several times; a body paragraph must cite and discuss at least two pieces of evidence, preferably three. Remember, evidence can never stand alone. You always need to follow it with a statement that shows, in your own words, how it proves your thesis. Keep in mind that you should NOT include long quotations; include ONLY the part of the quote that is most central to making your point; often, this is just a short phrase or a few words. And remember that you can cite a text without including a quotation. Note how the example paper Download example paper, posted in our module, does this well. Normally, a strong paper does both; it includes both direct quotations and cites evidence without quotations. In any case, a good paper must have some directly quoted material. You cannot get a good grade if you do not cite the reading directly (see citation method below), or if you only cite The West. You must consider and write about the primary sources in every paper.Do this one or two more times, meaning, generate one or two more paragraphs, and your paper is done. A good history 1130G paper usually has a short introductory paragraph, and then 2-3 body paragraphs, depending on how you structure it, and each paragraph will have anywhere from 5-7 sentences (in documented argument writing, unlike journalistic writing, a paragraph can never be 2-3 sentences long).Do not include a conclusion; see below.Final Checklist of Important DetailsFormatting: Do not put a header on your paper, of any sort. You do not need a title, or to list your name, or the class name and number. Do not use footnotes or endnotes for these papers. Do not include a list of works cited, or a bibliography for these papers. They are short, and I know exactly what sources you are using, so for this exercise, I want you to focus solely on using evidence to construct a clear argument over a full two pages, and nothing else. In addition, where formatting is concerned, All papers must be double-spaced, size 12 font, with one-inch margins on all sides. Essays should be a full 2 pages in length, and you may write more if you wish.Do not include a works cited page.Do not use any outside sources for these papers, including the library, other texts, or the internet. Use only readings that are part of this course for your discussion and evidence. You must discuss primary sources, not just the textbook, to get a good grade.Do not write a conclusion for these papers; instead, use as much space as possible, the full two pages, for discussion and analysis of the texts.Use the past tense; this is history.Can I use the first person? You can; I won’t deduct points for this, but documented argument papers are always more polished, professional, and convincing when they don’t use the first person. Compare these two sentences: 1) “I think that Columbus knew he had discovered a New World.” 2) “Contemporary sources suggest that Columbus had discovered a New World.” The second approach is always better!Citations: References to the texts should be made in the body of your paper using the author and relevant page or section number (Levack, 102; Machiavelli, 33). If you printed a longer source out or can see a page number, use it, or use a section number if the text is numbered in sections. If the selection on the web is so short as to be just one paragraph, just cite the author. A complete correct citation is as follows: Perpetua stated that “adultery is extremely rare,” (Perpetua, 39). Note the punctuation, and use this as your model, every time. To cite the textbook: Barbarians and Romans were friends, (The West, 53). You can cite material without a quotation, as this last example shows, and you should do this for brevity, or if the language itself is not so important. So for instance, you could say “Benedictine monks only ate one time a day (Benedict, 5).” This citation method is extremely important, and I grade you on it directly. Cite a Canvas page like this: Monks lived in places that were “far away from civilization,” (CP “Relics”).For Hammurabi’s Code, it should look like this:As the Code explains, “If patricians will be punished, their punishment will be half,” (HC, 102). Note the punctuation. Here, the 102 refers to the law number, not the page number.Where citations are concerned, do not use any outside sources for these papers, including the library, other texts, or the internet. Use only readings that are part of this course for your discussion and evidence.Plagiarism check: When you hand your paper in, it will automatically be run through Turnitin, which checks for plagiarism. When you turn your paper in, you too will be able to see if you plagiarized, or took too much directly from a source (other than quoting material, which Turnitin excludes, if it’s in quotes). If you can see that Turnitin is telling you that you have borrowed too much material from another source, you need to rewrite your paper, or that part of your paper. If you are not familar with Turnitin, how it works or how to use it, see What is Turnitin and How Do I Use It?Grading Rubric: As you will see, I use a rubric to grade these papers: the rubric looks specifically for: a thesis, the use of evidence, organization, topic sentences, correct citation format, grammar syntax and proofreading, and development/length.