Analyze the place and/or role of women in the two texts noted above. In doing so it is probably a
good idea to define your terms as explicitly as possible (for instance, how do you understand
“role of women”?). Please remember that you are not describing the content of the two books;
rather, you are using that content as evidence to support your thesis argument. In other words,
you shall provide a thesis argument for your essay and then defend it—justify the veracity of that
thesis—using textual evidence and explanatory reasoning.
In making your arguments, you must provide examples from the texts for support. Rather than
using formal footnotes/endnotes, follow these instructions. At the end of a citation–either a
complete quotation or a paraphrase (putting the author’s ideas into your own words)–place the
author’s name and the page numbers in parentheses. For example, a quotation: “I really like to
teach history.” (Beirich, 21); a paraphrase: Some people like to teach history. (Beirich, 21)
These methods teach you about the issue of plagiarism, and show you that historians always try to
attribute properly their sources.
