TOPIC OF PAPER:
You are a young servant living in your wealthy employer’s household in Paris in the mid 1300s during the Great Pestilence. Drawing on this week’s readings and lectures, write a brief letter to your family in the country, telling them about the pandemic. Report what you believe to be factual information (you may be mistaken!), and also report what you consider rumors and misinformation that are widely discussed, and say what you make of all this.
THESE ARE THE ONLY REQUIREMENTS OR SOURCES THAT ARE ALLOWED TO BE USED IN THE PAPER.
Bennett and Bardsley, pp. 381-385 (Recovery, c. 1350-1500)
John de Trokelowe, Annales: Famine of 1315
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/famin1315a.asp
Marchione di Coppo Stefani, The Florentine Chronicle (1370s-1380s): the plague in Florence, 1348
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/osheim/marchione.html
The plague in England, 1348-9
http://people.uwm.edu/carlin/the-black-death-in-the-british-isles/
The economic effects of the Plague in England: the Ordinance of Labourers (1349) and the Statute of Labourers (1351) (see both websites below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/seth/ordinance-labourers.asp
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/seth/statute-labourers.asp
Gies and Gies, pp. 109-119 (Chap. 8)
Bennett and Bardsley, pp. 366-381 (Europe, c. 1300; demographic crisis; the Great Plague)
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PAPER REQUIREMENTS:
Each paper must be 1-2 double-spaced pages long, in a 12-pt font. (The minimum length is one full page of text.) It must be submitted as a Word document (.doc or .docx) via the course Canvas page.
Your papers must be entirely your own work. You may not copy or adapt them from someone else’s work, and you may not collaborate on them with anyone else.
At the end of your paper, list every source that you have used, including specific page numbers. Do not simply list the full range of pages in that week’s reading assignments – list only the pages from which you actually took ideas or information. If you have used material from my lectures or lecture outlines, say so, and give the dates (e.g., “Carlin, Week 4, Thursday lecture outline”). If your text fills two pages, your list of sources may go on p. 3.
You must submit a minimum of six mini-papers. You are welcome to submit more than six; if you do, your six best paper grades will be used for your final grade. Your six (or six best) mini-papers are worth 60% of your final grade (10% each).
Your paper must be based entirely on that week’s assigned readings and my online lectures and lecture outlines. No other sources are allowed, including Wikipedia. The point of the papers is to challenge you to read the assigned readings carefully, and to attend and take part in the lectures thoughtfully, and to hone your analytical and writing skills.
Your papers must address the assigned topic, and be written to a college-level standard, with good grammar, spelling, punctuation, and phrasing. Fill your papers with solid factual content, not “padding,” and avoid vague or unclear writing. Put everything in your own words; do not include any quotations at all.
