Short Essays Assessment Rubric

For assessing your short essays, we use a rubric to break down the various sections and their overall weight. The rubric includes details as to what is required for each aspect of the essay and how it is weighted in the overall final grade.

Remember that this rubric will only be filled out in terms of a grade for Version #2 of your essay. 

This is the rubric we use:

SHORT ESSAY- HIST 190

This assignment has two central goals:

  • To utilize the historical skills that we are learning in class to analyze documents assigned from Sources for the Frameworks of World History.
  • To teach students how to best use comments given by an instructor regarding their work and implement these suggestions to improve essay writing skills

Format

Please choose ONE of the questions below and write an essay in response to it.

Requirements:

  • Use AT LEAST TWO primary sources from the Sources for the Frameworks of World History textbook as evidence.  Primary sources from Sources for the Frameworks of World History are the ONLY sources that you are allowed to use in your essay.
  • Use only the sources listed in the question. 
  • 1000-1250 words in length, excluding footnotes.
  • UNDERLINE YOUR THESIS STATEMENT in your submitted essay.
  • Footnotes formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style. For assistance in completing your footnotes, please consult this guide: 
  • TWO versions will be submitted. Version #1 is due on October 28th. Version #2 is due on November 25th. We will not mark Version #2 if you have not submitted Version #1.
  • You cannot change topics from Version #1 to Version #2.
  • These essays are to be an analytical discussion of the materials covered in each chapter, not simply a presentation of your own thoughts. Use these sources as evidence to back up your arguments
  • Late papers will not be accepted. If you need an extension, remember the “life happens” clause. You do need to contact Dr. Wessell Lightfoot for any extension.

Essay Questions

Question #1: 

One of the key methodological frameworks that historians use for understanding the past is the idea of cause and effect. But as the historian Kevin Reilly notes “finding causes and explaining effects is fraught with difficulties.” On the one hand, it is difficult to determine a specific effect that happened as a result of something in the past. On the other hand, looking back to understand the specific cause is also challenging. Together, we have to be careful not to force a specific cause and effect together to fit OUR already established idea in the present of what happened in the past. 

For this essay, you will focus on the concept of “cause and effect” in relation to plague outbreaks in the ancient world and the late medieval period. In this way, you will consider the perspective of two societies where these epidemics took place which were different from one another across time AND place. How do these authors try and explain the origins of these plague epidemics (in other words, what caused them)? What similarities and differences do you see in their descriptions of the causes and effects? What can we learn about their societies and how they viewed the world around them?

Choose ONE source from the ancient world:

  • 2.3a “Plague in Athens from Thucydides, The Peloponnesian Wars“
  • 2.3b “Plague of Justinian from Procopius, History of the Wars“

AND Choose ONE source from the Black Death in the 14th century:

  • 13.2b Ahmad al Maqrizi, The Plague in Cairo
  • 13.2c Boccaccio, The Decameron

Question #2: 

Early complex societies such as those discussed in Chapters 3 of your textbook in China, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India were often very hierarchical in nature. In other words, they developed a framework of power that clearly indicated who held and wielded power and authority (those at the top of the hierarchy) and who did not (people in the middle and at the bottom of hierarchy). What can we learn about the hierarchical structures of early complex societies from these documents? Who held power? Who did not? How did those in power use that hierarchical structure and power to ensure or even enforce social order?

Choose TWO of the following documents:

  • 3.1 “The Punitive Expedition of Yin from Shu Jian” 
  • 3.2 The Code of Hammurabi 
  • 3.3 “A Peace Treaty between Ramesses II and Hattusili III” 
  • 3.4 “The Hymn to Purusha”

 Question #3:  

In the ancient empires which existed from 500 B.C.E. to 500 C.E., a centrally controlled administration was a key element of success. Most often, at the head of this administration, sat an emperor whose power and authority was supposed to spread throughout his entire empire. To maintain their power, emperors had to present specific images of themselves (we might call this propaganda today) in documents produced by their administrations. Use two documents from TWO DIFFERENT societies and discuss what image of the emperors that they present. What do these images tell us about the values of these societies?

  • 5.1 Pliny the Younger, “Correspondence with Emperor Trajan” (ancient Rome)
  • 5.2 Rex Gestae Divi Augusti (ancient Rome)
  • 5.3 Asoka, Rock and Pillar Edicts (ancient India)
  • 5.4 Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian (ancient China)

Question #4:   

All societies that existed across the world prior to 1550 developed specific ideals that were assigned to both men and women. We refer to these as “gendered” in that they described qualities and values that were seen as either “masculine” or “feminine”. In order to be considered a virtuous or proper man or woman, a person therefore was supposed to follow them. We can learn a lot about how a society viewed the gender roles of men and women from documents which describe these gendered ideals. How were gender roles for men and women similar or different in these documents? What can we learn about these societies in terms of how they viewed gender roles for women in particular in these documents?

Choose TWO of the following:

  • 6.1 Ban Zhao, Lessons for Women
  • 6.2 “The Code of Manu”
  • 6.3 “The Life of St. Thomaïs of Lesbos”

Question #5: 

Salvation religions (Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism) were open to all who wished to join them. As a result, they were very adaptable and often reshaped their religious concepts to accommodate the cultures of new converts. For this essay, choose ONE PAIR of documents and explore some of the adaptations or accommodations made by one salvation religion as it expanded from its origins to meet the expectations of another culture. What changes did they make? What tactics did they use to either bring in new converts or accommodate the religious beliefs of others? Why do you think they used these tactics?

  • 7.1a “The Lotus Sutra” and 7.1b Mou Tzu, The Disposition of Error (Buddhism)
  • 7.3a Romans I, 5, 10; Matthew 5, 6 from the New Testament and 7.3b Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks (Christianity)
  • 7.4a Quran, Selections and 7.4b “The Pact of Umar” (Islam)

Question #6: 

The accounts of travellers are crucial documents for our understanding of world history before 1550. These texts provide us with insight into the culture of the person travelling as well as the culture of the places they visit. In some cases, the “traveller” did not actually leave them home and instead relied upon reports written by others to write their own travelogue. Choose TWO of the documents below and explore their perspectives on the places they wrote about. How did they view these other cultures? What can we learn about the culture of the authors themselves from these documents? For those who did not physically travel to the places they wrote about (and relied on the words of others), does that matter? Why or why not?

  • 8.3 “Informed Officials: Zhau Rugua, Descriptions of the Barbarous Peoples“
  • 8.4 “Worldly Travellers: Ibn Battuta, Travels“
  • 9.4 “India: Abdul Raiban al-Biruni, Description of India”
  • 10.2 “Ghana: Abu Ubayd Allah al-Bakri,  The Book of Routes and Realms“

Question #7:

Historical sources tend to come from one of two perspectives: internal or external. Internal perspectives refer to primary sources that reflect the viewpoint of someone who is from the group or culture being discussed. In contract, external perspectives represent the viewpoint from someone who is from outside the group or culture being explored. Choose one of the following pairs of primary sources and consider what perspective each source gives us of the group or events being discussed and how we can use such opposing sources to help us understand those groups or events. 

  • 12.1a “The Siege of Antioch: Fulcher of Chartres, Chronicle” and “The Siege of Antioch: Ibn Al-Athir, The Perfect History” (The First Crusade)
  • 13.1a The Secret History of the Mongols and 13.1b Ibn Al-Athir, The Perfect History (Mongols)

Question #8

In the fifteenth century, China and the European kingdoms of Portugal and Spain sponsored sea voyages to other lands for very different reasons. As a result, their attitudes upon encountering new people and cultures was not the same. Choose one document from China and one from either Portugal or Spain and compare the similarities and differences between the attitudes of those going on these voyages towards the people they met and the cultures they encountered. How do you think the different goals of these sea voyages for each of these states influenced their attitudes towards those they met?

  • 14.2a Zheng He, Inscription of World Voyages (China)
  • 14.2b Ma Huan, Overall Survey of the Ocean Shores (China)
  • 14.3a Vasco da Gama, A Journal of the First Voyage (Portugal)
  • 14.3b Christopher Columbus, Letter (Spain)

Footnotes

Students are asked to use formal footnotes for this assignment based on the Chicago manual of style (see below). Brackets with the author’s name and the page number are not acceptable for this assignment.

 When to footnote:

Footnotes allow the reader to check sources and verify information. If you are quoting someone or summarizing other people’s ideas, you also need to cite them in order to avoid plagiarism. Remember that you do not need to footnote common knowledge.

Use footnotes:

  • to identify and document quotations
  • to acknowledge and give exact references to the words and ideas of others, even if you paraphrase or summarize them in your own words
  • to provide additional relevant information or comments that do not fit into the text

Format

Source by one author in a book edited by another author:

Hippocrates, “On the Sacred Disease” in Sources for the Frameworks of World History, eds. Lynne Miles-Morillo and Stephen Morillo, (Oxford University Press, 2014): 31.

Confucius, “The Analects” in Sources for the Frameworks of World History, eds. Lynne Miles-Morillo and Stephen Morillo, (Oxford University Press, 2014): 35.

Source with no known author:

“Devotional Hinduism: The Vishnu Purana” in Sources for the Frameworks of World History, eds. Lynne Miles-Morillo and Stephen Morillo, (Oxford University Press, 2014): 88.

 Footnotes for subsequent references:

Use the author’s last name, abbreviated version of the text, and page number.

First footnote

Ammianus Marcellinus, “On the Huns” in Sources for the Frameworks of World History, eds. Lynne Miles-Morillo and Stephen Morillo, (Oxford University Press, 2014): 124.

Subsequent footnote:

Marcellinus, “On the Huns”, 123.

Footnotes for subsequent references from sources with no known author

First footnote:

“Popol Vuh” in Sources for the Frameworks of World History, eds. Lynne Miles-Morillo and Stephen Morillo, (Oxford University Press, 2014): 157.

Subsequent footnote:

“Popol Vuh”, 158.