The only source you need is “Discovering the American Past; A Look at the Evidence” vol. 2 8th edition 2017
To write these essays:
1. Find the question/problem posed at the beginning of each DAP chapter in “The Problem” section. Your answer to this question(s) will become the thesis of your essay.
2. Understand that “The Problem” and “The Background” sections are secondary source material that gives you some context for the question/problem that you are analyzing. They were written by Wheeler and Glover in the 21st century.
3. “The Evidence” section gives you primary sources. These sources were written in 17th, 18th, or 19th centuries, and they are always the most important part of every chapter. Read them carefully, keeping the problem/question in mind as you are seeking evidence to answer it.
4. Think about the primary source evidence. Your job is to use the primary source evidence to develop an answer to the question/problem. That answer becomes your argument, your thesis.
5. Write a brief introductory paragraph in which you establish context – where, what, who, when, and state your thesis.
6. The rest of your essay should, in clear, clean, and concise prose, support your thesis with evidence (from the primary sources) and analysis.
7. Remember: you do not need to consult any outside sources. DAP has compiled the sources for you. No further research is necessary. Also remember: you are making and supporting an argument; you are not writing a summary of the evidence or a summary of the material in “The Background” section.
8. When you quote, cite the source in a footnote. Historians use Chicago-style citations; that is what you should use. Microsoft Word will do much of the work for you (see Notes on Footnotes below). A bibliography is not required.
Notes on Footnotes
How to insert footnotes into the text of your DAP essay:
Put the cursor directly after the quotation or sentence you wish to cite.
From the horizontal menu at the top of the page, select References, then Insert Footnote. A superscript number will appear after your quotation/sentence, and a matching superscript number will appear at the bottom of the page.
Type your footnote at the bottom of the page. The font size will be smaller automatically.
Examples of Chicago-style footnotes:
If Anne Hutchinson said something on page 51 in DAP that you would like to quote as evidence, the footnote would look like this:
Anne Hutchinson, in William Wheeler and Lorri Glover, Discovering the American
Past: A Look at the Evidence, 8th ed (Boston: Cengage Learning, 2012), 51.
Your first footnote should look exactly like the above. The only variables, of course, are the name of the person you are quoting and the page number. Insert the name of whomever you are quoting, and the page number where it is found. (You can copy everything but those variables!)
Subsequent footnotes from DAP that appear in your essay will be shorter. You do not have to give a full citation for a book you have already cited. So, second, third, fourth, etc. footnotes from DAP should look like this:
Governor John Winthrop, in Wheeler and Glover, 53.
Use the name of the person you are quoting, the last names of the authors, and the page
number where the quote or idea appears.
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