Instructions for Core Signature Assignment
Goals of this Paper:
The purpose of this assignment is to advance your ability to reason through an answer to a
specific historical question and to express your ideas in writing.
Thus:
• Your paper should briefly introduce your paper’s topic or question and provide a thesis statement. In a
paper of this size, your introduction and topic statement should appear on the first page, in the paper’s first
paragraph.
• Your paper should show that you reasoned through the evidence in a fair-minded way. In other words you
should state (paraphrase) what your evidence says and not what you wish it said or you think it should say.
You need to state the evidence fairly, even if you think it wrong or offensive.
• Your paper should use evidence to answer the historical question. You need to explain how the evidence
answers the question. The easiest way to figure this is to think through your evidence and argument using
one or more of the key concepts for this course.
• Your paper should develop and organize your thoughts clearly and logically. Use paragraphs and topic
sentences. Outlining is a necessary, but not required, step in writing a well-organized paper. Paragraph
organization and the use of topic sentences is essential.
• Your paper should draw a conclusion that addresses the paper’s chief topic or question and that states your
answer to the question or your contribution to the topic.
Format:
• Submission to Blackboard Learn: uploaded Word document
• Typewritten, double-spaced
• Length – Times New Roman, 12 pt., 500-750 minimum
• Citation – Chicago (Turabian), MLA, or parenthetical page citation
Prompt:
The source for this assignment is a scholarly secondary source. A scholarly source includes footnotes or endnotes
and is authored by an expert in the field.
In your essay, explain the author’s main argument and how the author draws on historical evidence to advance that argument.
What do you think is an important limitation of this secondary source? How does the history found in the secondary source seem to connect to a broader idea, theme,debate, or issue in history?
Support your explanation and evaluation with specific evidence from the scholarly workunder examination.
Required Sources: “Eisenhower: The First NATO SACEUR”, Alexander M. Bielakowski
Academic Honesty:
• Cite your source for any statement (quoted or paraphrased) that is not common knowledge or that is not
your original analysis
• Provide citations consistently throughout your paper (good rule of thumb: at least one citation per
paragraph, although the introduction and conclusion may not require citation)
• Place quotation marks around phrases/sentences that represent the words of someone else
• Use true paraphrasing rather than poor paraphrasing to avoid plagiarism
See UHD Academic Honesty Policy Statement: http://www.uhd.edu/about/hr/PS03A19.pdf
See UHD Library guide on plagiarism: http://library.uhd.edu/print_content.php?pid=244634&sid=2021127.
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