Biography Assignment
You are exposed to history every day through monuments, museums, discussions with friends and family, the news, and popular culture. It is important to be able to assess this history and to see why it is being told. History is used to make political and social arguments, to tell cool stories, or to comment on human psychology. Biographies are perhaps the best way to understand an era, and role that individuals can have in history. In consultation with the professor, you will select someone and write a 500-600-word biographical sketch. The person selected should have historical significance, but this can be in a variety of ways, be it political, social, cultural, religious, or otherwise. While basic biographical data (when born, where lived, etc.) is important, the biography should focus on your subject’s contributions to broader society. Explore your subject’s ideas and actions and place them in the broader context of the course. You must also use at least two scholarly sources – academically published books, articles from JSTOR, primary sources, historical newspapers, etc., and proper citations. These sources must be cited with footnotes in the Chicago style. Please consult with the professor or the GMC librarian if you are unsure what constitutes a scholarly source. Simply pulling information from Wikipedia, biography.com, History.com or other non-academic source will result in an automatic 20% deduction from the grade.
When pulling information or quotes from primary sources, use the Chicago format for your footnotes.[1] Here’s an example.[2] Primary sources on Moodle should have a partial citation handwritten on them. Use WorldCat.org or Amazon.com to look up full publishing and authorial information for the book. Please contact me if you are unable to find information about sources on Moodle or distributed in class.
For information from lecture or class discussion, use this format.[3] If you do not know the title or date of a lecture topic, please contact me.
When using ideas, arguments, or information from the textbook, use this format.[4]
For further help with Chicago style citations, see the Purdue Online Writing Lab: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/chicago_manual_of_style_17th_edition.html
The main purpose of this assignment is to develop your ability to understand conduct academic research and learn to assess the impact that a person can have on the broader world. The assignment is due Monday, 6 December 2020. Submit your paper through Moodle and with a hard copy in class that day. Citations (i.e. footnotes) are required and must be in Chicago format. You do not need to provide a bibliography.
You will also give a five-minute presentation summarizing your findings on 6 or 7 December. The oral presentation will be graded based on the Biography Rubric located on Moodle. Written assignment: 10% of course grade. Class presentation: 5% of grade.
Though there are many ways to organize and tell a biography, the following is a list of topics and questions that you must answer:
1) When and where did your subject live (10% of written grade)?
2) What is your subject best known for (20% of grade)?
3) What ideas, proposals, innovations, or insights did your subject have that influenced the broader culture (25% of grade)?
4) Why should we care about your subject? What did he or she do that mattered at the time, and what did he or she do that matters today (25% of grade)?
You should not simply summarize the Wikipedia page. Use academic sources – books, academic articles, primary sources (preferably written by the person). While the nature of sources necessary can vary (an author’s novel could be used for much of a paper about that author, for example) you must use a minimum of two academic sources, though more is better. I recommend that you use the Gale Biographies in Context and World History in Context resources available via the GMC library website. Gale can provide you with a variety of authoritative summaries, articles, and primary sources. Proper sources and citations count for 20% of your grade.
Please see the sample biography posted in Moodle for ideas on how to organize and source your biography.
This assignment must be turned in via the appropriate link on Moodle and in person in class in hard copy.
[1] Author of primary source, “Title of Primary Source,” in Author of Source Book, Title of Book (City of Publication: Publisher, Publishing Year), page numbers.
[2] Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham City Jail, 1963,” in Michael P. Johnson, Reading the American Past vol. 2, 5th ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012), 254-259.
[3] John Fahey, “Name of Lecture,” Class Lecture American History II at Georgia Military College, Milledgeville, GA, Date of Lecture.
[4] Philip J. Adler and Randall L. Pouwels, World Civilizations, 8th Ed. (Boston: Cengage Learning, 2018), pg number.
What Students Are Saying About Us
.......... Customer ID: 12*** | Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"Honestly, I was afraid to send my paper to you, but you proved you are a trustworthy service. My essay was done in less than a day, and I received a brilliant piece. I didn’t even believe it was my essay at first 🙂 Great job, thank you!"
.......... Customer ID: 11***| Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"This company is the best there is. They saved me so many times, I cannot even keep count. Now I recommend it to all my friends, and none of them have complained about it. The writers here are excellent."
"Order a custom Paper on Similar Assignment at essayfount.com! No Plagiarism! Enjoy 20% Discount!"
