PurposeThis assignment asks you to select three primary documents illustrating episodes in the life of the significant person you selected for the biography project. Each source must address a separate episode, and as a group, they must help to answer the overarching question: “what does this person teach us about Early America?” This stage of the biography project will provide the backbone for the capstone assignment due later in the semester (week 7).Remember that primary sources are documents that provide firsthand accounts of persons, events, or ideas in the time period under study.This assignment stresses skills of value to all university majors and careers: (a) selection of appropriate source materials, and (b) placement of evidence in parallel with a broad interpretation. Both are “transferable skills” with application beyond the field of history, as they demonstrate critical thinking. The primary source excerpts are due on Friday, 2 July (11:59 pm). It is recommended that you start this stage of the project as soon as possible–the selection of strong sources may take longer than you expect.This assignment is worth 10 percent of your final grade.
02. SkillsIn this assignment you will practice curation and editing of sources pertaining to a significant individual in Early America. The specific skills include:Select primary sources that illustrate three episodes in the life of the significant person (Bloom II)
Choose excerpts that demonstrate a connection between the individual and larger issues in Early America (Bloom III)
Construct a source collection that demonstrates change in the life or world of the individual (Bloom V)
03. TaskComplete the following tasks in order to (a) select primary sources, (b) edit the sources, and (c) prepare the sources as a one-page packet.Identify one primary document for each episode identified in the biography project proposal (week 3). Search online for the following options:Items written by the individual:Personal writings: letters, journals, diaries
Official writings: correspondence, reports, memoranda
Publications: autobiographies, poems, articles
Items written by contemporaries:Comments upon the individual
Accounts of events involving the individual
Descriptions of the individual’s world
Remember that the source collection should be both latitudinal (illustrative of larger events in Early America) and longitudinal (showing change in the life of the individual)
Suggestions for locating primary sources:Begin with a broad search. Group search terms using quotations, e.g.: “Frederick Douglass” “Primary Sources”
Search for sources specific to each of three episodes in the individual’s life, e.g. “Pocahontas” “John Rolfe”
Search inside secondary sources (modern scholarship) for long-form sources or bibliographic reference to those sources (i.e., where did the author locate the source?)
Search online databases by adding search terms such as “Google Books,” “archive.org,” “HathiTrust,” or “JSTOR.” Some sites require KSU login to authenticate.
Look for source collections with titles including “reader,” “documents,” or “works.”
Be prepared to select sources from a several different materials.
Carefully read the primary sources for content and choose single-paragraph excerpts.Choose excerpts that provide a unique window into the individual’s mind or world during each episode.
Edit the excerpts down to size as needed, retaining the portions that are necessary for a reasonable understanding of the episode. Use ellipses (“…”) when removing text within a sentence and period plus ellipses (“. …”) when ending a sentence and skipping ahead.
Add short editorial comments for clarity, using brackets, e.g.: [in 1825], or [a theologian], or [a neighboring town].
Provide a one-line title that:Identifies the author
Connects it to the episode in questionIf using a single passage from a major work, retain the original title (e.g., Declaration of Independence, The Scarlet Letter)
If using “mundane” materials or multiple passages from a major work, provide a descriptive title (e.g., Reply to Edmund Randolph, A Journey on the Erie Canal)
Provides the year the source was created
Provide a full bibliographic citation below each excerpt:This is not an in-text (parenthetical) citation but rather the type given in a bibliography or works-cited page.
Citation must identify author, title of work and/or collection, editors or translators, place of publication, publisher, year, page number(s), and any other appropriate information.
Prepare the citation in a consistent form using the format of your choice (APA, MLA, Chicago).
Be aware that formats vary according to type of source (i.e., books, letters, letters in collections, etc.)
For more information, see the Biography Project: Primary Sources Rubric.
The collection must conform to the following format:One full page containing three sources
One source per episode
11-point Times New Roman or Arial
Single-spaced
1-inch margins