Topic: choose one from Edwin DeWindt’s A Slice of Life, and the other from those that have been assigned in Backman’s Medieval Omnibus or Miller’s Power and the Holy.

Order Description

This is the essay instructions, they are very specific and the documents to be referenced and compared are at the end of this page.
HIST3361 Paper Topic (due April 13 in class; 20% of final grade)
Spring 2017

One of the key ingredients in being a “historically-minded” person is being alive to the problems and possibilities of evidence. How do historians work, what evidence do they use, how do they use it, how do they figure out the best approach to reading and interpreting it, how do they frame their questions? This paper assignment is intended to encourage your thinking about these essential tasks of the historian.
You are to compare two selections from the primary sources we have read: choose one from Edwin DeWindt’s A Slice of Life, and the other from those that have been assigned in Backman’s Medieval Omnibus or Miller’s Power and the Holy.
Compare these texts as evidence, by addressing the following questions: who or what is the author(s), what is the intent of the document, who is the intended audience, what were the circumstances of composition, and what are the strengths of this text as evidence, i.e., what does it shed the strongest light on? Presumably your being more than halfway through a semester-long survey of medieval history should be useful here! Remember that your focus is not to decide whether one source is “better” or “worse” than another, but rather that different types of sources have different strengths, and that every piece of evidence will tell us something if we read it closely.

Format (please follow, as this is part of what you will be graded on)
1) Length: 10 pages, i.e. 9 pp. of text (title at top of page one, no separate title page), plus one bibliography page. Typed, double-spaced, standard margins & page numbers, with an informative, accurate, and interesting title; correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.

2) Include a bibliography page and cite any works used in Chicago Style, e.g:
Backman, Clifford R. The Worlds of Medieval Europe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
“Summa Contra Gentiles.” In A Medieval Omnibus: Sources in Medieval European History, edited by Clifford R. Backman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015, 181-182.
“Court Roll of Warboys, 8 February 1305.” In A Slice of Life: Selected Documents of Medieval English Peasant Experience, edited by Edwin DeWindt. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1996, 47-60.
“Canons of the Council of Le Puy.” In Power and the Holy in the Age of the Investiture Conflict, edited by Maureen Miller. Boston & New York: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2005, 36-38.

3) Use footnotes (not endnotes) in Chicago Style, e.g:
Clifford R. Backman, The Worlds of Medieval Europe (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 150. After first citation use shortened form: Backman, Worlds, 250.
“Summa Contra Gentiles,” in A Medieval Omnibus: Sources in Medieval European History, ed. Clifford R. Backman (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 181. After first citation use shortened form: “Summa,” 181.
“Court Rolls of Warboys, 8 February 1305,” in A Slice of Life: Selected Documents of Medieval English Peasant Experience, ed. Edwin DeWindt (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1996), 48. After first citation use shortened form: “Court Roll,” 48.
“Canons of the Council of Le Puy,” in Power and the Holy in the Age of the Investiture Conflict, ed. Maureen Miller (Boston & New York: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2005), 37. After first citation use shortened form: “Canons,” 37.

Use only class materials and cite them properly. Late papers will be docked 5 points for each day late. No internet sources. If you commit plagiarism, you will receive a 0 for the paper and have to rewrite it for no credit. What is plagiarism? The “act of taking the words, ideas, or research of another person and putting them forward without citation as if they were your own.” – Mary Lynn Rampolla. A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2007), p. 88.

These are the 2 books and the documents to compare:
1) From the book, “Slice of Life: Selected documents of Medieval English Peasant Experience”. Edited,translated and with an introduction by Edwin Brezette DeWindt. ISBN-1-879288-73-7
Document: Court Rolls of Warboys, 8 February 1305-the rolls begin on page 47-60

2) From the book, “The Worlds of Medieval Europe” by Clifford R. Backman, ISBN-978-0-19-937229-4, Chapter 15, page 456-457- On Husbandry by Walter of Henley.