MIAMI DADE COLLEGE

AMH2020

Professor N. Hernandez

American History Since 1877

Midterm Paper

Instructions:

This document contains instructions, prompts, and a rubric for your Midterm paper. As per the syllabus, the midterm is worth up to 30 points, and is 30% of your grade for the course. Please complete the midterm in a separate document, which you will submit to the Midterm assignment page in Blackboard. Your paper should be 700-1000 words (do not exceed 1000), use Chicago-Style for both citing and double-space formatting. A great citation resource is Citation Machine’s Webpage. You may also want to schedule time to meet with me during Office Hours with regards to your paper. Finally, Miami Dade College also offers tutoring to students to assist with your writing.

You are required to use one secondary source and at least two primary sources related to your topic. For your secondary source, you may use our required textbook The Unfinished Nation by Alan Brinkley. For your primary sources, a great resource is the Library of Congress webpage.

Your paper will be submitted via the Turnitin tool on Blackboard. This tool will check your paper for plagiarism, including improper citations or “over quoting”. You will receive a “similarity percentage” on your essay. If your similarity percentage is over 20%, you will be asked to re-do your paper. This re-write is optional, you can choose to accept your grade as is, or re-write the essay before our next class. For papers with a similarity percentage over 20%, your grade will be deducted 5 points for every additional 5% past the limit. For example, if your similarity percentage is 30%, your paper is 10% past the 20% allowed limitation. Thus the highest grade your paper can earn is a 20 point letter grade of a D.

You may choose any one of the following prompts as your essay question for your midterm. You may want to write about another topic not listed below…one more closely related to your specific interests…this option must be discussed with me during Office Hours prior to the day of the Midterm and must be approved beforehand. Any papers turned in on topics outside of the ones listed below or on any topic not approved by me beforehand will not be graded and will result instead in an automatic 0/30 grade.

Midterm Paper Prompts:

To what extent did technology play a role in the politics of the Great Depression era in the United States?

What were the various effects of the industrial revolution in the United States from the 19th to the early 20th centuries?

Analyze the historical agency and/or participation of Women in American society from the 19th to the early 20th centuries.

Analyze American attitudes of “othering” towards various racial groups from the post-Civil War era to 1918.

Analyze the effects of migration on American society from the 19th to the early 20th centuries.

Pre-approved topic

Rubric:

Criterion 27 – 30 Points (A) 24 – 36 Points (B) 21 – 23 points (C) 20 points or below (D / F) 1. Format The paper meets all formatting requirements. The paper is mostly in Chicago format and is not the correct length The paper follows only some Chicago formatting and is not correct length. The paper follows no specific format (or not in Chicago specifications) and is too short. 2. Topic The paper answers all the parts of the topic questions thoroughly. The paper answers some of the prompt completely but ignores other parts The paper answers only part of some of the questions. The paper fails to answer the question it set out to answer. 3. Organization The writing is clear with effective transitions and the paragraphs flow smoothly. Transitions are present but not at all times. Some of the content is choppy and does not flow smoothly The paper is choppy. The writing jumps around without clear connection. There is no apparent organization and no transitions. 4. Grammar/

Spelling There are little to no grammatical or spelling issues. Grammar and spelling problems are minimal. Most could have been fixed with proofreading There are major grammatical and spelling problems that require far more than proofreading to be fixed. The paper is almost unreadable because of the grammatical and spelling issues. 5. Use of sources and citations The paper carefully and successfully weaves source material into a cohesive whole. Citations are done correctly The use of sources is not always appropriate or correctly done. Citations are not always done correctly. The paper does not use source material in citations or fails to cite all source material. The paper does not have sources. 6. Thesis and topic sentences Thesis & topic sentences are clear and well stated. Thesis is appropriate to the topic and convincing. Thesis & topic sentences are present but are sometimes simplistic, confusing or inappropriate. Thesis & topic sentences are simplistic, confusing or inappropriate Thesis & topic sentences are unidentifiable or missing. 7. Examples and support Numerous examples, illustrations, facts, & comparisons develop & support the thesis. Good number of examples, illustrations, facts and comparisons are present but are lacking in some areas. Examples, illustrations, facts, & comparisons are superficial, Some facts may be inaccurate. No examples, illustrations, facts, & comparisons are used. 8. Timeliness* Paper was turned in on time Automatic letter grade deduction if a day late. Automatic 2 letter grades deduction if two days late Automatic 3 letter grades deduction if three or more days late