MEDIEVAL HISTORY
Semester Paper
Basic Instructions: Subject: Medieval History (400-1500 A.D./C.E.) Topic: Something in the period that interests you
Length: 5-7 pages; double-spaced typewritten (pages must be numbered!)
Citation: Footnotes or Endnotes of the sort used by historians
To learn how to set up proper footnotes for writing a work of history, access the following website: http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/footnote.html Rules for Submission: (b) If you have used a short article such as one finds in an encyclopedia, then print the title page of the book/encyclopedia in which you found it and the entire short article.
(a) The title of your paper Date Due: Last Wednesday class period of the semester. (Note: This does not mean the reading period or the exam day! In such cases, a penalty will be assessed!!) Final Warning to All Students: Papers not submitted in the proper form or at the proper time (1) may incur a penalty or (2) may not even be accepted or graded. General Suggestions for Approaching a Research Paper: 1. Choosing a Topic (a) The topic should be something that is of enough interest to you to spend the time to do it well. (b) Do not choose such a large topic that you cannot cover it adequately within the assigned page limit. It is always better to do a thorough job on a more limited topic. It is for precisely this reason that I ask you to hand in a brief perspectus; in that way, I can help you fine-tune your efforts.(c) By the 7th week of the semester, all students should have chosen (at least tentatively) their topic, written and submitted a short, 1-paragraph description of that topic, and begun to gather research materials. If a student wishes to consult with the professor, consultations will be held during office hours. 2. Sources and the Importance of Primary Material (a) The paper should use and cite roughly a half dozen sources. Wikipedia will not be accepted as a valid source of information in your paper without your citing at least one other source corroborating any piece of information that you have taken from Wikipedia.(b) At least several of the research sources should come from places other than the web. (Books, articles, etc.) (c) At least one of these sources and preferably several should be primary in nature. No research paper should be based entirely upon secondary sources. Few if any such articles are ever worth writing.3. Avoiding Plagiarism Write in your own words, combining information from different sources. This is the best way to avoid one of the most deadly of intellectual sins--PLAGIARISM. An Added Suggestion from your Professor: My academic mentor, J. H. Hexter, one of the twentieth century's foremost historians of the early modern period, regularly told his graduate students “your historical writing will only be as good as the questions you ask.” This is good advice for undergraduates as well. All good historical writing must do more than just convey information; while names, facts, and dates form the vocabulary of history, they are not its end-all-and-be-all. Instead, they should be used as needed to answer those "good questions" to which Jack Hexter was referring. • Were the Knights Templar largely responsible for their own fate? • What were the relative merits of the longbow and crossbow and can either be said to have been a better weapon? • How would the life of an agricultural peasant differ from that of a city worker and which existence might seem more desireable? • Was Joan of Arc guilty of the charges brought against her and were these charges realistic in a medieval context? • If the Roman legion was such a military marvel, why did the Middle Ages abandon its use? • How, when, and why did scroll-based writing of the ancient world give way to the book format we still use? • What were the advantages and disadvantages characteristic of chain mail and plate armor and why did one largely replace the other as the Middle Ages progress These are but a very small sampling of the innumerable questions that
could be explored in an interesting and informative paper. The two following are examples of how one might enter the same paper on the fall of the Knights Templar and the degree to which they bore responsibility for their own demise: Here is a simple way into the topic that sets forth a thesis around which the paper will be based, namely the fact that the actions and activities of this religious order helped bring about its fall.
Now if I were writing the paper on how the Knights
Templar helped bring about their own sorry fate, I would tend to start my essay
somewhat more expansively and dramatically, a writer's trick for holding
the attention of his/her readers. On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV “the Fair” (1285-1314) had royal officials suddenly and without warning arrest every member of the Templar Order throughout France. In the next seven years, these men would be imprisoned, tortured, and forced to confess to numerous crime. In 1312, Pope Clement V (1305-1314), due largely to pressure exerted by the French king, disestablished the order and distributed its property among other orders of the church, in particular, the rival Knights Hospitaler. Two years later, when the Master of the Order, Jacques de Molay, and several of his subordinates retracted their confessions, Philip had them publicly burned at the stake. While contemporaries found these events strange and shocking, the fact that they took place should not really come as any surprise. In many ways, by their own attitudes and actions, the Templars played an extensive role in their own undoing. Note: in my short opening passage, I have tried to accomplish two things: Jack would be proud of me!! |