Students must write a paper that is double spaced, 12-point font, Times New Roman, no heading on the paper, and the student’s name written at the very end of the essay on the next line.  The paper should be around 1400 words and it must be well-researched, well-written, and 100% original. Failure to demonstrate the ability to follow these basic directions will result in a letter grade deduction off of the assignment.  Your work must be submitted inside Canvas through the PSA Module.

If your submission is unoriginal (stolen/plagiarized), you will receive a zero and your actions will be reported to the Dean of Student Services, which will be noted on your permanent record/transcript. If you are unclear in any way about what plagiarism is, you must complete the following tutorial: . Ignorance is not a defense in the case of plagiarism. The easiest way to avoid plagiarism is to avoid being lazy by mastering and knowing your sources inside and out, and never copying and pasting work from anywhere into your paper.

Points to Consider/Include in your PSA:

• Your topic must pertain to the timeframe involved in this class
• The document you use for this assignment can come from anywhere you find it as long as it relates to a topic we are covering in the course, but be prepared to write about where it came from and make sure that your source of information is legitimate (which itself can take a bit of research to figure out).
  • Make sure that the source you pick is something you are genuinely excited about researching.
• Be sure that it is a primary source and not a secondary source.
• What is the source, where does it come from, and how/when/why was it created?
• Why do you think this document exists? What evidence in the document helps you know why it was created? (You may quote from the documents you research or from the source you used but be sure to list the citation in a footnote.  See here for more details:  
  • Please Note: I will not take off point for messing up the exact format of a footnote, but I will take off if you do not use footnotes. Try them and you will be fine.  I want you to get used to using them, but at this stage of your academic career I do not care if you list them exactly the way they are supposed to be.
• Provide information on what the document tells you about life at the time and place it was written. Please note that you will need to do some research on your own to find out who wrote it and where, and what the times were like when it was produced.
• What is the overall significance of the document? (You may use information from our class to answer this, but you can also consult information from the library or online as well)
• Are there questions left unanswered in the document?
• What important historical events were taking place at the time it was written that might have impacted the authors perspective?
• What Unit of our course does this document fit into? How does it compliment or contradict what you learned about this Unit in our course?