{"id":62,"date":"2026-08-30T20:38:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T20:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/?page_id=62"},"modified":"2026-09-22T12:45:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T12:45:15","slug":"second-essay-teaching-private-martin","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/assignments\/second-essay-teaching-private-martin\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Essay &#8211;Teaching Private Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Due by October 26, 2026 via EMAIL<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>By <strong>Monday, October 26,<\/strong> students will submit a 4- to 6-page essay (typed, double spaced) by email attachment that answers this question:&nbsp; What are the most important insights about the Revolutionary War that teachers and students can find in Pvt. Joseph Martin\u2019s memoir of his Continental Army service?&nbsp; Students must explain their arguments for classroom significance within the framework of an interpretive essay that includes at least 2-3 academic secondary sources, properly cited with Chicago-style footnotes.&nbsp; Essays will be graded on depth of analysis, use of evidence, and quality of prose.&nbsp; Late essays will be penalized up to 5 points each day.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Submit essays by email attachment (PDF or Word) and not by shared documents<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Please open your paper with a descriptive title and your byline.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><i>Organize your essay in a way that respects chronology and historical context.<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i class=\"ContentPasted0\">Use past tense except when describing modern scholarship<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i class=\"ContentPasted0\">Avoid first person pronouns, including \u201cour\u201d<\/i><\/li>\n<li><em>Prof. Pinsker is available to answer questions or review drafts over email until Sunday afternoon, October 25<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All essays must include both primary and secondary source material properly cited using Chicago-style footnotes. Outside research is allowed but not required.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Make sure to devise a thesis statement that can be effectively argued in a short paper.&nbsp; Consult the Methods Center handout on&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2011\/08\/HANDOUT-How-to-Write-a-Thesis-Statement1.pdf\">How to Write a Thesis Statement<\/a><\/em><em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Make sure you are formatting your footnotes correctly (see some of the samples below).&nbsp; For further guidance, see this methods handout on&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2011\/08\/HANDOUT-How-to-Use-Footnotes2.pdf\">How to Use Footnotes<\/a><\/em><em>&nbsp;and consult as needed with the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagomanualofstyle.org\/tools_citationguide\/citation-guide-1.html\">library\u2019s Chicago-style guide<\/a>, but make sure to use sample footnote models for formatting and NOT bibliography examples.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Sample Footnotes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[1] Gordon S. Wood,&nbsp;<em>American Revolution: A History&nbsp;<\/em>(New York: Modern Library, 2002), 25.<\/p>\n<p>[2] Wood, 48.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grading<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Essays will be graded on depth of analysis, use of evidence, and quality of prose. Late essays will be penalized up to 5 points each day.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Don\u2019t underestimate the importance of integrating your quoted evidence with some degree of fluidity.&nbsp; Awkwardly inserting quotations is one of the hallmarks of mediocre undergraduate essays.&nbsp; Consult&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2011\/08\/HANDOUT-How-to-Use-Quotations.pdf\">this handout<\/a>&nbsp;from the methods center for a range of good tips.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Also, please guard against plagiarism.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2010\/09\/Handout-Plagiarism-2.pdf\">Remember our discussion from early in the semester<\/a>.&nbsp; Never write your own words while looking directly at your sources, especially secondary sources \u2013unless you are quoting them.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>And finally, always remember to proofread your work by printing it out and reading it aloud, slowly. See our methods handout on&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/files\/2011\/08\/HANDOUT-How-to-Proofreed.pdf\">How to Proofreed<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;<em>[sic]<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Due by October 26, 2026 via EMAIL By Monday, October 26, students will submit a 4- to 6-page essay (typed, double spaced) by email attachment that answers this question:&nbsp; What are the most important insights about the Revolutionary War that teachers and students can find in Pvt. Joseph Martin\u2019s memoir of his Continental Army service?&nbsp; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":373,"featured_media":0,"parent":39,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-62","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions\/158"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}