{"id":70,"date":"2026-08-31T14:44:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T14:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/?page_id=70"},"modified":"2026-08-31T14:44:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T14:44:46","slug":"final-paper","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/assignments\/final-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Due by Wednesday, December 16 by email<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p>By&nbsp;<strong>Wednesday, December 16<\/strong>, students will submit a 10- to 12-page interpretive paper that analyzes&nbsp;one of the documents included in Ted Widmer\u2019s book, <em>The Living Declaration <\/em>(2026), explaining why it is significant for understanding how the public memory of the Declaration of Independence has evolved over the years. Students should build their papers on a strong foundation of primary and secondary sources, including those outlined in their research journal posts.&nbsp; All papers should be typed and double-spaced as Word or PDF documents with title page and Chicago-style footnotes (no bibliography required). Papers will be graded on research effort, depth of analysis, and quality of prose.&nbsp; Late papers will typically not be accepted after December 16.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Submit papers by EMAIL ATTACHMENT (not shared documents)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Prof. Pinsker will be available to review drafts over email until the day before the deadline:&nbsp; Tuesday afternoon, December 15<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Please open your paper with a descriptive title and your name (byline).<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Make sure to address a question and 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>Research effort is key for this paper.&nbsp; You will need to find both relevant primary and secondary sources. To get started, look carefully at the course\u2019s site&nbsp;web guide, but also remember that often it is easiest to find primary sources only AFTER reviewing some basic secondary (and especially reference) sources.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em><em>You can find high quality academic sources via our&nbsp;<strong>online library catalog<\/strong>&nbsp;or through database resources such as&nbsp;<strong>JSTOR<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>America: History &amp; Life<\/strong>.&nbsp; Take advantage of&nbsp;<strong>Google Books<\/strong>&nbsp;as well for its full text search capability and extensive snippet view. The most important reference source starting point, however, is&nbsp;<strong>American National Biography Online<\/strong>&nbsp;(available through the library database finder.&nbsp; Also make sure to c<\/em><em>onsult the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/libguides.dickinson.edu\/history\">History research guide<\/a>&nbsp;from the library.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Here is a model student paper from a different class but one that involves good narrative and legal \/ political issues connected to the Second Founding:&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong>Aidan McDonald,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-288pinsker\/files\/2020\/08\/McDonald-Paper-on-Ackerman.pdf\">Amos T. Ackerman and Reconstruction<\/a> (Spring 2016)<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\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>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>&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.<\/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 the very first day of the semester<\/a>.&nbsp; Never write your own words while looking directly at your sources, especially secondary sources \u2013unless you are quoting them.&nbsp; DO NOT USE AI TOOLS to assist in your efforts other than as a search engine.<\/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>&nbsp;[sic]<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Due by Wednesday, December 16 by email By&nbsp;Wednesday, December 16, students will submit a 10- to 12-page interpretive paper that analyzes&nbsp;one of the documents included in Ted Widmer\u2019s book, The Living Declaration (2026), explaining why it is significant for understanding how the public memory of the Declaration of Independence has evolved over the years. Students [&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-70","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/70","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=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-1776\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/70\/revisions\/71"}],"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=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}