Submit as a Word doc or a PDF to link in Week Fourteen Module on course Canvas p

Submit as a Word doc or a PDF to link in Week Fourteen Module on course Canvas page.
Worth 150 points/15 percent of the course grade.
Required length: See length requirements in the Task section below.
 
PURPOSE: The purpose of this assignment is for you to “do history” by pulling together your best work from the Discussion Boards over the course of the semester.  Your task is to show your intellectual growth as a historian “doing history” by studying, analyzing, and interpreting original documents. You are to pick your four best opening DB posts and assemble them with new analysis as noted in the Task section below.
 
SKILLS: The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice the following skills integral to “doing history” that are essential to your success in this course, in the university, and in professional life beyond the university.
You will begin by reflecting on your DB work over the course of the semester and you will select your four best DB initial posts. This requires self-assessment and criticism.
You will continue by searching out primary source evidence that matches the four posts selected.
Be sure to give these documents a close reading so that you can pull as much meaning as possible from them. See the Primary Source Reading Guide handout in your Week One folder for more details on how to undertake a close reading.
Next, you will assess your intellectual development over the course of the semester.
 
KNOWLEDGE: By doing this assignment you will better understand the range of issues associated with the work you have done this semester on the Discussion Boards.
 
TASK: Pick your four best initial Discussion Board posts to assemble in a portfolio.  You should have been saving your work as noted in the syllabus, but in case you did not I will have all DBs re-opened by Wednesday.  Current DBs will only open after grading is complete. The portfolio has the following requirements:
One- to two-page overview of the posts (350-500 words) that introduces the assignments selected for inclusion and explains how and why these assignments reflect your intellectual growth over the course of the semester.
Header and first of four posts to be included. Do not revise or alter from what you posted to the DB originally.
One primary document from the PDF that you addressed in your post or was integral to your thinking about that DB.
A new paragraph written for this portfolio assignment that explains why that primary document captured their attention for study of the problem under consideration (these paragraphs should be approximately 100-200 words each).
Header and second of four posts to be included. Do not revise or alter from what you posted to the DB originally.
One primary document from the PDF that you addressed in your post or was integral to your thinking about that DB.
A new paragraph written for this portfolio assignment that explains why that primary document captured their attention for study of the problem under consideration (these paragraphs should be approximately 100-200 words each).
Header and third of four posts to be included. Do not revise or alter from what you posted to the DB originally.
One primary document from the PDF that you addressed in your post or was integral to your thinking about that DB.
A new paragraph written for this portfolio assignment that explains why that primary document captured their attention for study of the problem under consideration (these paragraphs should be approximately 100-200 words each).
Header and four of four posts to be included. Do not revise or alter from what you posted to the DB originally.
One primary document from the PDF that you addressed in your post or was integral to your thinking about that DB.
A new paragraph written for this portfolio assignment that explains why that primary document captured their attention for study of the problem under consideration (these paragraphs should be approximately 100-200 words each).
A one- to two-page conclusion (350-500 words) written anew for this portfolio assignment that summarizes the main findings of the four posts and evaluates the research process of exploring the weekly Primary Document PDFs.
 
CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS:
DB Posts: Be sure that you select four introductory posts from your four best DB assignments. Do not use reply posts.
 
Primary Document PDFs: Select four documents from the Primary Document PDFs—one for each DB represented in the assignment—that most shaped your thinking about the four problems incorporated in your course portfolio.
 
Analysis/Explanation of the Primary Documents: Make sure that you carefully explain the primary documents selected for inclusion in your portfolio. Follow the guidelines from the Task section.
 
Introduction: Make sure that you have provided an analytical introduction that accords with the guidelines in the Task section above.
 
Conclusion: Make sure that you have provided an analytical conclusion that accords with the guidelines in the Task section above.
 
Late work: Late work will not be accepted under normal circumstances. Plan accordingly.
 
Citation guidelines–quotes: All quotes must be placed in quotation marks and cited using the parenthetical method according to the following examples:
 
cite primary documents by using the title or name of the document in conjunction with the name of the PDF, i.e. Mary Antin Memoir, Immigration PDF;
cite lectures by lecture title, i.e. Defining Capitalism;
cite textbook by chapter and page number, i.e. Chapter 19, page 359;
cite illustrations from the Library of Congress as follows: Available from the Library of Congress, .
 
Effective quoting: Simply quoting a primary document is not necessarily making effective use of it. You also need to explain what the document means and how that meaning advances your argument. Doing this requires that you draw inferences and synthesize information from multiple sources. In other words, be selective in quoting from the primary documents, and only quote very colorful and compelling language. For an assignment of this nature, quotes should ordinarily be 10 words or less in length and should be used sparingly.
 
Quotes and the textbook: Do not quote from the textbook.
 
Citation guidelines–paraphrasing: Paraphrasing well is an art, and paraphrased passages must be cited just like quotes. When you paraphrase you need to substantially change the wording of the original source. It is not sufficient to change a few words and retain the original sentence structure. That approach leaves you open to charges of plagiarism. Instead, you must take the idea from the original source and put it in your own words, which means a new sentence structure and significantly different word choices. See the examples below:
Original passage: “Work-sharing festivals such as house raisings, log rollings, and quiltings gave isolated farm folk the chance to break their daily routine.”
Unacceptable: Work-sharing opportunities including house construction, log gathering, and sewing gave detached farmers an opportunity to change their routine.
Acceptable: Farmers merged their social lives with their work lives to gain relief from the monotony of an agrarian existence.
Use the same citation format noted above in number 5.