Your Term Paper Assignment

​  HI 208.005 
  Spring 2018 – Term Paper topic
  The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-50 (A Brief  History with Documents)
  Author John Aberth
 
  John Aberth’s book offers a well-researched introduction to the Bubonic Plague outbreak of the 14th century. The majority of the book is devoted to a collection of primary sources – sources written by persons who lived (and in some instances died) during this biomedical catastrophe.
Your task is to write an essay of no less than 1500 words on Aberth’s The Black Death. For the sake of providing guidelines to help everyone organize their work, be sure to address the following points in the course of your term paper:
  • Read Aberth’s introduction (Part One) and explain the basic course of the outbreak of the Black Plague from 1348 to 1350, including the likely origin and the historical significance of the disease. Also provide an explanation of what Aberth refers to as ‘The Plague Denial Controversy’.
  • Part Two of the book – The Documents – consists of eight chapters. After giving the primary source documents a thorough reading, provide commentary on documents from at least six of the eight chapters. Be sure to include the name of the author and the date of the document.
  • It’s certainly a best practice to focus on documents you find particularly instructive, surprising or alarming when creating your essay. It’s perfectly acceptable to write at length on a particular chapter you find compelling, as long as you also discuss documents from five other chapters.
  • Given that this is an essay assignment, feel free to use the first-person pronoun ‘I’, if that suits you. Under no circumstances, however, should you fall into what’s known as the ‘second-person narrative’ error. In other words, do not use the pronouns ‘you’ and ‘your’ in your essay.
  As I am disinclined to accept late term papers, everyone will do well to submit this assignment on time. 
   Your written assignment is noted in your course syllabus. 
​ Double-space your papers, number your pages, put your name in a header or footer on every page. I won’t be accepting late papers, so take care of your business and hit your deadline.
  Be mindful of the fact that I expect papers to be written in a formal manner. I require university-level work from you. This is neither a blog, nor a text message, nor an exercise in stream-of-consciousness rubbish. Errors in grammar, word usage, spelling, paragraph structure and style will cost you. Writing with clarity and focus is an imperative. 
Your paper must be formatted as an MSWord doc. or docx.

208 Course Syllabus

This is your link to the latest version of your course syllabus - HI 208 syllabus. 

Extra Credit Project

 The extra credit project is only available for those students who suffer a catastrophic result on their midterm exam, i.e., a grade of D or F.  If you are among the chosen ones, your first step on the path of redemption is to ask me if you can do the extra credit project. Assuming I okay you, then follow this link -  Xtra Credit - and discover the project instructions.