Hi everyone,
I would like to clarify the expectations regarding the draft that is due next week.
The draft should be at least 2 pages long (normal 1-inch margins, double-spaced), and you should provide a point-form outline for the material that you intend to write about, but haven’t written yet.
The most important thing that I need to see in your draft is a fully-developed introduction. In your introductory paragraph, you should articulate a clear overall argument. You should also ‘signpost‘ the various points that you are going to address in later in the paper. Just to give you a sense of what that might look like, let me use the example of Question 2 in your midterm:
2) Please compare the Taiping Rebellion and the Boxer Uprising in their causes, goals, means of mobilization, and the ways in which they were suppressed. Was the Taiping Rebellion a revolution? Was the Boxer Uprising a nationalist movement?
“The Taiping Rebellion and the the Boxer Uprising share some basic similarities in that they were both fueled by peasant unrest resulting from financial hardship and ecological disasters. However, they were ultimately very different phenomena in terms of their goals and means of mobilizing support. They also differed in terms of how they were suppressed. In this essay, I will show how both the Taiping Rebellion and the Boxer uprising were caused by ecological disasters and the failure of the Imperial state to address the needs of its subjects [2nd para]. I will go on to show that the goals of the Boxer Uprising and Taiping Rebellion varied greatly, because one aimed to support the Qing Court while the other aimed to overthrow the Imperial government [3rd para]. I will also show how the Boxers drew on deep rural conservatism and traditional Chinese values to mobilize support, whereas the Taiping movement mobilized support by promising to overturn the social order in favor of previously marginalized people [4th para]. I will also show that the Taipings and the Boxers were suppressed in different ways, for different reasons [5th para]. Finally, I will show how the Taiping rebellion was an attempted revolution, but the Boxer uprising was a proto-nationalist movement [Final para].”
Just to be clear, this isn’t a model answer for the midterm, it is simply an illustration of what a proper introduction should look like. If you’re still wondering how to formulate a clear argument, the trick is force yourself to answer the question as directly as possible.
The reason why I’m asking you to develop a proper introduction is so that I will be able to catch your mistakes early on, and this will help me to help you improve your final paper.
0 comments