Paper Length: 2-3 pages, typed double-spaced (about 600-900 words)
Purpose: To give you practice in close reading of a primary source, a skill that is one of the most important building blocks of historical research and for critical assessment of texts in general.
Assignment: Discuss a single theme in one of the primary sources we have read for this course, listed below.
DO Identify a key theme or angle within the text, for example, Martin Luther’s views on free will. Have a clear thesis. Your thesis should be about the source¸ not some larger question such as why the Reformation happened. It may help to think of this as an English paper, as this requires the same sort of close-reading technique. Base your paper entirely on your source, using lots of short quotations to support your points.
DON’T Repeat lecture material or general context. This should be strictly limited to a sentence or two at most. You may assume your reader already knows the basic outlines of early modern history.
Citations: For this paper, you can simply refer to your source by author and title in parenthesis. For example: Luther, “Freedom of a Christian”
Sources you may use:
Condemnation of Wycliffe; Wycliffe, Reply
Martin Luther, “Freedom of a Christian”
NEW: Luther, “To the Christian Nobility”
Galileo, Letter to Duchess Christina
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