Think of this essay as a formal history essay,

1. Think of this essay as a formal history essay, with one centerpiece (the artifact) around which you build your argument. Do not use the first person: Do not start a sentence with “I” or “we”. Use a formal style like what you would find in a textbook or encyclopedia.

2. Your argument (presented in your thesis) is your argument about what artifact teaches about the time period during which it was created.

3. For help with preparing history essays, view the following:

https://writingproject.fas.harvard.edu/files/hwp/files/bg_writing_history.pdf (Links to an external site.)

(Links to an external site.)https://history.rutgers.edu/component/content/arti…-torical-essays-a-guide-for-undergraduates
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/haywardp/hist213/writing.htm (Links to an external site.)

4. Sources: You are required to use at least three academic books or articles outside of the textbook to provide more information about your object and/or the time period in question

You must include a short bibliography at the end of the paper. You may use MLA format
You should use footnotes or in-text citations throughout the paper (depending on the citation style you choose: Chicago or MLA). This lets me know where you found your information.
Do not use websites. You can use academic articles or books from the library.
Encyclopedias do not count as academic sources. They are references. They can be good starting points and can give you ideas about the terms that you will search for while trying to investigate your object more deeply, but use them only as a springboard to get to academic sources (written by someone with credentials in the field of history or related fields like archaeology or religious studies).
You can list it in your bibliography.
The library has several encyclopedia online, which you can find by clicking the Articles button above the search box on the library home page and scrolling down.
It does not count towards the three academic sources you need to fulfill the criteria of this paper.

To be included in the paper: