Clara Barton
ESSAY ASSIGNMENT
Write an essay on topic related to United States history to 1865.
Select a general topic proposal for instructor approval during the first week of the course.
Below, a folder contains topic ideas from which students can make their selections. These topics are biographical in nature and are not meant to be comprehensive, just an overview of potential topics.
PURPOSE OF ESSAY
The purpose of the essay is to present a HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. You must make a claim and use reasoning/evidence to support that claim.
CLAIMS: A claim is a position that can be argued; strong claims are compelling, debatable and defensible.
REASONS: Claims should be supported with specific reasoning which is your evidence. Ideally, students would include three reasons to support their claim.
