– This is a history class, so remember to address the topic from a historical perspective. Be specific about events, dates, and the people involved.
– Avoid overly general topics. I don’t want to read overviews that might have been written for a medical blog! For example, rather than “history of chiropractic” (too general), one might write an essay that asks how chiropractic became mainstream (by creating educational standards and licensing requirements that gave it medical legitimacy). Who were the advocates, and who were there opponents? When did this happen? What did they win and lose (ex: less diversity in the practice of chiropraxy)?
-Essay needs a question and a thesis.
– Don’t rely on google searches: you will get garbage written by amateurs. This is especially true in the alternative medicine field. There are some scary quacks out there! Search on platforms such as pubmed.gov or scholar.google.com or one of our library research databases such as JSTOR or EBSCO so that you get peer-reviewed information from experts.
– Cite your sources properly! URL strings are not proper citations. Blackboard strips away links, so make sure your sources have proper titles, authors, and publisher descriptors. I cannot be trying to check your sources by typing https://www………….! You need to have personally examined every source that you cite! Use APA style, please. If you use a citation manager such as Zotero you can get it to do the formatting for you. No excuses!
– Grading will be on:
Thesis/hypothesis/question;
Structure of essay (do the sections follow logically). Tip: use subheadings as signposts to your structure.
Discovery and appropriate use of evidence;
Mechanics (grammar, spelling, style, proper citations).
Talking of sources and evidence, it is great to use pictures, graphs, maps, diagrams, all kinds of graphics. If you take graphics from your sources, each image will need its own source citation. Try to find a good illustration for your title page – it’s not required, but it’s usually a fun thing to do and helps convey what your essay is about.