Family and marriage of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Chinese immigrant

Thesis statement 

Students must, in a single sentence, state the argument (thesis) of the article. Remember that a thesis statement is not merely a statement of fact or summary of the article; nor is it an opinion of the article’s quality or of the author’s content. A thesis statement frames an argument about a particular subject, and typically answers why/how in addition to what/where. Students must write the thesis statement without copying or paraphrasing the article’s thesis statement (especially if it is clearly available in the article’s introduction or abstract). This part of your paper should also serve as an introduction to your paper. Overall, it should be 1 paragraph, with the thesis statement being a single sentence (though possibly a long sentence). Your thesis statement should be underlined and italicized, like this sentence. 

Rubric: 

30 points The thesis statement is clear, concise, and accurately reflects the article. 

20 points The thesis statement lacks clarity or is too long, but is still an effective statement of the article’s argument. 

10 points The “thesis statement” is simply a summary of the article or an expression of personal opinion. 

0 points The student does not attempt this part of the assignment. 

30 points: What is the article’s evidence? 

After you have made your thesis statement about the article, you need to show your evidence for that thesis statement. In three to five paragraphs, explain how the article’s author supported their thesis. In this section of your paper, you must cite your information, explaining where in the article you found this evidence. You may do this with a simple parenthetical citation showing the page number, like this (322). Remember to use the article’s page number, not the PDF’s page number (articles originally appear in magazines or journals, which are sometimes numbered by year and not by individually issue, and thus may have very high page numbers). 

Rubric 

30 points The student has thoroughly examined the article’s evidence, providing at least five distinct examples from the text. The student has also used citations for their information.

20 points The student has partly examined the article’s evidence, providing at least three distinct examples from the text, OR has done at least 5 as above but the evidence is poorly explained and organized and/or uncited. 

10 points The student has done some examination of the article’s evidence, providing at least three distinct examples from the text, but the evidence is poorly organized and/or uncited. 

0 points The student has not attempted this section of the assignment or has provided fewer than 3 distinct examples from the text. 

-10 or more There is a grade deduction if the student’s examples only come from a small section of the article. Make sure to draw examples from the entire article, not only the first two or three pages. 

20 points: Proofreading 

In the professional world, it is a vitally important skill to be able to communicate clearly, especially in writing—to be able to express yourself with a minimum of errors, typos, etc. so that your reader can clearly understand what you are saying. We write constantly, especially in emails and texts, and being able to do so with clarity (and maybe a little panache) sets someone above the norm in the workplace. To help train students to write clearly and effectively, this assignment is heavily graded on your proofreading and clarity. We will have several in-class activities to help with proofreading, and students are strongly encouraged to send/bring rough drafts to the instructor (see “Assistance from the Instructor” towards the end of this assignment). 

Rubric 

20 points The student’s paper has a minimum of typographical, spelling, word choice, or organizational errors. It avoids colloquial language (“back in the day,” “so President Roosevelt was all like…”, etc), does not use profanity or slang, does not use contractions (don’t, isn’t, etc.) and is written in the third person (avoid I, me, we, us, our, you, yours). You may use slang/colloquialisms if you are quoting part of the article. 

15 points The paper has some errors from the list above 

10 points The paper has numerous errors from the list above, such that it affects the paper’s clarity 

0 points The paper has numerous errors and shows little or no sign of having been proofread before being turned in. 

10 points: What are the article’s sources? 

Historians write some of the most heavily researched articles and books in academia. It is common for a historian to read over a hundred distinct sources before writing their article, examining both the work of other historians (secondary sources) as well as direct historical evidence (primary sources). In this assignment, students are to examine the sources used in the article and write 1-2 paragraphs explaining what kinds of secondary and primary sources the article used. Are there any particularly common sources (a book cited repeatedly, for example)? What archives or museums did the historian visit? Did the historian interview people? This part of the assignment will require you to examine the articles’ footnotes and works cited page. 

Rubric 

10 points The student provides a brief summary of what secondary and primary sources were used in the article, and explains what kinds of sources (or specific sources) that the article relied upon most heavily. 

5 points The student provides a summary of the sources, but does not closely analyze those sources and/or does not explain what kind of sources were used. 

0 points The student does not attempt this part of the assignment. 

10 points: How does the article connect with the course? 

You should write 1-2 paragraphs explaining, with citations to lectures/course readings, how the article connects to the course. What similar issues/concepts does it address? Does it disagree with course material? How does it enhance, if at all, your understanding of the course material? You must cite the course material to which the reading connects, but author/page (if a reading) or by lecture number/slide (if a lecture). 

Rubric 

10 points The students explains connections to the course, using citations of the course material. Connections are explained and not merely stated. 

5 points The student states, but does not explain, connections to the course, and/or does not use citations. 

0 points The student does not attempt or otherwise does not successfully complete this part of the assignment. 

Conclusion? 

You should write a brief conclusion to your essay (1 paragraph) which should tie back into the thesis statement you made in paragraph 1. Failure to write a conclusion will be factored into your proofreading grade. 

Direct quotations? 

For this assignment, students may use a maximum of ONE (1) line of directly quoted material from the text. This may NOT be part of your thesis statement. The quote, if used, must be cited. Failure to cite a quote, or using too many quotes, will result in -10 points (failure to cite) or -10 or more points if using too many quotes. This rule is intended to make sure that students are doing their own writing and not drawing large quotes out of the text). 

Total length? 

Your paper must be 3-4 pages long, with an introductory and concluding paragraphs, plenty of support from the article, a paragraph on sources, and 1-2 paragraphs on how the article connects to class. Remember that writing 60% of a single page does not count as 1 page. A paper that is too short will at least run into grade problems in the “Evidence” section of the rubric, and will probably also suffer in the “Proofreading” and “Sources” sections. 

Using up space with extra spaces between paragraphs, a large title section, etc. will result in a grade reduction as deemed appropriate by the instructor. 

Paper Format? 

Use 12 point font, double spacing, no spaces between paragraphs, 1” margins, and Calibri or Times New Roman font. See the last page for an example of spacing and formatting. DO NOT use a lengthy title section. Instead, at the top of page 1, write your title like so: 

Your First and Last Name 

“Article Title,” Author, Publication Year 

See the last page of these instructions for a sample page of how the paper is to be formatted.