Guidelines for First Paper Assignment

Your first paper assignment is designed with two purposes in mind: (1) to help us get to know you better and (2) to assess your critical reading and writing skills. The paper should be 2-3 pages in length (no more than 750 words). It is due at the beginning of tutorial on Friday, September 23.

Using your own childhood experiences as a comparison, please answer ONE (1) of the following questions:

1. How do the disciplinary techniques employed by colonial American evangelicals compare with the current methods of disciplining children within your background or culture? Do you share Greven’s negative view of authoritarian family governance?

2. Compare the characterization of children in your own family or cultural background today with the depiction of “les petits sauvages” in eighteenth-century
New France. Do you find a similar gap between attitudes and reality?

Your paper should have a thesis (argument) that is stated clearly and succinctly in the introductory paragraph, and it should demonstrate that you have read and understood the article. Explain the main arguments presented in the reading, and compare your own background (culture and/or experience) to that of people in eighteenth-century New England or New France. You may also wish to discuss the author’s assumptions about the nature of childhood and how they differ from (or are similar to) your own. Please make sure to support your argument with plenty of concrete examples from the article and your background.

Your paper will be marked for grammar and style as well as for content. Please read over your essay to make sure that your sentences are complete and in a logical order, that your essay is in paragraphs (with a separate introduction and conclusion), and that there are no spelling or grammatical errors. Quotations should be transcribed exactly and placed in quotation marks, with page numbers following the quotation “like this.” (p. 3) You do not need to use footnotes.

Papers should be double-spaced, printed in 12-point font, and stapled in the upper left corner. Pages should be numbered. Please include a title page with the title of your essay, your name and student number, the name of your tutorial leader, and the date the essay was submitted. Your notes and rough drafts must be turned in with your essay. No folders or covers, please.

If you run into problems, please speak to your instructor. Late work without an extension will be penalized.