Japan, East Asia, and the Pacific World Source Letter Assignment 2026b

[a] Text and illustration RF

Japan, East Asia, and the Pacific World

History 212

Autumn 2026

Preliminary Writing Assignment 

Japanese Sources: The Letter

By choosing the letter format for your first writing assignment, I am asking you to build upon the skills you have already begun to develop in analyzing (and providing examples for) Japanese source materials. You have already reached a point where you have some experience with Japanese source materials, and your job will be to explain it to an intelligent non-specialist.

[b] Reaching, teaching RF

Teach it, really.

Letters from “the field” (or our modified “archive” of source materials on the syllabus) are a good way to refine your thoughts about historical study, and they are a useful medium for beginning the intellectual “framing process” that will accelerate as we move through the next two-thirds of the course. The letter writing exercise is especially useful while studying primary source materials. 

The nonfiction writer John McPhee explains to his students that a letter is often precisely the solution to problems of interpretation or clarity—when in doubt, write to mother, he says. In this case, it is not a plea of “send money” that the letter contains, but a reworking, rethinking, and contextualization of your work. You need not limit yourself to kinfolk, but you need to think about who the recipient will be (ideally someone who will welcome a letter about “doing theory”).

You owe it to yourself to listen to this long interview with McPhee (but I know that you are pressed for time). At the very least, though, listen to the first few minutes. It is the very purpose that lies behind this assignment.

John McPhee NPR (1978) 22:40
Click on the second blue circle on the right side of the page (it is worth it)

Now start writing. Toward that end, you should pay attention to the following issues.

1. The letter needs to be “long enough” to get you deeply into several issues regarding historical research methods, including particular approaches and a few examples. There is no absolute upper limit, but I am going to make an absolute lower limit of 2,000 words (about six pages). Realistically, your letter should probably be somewhere in the 3,000 word range (about ten pages). 2,000 words (about six pages) is the bare (bear) minimum. Do not turn in an assignment shorter than that.

[c] I said, "start writing" RF

2. Just in case you think that writing 8-10 pages is a matter of spilling your random thoughts onto the page and turning it in, pay very close attention to my writing guide and our class discussions. I expect this to be a well-written essay in letter form (we'll discuss the genre in class). 

3. I am asking you to connect with a very specific reader, and to explain “Japanese historical sources" in a level of detail that she will find satisfying. You are the expert, and your “audience” is the person who will be reading your letter (think of my role as reading over her shoulder). I have found that this kind of assignment helps students to explain even abstruse matters, because the personal relationship they have with their readers demands an attention to patient explanation that is often lacking in more “academic” forms of writing, in which they assume that a professor already knows what they are writing about.

Your reader probably doesn't. 

Make it make sense.

4. You may approach your materials from any angle that you like, but you will need to “cover” at least the following items, no matter what order you choose.

          a. You must discuss the “what is a primary source?” question. Provide your reader
              with at least a few ways of thinking about it.

          b. Give your reader a sense of what you have learned up to this point about 

              how to read primary sources. Use specific examples from our course materials,
              including Lu, McCullough, Stalker, and others..

          c. Finally, give your reader some sense of what it is like to “learn through sources”

              by discussing the details of some of our texts. Again, use specific examples.

          d. The best letters will integrate the "historiographical" readings from Week II, 

              discussing your sources in terms of some of the themes in the readings from

              Collingwood, Mills, Cohen, Nagel, and LaFleur

          e. You must have at least one illustration. Think about "the rhetorical role of 
               illustrations" in the New York Review of Books.

[d] Evocation RF

5. The best way to approach the writing process is in three parts (this is a friendly suggestion). First, create a structure (we'll discuss this in class), and jot down some notes for each of the “sections” of your letter. Second, using those notes as a guide, write a rough draft of the whole letter. Third, revise, polish, and refine.  

Voilà you will have something not unlike what Alexis de Tocqueville might have written about understanding a complex, foreign culture that baffled and enticed him 180 years ago. While your letter won’t be as long as Democracy in America, it is likely—if it is done well—to be much like Tocqueville’s rich and evocative letters back to his family about encountering people, texts, and institutions in a strange land called the United States. 

You get the idea. If you don't, just raise your hand and ask me (or send me an e-mail message). I'll be happy to help.

***  ***

Letters are Due (as a .pdf file sent to lafleur@beloit.edu)

by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 27

Add the word count and your Beloit College mailbox number (e.g. "1127") and your word count (e.g. "2,832") to all papers.

[e] And then you may rest RF

 

HIST 210: Source Letter Assignment 2022a

 On this date on Round and Square's History 

[a] Text and illustration RF

Japan, East Asia, and the Pacific World

History 210

Spring 2022

Preliminary Writing Assignment 

Japanese Sources: The Letter

By choosing the letter format for your first writing assignment, I am asking you to build upon the skills you have already begun to develop in analyzing (and providing examples for) Japanese source materials. You have already reached a point where you have some experience with Japanese source materials, and your job will be to explain it to an intelligent non-specialist.

[b] Reaching, teaching RF

Teach it, really.

Letters from “the field” (or our modified “archive” of source materials on the syllabus) are a good way to refine your thoughts about historical study, and they are a useful medium for beginning the intellectual “framing process” that will accelerate as we move through the next two-thirds of the course. The letter writing exercise is especially useful while studying primary source materials. 

The nonfiction writer John McPhee explains to his students that a letter is often precisely the solution to problems of interpretation or clarity—when in doubt, write to mother, he says. In this case, it is not a plea of “send money” that the letter contains, but a reworking, rethinking, and contextualization of your work. You need not limit yourself to kinfolk, but you need to think about who the recipient will be (ideally someone who will welcome a letter about “doing theory”).

You owe it to yourself to listen to this long interview with McPhee (but I know that you are pressed for time). At the very least, though, listen to the first few minutes. It is the very purpose that lies behind this assignment.

John McPhee NPR (1978) 22:40
Click on the second blue circle on the right side of the page (it is worth it)

Now start writing. Toward that end, you should pay attention to the following issues.

1. The letter needs to be “long enough” to get you deeply into several issues regarding historical research methods, including particular approaches and a few examples. There is no absolute upper limit, but I am going to make an absolute lower limit of 2,000 words (about six pages). Realistically, your letter should probably be somewhere in the 3,000 word range (about ten pages). 2,000 words (about six pages) is the bare minimum. Do not turn in an assignment shorter than that.

[c] I said, "start writing" RF

2. Just in case you think that writing 8-10 pages is a matter of spilling your random thoughts onto the page and turning it in, pay very close attention to my writing guide and our class discussions. I expect this to be a well-written essay in letter form (we'll discuss the genre in class). 

3. I am asking you to connect with a very specific reader, and to explain “Japanese historical sources" in a level of detail that she will find satisfying. You are the expert, and your “audience” is the person who will be reading your letter (think of my role as reading over her shoulder). I have found that this kind of assignment helps students to explain even abstruse matters, because the personal relationship they have with their readers demands an attention to patient explanation that is often lacking in more “academic” forms of writing, in which they assume that a professor already knows what they are writing about.

Your reader probably doesn't. 

Make it make sense.

4. You may approach your materials from any angle that you like, but you will need to “cover” at least the following items, no matter what order you choose.

          a. You must discuss the “what is a primary source?” question. Provide your reader
              with at least a few ways of thinking about it.

          b. Give your reader a sense of what you have learned up to this point about 

              how to read primary sources. Use specific examples from our course materials,
              including Lu, McCullough, Stalker, and others..

          c. Finally, give your reader some sense of what it is like to “learn through sources”

              by discussing the details of some of our texts. Again, use specific examples.

          d. The best letters will integrate the "historiographical" readings from Week II, 

              discussing your sources in terms of some of the themes in the readings from

              Collingwood, Mills, Cohen, Nagel, and LaFleur

          e. You must have at least one illustration. Think about "the rhetorical role of 
               illustrations" in the New York Review of Books.

[d] Evocation RF

5. The best way to approach the writing process is in three parts (this is a friendly suggestion). First, create a structure (we'll discuss this in class), and jot down some notes for each of the “sections” of your letter. Second, using those notes as a guide, write a rough draft of the whole letter. Third, revise, polish, and refine.  

Voilà you will have something not unlike what Alexis de Tocqueville might have written about understanding a complex, foreign culture that baffled and enticed him 180 years ago. While your letter won’t be as long as Democracy in America, it is likely—if it is done well—to be much like Tocqueville’s rich and evocative letters back to his family about encountering people, texts, and institutions in a strange land called the United States. 

You get the idea. If you don't, just raise your hand and ask me (or send me an e-mail message). I'll be happy to help.

***  ***

Letters are Due (as stapled hard-copies outside my office, MI 206)

by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 27.

Add the word count and your Beloit College mailbox number (e.g. "1127") and your word count (e.g. "2,832") to all papers.

[e] And then you may rest RF

China, East Asia, and the Pacific World—Letter Assignment, Autumn 2021b

 On this date on Round and Square's History 

29 August 2015—China's Lunar Calendar 2015 08-29
29 August 2015—New York Review of Books Questions: Autumn 2015
29 August 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 08-29
29 August 2014—New York Review of Books Questions: Autumn 2014
29 August 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 08-29

29 August 2013—Syllabic Cycles: Mountains Syllabus (b)

29 August 2012—The New Yorker and the World: Course Description (h)

29 August 2011—Annals of Ostracism: Discovered Notes

[a] Text and illustration RF

China, East Asia, and the Pacific World

Anthropology 206 

Autumn 2021

Writing Assignment 

Theory: The Letter

By choosing the letter format for your first full writing assignment, I am asking you to build upon the skills you have already begun to develop in analyzing (and providing examples for) historical thinking and the use of source materials. You have already reached a point where you have some experience with “theory,” and now your job will be to explain it to an intelligent non-specialist.

[b] Reaching, teaching RF

Teach it, really.

Letters from “the field” (or our modified “archive” of source materials from Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook, The Columbia Anthology of Chinese Literature, and other works) are a good way to refine your thoughts about ethnographic and historical study, and they are a useful medium for beginning the intellectual “framing process” that will accelerate as we move through the next two-thirds of the course. The letter writing exercise is especially useful while studying historical source materials, as we are in this course.

The nonfiction writer John McPhee explains to his students that a letter is often precisely the solution to problems of interpretation or clarity—when in doubt, write to mother, he says. In this case, it is not a plea of “send money” that the letter contains, but rather a reworking, rethinking, and re-contextualization of your work. You need not limit yourself to kinfolk, but you need to think about who the recipient will be (ideally someone who will welcome a letter about “historical thinking”).  

It needs to be a real person, and the letter will really be sent (arranged and paid for by the Beloit College history department). Let me repeat: it is a real letter to a real person. Do not treat this as an "exercise." In fact, the one way to "blow it" is to write a fake letter. One excellent student who did not believe me, actually wrote a "To whom it may concern" letter.

Don't. Do. That. I mean it.

Now that you are going to write a real letter, you owe it to yourself to listen to this long interview with John McPhee. Take the time to do it. You'll learn a great deal about writing (and remember, this is a writing course, with "W" credit on your transcript). At the very least, though, listen to the first few minutes. It is the very purpose that lies behind this assignment.

John McPhee NPR (1978) 22:40
Click on the second blue circle on the right side of the page (it is worth it)

Now start writing. Toward that end, you should pay attention to the following issues.

1. The letter should be and absolute minimum of 2,000 words (about six pages). If it is well written, that might get you a B (maybe). You really will need between 2,000 and 3,000 words (six-to-ten pages) to do it justice. I am looking for high-quality writing, and simply dashing off ta few pages will likely result in a C (or worse). A good job will require a good deal of careful work. 

[c] I said, "start writing" RF

2. Just in case you are used to writing three or four pages—spilling words onto the page and turning it in—pay very close attention to my writing guide and our class discussions about writing. I expect this to be a well-written essay in letter form (we'll discuss the letter genre in class). Again, follow my writing guide. It will give you the tools to write drafts and to do this write (er, right).

3. I am asking you to connect with a very specific reader, and to explain “historical thinking" in a level of detail that she will find satisfying. Even now, you are the expert, and your “audience” is the person who will be reading your letter (think of my role as reading over her shoulder). I have found that this kind of assignment helps students to explain even abstruse matters, because the personal relationship they have with their readers demands an attention to patient explanation that is often lacking in more “academic” forms of writing, in which they assume that a professor already knows what they are writing about.

Your reader probably doesn't, and I want you to explain it.

Make it make sense to your reader.

4. You may approach your materials from any angle that you like, but you will need to “cover” at least the following items, no matter what order you choose.

          a. You must discuss the “what is historical thinking?” question. Provide your reader
              with at least a few ways of thinking about it. Think about the Collingwood and 

              Cohen readings from Week II, in particular.

          b. Give your reader a sense of what you have learned up to this point about 

              how to "do" history and think historically. Use specific examples from our 
              course materials so far, especially the sources from Ebrey and Mair.

          c. Finally, give your reader some sense of what it is like to learn history by reading 

              fewer overviews (the textbook history that Collingwood despises)and more 

              primary sources. Again, use specific examples.

          d. You must have at least one illustration. Trust me. I know what I'm doing. It can 

               be anything (and you won't be publishing this, so permissions won't be required,

               although you should cite anything that is not your own drawing with a footnote 

               or endnote).

[d] Evocation RF

5. The best way to approach the writing process is in three parts (this is a friendly suggestion). First, create a structure (we'll discuss this in class), and jot down some notes for each of the “sections” of your letter. Second, using those notes as a guide, write a rough draft of the whole letter. Third, redraft, ,revise, polish, and refine (read my writing guide)

Voilà you will have something not unlike what Alexis de Tocqueville might have written about understanding a complex, foreign culture that baffled and enticed him 180 years ago. While your letter won’t be as long as Tocqueville's Democracy in America, it is likely—if it is done well—to be much like Tocqueville’s rich and evocative letters back to his family about encountering people, texts, and institutions in a strange land called the United States. 

You get the idea. If you don't, just raise your hand and ask me (or send me an e-mail message). I'll be happy to help.

***  ***

Letters are Due (as .pdf copies sent to me by email)

by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 26

Add the word count to all papers!

[e] And then you may rest RF

Japan Source Letter Assignment 2020b

[a] Text and illustration RF

Japan, East Asia, and the Pacific World

History 210

Autumn 2020

Preliminary Writing Assignment 

Japanese Sources: The Letter

[The module form for this semester makes all assignments seem to come on too quickly. Nothing can be done about the format, but I am aware of the pressures, and have made certain modifications in the early writing assignments from years past, without detracting from the core principles of the assignment and what it can teach you].

By choosing the letter format for your first writing assignment, I am asking you to build upon the skills you have already begun to develop in analyzing (and providing examples for) Japanese source materials. You have already reached a point where you have some experience with Japanese source materials, and your job will be to explain it to an intelligent  non-specialist.

[b] Reaching, teaching RF

Teach it, really.

It needs to be a real person, and the letter will be sent (organized by the Beloit College history department). It is a real letter to a real person. Do not treat this as an "exercise."

Letters from “the field” (or our modified “archive” of source materials on the syllabus) are a good way to refine your thoughts about historical study, and they are a useful medium for beginning the intellectual “framing process” that will accelerate as we move through the next two-thirds of the course. The letter writing exercise is especially useful while studying primary source materials. 

The nonfiction writer John McPhee explains to his students that a letter is often precisely the solution to problems of interpretation or clarity—when in doubt, write to mother, he says. In this case, it is not a plea of “send money” that the letter contains, but a reworking, rethinking, and contextualization of your work. You need not limit yourself to kinfolk, but you need to think about who the recipient will be (ideally someone who will welcome a letter about “reading real historical sources”).

You owe it to yourself to listen to this long interview with McPhee (but I know that you are pressed for time). You really should, but at the very least, though, listen to the first five minutes or so. It is the very purpose that lies behind this assignment.

John McPhee NPR (1978) 22:40
Click on the second blue circle on the right side of the page (it is worth it)

Now start writing. Toward that end, you should pay attention to the following issues.

1. The letter should be 1,000 words. You may not go under that amount, and may choose to write a bit more. If you've had classes from me before, you will be surprised by this, but it is a realization of the limits of the module form that motivates me. I am looking for high-quality writing, and simply dashing off three pages will likely result in a C (or worse). A good job will require a good deal of careful work.

[c] I said, "start writing" RF

2. Just in case you think that writing three or four page—spilling them onto the page and turning it in—pay very close attention to my writing guide and our class discussions. I expect this to be a well-written essay in letter form (we'll discuss the letter genre in class). 

3. I am asking you to connect with a very specific reader, and to explain “Japanese historical sources" in a level of detail that she will find satisfying. You are the expert, and your “audience” is the person who will be reading your letter (think of my role as reading over her shoulder). I have found that this kind of assignment helps students to explain even abstruse matters, because the personal relationship they have with their readers demands an attention to patient explanation that is often lacking in more “academic” forms of writing, in which they assume that a professor already knows what they are writing about.

Your reader probably doesn't, and I want you to explain it.

Make it make sense.

4. You may approach your materials from any angle that you like, but you will need to “cover” at least the following items, no matter what order you choose.

          a. You must discuss the “what is a primary source?” question. Provide your reader
              with at least a few ways of thinking about it.

          b. Give your reader a sense of what you have learned up to this point about 

              how to read primary sources. Use specific examples from our course materials,
              including Lu, Stalker, and others...but especially Lu.

          c. Finally, give your reader some sense of what it is like to “learn through sources”

              by discussing the details of some of your reading. Again, use specific examples.

          d. You must have at least one illustration. Trust me. I know what I'm doing. It can be anything (and you won't be publishing this, so permissions won't be required, although you should cite anything that is not your own drawing with a footnote).

[d] Evocation RF

5. The best way to approach the writing process is in three parts (this is a friendly suggestion). First, create a structure (we'll discuss this in class), and jot down some notes for each of the “sections” of your letter. Second, using those notes as a guide, write a rough draft of the whole letter. Third, revise, polish, and refine.  

Voilà you will have something not unlike what Alexis de Tocqueville might have written about understanding a complex, foreign culture that baffled and enticed him 180 years ago. While your letter won’t be as long as Tocqueville's Democracy in America, it is likely—if it is done well—to be much like Tocqueville’s rich and evocative letters back to his family about encountering people, texts, and institutions in a strange land called the United States. 

You get the idea. If you don't, just raise your hand (virtually) and ask me (or send me an e-mail message). I'll be happy to help.

***  ***

Letters are Due (as .pdf copies sent to me by email)

by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 13

Add the word count to all papers!

[e] And then you may rest RF

East Asian History and Culture—Paper Advice

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Assignments"

On this day in Round and Square History 
30 October 2013—China's Lunar Calendar: 2013 10-30
30 October 2013—From the Geil Archive: Sentimental Geil
30 October 2012—Rural Religion in China (30)
30 October 2011—Hurtin' Country: I Fall to Pieces

[a] Gateway RF

There are two posts in this assignment (the "prompt" and "advice").
Click below for the other section of this assignment:
Writing From Sources A                    Writing From Sources B
 
East Asian History and Culture 

History 210
Autumn 2014

Writing From Sources

Stylistic Matters 
*Use Chicago-style footnotes or endnotes for this paper (check my style sheet for instructions, and make sure that you know how to use them before you begin writing).

[b] Examination Cubicle RF

*Although you will list your sources at the beginning of your paper, please include a bibliography that includes the full reference to all of those sources, as well as any others you might use for a quotation or paraphrase in your paper.

*The sources at the beginning of your paper should be written in an effective “shorthand” that makes it apparent to the reader what you will be analyzing. The full source reference will appear in the bibliography (see above), as well as in any footnotes you might use. For example, you should note the chapter or name of the source at the beginning of the paper—just enough to get your point across (e.g. Susan Mann, “Jining 1893-1895). Please refer to the examples on pages two and three.

*Use accurate (and perfect) Chicago-style citation, and use this paper as an opportunity to display your skills. Many websites have clear and accurate footnote/endnote descriptions. Use them to make sure that everything except “citation challenges” are perfect. One of the clearest explanations is on the Chicago Manual of Style Online website. Please note, however, that I insist that you use the “N” and “B” examples; ignore (for our class) “T” and “R.” In short, I do not want in-text citations. Use either footnotes (bottom of the page) or endnotes (end of the document), and, now that you have been practicing all semester, show your skills.

             http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

Examples of Footnote and Endnote Formats
Items listed in the bibliography at the end of the paper (note that the last name comes first here).
          Ebrey, Patricia. Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook. New York: Free Press, 
          1993.

          Mair, Victor. The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature. New 
          York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

Footnotes or endnotes (first reference to a book; note that the page number follows the last comma—there is no need anymore for use of “p.” for “page”). Note the first name/last name format—which is not the same as that used in the bibliography.

          Patricia Ebrey, Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook (New York: Free Press, 
          1993), 154.

          Victor Mair, The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature (New 
          York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 617.

Subsequent references to books (there will be many of these for Mair and Ebrey; pay attention to this “shorthand” style). Example:
          Ebrey, Chinese Civilization, 277.
          Mair, The Columbia Anthology, 725.
          Ebrey, Chinese Civilization, 3. 

[c] Working RF

Reading the Sources 
This assignment is for a source analysis paper, not a traditional persuasive essay. It is meant to give you a hands-on experience in working with historical sources. It is “artificial” in the sense that you will not be working in an archive, but it is no less serious for that. My best advice is for you to make separate copies (this may cost a few dollars, but will be worth it) of each of the readings you choose. Yes, that means I am encouraging you to go to a copy machine (or a scanner) and make a copy of the sources with which you plan to work.  It also means that you should make a copy of the fifteen-page section in The Talented Women of the Zhang Family or Japan in Print that you have selected (these are, of course, just examples).

When you have finished your scanning (then printing) or your copying, you will have a bundle of texts in front of you—an artificial and miniature archive.  Now is the time to go back through them, underlining and marking key points that will help you to form an argument. This is different from reading in preparation for class, when you should be trying to understand the documents in the wider context of our class discussions.  You will now be reading them to help you construct an argument about a theme in Chinese history and/or culture.  As you make your notes on the individual texts (some primary, some secondary), it helps to have a blank sheet close by, on which you can start to sketch an outline for the developing argument.

Give yourself enough time for this. The ideal situation is to choose (and copy) your sources well before Thanksgiving, which leaves you time to work through the texts and their implications during low-pressure study periods of thirty minutes here and there, long before the due date is imminent.  Pressure is overrated.

[d] Writing RF

Writing the Paper
Audience, audience, audience.  As you begin to write your paper, have a clear audience in mind. Think of your essay as a way of both arguing a point and patiently explaining the historical and cultural themes that the texts raise. The best way to maintain the correct perspective on audience is to imagine a small group of Beloit College professors who know little about China (imagine Steve Wright, Nancy Patrick Polley, and Pablo Torals).  They are all very intelligent, and know how to construct a superior argument. They need you to teach them about China, Japan, or Korea.  To the extent that you remember this, you will excel; to the extent that you fall into the habit of writing just for your professor, you will err. Remember this.

Your paper should lead the readers through the texts and through an argument about East Asian history or culture.  Let us take the following example. You choose to write a paper about women and marriage in China, selecting an array of sources that includes Ban Zhao’s advice for women, “Women and the Problems they Create,” and several texts from deBary. You also choose a passage each from the books by Brook and Mann (secondary sources of, say, ten pages each dealing with women’s education and women writers, respectively). You read the texts carefully, and, as you begin writing your paper, you maintain a balance between explaining the genres and cultural frameworks of your texts and making your key point (your thesis). The thesis remains important. Let us say that your thesis is that women had significant room for creative social and even literary action (agency) within the traditional patriarchal household, and that the Western “narrative” about women’s life in China treats them (mistakenly) as merely passive figures—pawns among powerful men. If you were writing a traditional paper, you would state that clearly in the first few paragraphs and then find texts to support your point. It is an important skill to develop, and an ability to frame a thesis will help in this assignment.

[e] Foreground (background) RF

A source analysis paper such as this one is different, though. Let us say that your thesis statement is the same as above (women have “agency”). Your paper will develop slightly differently as you make your argument. You will give a great deal of context from your sources.  Indeed, your sources will figure far more richly in your paper than in most traditional persuasive essays. You will spend time showing, for example, how Ban Zhao’s admonitions for women work as a narrative form—how she proceeds in a contrapuntal manner that gives context to her seemingly “no exceptions” rhetoric. You will break down the verbal (and possibly even rhyme) schemes of the poems you analyze. You will, in short, open the world of the texts to your readers as little worlds unto themselves. This kind of paper argues a thesis and teaches cultural context. Your mission will be both persuasive and illustrative. You will persuade through your argument about female “agency;” you will illustrate (and instruct) by placing your texts in an interpretive universe that helps your readers—who don’t know Chinese or Japanese culture well—see how the argument fits "East Asian" culture.

This kind of paper can be a joy to write, at least once you develop familiarity with it.  It is a necessary skill, too, because writing for audiences unfamiliar with your topic is central to academic life.  The source analysis paper encourages you to take the persuasive essay form you learned in junior high school and high school and give it the kind of cultural and historical nuance that we have developed in our class discussions.  You might want to think of your explanations of how the sources “work” as a kind of “thickening” of your argument.  We will discuss this in class, but the key ideas to remember are: sources, audience, argument, and context.

There are two posts in this assignment (the "prompt" and "advice").

Click below for the other section of this assignment:

Writing From Sources A                    Writing From Sources B

[f] Chatty RF