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Western Civilizations to 1650 Mid-Term Exam

 

Index to this page:

Directions:

    What in general am I asking you to "do" in this essay?

   What kind of "form" do you have to use in your essay?

   How long should the essay be, etc?  

   What are the specific directions for using quotations and other evidence?

   What happens if you plagiarize?

The Exam Questions:

    Question A

    Question B

    Question C

 

DIRECTIONS: 

 

What in general am I asking you to "do" in this essay?

*Answer ONE of the questions listed below in a typed essay (4 pages long minimum, plus endnotes:  double-spaced, 12 point font, 1-inch margins). 

*Your basic goal: use information from the lectures and the Coffin textbook to make sense of specific documents in the Brophy reader. 

*Each question asks you to analyze and interpret specific documents in the Brody reader. 

*To do this requires that you understand the historical contexts for each document--that means you have to think about when, where, and under what conditions each document was originally written.  (That means you have to review the lecture notes and Coffin text).

*Your answer must present information about the "context" of each document (show me that you have learned from the lectures and textbook and that you understand the historical background for the documents).

*MOST importantly, your paper must analyze the documents--show me that you can think "historically" about evidence and use evidence to answer a historical question.

 

What kind of "form" do you have to use in your essay?

*Your essay must have and introductory paragraph, at least four body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph.

*In the introduction (intro paragraph), you must tell the reader what you are writing about and what your main point (you THESIS) will be--in other words, you have to introduce the reader to the question and to your answer to the question.   

*Your paper must have several (at least four) clearly organized body paragraphs that prove your main point: 

    Each body paragraph must be devoted to explaining a single issue or idea in detail (one main idea/topic per paragraph). 

    Each body paragraph must have specific evidence or examples (it is a good idea to use quotations from the documents as evidence!). 

    Each body paragraph must explain how the specific evidence or examples are connected to the main idea you are explaining in that paragraph (how does the evidence prove the point you are making in that paragraph?) 

*Your paper must have concluding paragraph that sums up your main point (thesis).

 

How long should the essay be, etc?

*Your essay must be at least 4 pages long but no longer than 6 pages, not counting endnotes. 

*Your essay must be double spaced, with 1-inch margins, in 12 pt. font.  

*New paragraphs must be indented by no more than 6 spaces.

*Do not "double skip" lines between paragraphs.

*Start your paper on the first line of page 1.

*Your paper does not need a title, but be sure to indicate which question you are answering (A, B, or C)

*Put your name and class time on page 1 of your paper, top right.

*make sure the pages are numbered.

*staple the paper in the top left corner.

 

What are the specific directions for using quotations and other evidence?

*Whenever you quote evidence, be sure that the reader knows who is speaking and in what context--in other words, "set up" the quotation.  (Example:  In The Republic, Plato argued that "there should be no differentiation" between education for men and women.)  The "set up" should mention the actual author of the document (Plato, Thucydides, Hesiod, etc.), so that we know who is "speaking" in the quotation.

*Whenever you quote anything, you need to make sure that the quotation itself is in quotation marks ("blah blah")!

*Be ABSOLUTELY SURE that you understand the difference between quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing!  See this web-link:  Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing (how to avoid PLAGIARISM!)

    *Whenever you quote evidence, you MUST provide a correct endnote.

    *Whenever you paraphrase instead of quoting, you must provide a correct endnote.

    *Whenever you summarize instead of quoting or paraphrasing, you must provide a correct endnote.

*How do you make a correct endnote?  Read this web-link:  using endnotes.

    *Be sure that you read the endnote directions carefully!  (The endnote form for the textbook is slightly different than the form for documents from the Brophy reader!)

 

What happens if you plagiarize?

*I WILL FAIL ANY EXAM IN WHICH THERE IS PLAGIARISM.  So you really should read the warning about plagiarism in the web link on Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing (or, How to Avoid PLAGIARISM!)

 

 

MID-TERM EXAM ESSAY QUESTIONS      

 Be sure that you understand exactly what the question is asking! 

      

Question A

Studying laws can tell us a great deal about history.  For instance:

    *Laws can tell you about a society's social hierarchies--e.g., about the differences between elites and non-elites, or the status of women, children, and "outsiders." 

    *Laws can tell you about the organization of the economy--e.g., about property rights, the existence of various kinds of property (including tools), types of economic activity (such as farming), and types of labor (such as slavery). 

    *Laws can tell you about the organization of government—e.g., if it had a Kingship, if it was a theocracy, what powers the King claimed as King, what powers rested with other religious authorities (the Temple priest or the gods), what aspects of people's lives the government tried to regulate, what aspects of people's lives other religious authorities tried to regulate (etc.).  

    *Laws might not necessarily tell you exactly how people behaved, but they can tell you how the lawmakers wanted people to behave.  Laws might not tell you what people valued, but they can tell you what lawmakers wanted people to value.  Laws might not tell you exactly how much authority those in power really exercised, but they can tell you what authority those in power claimed to have.

 

Here is the question:

Use law codes and documents about laws in ancient Mesopotamia, from the Hebrews (circa 500 BCE), from the Spartans, and among the Romans in the Early and Late Republican eras to compare and contrast at least one of the following aspects of these four societies: 

Try to focus on specifics (for instance, what do these laws tell us about the nature of property and property rights in each society, or about the status of women in each society, or the role of the king or religious authorities in enforcing moral codes and values, etc.?).     

To do this requires that you review material on these societies from the textbook and the lecture notes.  Here are the documents that you must discuss (you must use all five sets of documents):

(Note:  there are selections of Hammurabi's Code and the Twelve Tables in both Brody and Wessley—it would be a good idea to look at both versions).

_______________

 

Question B

Many ancient and classical societies were agricultural, and agriculture had a huge impact on the culture of these societies.  How do we know this?  To learn about agricultural in ancient Mesopotamia, among the Hebrew tribes, in the Greek city states, and in Rome, historians often have to squeeze information out of documents that don't seem (at first) to be about agriculture.

 

Here is the question:

Explain what various documents about ancient Mesopotamia, the Hebrew tribes, the Greek city states, and Rome tell us about agriculture in each society and what these documents tell us about how agriculture (farming, raising domesticated animals, etc) shaped those cultures.

To do this requires that you review material on these societies from the textbook and the lecture notes.  Here are the documents that you must discuss (you must use at least sets of five documents):

_______________

 

Question C 

Although peoples in different cultures in the past may have thought and felt differently than we do about personal matters like love and friendship, sickness and death, they certainly cared about such matters.  Historians use all sorts of documents to understand the personal lives and feelings of people in past cultures (without assuming that people have always thought and felt the same ways the "we" do).

Here is the question:

Use various types of documents about ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Hebrew tribes, the Greek city states, and Rome to explain what some people in each society thought and felt about either

To do this requires that you review material on these societies from the textbook and the lecture notes.  Here are the documents that you must discuss (you must use at least five sets of documents):