A DOG’S HISTORY OF AMERICA

A DOG’S HISTORY OF AMERICA paper prompt

 Overview:

These days, many people focus so much on dogs as household pets that they lose sight of the myriad other ways dogs have affected humanity over many thousands of years. In A Dog’s Life: how our best friend explored, conquered, and settled a continent, Mark Derr creates a vivid, well-rounded picture of the complex relationship humanity has formed with the descendants of prehistoric wolves. Some applications have greatly harmed marginalized peoples of color, especially in the centuries of westward expansion. At other times, dogs have offered support in law enforcement; human health, recreation, and much more. Derr’s easy-to-read book is at once highly informative and entertaining and seamlessly connects the past and the present.

Goals for this assignment:

This project, worth 35% of your grade, is designed to meet the following objectives:

• To scrutinize the human-canine bond in practical uses of dogs.

• To explore ways people have conceptualized dogs.

• To see the long-term effects that dogs have had on humanity.

Instructions:

A completed paper will consist of three sections: an introduction, summary coverage of two of the sixteen chapters (three for extra credit), and analysis and personal reflection. Begin your paper by furnishing an introduction of about two or three paragraphs, which will preview for the reader the content of your paper. In your introduction, briefly acknowledge the author and the name of the book, briefly preview the types of aspects (military or social, for instance) you will explore, and let the reader know that you will begin with summary coverage and finish with analysis and your personal thoughts on the book.

It is important to write this paper using the appropriate voice. In a manner of speaking, the voice is the “narration” behind the written word. In general, the voice rule for academic papers is as follows: make use of conscious self-references (“In this paper, I will..” or “My views on this are…”) only within the introduction and the conclusion of a paper or a book. For the main content, however, avoid self-references. Instead of saying, for example, “I read that…” you should simply provide the information/the fact(s) in the summations part of your paper.

To assist you in chapter selection, I have written down (in a “key”) what I believe to be a number of important points in each chapter. A fully successful paper will include at least a few of the items associated with each of the chapters you will cover. Basically, the purpose of the chapters selected will be for you to objectively survey and assess some of the significant points contained in A Dog’s History of America.

The final section of your paper is designed to allow you to give your own personal, informed perspective about components central to this book. It is vital that you support your statements with specific examples from A Dog’s History of America. The coverage will be structured as follows: paper introduction, summary coverage (without analysis) of each of the chapters you cover, and an analysis section that collectively assesses all of the chapters you surveyed in your paper. Outside (additional) sources are permitted, but make sure they are used sparingly. Don’t discuss the additional (optional) sources so much that you barely deal with A Dog’s History of America.

Technical requirements for this assignment:

The text of your paper should be (on average) about five pages (or about seven for extra credit), double-spaced, with twelve-point font (Times New Roman) and one-inch margins. I recommend two paragraphs (but no more than one page) for the introduction, and the rest of the paper divided roughly equally between summary coverage and analysis. Your paper MUST be stapled.

Be sure to paginate (number each page), and write both the class designation and the section number (History 180, Sect. 01) on the front page. An optional title page will not be included in the total number of pages. (A five-page paper is not a title page and four pages of content, for instance.) To indicate a new section, add about an inch between sections (with a sectional heading). Avoid large amounts of blank space between sections, as this is bad formatting!

I am somewhat flexible as to the exact page count. But avoid extremes. A paper that is four pages (of text) will be too brief, but one of twelve pages (of text) will need to be trimmed. Please contact me before the very last minute if you face any problems regarding this assignment.

Citations:

All academic papers require citations, acknowledgements identifying source materials. Citations can also be informational: furnishing additional details shedding light on a topic, but not  immediately relevant to a point being made at that point in the paper or book. Informational citations also refer to information that would bring awkwardness to the flow of one’s writing, if left in the body of text. Citations are the hallmark of academic integrity. Any assignment not having them, but only a bibliography, will receive a one letter-grade deduction. Any assignment lacking notations and having no indication of the identity of the book will result in a failing grade for that assignment. Having too few citations can also get one into trouble. As a rule of thumb, you should have a citation at the end of each paragraph.  Although you will not need a bibliography, you will need endnotes or footnotes, done according to the examples in The Chicago Manual of Style Online, https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org

Extra credit:

For this assignment, extra credit means selecting an additional (third) chapter from 1-13, writing an additional two pages or so. Be sure to include summary coverage of the extra credit chapter in the summaries and to have the additional chapter included in the analysis section of your paper. In most cases, the full 2/3 letter-grade bonus will be awarded. However, superficial coverage or insufficient acknowledgement will reduce the credit earned.