My Preconceptions About the Frontier

You may use any formal format for both essays, but the 5-paragraph essay format is recommended. A sample and a rubric are included below. • Put your name, course and section number, and assignment title at the top of the document. • Use one-inch margins. • Use a 12-point Times New Roman font. • Use double line spacing in the document, indent your paragraphs, use in-text citations and include a list of sources consulted. Do not add extra spaces between paragraphs. • Correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation is important. • Cite your sources using in-text citations or footnotes. Include a list of the sources cited. Topics: The topic for the first essay is My Preconceptions About the Frontier (you may use a better title, but the topic is preconceptions), an extension of the readings, the Discussion Board activity and, one hopes, the thought process during the first half of the course. You are to choose three of your own preconceptions and explain why you held and how you see them now. The key here is to provide evidence for your position from the assigned readings, which means you must have read the assignments. Think about the evidence—you can provide the reason(s) you held the preconception in the first place. Perhaps you watched “Dances with Wolves” and believed that Native Americans needed a white man to tell them the buffalo are coming. Or a Ken Burns documentary that convinced you that Indians wore massive eagle feather headdresses when they rode into battle. You grew up here and learned about the frontier from your own view by living in it. You can be broad—the West as a process—or more personal—men gained independence by becoming cowboys, women gained freedom through marriage or prostitution, and so on. Feel free to run your ideas by me well in advance of the essay. I may be able to suggest approaches and some clarification of the assignment that will help you succeed. Some details to keep in mind: the frontier as a process and/or as a place; use the reading assignments to support your preconceptions or to explain changes in them. Submit the topic to me well before the due date of the essay. I may be able to assist in clarifying the topic in order to meet the assignment's parameters--no more than 750 words, supporting evidence drawn from assigned course readings, including but not limited to the textbook. To earn a top score, your paper should be: 1. Well written, grammatically correct, free from spelling errors and clichés, and demonstrate clear thought, analysis, and expression; 2. Do your own work; plagiarism will result in zero credit; 3. Meet the submission date and length requirements--500 to 750 words, the first is due November 19. Note: There is no single right choice of the preconceptions. They are yours, after all. The quality of your argument and the inclusion of evidence are the keys. Good, careful writing is important as well. To Submit Using Microsoft Word, save the document with a filename that includes the assignment title, your first initial, and last name, and submit via Lobo e-mail to                                                                                                    

Sample Solution