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WPA American Slave Narratives Assignment – Prompt and Guidelines
In the 1930’s, different historians, folklorists, and others as a part of the Works Progress Administration, made a point to interview the aging population of black Americans who were alive before the Civil War and remembered slavery. They collected more than 2,300 narratives and memoirs called the WPA American Slave Narratives. They are available in their entirety on the Library of Congress’s website. I am providing you with 11 selections of men and women telling their stories about life before the Civil War. These selections can be found on the main Moodle course page titled “WPA Narrative” under this assignment.
Your assignment is to write a 3 page essay examining the narratives I have provided answering this question: in what ways were the roles of African American men significantly different from the roles of African American women before the Civil War?
There are many ways to approach this essay, but my recommendation is to approach the topic thematically. Pick 2-3 themes, like family, work, or health, etc., create an argument and use the sources to support your argument.
Students will be evaluated on their thesis, their ability to use the sources to support their thesis, their overall comprehensive approach to the topic, as well as their clarity of writing.
PDF created by multiple resources within the following link to create this document.
https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/
WPA American Slave Narratives Assignment
Criteria
0 points
9 points
14 points
21 points
28 points
Content, Examples, Critical Thinking and Evaluation
No submission
Avoids any meaningful content. Lacks depth. Large amounts or entirely summary. Did not complete assignment.
Student’s portion has nearly no valuable content whatsoever.
Student provides only somewhat meaningful material. Student’s work lacks critical analysis or depth. Largely repeating or summarizing sources. No ownership of the work.
Student presents an average or poor response to the prompt. The answer is largely rooted in opinion and/or generalizations and not evidence and sources. Does not use or hardly use sources as evidence or support.
Student provides meaningful material and clearly explains his or her argument. Student somewhat uses sources to support their ideas and/or student lacks critique or analysis consistent with college-level work. Largely repeats their sources.
Presents an overall good analysis of the differences between African American men and women in slave communities. Student attempts to focus on a few ideas but struggles to provide meaningful analysis and instead analyzes them with largely superficial or descriptive examination. Attempts to use sources as evidence or examples of their points.
Student provides meaningful material and clearly and specifically explains why his or her idea is true with a deep emphasis on sources as evidence or proof of their points. Avoids merely repeating sources and instead brings in nuanced critique that displays significant depth. Student displays significant ownership of their work.
Presents an effective analysis of the differences between African American men and women in slave communities. Focuses in on a few ideas and analyzes them with deep and impressive meaning (“2 inches wide, mile deep”). Critiques read into implications of data, points of view, and trends. Is able to demonstrate points using sources as evidence.
Criteria
0 points
3 points
6 points
9 points
12 points
Organization and clarity of writing
No submission
Essays organization and paragraph structures lack any meaningful structure or organization. Student’s writing is muddled or vague as to be largely meaningless. Student cannot get their points across because of poor writing.
Essay has most of the required components but is missing 1-2 pieces. Essay also struggles to organize their paragraphs in terms of transitions, topic sentences, flow, etc. Writing is vague in several portions making it difficult to understand the reader’s intention.
Essay includes introduction, thesis, body paragraphs, and concluding paragraph but the arrangement of those ideas is illogical. Or, the essay is missing other basic organization elements such as transitions and introductory sentences regularly throughout the essay. Essay is mostly clear and precise. 1-2 examples of padding.
Essay includes introduction, thesis, body paragraphs, and concluding paragraph. Paper has a natural and logical flow in terms of how student uses sources and organizes their presentation. Writing is clear and precise with no excess or padded portions.
Criteria
0 points
3 points
10 points
15 points
20 points
Demonstrates correct use of APA format in footnotes, sources and reference page
No submission
Does not follow APA format for citations and/or no reference page. No citations in entire essay.
Student has no sources and/or no citations.
Attempts to correctly use APA format for citations and reference page but errors regularly throughout. There are several places where citations are needed but missing.
Student has fewer than three sources and fewer than 5 citations.
Correct use of APA format in citations and reference page with minimal errors. There may be portions where citations are needed or are missing.
Student has 3 sources but at least 1 is not scholarly. Student has fewer than 5 citations throughout the paper.
Demonstrates correct use of APA format, correctly references citations, provides correct and complete reference page. Full and complete references citations AND full and complete references page. Fewer than 3 errors between citations and references.
Student has at least 3 sources that GMC labels as scholarly or library approved in their reference page and at least 5 citations throughout the paper.
Criteria
0 points
2 points
4 points
6 points
8 points
Mechanics
No submission
Lacks the ability to use proper grammar and displays significant, distracting errors.
Demonstrates some ability to use proper grammar but displays distracting spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.
Demonstrates an ability to use proper grammar and displays minor spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors that do not distract the reader.
Demonstrates a mastery of proper grammar and displays no significant spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors.
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