Reference no: EM133794294
Assignment:
Your assignment is to determine whether or not the incident described in these sources can be termed a "massacre," which is how the Spanish priest Bartolomé de las Casas described it. In other words, was the attack on Cholula a massacre, or was it a legitimate example of "just war" (p. 29)? To reach a conclusion, you are to analyze BOTH documents. As you analyze this, do the following:
1. Be sure to have clear introduction and conclusion paragraphs to your paper. Your introduction paragraph should briefly introduce the documents you will analyze, and it should indicate that you will be analyzing the documents to demonstrate whether or not the attack at Cholula was a massacre or an example of "just war." You should define the word "massacre" in your introduction. At the end of your introduction paragraph, you should provide a thesis statement, which is a statement that gives the reader a specific sense of what overall conclusion(s) your paper will show. In this sentence, summarize an overall theme about the question of the attack at Cholula and the reasons for your conclusion that your analysis will show based on the documents. Your thesis statement should state a clear and definitive argument your writing assignment will show about the documents. Your conclusion paragraph should wrap your points from the paper together into some final thoughts that indicate how your major points from the paper all connect around a theme and, in the process, how they reconnect back to the introduction and the thesis statement. Additionally, in the conclusion paragraph you should state your opinion, supported by several reasons and based on your interpretation of the documents, regarding whether you think this was a massacre or not.
2. Base your paper around showing a series of points about how the authors viewed the reasons or justifications for the attack. Present your points clearly and explain them fully with clear indication of how the documents show these points. Focus on the details from BOTHdocuments that demonstrate the criteria by which you are judging whether the events in Cholula constitute a massacre, or not.
3. Provide specific details from the document and clearly explain how these specific details illustrate your points. Do not simply rely on discussion of the document offered in the textbook or in some other source. While you may refer to the points in the textbook or use them as a starting point, you must build your paper upon your own observations and the conclusions you draw from those observations. This assignment asks you to develop your own interpretations from what you see when you look at the documents. You will not be graded on whether your interpretation is "correct" or not. Rather, you will be graded on how well you state what the documents reflect, how well you explain how the documents reflect these things, and how well you show what specifically about the documents provide the basis for your conclusions.
4. When referencing the documents specifically, whether in quotation marks or by paraphrasing, cite them appropriately. Also, if you use any other source, including the course textbook, cite it appropriately. See Step 5 of "General Instructions for Papers" in this lesson for directions on how to cite a source properly. Any Internet source address must be provided in full so that it can be verified. Such a source is not needed nor expected, but if you choose to use one it should be employed sparingly.
5. Fitting, descriptive title for your paper. You can summarize the content to follow in the title, or you can devise a clever title that connects to what you discuss in the body of your paper.