Now that you’ve identified your argument, researched supporting evidence, received peer feedback on your writing plan, and constructed your thesis statement, it’s time to begin writing the first full draft of your paper. All of the work you’ve done so far will make constructing the first draft much easier.
It can be overwhelming to think about where to start your draft, so it’s important to take the drafting process one step at a time and to allow yourself the space to make errors. The point of drafting is to see what works and doesn’t workto see what is working well and what needs to be fixed. Although the draft should demonstrate the direction your final paper will go and contain the components required of the assignment, it’s important to remember that it’s a work in progress.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
In this learning block, you will:
Draft body paragraphs for a historical analysis essay
Assemble an introduction, revised thesis statement, and three body paragraphs to produce a historical analysis essay
Throughout Theme: Analyzing History, you have been learning how to draft and write the body of your final paper. Click on each of the tabs below to learn about some more general tips for writing a strong historical analysis essay:
State Your Argument Clearly
Use Evidence
Focus on the Text, Not on Yourself
Be Open to Revision
SAMPLE SUBMISSION
The sample submission below is part of an essay on the integration of African Americans into the movie and television industry. It includes an introduction and three body paragraphs; those paragraphs provide historical context for the effort to “integrate Hollywood.” Read it over as a reminder of what’s expected in your own submission; pay particular attention to the thesis statement and the structure of the body paragraphs. But remember, this is a finished submission; you may not be this far along in your research at this point in the course.
Click on the highlighted text to learn more about the individual pieces of the writing plan.
Jane DoeHIS 200: Applied HistorySouthern New Hampshire UniversityMay16, 2016
Draft Submission: Integrating the Movie IndustryIn 1988 Eddie Murphy, the African-American comedian and actor, presented the Oscar for Best Picture at the 60th Academy Awardsbut not before chiding the assembled Hollywood movers and shakers about the lack of diversity in Oscar’s past. As this video of Murphy’s speech shows (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNAePAAYPrc ), when he was first approached about presenting the award his initial reaction was “I’m not going, because they haven’t recognized black people in the motion picture industry.” (Murphy, 1988) Fast forward 28 years, and the same complaints were heard about the lack of African-American representation among 2016’s Oscar nominees. But the continuing argument about the underrepresentation of African-Americans in Hollywood misses a crucial point. Despite years of often-fiery debate over the lack of diversity in Oscar nominations and alleged racism on the part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, history shows that when it comes to dealing with racial themes and issues, the movie industry is motivated primarily by economic concerns. As the African-American Oscar winner Morgan Freeman once noted, “I don’t think Hollywood is racist; I think Hollywood lives and dies on greed.” (Miller, 2016)There can be little doubt that the movie industry, as an economic institution, has long lacked diversity. While the proportion of African-American actors cast in movie and television roles has in recent years roughly mirrored the African-American share of the nation’s population (12.2 percent)this figure has in fact fluctuated in a narrow range from 13 percent to 15 percent over the last 15 years (SAG/Aftra, 2009) the proportion of blacks in influential non-acting roles has been much lower. Recent statistics show that only 5 percent of the writers in the film sector of the Writers Guild of America (West) were African-Americans. And for movie directors in the Directors Guild of American, the comparable figure was just 3.6 percent. (Historical data show that the proportion of African-American writers and directors was even lower in past years.) (WGAW, 2014; DGA, 2015) The number of African-American producers (aside from actors and directors who establish their own production companies) is difficult to determine, but anecdotal evidence suggests that it is quite small. (Lee, 2014) Taken together, these statistics clearly show that, among the people who directly influence the content of the movies and the types of roles that will be available to black actors, African-Americans have been significantly underrepresented.It is unclear what impact, if any, this underrepresentation has had on Hollywood’s artistic choices. But the historical record is very clear when it comes to another point: from its earliest days, the content that Hollywood created”the movies” themselveshas typically reflected only what its audiences have been willing to pay for. At the beginning of the 20th century, before the Great Migration that drew millions of African-Americans out of the rural South, the potential African-American audience for Hollywood movies was extremely small (U.S. Census Bureau: American FactFinder), and the fledgling movie industry accordingly produced virtually no content for that audience. At the same time, overtly racist attitudes were common among many American whites, particularly in the South, and the movie industry catered to that potential audience with overtly racist films such as D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. As the potential audience for films about African-Americans began to grow, small independent producers began to make “race films” aimed specifically at African-American audiences; these films did not receive wide distribution because the major Hollywood studios, which owned thousands of movie theaters across the country, declined to show them. It was only after the Supreme Court ruled that the studios would have to give up their ownership of theatersforcing them to compete for the theaters’ business and for a share of the growing African-American marketthat Hollywood began to incorporate more African-American characters into mainstream films.(Leab, 1975) This major change in movie content came about in direct response to changing market forces. Other forces also influenced changes in Hollywood’s approach to African-American characters and themes, but most were rooted in economics, not ethics. One major factor: the outlawing of segregated public facilities during the civil rights era meant the end of “blacks only” theaters, which in turn helped put an end to “race films” and forced the studios to find ways to appeal to African-American audiences. (Caddoo, 2014) At the same time, the Civil Rights Movement itself generated increased public sympathy for the cause of African-American rights; this in turn boosted the marketability of films with African-American actors such as Sidney Poitier, or those that dealt with themes of racial tolerance, such as Lilies of the Field or To Kill a Mockingbird. (Bristor et al, 1995) Again, what America saw on the silver screen was a reflection of Hollywood’s bottom line.
THE BODY OF YOUR ESSAY
You should have written the introduction to your historical analysis essay, and now it is time to start drafting the body of your paper. In this exercise, you will be required to draft three paragraphs that will go in the body of your paper. You should plan to spend one to two hours on this assignment.
Construct each paragraph using the P.I.E.* method. Each paragraph should have a topic sentence, include evidence from you research, and relate back to your argument.
Add these three body paragraphs to the document firstname_lastname.Essay, beneath the introduction that you wrote in Learning Block 5-4. Save this revised document locally on your computer; you will be asked to submit it at the end of this learning block.
On this page, you will review both your Week 6 Short Responses and the work you have done on your historical event analysis essay this week, in preparation for their submission in your learning environment.
WEEK 6 SHORT RESPONSES
During the second week of Theme: Analyzing History, you have been asked to respond to several questions designed to show your understanding of key concepts. Now it is time for you to submit your responses to those questions.
First, review your answers to each response. Check for errors and incomplete answers, and make sure that you have used proper grammar throughout. If you have not completed any of these questions, do this now. When you are finished reviewing and editing, follow the instructions at the bottom of the page to download your work and submit it to your instructor.
Here are the Week 6 Short Response exercises:
Week 6 Short Responses “ Question 1
Which source will you analyze using active reading strategies? Include the name of the article, the author, the publication, the date, and where you found it.
Read your chosen source using the active reading strategies you learned on the previous page. Then, summarize the overall meaning and content of the reading. Write your summary below. Your summary should be at least one paragraph long.
The next activity uses a rich text area. You can tab to the editor body. Press ALT-F10 to get to the toolbar. Press ESC to return to the editor body. A save button is available in the top toolbar all the way to the right and will become visible when it receives focus.
Saved
