Please write a paper on one of the topics below. Papers should be 4-5 pages long. They will be due in class on Monday, November 20. Please type, double-space, and proofread your papers. The goal of this paper is to establish and defend an argument.
 

Questions

1.     Progressive-era reforms of the criminal justice system can be seen either as representing continuity from earlier practices (the Progressive-era reforms merely formalized procedures that had already existed, or in fact did not change much at all) or as a radical break from the past (Progressive-era reforms introduced substantially new innovations to the practice of criminal justice).
        Choose one of these two positions and defend it. This essay should draw on your understandings of criminal justice institutions such as prisons, juvenile justice, and the police. The focus of this essay should be on the Progressive era (roughly the late 1890s to the late 1910s), but it should also offer some comparison with earlier periods in order to demonstrate whether Progressive reforms were new or not.
 

2.     Histories often argue over whether and how criminal justice institutions represented agencies of "social control" (defined by Samuel Walker on pp. 117-118 as the exercise of coercive power over the poor or immigrant working class by an elite). In this unit of the course, we have discussed a number of institutions which might be accused of exercising social control: the Elmira Reformatory, early juvenile courts, and the criminal courts of the 1920s and 1930s as represented by the trials of Leopold and Loeb, Bruno Hauptmann, and the Scottsboro boys.
        Choose two of these three sets of cases and write an essay assessing whether or not each institution exercised "social control." If you see "social control" as a viable explanation for the how institutions operated, compare how the exercise of social control was similar or different in each of your cases. If not, explain why the concept of "social control" is lacking, again discussing each of your cases.
 

3. Write an essay on topic of your own choosing, but please discuss it with me no later than Friday, November 17.
 

VARIOUS POLICIES:

All papers will be by the end of class on the date stated; if you do not submit the paper in class, please leave it in my mailbox in the History Dept. office, Baker 240. On any paper submitted after that date, one full letter grade will be subtracted from the final mark for each day that the paper is late.

Your paper should be your own original work. You should cite your sources when you use direct quotations, but also when you adopt ideas, use statistics, or paraphrase other authorsí material. You should not paraphrase so closely that you essentially say the same thing as the author.
 

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION & GRADING:

I evaluate papers on your ability to present a coherent argument and to substantiate that argument with materials and examples from pertinent readings and class discussions. To evaluate papers, I ask myself a series of questions. These questions include:

Does the paper make sense?

Does the paper make an interpretive argument? Papers should try to take a position & demonstrate a point or a sense of purpose. Without a point, writing does not explain much & is often not coherent.

Does the paper address the question?

Does the paper use evidence to support its argument? A reasonable balance of interpretation and evidence is important to writing good history.

Does the paper demonstrate knowledge of relevant course material? While itís routine, showing knowledge of relevant course material is one of the ways that you can demonstrate that you are keeping up in the class & learning the material.

Does the paper convey ideas clearly? Is it reasonably well-written? You should try to convey ideas as clearly & concisely as possible.

Are grammar, spelling, & style OK? I mark down very little on these issues, but sloppy presentation reflects poorly on the overall quality of writing & in this era of computer spell-checking, thereís no excuse for most misspellings.
 

SOME OF MY PET PEEVES:

1. Use past tense to write about events that took place in the past. In general, papers for history classes should be written in past tense.

2. Use active verbs. Active verbs allow you to express thoughts more directly. Avoid passive sentences constructions such as "It was Ö" or "There was Ö" These sorts of sentences are both dull and imprecise.
 

GENERAL STYLE:

If you have questions about style or presentation for this or most other classes offered by the Department of History, please refer to Diana Hacker, A Pocket Manual of Style, or The Chicago Manual of Style.

Correct footnotes / endnotes according to The Chicago Manual of Style, 13th Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 485-510.

For initial references:

BOOKS:

1. Samuel Walker, Popular Justice: A History of American Criminal Justice, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 27.

ARTICLES:

2. Hendrik Hartog, "Lawyering, Husbandsí Rights, and ëthe Unwritten Lawí in Nineteenth-Century America, Journal of American History 84 (June 1997): 67-96.

For subsequent references:

4. Walker, Popular Justice, 27.

5. Hartog, "Lawyering, Husbandsí Rights, and ëthe Unwritten Law,í" 90.