SUPA Papers: A Reflection
As I got back my first paper , A Settlement Built on Struggle, I would realize the challenge that my future paper’s would present. This challenge, amongst others, was thesis integration in my papers. Although my introduction for the Jamestown paper provided a strong thesis about the three most prominent struggles for the settlement: power hungry leaders, harsh weather and Native Americans, these points lacked a clear purpose throughout the rest of the paper. By the end of the first body paragraph my thesis was already lost in not only my content but my awkward wording and overbearing use of quotes. My information sounded too much like a summary, lacked analysis and failed to make an argument. In my second body paragraph, my thesis was again lost as I went on about the Powhatans in a textbook matter instead of using a historian’s lens, this pattern continued. I had realized that my paragraphs should answer the question and criticism scribbled in red on the margins of my paper: So What? I was left with numerous tips to carry onto the Revolution paper, a piece that would demand clear thesis integration as it analyzed the events leading up to the Revolutionary War. As the Revolution Paper was essentially structured around a progression of events, a historian’s lens was needed to make …show more content…
Both showed the ingredients I had ready to be used in my writing but were missing the final push of analysis. This was evident in my Civil War paper as the events I described often came off as confusing and nonsignificant. In my Freedom paper the conception of Freedom itself fell short in my descriptions. Although the papers did not prove success on paper, I could see the exposure to these mistakes as tips for the Biography paper as telling a story like a historian was becoming