Monkey Houses or Revolutionary Legislatures? Moderating the Binary of Black Politicians in South Carolina

Authors

Anna L. Biesecker-Mast, University of DaytonFollow

Course

ASI120

Semester

Spring

Instructor's Name

Elizabeth Mackay

Year

2019

Writing Process

Writing this paper was an extensive process. It began early in the Spring semester—in ASI 120. From the beginning of the semester the ASI 120 students knew we would be writing a historiography in the realm of Reconstruction. To hone down a more specific topic, we were assigned Eric Foner’s A Short History of Reconstruction. By reading his account of Reconstruction, I was able to select a topic: black politicians in South Carolina. Next, a research librarian visited my seminar and introduced us to the research process. From there, I was able to gather sources and begin my annotated bibliography. To complete the annotated bibliography, I took elaborate and detailed notes on the historical interpretation of each author, and then proceeded to summarize each source. From the annotated bibliography, I worked at categorizing the sources and developing my argument for the paper—essentially, arguing for which source is the “best”, what is the criteria for being “the best”, and why. Once I settled on the criteria, I was able to form a draft of an argumentative historiography paper. I met with both Dr. Mackay and the Core Write Place Consultants to distill my drafts to more concise and effective versions. After some final grammar and structure tweaks, I submitted my final paper to my instructor, Dr. Mackay.

Award Winner

The Barbara Farrelly Award for Best Writing of the Issue

Recommended Citation

Biesecker-Mast, Anna L. (2019) "Monkey Houses or Revolutionary Legislatures? Moderating the Binary of Black Politicians in South Carolina," Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing: Vol. 6: Iss. 1, Article 8.
Available at: https://ecommons.udayton.edu/lxl/vol6/iss1/8