David Campion

Indian Police officers at the Burma Provincial Police Training School, Mandalay, 1923 (Orwell: top, third from left)

MAIN PAGE SCHEDULE OF CLASSES COURSE REQUIREMENTS ASSIGNMENTS ORWELL ARCHIVE ORWELL FOUNDATION

ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES

ESSAYS Throughout the semester students will complete three short essays in response to the readings and discussions. Questions for the essays will be given out by e-mail at least a week before they are due. The due dates for each essay are listed in the schedule of classes. Since this is a college-level research essay, you must use an acceptable method of citation for academic scholarship and you must use it correctly and consistently throughout your essay. Acceptable forms of citation include footnotes, endnotes, and parenthetic citations. You must also include a full bibliography at the end of the essay with complete and separate entries for each source used. If you choose to use footnotes or endnotes you should provide a full citation when you first refer to a source and then an abbreviated citation for every subsequent reference to that source. You must account for all your sources, even quotations from one author embedded in the writing of another. If you have any questions about proper citation practices please speak with the instructor or consult the College's Academic Integrity Policy and Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (9th edition) for further guidance. In addition to books, academic journals often contain the most recent research and developments within specialized fields of study. JSTOR, Project Muse, and other electronic journal databases will prove useful in identifying scholarly articles relevant to your topic. For primary sources you should consult the Watzek Library History Research Guide. Your essay should be between 1800-2000 words (excluding citations), and must be doubled-spaced, numbered, and must use standard fonts and margins. The narrative of your essay (the presentation of facts, analysis of research material, or historical chronology) should be structured around an argument or thesis. It is not enough merely to relate facts that are already known, retell a familiar story, or rehash a familiar argument. The most important objective of your essay is to present an original argument, theory, or analysis that is supported by a critical approach to your sources. Research for the essay should center on a few well-selected texts as well as, in some cases, drawing upon a variety of scholarly works (books or articles written about your subject). The definition of sources is broadly conceived and may, among other things, include works of visual art or musical compositions as well as written documents. Additionally, your essay must conform to the following specifications: All pages of text must be double-spaced using a standard font (the most common is Times New Roman, 12-point font size). Images and the bibliography do not count toward these page limits. Pages must be numbered. If you include a separate title page (optional) this page should not be numbered. Page 1 is the first page of text. Margins must be 1" at top and bottom and left and right. Bibliography entries should be single-spaced and all lines after the first line of an entry must be indented 0.5" Quotations longer than 3 lines or 30 words (whichever is longer) should be inserted as block quotations. The entire block quotation is single spaced and set in from the left margin 0.5" (the same as the indentation of a new paragraph). Block quotations do not need quotation marks. If you choose footnotes or endnotes as your form of citation, these must be single-spaced and may be between 11- and 12-point font size. The first mention of a source requires a full citation while mention of that same source in subsequent footnotes should be given an abbreviated citation. Section headings within the body of the essay, if these are used, should be in bold or italics so that they stand out from the text. In writing and revising your essay you should consult the History Department Writing Guidelines and Grading Standards. Additionally, you might find a visit to the Lewis & Clark Writing Center and the following reference works helpful: Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers (9th Edition) Strunk & White, The Elements of Style Wilson Follett, Modern American Usage: A Guide Finally, be sure to edit and proofread your essay thoroughly before submitting it. Poor syntax or structure and excessive errors in spelling, punctuation, or grammar will lower your grade. The research essay is due at 11:59 pm on Monday, December 7.

ORAL PRESENTATION As part of the semester research project each student will complete an oral presentation related to the third essay on Nineteen-Eight Four. Your presentation will last ten minutes and will be given in class to an audience of your classmates and your instructor. The first 7-8 minutes of the presentation will be for you to speak followed by 2-3 minutes for responding to questions from your audience. The focus of your presentation is your topic and should be a concise synthesis of the content and argument of your essay. Your presentation should be guided by the following questions, but it is not limited to them: On what specifically are you doing research and why is it important to our understanding of Orwell and his relevance in our own time? What sorts of research materials are you using and how did you find them? What are the main strengths and limitations of these materials? What is the original argument you are making based on your research and how does this compare to those of other scholars who have written on your topic or on ones similar to it? What has been the most interesting or unexpected thing you have learned during the course of your research? What have been the greatest challenges in your research and in the formulation of your own argument? Since your presentation will be given before the final essay is due, it is understood that you are presenting on a project that is not yet complete. You may indicate in the presentation the parts of your research or the formulation of your argument that are still in progress. During your presentation you may use PowerPoint slides, short video or audio clips, or show artifacts. However, please be aware that these tools, if you choose to use them, are meant merely to enhance your presentation; they are not the focus of the presentation. If you use PowerPoint it should be for showing images only and for no other reason (definitely not for displaying a bullet-point outline of the content of your presentation). You certainly should not read from the screen of a PowerPoint presentation at the expense of maintaining contact with your audience. Likewise, if you play audio or video clips these should be very short (90 seconds at most) since your total presentation time is extremely limited. Ultimately you will be evaluated primarily on your own speaking and presenting skills. These include clarity, style, composure, voice projection (your audience must be able to hear you), enthusiasm, engaging with your audience (eye contact), organization, and your ability to keep within the allotted time limit. As with any performance, a highly polished academic presentation must be practiced several times before it is actually given. Poor preparation or improvisation ("winging it") are immediately evident to an attentive audience. The oral presentation is worth ten percent of the overall grade for the course. The presentations are scheduled between November 30 and December 7. There will be five per day.

Created by campion@lclark.edu | Updated August 2026