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A critical commentary is a short essay that introduces a historical document. It provides basic information about what the document is, what cultural and historical context influenced its author in creating it, and why you—the historian—believe it was important, convincing, effective, or ineffective. Your commentary will be evaluated on your selection of direct evidence, creativity of interpretation, depth of historical context, and clarity of language.

For each critical commentary, you will write about a primary source document of your choice. Please choose ONE of the documents from the list below (from The American Yawp ReaderLinks to an external site.):

• This is the Source for the Assignment Bertha McCall on America’s “Moving People” (1940)Links to an external site.

Papers will be scored on the following criteria (150 points total):

STYLE (25 points)

• Requirements:
  • 700-900 words¸ plain 11- or 12-point font
  • Include a meaningful title
  • Identify the name, author, and date of the document
  • Clear thesis statement near the beginning of the essay
    • For more on how to write a thesis statement, check out this helpful explanation by Dr. Tania Maync: Formulating an Analytical Thesis Statement.pdfDownload Formulating an Analytical Thesis Statement.pdf
  • Consist of multiple readable paragraphs
  • Your commentary should give your reader a sense of the document’s style through the use of at least three direct quotations, properly quoted
    • Quotations should not be longer than 1-2 lines
• Do NOT include:
  • Title page
  • Text that you’ve copied and pasted from elsewhere without properly quoting and citing your source
  • AI-generated text No chat gpt or grammarly for checking spelling
• Choose 3 quotes that are:
  • brief, relevant to your point, and especially interesting or colorful. Use ellipses (…) or interrupt quotations to omit irrelevant parts of a quote, and paraphrase long or uninteresting quotes. Cite sources parenthetically, with as much information as is needed for someone else to track them down.
    • In his speech on New Freedom, President Wilson claimed that “the program of a government of freedom must in these days be positive, not negative merely” (Wilson, 1912).
    • Historians agree that Lincoln’s attitude toward colonization shifted over the course of the war (American Yawp, Ch 14).

IDENTIFICATION (25 points)

Provide a succinct and accurate summary of the document, including relevant details about its date and place of origin, authorship, genre, and argument or purpose.

CONTEXT (50 points)

Identify the broader historical context of the document and explain its relationship to the societal issues or events of its era. What is the historical “big picture” that your reader must grasp in order to properly understand the document? What was the author’s purpose in creating the document? Include convincing quotes, information from the textbook and lecture, or other course materials to demonstrate this.

Tip: each of these primary source documents correspond to a specific chapter in the textbook, which will provide helpful context. To find out which chapter your document pairs with, look in the URL/web address. For example, the URL for Henry George’s Progress and Poverty is http://www.americanyawp.com/reader/16-capital-and-labor/henry-george-progress-and-poverty-selections-1879/. Since the URL includes “16-capital-and-labor”, you know that it goes with Chapter 16.

ANALYSIS (50 points)

Clearly state your evaluation of the author’s argument or purpose in your thesis statement. What does the author mean? What were they trying to accomplish? Who is their intended audience? Why is this source historically significant? Do you agree with the author’s position? Are they leaving out important details? In the body of the paper, prove your thesis with convincing detail from the document and its historical context.

Remember, historical analysis is different than literary analysis! Tools from your English or Rhetoric classes like pathos/logos/ethos are not particularly useful here. In History, primary source analysis focuses more on what a source can tell us about the past, both on a micro scale (what was happening with these individuals?) and on a macro scale (does this source give us larger insights into history?).

Note: Be careful to address the opinion of the author, not simply the general topic of the document. e.g. Your opinion of the Emancipation Proclamation should be less concerned with whether slavery was right or wrong, and more concerned with whether Lincoln made the right choice to issue it when and how he did.

Sample Work

You can download sample commentaries here for your reference. All of these are excellent student work that earned scores of 95% or higher in previous courses (shared with permission).

• SAMPLE Critical Commentary Morton.pdfDownload SAMPLE Critical Commentary Morton.pdf
• SAMPLE Critical Commentary Tape.pdfDownload SAMPLE Critical Commentary Tape.pdf
• SAMPLE Critical Commentary Parsons.pdfDownload SAMPLE Critical Commentary Parsons.pdf
  

  Sample outline

  If you are not sure how to structure your commentary, this sample outline might be a helpful guide. You are not required to follow this format, it is just one way of approaching the assignment.

  • Paragraph 1: Introduction
    • Who created this document? When?
    • What kind of document is this (newspaper article, speech, letter, etc.)?
    • Who is the intended audience?
    • Why is it historically significant? (i.e. why do we care?)
    • What else was going on at this time that would be helpful to know when reading this document (historical context)?
  • Paragraph 2: Summary
    • What are the key points in the document?
    • What is the author trying to communicate? What is their perspective?
    • this paragraph is a good place to include quotations
  • Paragraph 3: Analysis
    • Does the author do a good job presenting their case?
    • Is this source reliable? What are its limitations?
    • Do you agree with the author’s points? Why or why not?
    • Concluding sentence: why does this matter? How can it contribute to our understanding of history?