Paper 3 Under Way

It's been too long since I've blogged, but it's been a busy few weeks. I have to try and get onto a schedule to write, even if it's just a few lines like this one. The standard work week at my office is four, 10 hour days with Fridays off. I've been working every Friday for a long time, but today I'm at home writing my third paper for Historical Interpretation. It's about how historians should write about Native American history and whether they should emphasize agency or domination. Basically it deals with whether an emphasis should be placed on the fact that Native Americans were dominated by Europeans and their culture, or whether the emphasis should be placed on the choices, or lack thereof, that Indians had in the matter. Should be an interesting one... I'm already struggling a bit. Why can't we have a topic on WWII??? Ha!

AE

Slave Trade: An Economic Cause - Grade

Round 2 with my Historical Interpretation professor was a success, although I actually struggled with this paper.  It had to be 7-9 pages in length, but there was so much information to pick from that I had a hard time making decisions about what was most relevant.  Here's what my prof had to say:

"This is a very polished, well considered essay.  You show a firm grasp of several of the essays we've read for this unit, and you draw on them well to support your viewpoint.  You don't have a really explicit thesis statement, which you should have, yet fairly early on I see what point of view you are taking.  This is a very well written paper that considers alternative points of view fairly. You lean heavily on the preexisting presence of a slave trade in Africa, which at first blush might not seem to advance (or retard) your argument, but you make sense of it (even though, as I've indicated, I don't think all forms of slavery were the same).  Overall this is a very good job and suggests you can write excellent papers for this class."

Grade:  A-

Phew!  This was the day-brightener that I needed!  I wish I could bottle up the feeling you get when you receive good praise from a professor for an essay, it would make staying motivated while writing them a lot easier.  Maybe this blog will be a valuable tool while writing papers after all!

One of his bits of constructive criticism is aimed at a seemingly missing thesis statement.  I have to disagree with him on that point; I believe the last sentence in my opening paragraph sums up my argument pretty clearly.  Everyone looks at a paper differently though, so I'll try to improve on that in my next paper.

AE

Slave Trade: An Economic Cause - Essay

Finally!  Here is my latest essay.  Here are the details:

Was the cause of the Atlantic slave trade based on cultural beliefs or economic gain?  We were given this question and a book, The Atlantic Slave Trade, edited by David Northrup.  We were told to answer that question in the form of a 7-9 page essay. Obviously this essay is only based on a very small sample of an abundance of work on the topic, so consider this my initial interpretation to a very large, and complicated matter.

Click here to read Slave Trade: An Economic Cause

AE

Historical Interpretation - Blind Review

Last week was pretty rough.  I had a 7-9 page paper due and I struggled at harnessing my thoughts; not to mention I didn't have the time I would have liked to work on the paper.  All that stress came to head, leading to another discussion about our goals with Mrs. AE.  I love her to death, and sometimes I feel guilty for taking on so many things in my life.  She never complains and always encourages me, but I know deep down she gets frustrated with my indecisions and over-activity!  School is getting stressful, I have opportunities at Engineering Company that I never thought I'd have, the job market for social studies teachers is poor, I just got a raise and I'm over-loaded with a multitude of commitments.  Despite all that stuff, I was able to turn in a decent paper.

Last Monday we brought copies of our paper to class without our names on them for doing blind reviews.  I was lucky enough to have my paper reviewed by four different groups... It received ratings from B+ to A-... It was the encouragement I needed for sure.  I feel pretty good about my work after reading some of the other papers as well.  I'm not trying to degrade my classmates, but a lot of the papers were definitely subpar.  I'm only saying that because it's nice to know that there are people in the same boat as myself.  The blind review exercise was great, but now it's in the hands of our professor...

I'm at work right now, so I'll either get my paper posted over lunch or before the Twins demolish the Yankees this evening!

AE

P.S. Moss is boss.

From Left Field

Yesterday was my 1 year anniversary at Engineering Company since my return. I was hoping for a pay raise and a pat on the back, so that I could get back to my desk, finish the day and then concentrate on my next paper. I came out of my review an utterly confused person - well more confused than usual I suppose. An 8% pay raise was more than what I expected, but a compliment and suggestion that come from left field is what really surprised me.

Our discussion turned to continuing my education. Engineering Company's owners know that I'm in school; they know that I attended Associate Community College to finish my general education requirements. They simply asked what my plans are now that I'm done. Of course I couldn't tell them that I'm now taking history classes at Bachelor State. Instead, I just told them that I was torn between getting an accelerated bachelor's degree in Industrial Technology and going the more lengthy route of obtaining my bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering.

What came next is what has placed me into an even deeper state of confusion. They flat out told me that they want me to pursue my mechanical engineering degree at whatever pace I deem necessary. They've even offered to increase their educational reimbursement and would allow me to drop to 30 hours per week, when necessary, while maintaining full time employment status and benefits.

My instincts tell me to take them up on their offer, switch course and get into an engineering program with the intent of achieving partnership in the company. If I did that, I'd be going against everything that has steered me towards a career change in the first place, and that is avoiding the attraction of money and opportunity to do something on a daily basis that I truly enjoy. A poor job market for history teachers also doesn't make going to school for it any easier. For now I think I'm going to stay the course... but I can't promise that I won't bring up the word "partnership" to my company's owners in the very near future.

AE