Writing Homework Help

INSTRUCTIONS:

These essays (2 pages each, about 500 words) will explore the riches contained in the
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB).

1) Find a person in the ODNB who intrigues or interests you. Your choices should
vary by occupation, sex, and status, and Your person must have lived prior to 1066 and lived in the British Isles

.Try to find someone that the textbook omits or mentions only briefly: avoid the heavily discussed people such as kings. You can search in the text of all entries to target ideas/topics that interest you within a given set of dates: for example, you can search for “abbess” within the era 800-1100, or try “witch” between 1400-1688. Be creative and
enjoy the journey.

2) This person will serve as the main topic of your essay. Your essay will explain
the person’s significance that led to inclusion in the ODNB by addressing this question:
“What importance did ONE of the following influences, a) family, or b) education, or c)
religion, have in the person’s life that enabled her/him to achieve?” The answer to this question is the thesis of your essay and will shape its analysis. Have the thesis in your first
paragraph, and then write supporting paragraphs that explain and justify your argument.
End with a conclusion paragraph.

3) Include the citation to the entry: the name of the author who wrote the entry,
the title of the entry (usually the subject’s full name), and ODNB. There is a link with each entry that provides the citation format if you wish to use it. I want your paper only to draw from the ODNB, so please do no further research or use other sources.

On these assignments, please pay attention to some of the basics of good writing:

a) Organize your thoughts into paragraphs, beginning with an introduction and ending
with a conclusion

b) Write in complete sentences: have a subject and a verb, and avoid run–on sentences
and sentence fragments

c) Use the past tense of verbs: all these people are dead, so they “did” things—they are not
“doing” things

d) Care about punctuation, especially with commas

e) Use the active voice and avoid the passive voice:

“Mistakes were made” = passive because the subject (mistakes) did not do the
action of the verb (were made)
“I made a mistake” = active because the subject (I) did the action of the verb
(made)
Once you see the difference, it will make a world of improvement in your prose.

f) Proofread for typos and errors