Samples of Excellence & Student Web Projects

Click below for samples of excellent writing from history and humanities students at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Sample Reader Response and Essay Topic One from History 153, Fall 2000: reader response essay on Mabel Barbee Lee
essay on views of Gilded Age, comparing Morgan and Trachtenberg
Elizabeth Curtiss, "Silence: The Chinese American Defense," paper prepared for Prof. Christopher Hill, Asian American History, Fall 1997.: Good example of short (3-5 pp.) critical essay on a major text. An examination ofMaxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior.
Rob Culbert, "An Analysis of Leonard Moore's Citizen Klansmen": Good example of short (3.5 pp.) analytical review of a controversial text. Paper demonstrates how to fairly summarize an argument while also challenging the central contentions of the argument.
Pam Cowen, "A Review of Sarah Deutch's No Separate Refuge: Culture, Class, and Gender on a Frontier in the American Southwest,: prepared for Professor Paul Harvey, Hist. 666, Readings in Gilded Age and Progressive Era America, Graduate Readings Seminary, Fall 1997. Good example of a short (750 word) book review of a scholarly monograph. Using a highly professional writing style, the author details, analyzes, and assesses the major arguments of a scholarly text.
Ladonna Gunn, "The Mythical American West on the Internet,": prepared for Prof. Paul Harvey's Popular Culture in Twentieth Century America class, Spring 1997. A fine example of a "review essay" on Websites on a particular topic, showing how the resources of the Web tend to reinforce a certain older notion of the history of the American West which has long since been rejected by scholars.
Sally Johnson, comparative review of Nicholas Lemann's The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America, and Jacqueline Jones, Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work and Family from Slavery to the Present.: Prepared for Prof. Paul Harvey, African American History from the Civil War to the Present, History 300, Spring 1997. An excellent extended review essay of two major works in a field, showing how to elucidate the major themes of the books while also providing a critique of both.
Sally Johnson, "The Experiences of American Soldiers in World War I, World War II, and Vietnam.": Paper prepared for History 300, War and 20th-Century American Society, Spring 1998. Sample of end-of-term essay/final synthesizing diverse information and materials into a cohesive argumentative essay.
Paul Harvey, "Sweet Homes, Sacred Blues, Regional Identities: Studying Religion, Race, and Culture in the American South.": Article prepared for Religious Studies Review, Summer 1997 issue. Sample of how to do an extended review essay on multiple works in a field.