Historical Essay

Complete by: Friday 8 Mar., at class time.

Write an essay in which you relate one or more contemporary (primary) print (or video) sources (advertisement, newspaper article, newsreel, etc., 1945-1985) to the history we are reading in Computing or in the other essays in the “Enabling Technologies” Unit. For example, find an advertisement for a business machine in a popular magazine from the 1970s (like Business Week), and write about how the advertisement reflects the history, social phenomena, etc., detailed in a text discussed in class during this Unit, like Ceruzzi’s book Computing. Another way to approach this assignment is to decide about an event you are interested in, such as the 1952 presidential election, the introduction of IBM System/360 or 370, or the first GUI/WIMP computers, and find one or more articles about the topic in the popular press of the time.

The essay should have four paragraphs: an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. In this essay, you are responsible for your own introduction strategy and thesis. Develop an interesting angle on the topic that is based in your own reflection upon the material. Focus each body paragraph on a specific connection you find between your primary source, and the information in the readings we have covered in class. This means that each paragraph will talk about BOTH a text from class, and a library source that relates to it in some way.

You will need to use the library’s online databases for this assignment. Here is a link to the LibGuide for our class.

Requirements:

• Submit your essay to the assignment on Sakai.
• 4 paragraphs, 450-900 words
• Include the wordcount in the header of your paper
• One source chosen from our readings, and one library source you found on your own
• Several integrated and correctly cited quotes from your sources
• Double-spaced, readable font
• MLA Format & Citations
• PDF format (not a Word doc or other file type)