explain why this document is significant to our understanding of a particular era of military history.

You will write this about a primary source document of your choice that we will have read by the time the essay is due. Analysis means “breaking something apart” to understand it better, and that is what you will do with a primary source document. The goal of this assignment is to explain why this document is significant to our understanding of a particular era of military history. You should provide information from lecture and/or class readings to support your argument and analysis, but the majority of your evidence should come from the primary source document itself. In 750-800 words, you do not have room for a long introduction. Get to the point right away and do not bother with space-wasting filler sentences in your first paragraph. Provide just enough historical context to explain the document’s position in time and space. Within four or five sentences, your introduction should make it clear what document from what era of military history you are analyzing, and what your argument is (in other words, your thesis statement––see the model below). The body paragraphs of your essay should develop and support the argument you make in your thesis statement. For every claim you make about the meaning, importance, or implications of the document, you should be able to point to a specific piece of evidence––from the document itself or elsewhere from class. No research is necessary or expected for this assignment. Model for analytical thesis statements: Your thesis statement should be no longer than two sentences at the end of your introduction, and should clearly contain all these elements (not necessarily in this order): (Argument/“What do I know,”), (summary of the Evidence you will use/“How do I know this”), and (Significance/“So what? Why does my argument matter on a broader scale, beyond the fact that I have to write an essay for this class?”). Grading rubric for Analytical Essays A range: Presents relevant historical context and clear analytical thesis statement with all three components (argument, summary of evidence, significance). Evidence is chosen and analyzed carefully to support the argument and explain its significance.