Global Studies 110 Paper

How to write an essay?

Structure Introduction

– Opening sentence (catchy) – Background information, fact or quotation. – Research question (provided by the professor) – Thesis: What is your answer. – Structure of the paper

Body (as many paragraphs as reasons you included in the thesis) – Topic sentence: State the argument you will use in this paragraph. – Examples and details of the first item listed in the thesis. – Explain how the examples and details explain your argument

Conclusion – Restate your answer to the question – Synthesize the main points on how you answered that question – Include a final, broad statement (implications, future directions, limits)

Example: Was cultural exchange (un)equal and ethically problematic? If not, how so?

Introduction 1. Opening sentence (catchy) 2. Background information,

fact or quotation. 3. Research question

(provided by the professor) 4. Thesis: What is your

answer. 5. Structure of the paper

(1) Cultural exchange has been a global experience where moving beyond local habitations has come with unequal and unethical interactions. (2) There were many who gave up a sedentary life to move beyond their local habitation and interact with cultures other than their own. These could be conquerors, soldiers, traders, monks, religious men and scholars. (3) Thus, how was cultural exchange unequal and ethically problematic? (4) Cultural exchange was unequal and ethically problematic because of war and violence, and slavery and extraction of labor. (5) First, I would map the history of the Mongolian empire to exemplify how war made this interaction ethically problematic. Then I will move to the British economy of slavery in Jamaica to illustrate how cultural capital made this cultural exchange unequal.

Example: Was cultural exchange (un)equal and ethically problematic? If not, how so? Body (as many paragraphs as reasons you included in the thesis) 1. Topic sentence: State the

argument you will use in this paragraph.

2. Examples and details of the first item listed in the thesis.

3. Explain how the examples and details explain your argument

(1) Some historians narrate the Mongolian expansion through a general perception of being animal-like, violent and chaotic. Their cultural exchanges with the cultures they conquered was ethically problematic because of their carefully yet devastating use of fear. (2) According to Frankopan, Genghis Khan used violence selectively and deliberately. He will sack of one city as a way to make others submit peacefully, quickly. For example, Nishapur was devastated: every living being, human and animal, were killed. Simultaneously, once in power they established the Pax Mongolica (through trade and commerce, as narrated by Marco Polo in The Book of the Marvels of the World. (3), Thus, their violent practices were accompanied with a flourishing of an earlier cosmopolitan culture.

Example: Was cultural exchange (un)equal and ethically problematic? If not, how so?

Conclusion 1. Restate your answer to the

question 2. Synthesize the main points

on how you answered that question

3. Include a final, broad statement (implications, future directions, limits)

(1) All in all, the world has been changed through cultural exchange, but these interactions have come with unequal and ethically problematic results. (2) The Mongolian empire was effective due to their culture of fear while simultaneously developing a culture of meritocracy along their multiple imperial subjects. In terms of cultural capital gained through British colonialism, [synthesize the main point of the next argument(s) you used]. (3) Kwame Anthony Appiah invites us to equip us with ideas and institutions that will allow us to live together as the global tribe we have become. However, this ought to come with a recognition with the power asymmetries that have molded this world. Maybe, just maybe, there will be hope for a culture of ethics in this violent globe.