BRITAIN MEETS THE WORLD

SRS 200 – Winter 2009

REACTION PAPER 3 – DUE TUESDAY 20 JANUARY

DIRECTIONS: Answer the question after which your name appears.

Question 1 (Cleary, Dunn, Halvorsen, Kasem, Kaufman, MacEwan, Silvia): How did
William Biddulph’s religious background and identity shape his experiences travelling in the
Ottoman Empire and how he wrote about it?

Question 2 (Green, Kason, Lounsbury, Lucey, Meyers, Scheff, Stevens, Walters): Henry
Blount travelled to the Ottoman Empire to determine whether the Turks were as barbarous and
cruel as everyone claimed, especially when it came to ruling their subjects and governing the
Empire. What conclusions did he draw after his travels?

IMPORTANT! The writing assignments in the first few weeks of the term are especially
important because they will be the basis from which I evaluate your analytical skills and writing
ability, before you draft the first section of the term paper. More simply, these assignments are
the best opportunity you have to tell me what kind of student you are, how well you think, and
how well you write.

REQUIREMENTS

• Paper: this assignment is to be entirely your own work using the assigned readings.
Evidence that this requirement has been violated will be treated as an act of academic
misconduct and handled according to college regulations.

• Deadline: this assignment is due AT THE START of class; it will not be accepted late.
• Length: the minimum requirement for this assignment is 1000 words (inclusive of
references); this is the baseline for an average answer; better than average or excellent
answers will almost always longer; provide a word count.

• Format: assignments must be properly typed with correct punctuation, spelling, and
grammar.

• Language: use formal and analytical language rather than informal and conversational
language. Use language that is gender-appropriate for accuracy.

• Quotations: avoid stand-alone quotes, a sentence or statement from a source that is

made into sentence all by itself in your paragraph. If you intend to use a full sentence then
connect it to the previous sentence with a colon (:). Someone else’s material is not meant to
substitute for your own words. Be sure that quotes are accurate from the sources.

• READ CAREFULLY! – References: you must cite/reference/attribute all of the following

information: direct quotes AND the ideas or information from MacLean, Rise of Oriental
Travel. References should be in the form of in-text citation of the relevant page number in
parentheses at the end of sentences, following the terminal punctuation, like so: (MacLean,
175). Avoid anything that might be interpreted as plagiarism in your paraphrasing or
summaries. For example: ‘Ethelred demanded that the shire reeve and the twelve leading
moguls in each community to vow to accuse no innocent man, nor hide any guilty one.’ vs.
what the source had: ‘Ethelred ordered that the shire reeve and the twelve leading magnates
in each locality to swear to accuse no innocent man, nor conceal any guilty one’ (the only
differences between the student writing and the text are underlined). Failure to adequately
cite sources in the cases outlined above is also plagiarism. Your intent does not matter nor is
ignorance a defence.