Skip to main content

Seniors ~ MIddle Ages Essay

ROUGH DRAFT (two copies): Friday 1/11
FINAL DRAFT (sources attached): Monday 1/14

Your assignment is to write an essay of two (non-honors) to three (honors) pages on a specific aspect of medieval life (see topics below). Your report should include information from no more than TWO sources, cited according to MLA. Your essay must be typed. With the final draft, you must also include a copy of each source you used. Staple everything together, with the essay on top.

Note that all information from your sources – whether quoted directly, paraphrased or summarized – must be cited. MLA requires that the author include the author’s last name (or first word of the title in quotes) and a page number (none for web pages) at the end of the sentence, in parentheses.

Below is a list of possible topics:

Social Order
Knighthood
Feudalism
Chivalry & Courtly Love
Slavery / Serfdom

Religion in the Middle Ages
Pilgrimage
Heresy
The Crusades
Holy Grail
Judaism
Paganism

Science & Medicine
Humoral Theory
Hygiene
Alchemy
Plague (Black Death)

Medieval Life
Food & Beverage
Fashion
Women’s Rights
Commerce / Economics
Education
Games / Sports

Medieval Law
Magna Carta
Crime & Punishment

Arts & Entertainment
Music – minstrels, ballads
Drama / Theatre
Fine Arts – painting, weaving, etc.

Try the following sites:
Wikipedia: Middle Ages
BBC British History: Middle Ages
A Chaucerian Cookery
The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies
Middle Ages
Middle Ages: Exhibits Collection
Medieval Life
Medieval Sourcebook

Popular posts from this blog

Juniors ~ Restoration Period

For more on the Restoration Period, go to the homepage for the Norton Anthology of English Literature . Click on the picture below to go to Wikipedia's page on Hogarth's Marriage a-la-mode :
Read more

Seniors ~ Three (Small) Writing Assignments

As you work on your memory books this week and next, you should also be working on the end-of-year writing assignments.  I've given you a handout (if you were on class): A letter to your future self -- imagine yourself four years from now...where will you be, and what will you be doing?  Is it what you planned?  What do you hope to remember about NOW?  What's important?  Address your future self in a letter (standard form), and enclose it in a self-address envelope.  I won't read it, but I do need to know you've done it, so don't seal it. A reflective paragraph that will serve as the introduction to your memory book.  What is your overall impression of your high school years?  What do you want to remember most? Finally, write a poem about your senior class.  The form and tone of the poem is up to you: funny, serious or sad; rhyming couplets, ballad, or free verse.  However you write it, though, please take it seriously.  A copy of this poem should go in your memory ...
Read more

Homework

Seniors Your exam is on Thursday, and your final essay is on Friday. I'll talk more about the essay in class tomorrow. Also, the senior auction project lacks one more important detail - your memories! We will spend a bit of time tomorrow in class writing down some of your fondest memories of your senior year, and the rest of your time at RO.  Sophomores Read "Lines Composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey," and complete the questions at the end of the selection in your book. As always, please use complete sentences and cite frequently from the text.
Read more