View of Lehigh Valley farmland from Blue Mountain, looking south towards South Mountain way in the distance.
Slatington is beyond the left edge of this picture.  Photo credit robotbrainz.

After some recent HIS 135 classes on campus, I developed a new assignment for this course:
“Write a brief history of the world, 1995-present, from your own perspective.”

Your history should be at least ten pages, double-spaced, one-inch margins, font size 10-12, when viewed using Word, but for this assignment, your history will be published on the web using google documents.  So it will really appear as single-spaced.  I will still enforce the ten-page requirement, but I will also allow the paper to go longer, as long as it is well-written.

• If you do this assignment, then you still need to take the midterm and final exams and write the short paragraphs 1 and 2.
• If you do this assignment, then you do not have to do the three module essays or the current events paper.
  
• You can do this personal world history and still do any of the other available course assignments or extra credit options for additional course points.
• We will be using google docs for your work on this paper. That will allow me to directly monitor your progress and to make specific suggestions on your paper as you are writing it.  I will also be able to publish your personal history to the web using google documents.  This means that you need a regular gmail account (not the student email through google) to work on the assignment.  When you have a gmail address, please contact me, and I will set up your history for you to begin work.
  

The paper should be your view of what has happened in the world since 1995, and it will include your analysis and interpretation of what is important about what has happened. I am willing to adjust this time boundary if you wish to do a different time period, but it must be a time that you lived through, for example the 1970s or 1980s.  Please email me for approval first.

In your history, I expect that you will include your specific memories of important events as they happened, for example, the Bush-Gore presidential election of 2000.  I will help you with this task by prompting you with questions as you work through your writing.  I will also point out writing problems for you, and I expect them to be corrected then.  I will not accept last-minute submissions.

• I expect to see weekly progress.  If I do not see weekly progress, then I will end this assignment option for you.  A full draft of ten pages is due at least two weeks before the end of the course (week 13).  A final version will not be accepted later than one week before the end of the course (week 14).  NO EXCEPTIONS.  Don't ask.
  
• You should use web-based sources, including newspapers, throughout your history. The online databases available through the college's library web page will give you a lot of possible sources that you can check.
• You may include images, but then your paper should be longer. Each image must appear in your paper with a source citation.
• You should reference specific details within your paper. For example, if you use statistics on the 2000 US presidential election, then you should cite where you found that information. So, your paper will have to include some references. The references should appear in parenthetical form, i.e., the url or other citation should appear in parenthesis in the paper.
• I do not expect to see rants or colloquial language in your history.  Please consult Charlie's History Writing Center for specific information on what I require as proper writing in the course.  While I still ask you to use the past tense as much as possible with this assignment, I will allow the use of "I" in your narrative.
• Finally, this is not a course centered on US history.  So, while much of your personal world history will reflect memories of events that occurred in the US, you should broaden your perspective to a world view as much as possible.
  

You can view some examples of this assignment from my fall 2008 campus HIS 135 class.

The personal world history paper is worth a maximum of 500 points.