Paper #1: Immigration (or Migration) History
Length: approx. 1500–2000 words
Due Dates:
T Apr 7 Topic Proposal (~100 words; 10 points). Explain whether you will write your own or someone else’s history, and what ideas you have so far about focusing the paper.
T Apr 14 Final Draft (double-spaced, printed single-sided, pages numbered)
Topic:
For the first paper, you are to tackle an issue addressed in bothThe Devil’s Highway and The Warmth of Other Suns—immigration (or migration).You have two options:
(1) Write your own immigration (or migration) history, that is, tell the story of how your family happened to come to the United States (or migrated within the States), whether that is your personal story, that of your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.
(2) Write someone else’s immigration or migration history. This will need to be someone that you have easy access to, as much of the material for this history will need to come from interviews with that person.
The essay needs to include both a narrative of what happened (which will probably take up the most space) and some analysis of the significance of the events recorded. Be sure to include enough contextual information – history, dates, social/cultural events that the reader will be familiar with.
At the end of the essay, in a separate section, write a reflection of approximately 500 words, in which you explain the process of writing this paper and what you learned from it. What is your relationship to the people you wrote about? From whom did you learn the details of the story? Did you learn anything that you didn’t know before? What decisions did you have to make about how to present the story? To what extent and in what ways did you act as a “documentarian,” as Coles discusses in “Doing Documentary Work”?
Making the Project Manageable:
The whole story of your family immigration history would no doubt fill a book (or more). You have just a few pages, so you need to decide how to reduce the project to a manageable size. You could think of this paper as just one chapter in the larger history. Here are a few possible strategies:
focus on just one event, and try to narrate that event from two or more points of view. This is essentially Urrea’s method in The Devil’s Highway. Notice that he makes a whole book out of one event. So you won’t be able to be quite as ambitious as he is.
focus on one place (a house, a ship, a border crossing), and tell what happened there at different times, for different people.
focus on just one person, perhaps someone long gone (a great-grandparent, for example), and tell how different relatives now remember that person.
focus on a particular object (a book, a family heirloom, a piece of furniture), and narrate its travels or its relationship to various people.
Sources:
For the History, rely on primary sources: in addition to your own memories and observations, use whatever documents you can find: letters, official documents, diaries, photographs, newspaper clippings, etc. You will also need to interview people—your parents, grandparents, other relatives, as well as other key figures in the story. You may also want to rely on secondary sources, such as historical accounts of certain immigration movements (even, if relevant, The Devil’s Highway) so that you can compare the story you’re telling with that of the historians. Be sure to document all borrowings (even facts and statistics you find on-line). Rely on a reputable reference guide to get the details of documentation correct. The Purdue Online Writing Lab is a good source: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/.
Steps:
1. Decide on topic and write Topic Proposal
2. Line up interviews, find primary sources, and gather any secondary sources.
3. Write a chronological account of the history, with as many details as you can.
4. Go through that account and note where facts are missing, or where you’re not sure of exactly what happened. Write a list of questions you want to have answered.
5. Interview your sources—be sure to ask for stories and facts. You’ll need both to make this an interesting narrative. Ask for any documentation they might have.
6. Transcribe your interview notes – and note any further questions you have. Ask more questions.
7. Figure out a general organizational plan.
8. Make notes as you work for your analysis: What are the implications of this story? for yourself and your family? (or for the family of the people you’re writing about) for the community in which they live? What historical, political, or social points might be illuminated by this story?
9. Draft the paper – including the 500-word reflection.
10. Get peer feedback.
11. Revise, Edit, and Proofread.
