The Ideas and Policies of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia

History 1DD3 Exam Guide

General Information

The final exam is a take-home final exam you will have 30 hours between 6am on August 2nd and 11:59am (note 11:59AM not PM) on August 3rd. You may upload any time before this deadline. All submissions are run through Turnitin.com, so please use Word processing or PDF files for your submissions. Please clearly indicate your name, student number, and the question number you are answering at the top of the document.

In the exam, you will be presented with a list of three (3) essay questions, from which you must answer one (1). Essays should be no longer than 1000 words, not including a works cited page. Each essay question will be broad in its scope and related to a major course theme. This will invite you to draw together examples from across the six (6) units of the course. A list of central course themes has been provided for you below.

Note that this is an individual exam, meaning students are not permitted to collaborate on responses. Students should not include any outside research or sources in the exam. This assessment is about demonstrating comprehension of the course content. Thus, for sources, you are permitted to draw only from your class notes, the course textbook, and any of the materials linked in the Avenue to Learn course shell.

The answer to your selected essay question should be argumentative and structured as a traditional essay. This means that you will have an introduction that outlines the essay question and your answer to it (your answer will be the thesis statement). To support your answer, you will have supporting analyses that draw on your evidence and case studies from the course lectures and readings to illustrate, in granular detail, your thesis. You need to cite where you are getting your e vidence either in a footnote or parenthetical (bracketed) citation – see the citations section below for how to cite in the exam. In a concluding paragraph, you will restate your answer to the question and summarize why you believe this response is convincing given the preceding analysis. I have also included sections below discussing preparation, crafting a clear thesis statement, and how to structure an analysis.

If you use words exactly as they appear in your source(s), you must place that text into quotation marks and ensure that it is given an accompanying citation. Students who do not adequately cite their sources or properly quote the text will receive a penalty. Use quotations sparingly, they can serve as evidence to support your critical voice in answering the chosen essay question, but by no means should they be allowed to make the argument in your place. Direct quotes must therefore be properly introduced and given context – essentially explain who/what is being quoted and why before giving the quote – and no quoted passage should be longer than one or two sentences.

Remember that an excellent exam may not include any direct quotations at all and it is often a more effective use of your space to place evidence into your own words – though you will still need to provide a citation to indicate where you drew the evidence or ideas from.

Lastly, I advise proofreading your essays before submitting. While writing style and quality will not take precedent over the quality of the analysis, awkward, mistake-ridden, or incomprehensible prose will render your arguments and evidence less effective, and thereby affect the overall mark. Answers will be assessed on how well you answer the essay question, how persuasive the supporting arguments are, as well as how relevant and detailed the evidence provided is for the topic. Given the space constraints, you should select the most effective and demonstrative evidence and examples. It also means avoiding dives into tangents and narratives (e.g. summarizing the historical events at length).

Procedures and Late Penalties

The Exam opens: August 2, at 6:00am EST.

The Exam closes: August 3, at 11:59am EST.

Extensions: There are no Extensions to be granted for the final exam because this assessment must follow the strict rules set out by the Office of the Registrar at McMaster. Any SAS accommodations for additional time will be applied according to the requirements for quizzes/tests/exams.

Late Penalties: Any exams submitted after the listed deadline on A2L will receive an
automatic penalty of 10% and then another penalty of 3% per one (1) hour
late.

(See the next page for a list of the Course Themes and Exam tips)

Course themes and issues to consider when preparing for the exam

Review the qualified definition of modernity from the beginning of the course’

The Legacies of the Atlantic Revolutions:

The impact of the Enlightenment

The embrace of constitutionalism

Liberal ideas about individual rights

The idea of the political nation

Ideas about equality – political, civil, social, economic, racial

The material advances caused by industrialization

The adoption, adaptation, resistance of global societies to the Atlantic and Industrial revolutions

The challenge to global societies caused by the West’s economic and military rise to prominence

The evolution of political ideologies over the course of the 19th and 20th Centuries

The challenge to liberal constitutionalist order caused by imperialism and war

The backlash against the liberal constitutionalism and nationalism in the interwar years and the rise of anti-liberal ideologies and its consequences

Citing in the Exam

Parenthetical or footnote citations are required for this exam. Exams that do not adequately cite the quotations, paraphrases, information, and/or ideas drawn from the course materials may be

subject to severe penalty, up to and including a grade of zero (0).

You need to cite where you are getting your evidence from by incorporating either footnotes or parenthetical (bracketed in-text) citations into your analysis. Choose one of these styles for your source analysis citations. For those interested in using footnotes, here is a short tutorial on how to create footnote references in Microsoft Word.

The citations can be simple. For example, you can say ‘Unit 2: Lecture on Mexico’ or ‘Course Textbook, p. #’.

Tips for structuring the exam

Your exam will need three major segments to effectively answer the chosen exam question:

Introduction: This is the paragraph that establishes the content of the essay question, presents your answer to that question (thesis statement), and outlines the supporting arguments/concepts/case studies that will be used to prove that your answer is correct.

Body of the paper: These are the supporting paragraphs that expand and add further detail to the supporting arguments/concepts/case studies by providing relevant evidence and examples drawn from the course materials (Avenue shell, lectures, and textbook readings) that are accompanied by adequate citations. You will present this evidence as critical analysis by explaining how these examples connect to the supporting arguments/concepts/case studies and how, in turn, these connections prove your answer to the essay question. Do not present the body of the paper as one long paragraph, overstuffed with topics, evidence and ideas. This structure will make the analysis hard for your reader to follow, which impacts the overall mark. Instead, consider creating a new paragraph each time you are presenting a new supporting arguments/concept/case study to clearly indicate a new line of argumentation. A good formula for planning a supporting paragraph is to have a line identifying the sub-argument/topic to be explored, a line or two establishing the evidence or examples that relate to this sub-argument, and a final one to three sentences that explain the connection between the sub-argument and evidence as well as how the overall thesis is supported by that connection (this should give you around 4-6 sentences per paragraph).

Conclusion: The conclusion’s job is to summarize the supporting arguments/concept/case studies you have examined and explain clearly how they have proven your answer to the exam question. You might finish with a few sentences that offer a broader reflection on the topic (including larger historical implications, contemporary connections, or personal insights).

A note on crafting an effective answer to essay questions (i.e. creating a thesis statement)

When constructing your thesis statement, avoid overly general language or sweeping statements, and instead be as precise as possible in setting out the answer. A good formula for constructing an early-year thesis statement is as follows: “I argue that we can understand [briefly outline the answer to the essay question] by examining [case study/evidence A], [case study/evidence B], and [case study/evidence C].” This will be inelegant in upper year essays, but it is perfectly acceptable for helping to structure first and second year assignment theses.

As an example, if a question asks: “How did the Industrial Revolution influence British society?” a bad answer would broadly restate the question: “the Industrial Revolution influenced British society.”

A stronger answer would add conditions to its response: “I argue that we can understand the influences of the Industrial Revolution on British society by examining the how rapid technological developments shaped industrial and labour demands [paragraph 1], the growth in urbanization [paragraph 2], and the emergence of the working class [paragraph 3]” the following sentences of your introduction would establish what exactly you are going to look at in each paragraph and how it influenced British society.

A strong introduction using this model, but slightly rephrased, might look like,

“The Industrial Revolution had a profound effect on British society. I argue that this influence can be understood by examining how rapid industrialization and technological development shaped the demands of industry on labour, the growth of urban centers, and the emergence of a new class system. Technological developments like the steam engine led to a process of mechanization that created a division of labour that expedited the manufacturing process and led to the advent of the modern assembly line. This concentration of industrial work in cities initiated a process of urbanization that led to the substantial growth of British cities, leading to problems with housing, health, and sanitation. Finally, the combination of low-wage labour and growing cityscapes created a new social hierarchy punctuated by the emergence of a large, urban working class that could wield its social-political voice to advocate for greater rights and protections. Collectively these conditions transformed life in Britain during the 19th century.”

The above paragraph has not only a clear thesis statement (bolded) with supporting conditions, but also follow-up sentences that provide a general outline of what topics be examined in each of its

three body paragraphs, as well as a sense of how all of these conditions are ultimately connected together in their transforming of British society.