HIST 2110 Assessment #2 Option
Historical Journalism Project #2:
Women’s Suffrage in NM
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Learning Competencies: Describe a key moment in New Mexico History using evidence from both primary and secondary source materials. Locate a relevant primary source and a credible secondary source. Interpret and integrate historical evidence into a concisely written report on the event.
For this assignment, you will write a newspaper article explaining an event as if you were a participant and/or witness. In doing so, pinpoint the major issues and give a clear account that links the issues to your sources as reporters are required to do. Because newspapers have limited space for all of the pieces they include, you must limit your article to between 250 and 275 words. Your work cannot be longer than 275 words.
This is the second of the historical journalism projects that you will complete in our class. Together, both of these projects will comprise our Final Project (there are no exams or other major projects required in our intersession course).
These assignments will require you to use your historical imagination to immerse yourself in the events you’ll study as if you were a journalist reporting on current events to inform others in your community. Please note that the requirements for this assignment are a little different than the first one. This time around, you will use two primary sources and one secondary source. Here are the steps for completing this project:
- Carefully read and understand the brief historical scenario described below
- Use the resources provided below to locate ONE primary source in addition to the one provided and locate ONE relevant secondary source that IS NOT our textbook
- Read and take notes on the documents and materials you’ve located and chosen
- Use your notes to write a 250–275 word report that integrates your three sources and interprets the significance of the events you’ve studied
SCENARIO
Imagine yourself to be a correspondent for the New York Times, assigned to visit New Mexico in 1920 to report on developments in the movement for women’s suffrage in the state. There were several different moments in the 1910s during which women mobilized and advocated for the right to vote in New Mexico as well as nationally. You should gain an understanding of several of them (see the timeline below for ideas) in order to write a report that explains how New Mexico became the 32nd (of 36 required) state to ratify the Susan B. Anthony Women’s Suffrage Amendment — the 19th Amendment to the Constitution
To begin thinking about the history of women’s suffrage in New Mexico, read the second half of the “‘Loyalty Questioned’: Revolution and War” section of our textbook. This time around, you CANNOT use the textbook as a source for your article but you should use it to get some general ideas about the story of women’s suffrage to help you know which people and events to search for as you look for ONE primary source (in addition to the one provided below) and ONE secondary source.
You’ll write your article in a Word document (or similar) and submit it in Brightspace. Be sure to list the sources you’ve used at the bottom of your article and include full bibliographic information for the sources you’ve located through your own research.
Primary Source:
Places to look for Primary Sources:
- Library of Congress, Chronicling America (Historical Newspapers)
[Use Advanced Search to look for New Mexico newspapers]
- Albuquerque Historical Society website, “Source Documents”
[Womens’ suffrage documents are under “Citizen’s Documents”]
[Look for digitized materials]
- Google Search
[Be sure to verify the source’s provenance (i.e., where it came from)]
Women’s Suffrage Timeline:
Notes and Tips:
Consider your audience. Think about the types of questions you’d like to answer for your readers. What perspectives on the struggle for women’s suffrage are contained in your sources? How can you explain the information and perspectives to your readers in a concise and meaningful way?
Practice concise writing. This is something that we’ve been working on in our Reading Tweets assignments. How can you recount the main events in a direct way that relates their significance?
Consider the limitations of the sources. Which perspectives does each individual source present? Which perspectives are absent?
Review the “Explore: Primary and Secondary Sources” section of our textbook for a refresher on the distinction between the two source types. And review the SIFT method of evaluating sources that we’ve used for our Timeline assignments as you look for and choose a secondary source.
Evaluation Rubric:
