You will be writing two article analyses (750-1000 words each). You will have the choice to write on one of the three assigned articles before the

article Analysis (15%):

You will be writing two article analyses (750-1000 words each). You will have the choice to write on one of the three assigned articles before the midterm and one after the midterm exam. The deadline for the article analysis is the week when that article was assigned (see course schedule below and D2L for details). In each article analysis, you will be asked to:

Identify the main argument - what exactly is the thesis statement?

Briefly summarize the article (i.e. what does it tell you about the topic)

In the next section, please identify what types of sources the author used and discuss how convincingly the article was supported with specific evidence.

Each article topic will have a short introduction and guiding questions on D2L (see the weekly entries for more details). Please answer these questions in your response, supported by specific evidence from the reading.

All information taken from the articles need to be properly footnoted with the exact page number for the source of the details see History Department Style Guide on D2L.

This will help you to focus your thoughts for the reading of academic journal articles and will train you to identify the main arguments and factual evidence presented in the texts. For an excellent grade, the article analysis should be clear and well-written, show a strong understanding of the content of the reading, include your own thoughts and analysis, support your response with specific evidence from the reading, and cite that evidence with footnotes.As academic papers, these assignments will require proper Chicago Style (Turabian) footnoting please see the History Department Style Guide on D2L for more details.

Please be aware that students are expected to read all of the six assigned readings, even though you are only required to respond to two of them with these article analyses.All the assigned readings are fair game for the exams.

Your article analysis will require footnotes to show where each piece of specific evidence can be found. Footnotes should be located after direct quotes, and after you summarize specific evidence from the article in your own words. To insert a footnote go to References and then Insert Footnote at the drop-down menu of your Word document. This will automatically set the footnote in the text where the cursor is and create a space at the bottom of the page to write the information. For the first article, your first footnote is a full citation and will look like this you will need to select the appropriate page number:

1J. K. J. Perry, Powerless and Frustrated: Britains Relationship with China During the

Opening Years of the Second SinoJapanese War, 19371939,Diplomacy &

Statecraft, vol. 22 (2011), p. 408.

Note: Adjust this example to fit the Reese article for this paper (same for the short version

below, of course).

Second and subsequent footnotes will be a short version of the citation and will look like this (with appropriate page no). Please note thatall footnotes need to end with the exact page numbershowing where the information can be found.

2 Perry, Powerless and Frustrated, p. 409.

Focus for this Article Analysis: In your summary and analysis of the article byRoger R. Reese, Lessons of the Winter War: A Study in the Military Effectiveness of the Red Army, 1939-1940,focus in particular on the reasons for the initial lack of Red Army effectiveness in its war against Finland. How did the Soviets address the initial problems? Did this significantly improve the Red Armys campaigning, or did the Soviets mostly win through overwhelming military and manpower superiority? In that context, would you agree with the authors assessment that outside observers (including the German military) underestimated the strengths of the Red Army?