Worster’s book Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s

Content:
The Dust Bowl essay should not be a report that merely summarizes what the book was about. Instead, your essay’s content must indicate a strong level of critical thinking. The essay must accurately identify the book’s main argument, briefly summarize the book’s content, and extensively analyze and evaluate the book’s overall effectiveness and worth as a scholarly work of history. This requires a brief summary of the book’s content (what the author wrote in the book) and extensive discussion and analysis of the book’s strengths and weaknesses as a scholarly work of history. The essay must include a clearly identifiable and specific thesis statement. This thesis statement must take a direct and specific position on the book’s overall worth as a scholarly work of history. The thesis statement must appear as the last sentence of the introductory paragraph and be in bold. Your paper’s thesis must be supported throughout the essay with specific evidence from the book.
The paper must be based only on Worster’s book Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s. The use of additional sources is not allowed.
Structure:
The paper must be structured as an essay. This means that it must include an introductory paragraph, body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. Your paper’s thesis statement must appear as the last sentence of the introductory paragraph and be in bold font. Effective introductory paragraphs introduce the book, its author and main argument, and the paper’s thesis. Effective body paragraphs meet additional content requirements and provide specific support for the paper’s thesis. An effective concluding paragraph sums up your argument, neatly ties everything together, and provides closure for the paper. The completed paper should leave no doubt as to its thesis, and support offered for that thesis should be direct and relevant.
Style and Formatting:
The paper should be clearly written and meet all conventions of standard English grammar. In addition, the following requirements apply:
12 pt. Times New Roman font
Double spacing
1” to 1 ¼’ margins
No contractions
No first or second person pronouns (third person only).
No more than two direct quotes for the entire paper. These quotes may not be more than 20 words each.
Specific evidence (paraphrased and quoted) from the book must be cited with parenthetical citations. Simply place the page number of where the information can be located in the book in parentheses following the last sentence of the passage containing the information used as evidence and before the sentence’s closing punctuation.
Write in past tense when discussing historical events. Write in present tense when evaluating the book’s effectiveness and argument.
Avoid lengthy, multi-point sentence construction. These often become awkward and difficult for readers to follow.
Underline or italicize titles of books.
Include a title that reflects your paper’s topic and thesis
Avoid one sentence paragraphs. Paragraphs should be fully formed.
Transition smoothly from topic to topic and paragraph to paragraph.
Your paper must include your name.
All pages must be numbered.