HIST021 East Asia to 1600

Class project#1 (10% group post+5% individual responses)

Directions:

Based on your understanding of the assigned readings for this course, please create a
discussion post with your group members and provide individual responses to at least two of
the other group posts.

I. Topic: How did different ideologies influence early East Asian Societies?

A combination of influences has shaped the history of early East Asia. Based on what you
have learned (and take Chinese civilization as an example), how do you think the three
main ideologies: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Legalism, contributed to different aspects
of the society up to the 1600s? Please broadly consider their effect in government and
bureaucracy, law and punishment, economy and taxation, family relations, gender, and
culture.

1. Pleases use specific examples from lectures, assigned readings, class discussion,
and films to illustrate your points, and evaluate which one of the three ideologies
you think influenced East Asian societies the most (or all three of them?).

2. What questions do you currently have about this topic?

II. You will contribute your thoughts to the discussion forum “class project#1). Your
initial post should include the following;

1. Engage in assigned course readings, recorded lectures, and class discussions, then
discuss with your group members and create a post where you share your thoughts
(10%, due October 2, Friday, by 11am)

2. Return to the forum to offer a peer review and suggestions for two other group posts.
This should offer constructive critiques and suggestions for participants’ engagement
plans to help improve and/or enhance their understanding of the topic (5%, due
October 5, Monday, by 10am)

*Once you’ve posted your discussion responses, review the responses of your
classmates. They may have answered differently than you and they’ll probably have
different questions than you have. Really think about their response and how they
differ can help you gain a more critical perspective. Once you’ve reviewed some, pick
two to respond to.

**Responses such as “great post” or “I didn’t think of that” are friendly and help with
social/emotional climate, but do go beyond that. Great ways to go beyond include:

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 asking open ended questions, respectfully disagreeing or playing “devil’s advocate,”
and providing supporting resources to help answer someone’s questions.

NOTE—I recommend you compose your post in a text editor (such as Word, Google Docs,
etc) and then copy/paste it into the message area so you do not lose your work. BB may time
out after a certain period of inactivity.

III. Recommendations & Ideas

 Write an engaging subject line.

 Use multimedia. Your discussion can include audio, video, or images. Make it fun and
engaging.

IV. Grading & Revision Info

To receive a satisfactory grade on this discussion assignment, you must:

 Completely respond to the discussion prompt (answer all questions, the group post
must be at least 500 words)
 Reply to at least two other groups’ posts;
 Submit your original post and two replies by the assignment deadline.

This discussion assignment is graded on a Satisfactory/Needs Revision basis. Satisfactory

posts and replies are 15 point in total. You need to score 9 points to “pass” this assignment. If
you score a 0 (zero) for a post or a reply you will have one opportunity to revise.

You will be able to see your final grade for this discussion in the BB-grade center.

V. Submission Guidelines

*This is a collaborative writing assignment, so please form a group of 3-6 students (no less
than 3, but no more than 6).

Please use this link to sign up for groups;

Feel free to utilize the discussion forum to recruit group members/find groups to join;

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bHsMUUkVQtTAnWss_JovQeBJsZdP13PYm7eIb
b0YJfU/edit

* Participate in small group and large class discussions. Group discussion in and outside of
class will give you an opportunity to work with others to extend or reformulate the thinking
you did and while you work in a small group. The ultimate goal of this group work is to
formulate questions for the large class discussion to further explore the issue and thereby
revise your thinking or reformulate your view on it.

*Please follow a consistent citation format. You don’t need to have a works-cited page but
please use in-text citation for all the assigned sources that you use in the post (see example

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provided) Papers without appropriate citations will have to add citations before receiving a
grade from this assignment.

*All members in a small group will receive the same grade. Please include a short statement at
the end of the group post (not includes in the 500 words) to describe each member’s
contribution to the group post. If there are any problems, please get in touch with me as soon
as possible, and not later than the due date.

*Any collaboration outside of your small group without the instructor’s permission will be
considered to be plagiarism. Please refer to syllabus and the Drake policy on plagiarism for
further information.

*You can post after the class meeting on September 30, Wednesday.

Grading Criteria

*A strong post will both demonstrate a firm understanding of larger issues and offer concrete
examples from the assigned readings (including the textbook and primary sources),
lectures, class discussions, and films.

*No outside research needed. Please focus on assigned course materials.

*Please make sure to learn from the comments given to you on your previous assignments and
continue to demonstrate the following skills:

A. Effective topic sentences

B. Consider the both sides of an argument and the limits of your points
C. Examples from both the textbook and the primary sources
D. Citation and formatting

“A” GRADE (90%-100%)

An “A” post will show exemplary evidence of the following three things: organization, clarity
of argument, and style

Organization: An “A” post should be clearly organized into introduction, body, and
conclusion. The introduction should contain a clear and precise argument specific to the
paper. The body should present evidence supporting the argument and should explicitly
explain the significance of the information presented to the general argument. The
conclusion should restate the argument in light of the evidence presented.

Argument: All good history writings have an argument, thesis, or point. In essence, the
argument is the focus of the paper. The specifics of the argument will be derived from the
evidence presented in the body of the paper. Hint: guard against making a general statement

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instead of an argument. For example, a possible paper topic might be “Was WW2 a world
war?” The tendency is simply to say, “Yes, the war was a world war.” This is not an
argument. An argument must answer the question: “why?.”

Style: An “A” post will be virtually error-free. This means excellent writing style, grammar,
and spelling. It also means proper forms of citation. The clearer one’s writing, the more
effectively one communicates one’s ideas.

"B" GRADE (80%-89%)

* Does all of the A GRADE requirements above but not as well (some minor flaws -
perhaps not as original, not as clear, etc.)

"C" GRADE (70%-79%)

* Does the assignment and does not obviously misunderstand crucial elements

* But either no demonstration of complete and clear understanding of any of the

elements of the assignment or argument does not take the opposing view seriously

"D" GRADE (60%-69%)

* Fundamental misunderstanding of article or issue

       OR
* Very poorly written: obviously hurried and perfunctory.

"F" GRADE (0%-59%)

* Shows no understanding of argument

        OR
* Does not follow assignment.  Quality of work is irrelevant in this case
        OR
* Plagiarized portion of paper

Example and template

Group Members: (Student A), (Student B), and (Student C)

Question: In the history of East Asia, how did the geography of each country have
influenced its historical course?

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 The island of Japan was geographically smaller than China, larger than Korea, but

more secluded than both. Placed away from the mainland, Japan was very isolated, and

this resulted in little outside interaction during its development as a country. The

seclusion of Japan acted as a defense for the country, protecting them from conquest and

most foreign influence. This is exhibited in the attempted conquest of Japan by the

Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty. In order to reach the islands, the Mongols were forced to

sail, which would then allow them to reach and conquest Japan. They were by a typhoon

or “Kamikaze” during their trips across the ocean (Ebrey and Walthall, 195). With the

geographic barrier of the ocean protecting Japan, it became nearly immune to foreign

influence, but this isolation was also harmful. It promoted division within the nation

resulting in the rise of warriors and the warring states period known as the Sengoku

period (“Law and Precepts for the Warrior Houses,” 421) This warring period a result of

the geographic seclusion of Japan. It was only after the period had concluded that the

Japanese attempted to conquest, and just like China, they invaded Korea in an attempt to

conquer China and all of East Asia. The downfall of their conquest came in the water at

the hands of the Koreans, yet again showing how the geographical make up of a nation

paves the course of their history (Ebrey and Walthall, 224).

Appendix:

(Student A/Kongzi) focused on drafting the part about the IR. (Student B/Mengzi)
focused on drafting the part about the CE. (Student C/Xunzi) helped with general revision and
editing. All group members contributed to the original research, and took notes during small
group and large class discussions.

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*If you have any questions, feel free to ask.