Descriptive Essay (Review of Bede)

HIST B 309, section 27118 / HIST H 509, section 26988                Dr. Thomas A. Mason

Fall 2015

Book Review: Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Date due: September 23

Assignment: Write an explanatory essay of 750–1,000 words (3–4 typewritten pages), on white paper, 8 ½ x 11 inches, double spaced, in 12-point type, with a one-inch margin on all sides. An explanatory essay requires that you give your reasons for your arguments, assertions, and generalizations.

Please note:

• Please turn in book reviews / essays electronically through the “Assignments” link on Oncourse, and bring a hard copy / printout with you to class on the due date, when we will have a class discussion of the book.
• You are welcome to turn in book reviews / essays early (before the due date) through the “Assignments” link on Oncourse.
• If a book review / essay is transmitted electronically through the “Assignments” link on Oncourse on the due date, and the student is absent from class, it will be considered late.
• The “Assignments” link on Oncourse will automatically check your book review / essay for originality through Turnitin. The Turnitin Originality Report will be accessible to you and me.
• No more than one late assignment (book review / essay) or makeup quiz / examination will be allowed to any student.
• After the due date, you may turn in a book review / essay for full credit but subject to the abovementioned limit of one late assignment (book review / essay) or makeup quiz / examination per student.

Structure: At the head of the review, give the review your own original title, and your name, followed by the bibliographical information on the book as follows:

Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Translated by Leo Sherley-Price, revised by R. E. Latham; new introduction and notes by D. H. Farmer. New York: Penguin Books, 1990.

Style: Brevity and conciseness are harder to achieve than verbosity and vagueness. Do not just turn in a first draft. Proofread your writing; do not just rely on spell check, which will not alert you when you are using a real word that is the wrong word in the context. Write in complete sentences. A complete sentence has a subject and a verb. Style and accuracy are important and integral parts of content and will count heavily in or against your favor in the determination of your grade on this essay.

Purpose: The essential purpose of writing a book review is to enable the reviewer to summarize, evaluate, and communicate to the reader of the review the book that the reviewer has read. You should not only summarize the contents of the book, but also critically evaluate the book. For general guidelines, from Writing Tutorial Services at Indiana University–Bloomington, on how to write a book review, see: www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/book_reviews.shtml. A review of any book (or any historical document) should address / answer the following questions:

• What was the author’s (Bede’s) purpose in writing the book? To put it another way: Where is the author coming from? Where is he going with this book?
• How well did the author achieve that purpose?
• What are the book’s strengths and weaknesses?
• What audience did the author intend to reach with this book?
• To what extent did the author set standards for accuracy in writing history? Please do not refer to this book as a “novel.” A novel is fiction; this is supposed to be nonfiction. You may if you wish address the issue of the extent to which the author spins his message or blurs the distinction between fiction and nonfiction.
• To what extent are the author’s expectations and standards of accuracy similar to or different from our own?
• To what extent have our expectations and standards of accuracy changed since the author’s time?
• How did the historical people that Bede describes deal with the challenges and dilemmas that they encountered?

Bede (673–735) was a Benedictine monk at the English monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow in Northumbria (now in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear) in northeastern England. He earned the title “the Father of English History.” He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1899 and a saint in 1935. As you read this book, ask yourself why his readers conferred these titles on him. He wrote his major work, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum in 731 in Medieval Latin (which was in use ca. 600–ca. 1300). It circulated in manuscript, was first printed in Strasbourg (France) ca. 1475, and was first translated into Early Modern English (in use ca. 1500–ca. 1700): The History of the Church of Englande, printed at Antwerp (Spanish Netherlands, modern Belgium) in 1565. D. H. Farmer’s introduction provides the historical background, maps of “The British Isles at the Time of Bede” and “Western Europe at the Time of Bede” at the end of the book (pages 384–385) will help you locate places mentioned in the text, and the index entries provide thumbnail descriptions of persons and places. As you read the book be alert to, and in your explanatory essay address / answer the following questions specific to this book (your essay does not have to address all of them):

• What were the motives of the people whom Bede describes—what were the driving motivations, intentions, and expectations of these medieval people?
• Bede’s Ecclesiastical History is an example of didactic writing—writing intended to teach a lesson. What lessons was Bede trying to teach to his readers / audience?
• Premodern authors of all cultures and religions recounted miracles as part of their narratives. Whether or not you accept the miracles recorded by Bede, why do you think he included miracles and other supernatural phenomena (such as angels and birds speaking to humans) in his writing? What was he trying to accomplish by citing such supernatural phenomena?

Academic Integrity: We all know that there are reviews and summaries of books, in the library, on the Web, and elsewhere. I want to know your ideas about the book, not somebody else’s. When you use someone else’s ideas, they must be acknowledged in a footnote (see hypothetical example below).[1] When you use someone else’s words, those words must be enclosed within quotation marks and acknowledged in a footnote. If from a website, it is insufficient just to cite the “Web”; rather, you should cite the full URL (uniform resource locator) and the date that you accessed it: “accessed mm/dd/yyyy.” When you are quoting from the book you are reviewing, you may simply enclose the quote within quotation marks and cite the page number in parentheses, immediately after the quotation. Example: (p. 202). The “Assignments” link on Oncourse will automatically check your book review / essay for originality through Turnitin, which will create an originality report that will be accessible to you and me. Using someone else’s words or ideas without giving credit is called plagiarism, which is an offense under the university-wide Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct at Indiana University (www.iu.edu/~code/code/index.shtml). Plagiarism is a big word for stealing, passing off another’s work as your own, or cheating. When plagiarism is detected in this class, the student will receive an automatic F (zero points) on the assignment.

[1] John H. Smith, A History of the Ancient World, 4th ed. (New York: Jones Publishing Company, 2004), p. 202.