The paper needs to be a full 5pages (give or take a few lines). This is the assignment prompt:Pretend that you a journalist in 1987, and you’ve been assigned to write a feature piece on the case of SM Otieno. Your editor wants you to not just cover what happened in the trial, but also to provide needed context (whether historical or about 1980s Kenya) about the place and the people involved. You will also need to explain to your readers what the case is about (what debates does it raise?), and how Kenyans have reacted to it. Sources you can use (besides any relevant lectures):1) Burying SM: The Politics of Knowledge and the Sociology of Power in Africa, Cohen, David W, Odhiambo, Atieno2) Selection from Paul Mboya3) Selections from Wambui Otieno’s biography (part of it that I did not assign describes her meeting SM)4) Kanogo, “Women and the Politics of Protest: Mau Mau.”5) Washington Post article6) NYTimes article You can find all of these sources in one place – for ease, I will upload all of these to the assignment page on Canvas. Requirements:1) Full 5pages (give or take a few lines), double spaced, Times New Roman, 12pt font, 1” margins, only your name and title at the top.2) You must cite Burying SM, plus at least three other sources listed above. When to cite a source: anytime the information in your writing relies on a source. So, this means you need to cite more than just when you use a direct quote. Citations only need to include the author name + page number. Example: (Mboya, p.30). If you draw on your lecture notes, please just cite “Lecture.” (Note: class discussion is not lecture—lecture is only when I am giving a formal lecture with a PowerPoint slideshow) You do not need a bibliography. How I Evaluate: I will grade based on the following (listed in order of importance):1) Engagement with the readings: This is crucial. Papers are in large part to evaluate how well you’ve comprehended the readings, and thought critically about them. Engagement with readings means not just saying general statements, but providing answers that use specific details from the readings to back up your point. Another important part of engaging with the readings is to cite them. You should be citing sources in every paragraph you write.
2) Analysis: It’s not enough to just cite a lot of specific examples—you need to say something with this information. This is how you demonstrate that you’ve not just done the readings, but you’ve thought about them.3) Clarity: Your writing should be organized with a clear logical flow, from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph. In other words, it should be easy to follow your line of thought. You do not need a formal intro and conclusion paragraph, but similar to a long news article, there should be a clear organization to your writing. 4) Typos: Again, this is not a research paper, so I’m less concerned with the mechanics of writing. But I do expect you to have done at least one round of editing of your writing to remove basic mistakes like misspellings, etc.
