Here are your subjects:

1. American soldier’s take: what did you learn from Tim’s book “The Things They Carried” and the other information in the class on the American soldier? If you were a soldier how would you have acted?
2. Vietnamese take: how did the study of the Vietnamese poets change your attitude on Tim’s enemy in the book? How do you feel that the communist North won the conflict? Any other experience with the Vietnamese side of things from Tim’s book or the poets?
3. Hippie Take: what is your attitude toward the anti-war protests or a self labeled hippie.n What did yiu learn and would you have protested the war and why?

The goal of this paper is the goal of this class. The single stories told here are ALWAYS incomplete. As critical thinkers we are trying to communicate the problems with mistaken single viewpoints as the complete story. After you have analyzed your three subjects, finish your papers by writing on how these viewpoints by themselves would be incomplete. Discuss how by putting them together you have more of a multifaceted (although still incomplete) story of the Vietnam War years.

The paper will be set up as follows:

Introduction (half page): Introduce the three “subjects” from above with a thesis based on one of these three or your own:

1. All three surprised you in some ways.
2. All three had vastly different memories.
3. All three have different opinions and attitudes on what happened.

Body One: Multiple paragraphs: First Subject (two pages)

Body Two: Multiple paragraphs: Second Subject (two pages)

Body Three: Multiple paragraphs: Third Subject (two pages)

Body Four: Multiple paragraphs: Single Story Analysis (two pages) – how do these subjects create a fuller picture of what happened?

Conclusion (half page)

Works Cited

5-7 pages with works cited

Point

In the opening sentence, make your point. This is also known as the topic sentence, as it introduces the topic you’re about to discuss.

Evidence

Evidence can include statistics, research findings, and quoting an authority or a primary text, such as the Bible or classic literature. Depending on the type of writing and the audience you’re writing for, you can also use anecdotes and stories from history and your own experience.

Evaluation

This shows you’re willing to engage with other points of view, and rather than undermining your argument, it serves to strengthen it.

Your evaluation can include research findings that contradict the evidence you provided, quoting authorities who disagree with you. Again, it can include anecdotes and stories.

Link

Finally, link your point to the point you’ll make in the next paragraph.

As well as giving a good flow to your writing, this helps you create a good overall structure as paragraphs on similar themes naturally end up together.