Write a brief essay (600-800 words) on a location significant to one or more texts.. This needs to be something that appears in one of the texts you’re assigned (below) or that significantly influenced the text’s author as he/she wrote the text. Post this essay on the class blog.

Your topic may be located anywhere in downtown Charleston or the surrounding area–Mt Pleasant, West Ashley, North Charleston, James Island, Johns Island, Charleston Harbor, the beaches, the rivers that flow into the harbor. Be sure, however, that you choose a location for which you’ll be able to complete the following instructions. Please review these as you consider which location you’ll select:

—Visit the site and get a picture of yourself on location. Think about what may have changed since the time you’re studying. Observe for yourself! Take notes and photos! Snoop around (but please don’t trespass or annoy current residents)! This should be fun. 

–Find several then-and-now images or other media that you can post to the blog to illustrate your essay. Ideally, you should find some images of the location from the era you’re writing about. Google Earth can give you access to old images of specific locations, and you may also find some relevant media in the Lowcountry Digital Library, the South Carolina Digital Library, the Digital Public Library of America, or the Charleston County Public Library website (look for Nic Butler’s “Time Machine” series). Some historic images can be found on Discovering Our Past or on the websites produced by the Preservation Society of Charleston or the Charleston Museum.. You may also find images on Facebook or other social media, but be sure you know that these are accurately identified. And you’re also allowed to snap pictures of images in published books, if they aren’t available online, or even individual photo albums you might have access to. Strive to get the best quality image you can and be sure to include the source in the caption you make for the image.  If images of the exact location do not exist, find some images from the time period that contain useful information about what the exact location may have looked like. When you post your essay to the blog, you should embed this media at appropriate points—don’t use links or attachments.  

–Write a short essay, 600-800 words, answering these questions:

1. In addition to identifying the place, explain the time period you’re researching. Be as precise as possible based on textual information, biographical information, or other factual information on your topic.
2. What aspects of the place, as it existed during this time period, are reflected in the text we studied? If it’s a site from the author’s life that does not appear in the text, consider how this site may have influenced the author’s view of his/her writing or of Charleston, as I did in my example post on Josephine Pinckney’s home at 36 Chalmers Street. If you’re focused on someone or something that occurred at this place, be sure to mention what the text says about this subject and its links to this location? At the moment in time in which your subject existed, why was the building, street, neighborhood, etc. important to the subject? How did the person/organization/event influence the place and vice versa?
3. What seems to have changed, or remained unchanged, about this location since the time period of your subject?

SOURCES FOR THIS ESSAY

You’ll need to conduct your own personal research visiting a site, and carefully study the text. You’ll need at least one more source for images. You may also choose to research a historical event, person, etc. that requires you to use other sources. There is no requirement as to the kind of source(s) you use, but you should only use sources you believe you can trust. (Much nonsense or incomplete information about our city has been published, then repeated in other publications!)

As with all the work you do for this class, you should give credit to any ideas and wording that aren’t your own. (Posting the wording and ideas of others is an Honor Code violation that I’m obligated to turn in; it will also result in an automatic 0 for this assignment.) You don’t need to include full MLA citations for the sources you cite, but you should use MLA-style parenthetical citation to supply page numbers for quotations from our texts, and you should give the name of any other source you cite.

Parenthetically cite a quotation from texts we read:

According to Heyward, Catfish Row was once a grand mansion where “governors had come and gone, and ambassadors of kings had schemed and danced” (24). 

Informally cite information from other sources:

If you’ve used an online source, use an embedded link plus a brief identification of the source.

Marion Square was sometimes used as an “impromptu parking lot” in the 1930s, according to historian Nic Butler. 

If you’re quoting from a book or article, give the title, author, and year, and just the author’s name if you cite the source again..

In Stephanie Yuhl’s 2005 book, A Golden Haze of Memory, a 1939 picture of the Porgy Shop shows that Charleston tourists were very interested in Heyward’s characters (158). 

 HOW FORMAL ARE THESE POSTS? You may certainly use “I” in these posts if you wish, and your tone may be informal. At the same time, if you want readers to take your ideas seriously, you need to spend some time thinking about what to include, drafting your essay, then editing it before you post it. If you invest this time and effort, you’re sure to write an interesting and effective blog post, but if you would like to discuss your work, I’d be happy to talk with you about it also. 

Assignment requirements:

1)   Post is 600-800 words, posted on time, focused on a site relevant to assigned text(s)

2)  Post accurately identifies site’s address/location and includes photo of student at site

3)   Post includes several addition embedded images or other media relevant to questions a, b, and c, with captions citing source of images

3)     Post answers questions a, b, and c, citing the text and/or other sources when appropriate

4)     Blog post is interesting and well written

Grading Rubric:

C, D=1-2 are done and 3-4 are partly done B=1-4 are successfully done A=1-5 are done