Universidad de San Andrés

EO41– HISTORIA ECONÓMICA I

Autumn 2022

WRITTEN WORK
To be submitted before 20.00 on May 26, 2022

The objective of this work is to write an account of the life of a fictional character who
lives in a historically precise environment that reveals relevant aspects of his eco-
nomic environment. This story can be in Spanish or English, but it should not have more
than 1,500 words (not including footnotes and references).

Topic

The objective of this assignment is to convey economic and wellbeing information about
a historical period but, instead of doing it in essay form, using historical fiction as a de-
vice. To do so, you will imagine you are a person living somewhere in the world (choose a spe-
cific place), at some time in human history (choose a specific time, before World War I). Using
the first person, write an account about a certain period of your life. This period can be any-
thing from one hour to several years, and can take the form of a diary entry (be sure to date it),
a letter, or a narrative. Your account should include rich detail about the economic environ-
ment, and this will determine the majority of your mark. This could be information about your
living standards, your occupation, your health, the composition of your family, your position in
society, your past and current challenges, your aspirations, the environment in which you live,
etc. If relevant, you may include information about political, military, religious or social events
of your time.

Instructions

This assignment can be extremely fun, but it is really tough to do it well. You must undertake
scholarly research on the time period in which your character lives, and then weave these
findings into a narrative with a literary style. Here is a checklist to ensure you are on the right
track:

• The character must be fictional.

- You cannot choose to be someone who actually existed.
ü You can't, for example, write as Napoleon Bonaparte. But you can be one of his
servants, soldiers, or someone he met in his teens. He may be a peasant in a 12th-
century manor or a boy working in a coal mine at the dawn of the Industrial Revo-
lution, a Spanish soldier fighting in Flanders or the wife of a wealthy Venetian
merchant, a Saracen slave rowing a Genoese galley, or a slave trader in the Carib-
bean.
- Use your imagination. The choice is yours, and the possibilities are endless.

• Write in character.
- Think how this person would have written (or spoken).

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 ü What style of language would this person use? Erudite or vulgar? What was im-
portant to him or her? What position was s/he in and how did s/he get there?
- You'll get points for creativity and realism, so strive for it.

• Write only in the first person.

- If, for example, you decide to be a merchant from the Maghreb, you could start by writ-
ing “I am Yacov, a humble servant of the Lord. It has been fifteen years since I brought
my family to this land they call Sicily in search of a better life.” Do not write “Yacov
was a North African merchant who lived in southern Italy.” (By the way, opting for a
Maghreb merchant is probably a bad idea, because there are so few sources on them.)

• You must justify your statements.

- Some room will be allowed for the creativity of the fiction (e.g., in the description of
your daily life or your immediate concerns), but not much; the bulk of the writing
should consist of accurate historical facts.
ü For example, if you are a peasant in modern England, you might cite one of Robert
Allen's studies on the earnings and diets of English workers at that time.
- In order to make your work easy to read, use citations in footnotes. It is part of the
exercise to learn how footnotes are used academically.

• Only scholarly sources are allowed.

- These can be articles published in academic journals or books, or a working papers
from a research institution.
- Unedited encyclopaedias (e.g., Wikipedia), random websites, or popular works may not
be cited. However, it is possible to cite academic encyclopaedias (e.g., Encyclopaedia
Britannica).

• Before you start, do some research.

- Given the need to support your story with scholarly sources, you should probably do a
little research on available sources before choosing your character. If you choose to be a
character who lives in a time and place where there isn't much documentation, you
won't be able to write a good piece of work and your mark will suffer.
- You will receive specific points for the number, variety and quality of your
sources.

• Pay attention to language and form.

- The maximum length is 1,500 words, not counting footnotes or references, but
there is no lower limit.
ü This is not much (these instructions are over 1,500 words long), and it is very dif-
ficult to write concisely incorporating a large amount of information.
- Use the template available in the Campus Virtual to write the account, without al-
tering its basic format.
ü Simply replace the grey and bracketed texts with your input as indicated.
- You can use any reference style, as long as you use it correctly and consistently.

• Ask yourself economically relevant questions to build your story.

- Listed below are some of the things to consider when telling your character's story. The
list is, of course, just an illustration: not every point will be appropriate for every char-
acter, so feel free to include things not on this list.
ü How old are you?

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 ü What do you eat?
ü Do you suffer from any disease?
ü Do you have children? Did any of them die?
ü If you are a child or a young person, what do your parents do?
ü Who are your neighbours? Your friends? Your relatives?
ü How much do you work? Do you get paid you for it?
ü Have you or your family been victims of violence?
ü Does religion play a role in your life?
ü What does your surroundings look like? Think about sounds, smells, landscapes.
ü How do you dress?
ü What are your most prized possessions?
ü What was the best day of your life? The worst?
ü Did you receive any kind of education?
ü Have you had run-ins with the law?
ü What are the injustices you have been subjected to?
ü Do you expect your children to support you in your old age?
ü Do you expect your children to have a better life than yours?
ü Have you ever learned a trade?
ü Are you a member of any organisation?
ü Do you have political rights? Are you discriminated?
ü How do you use your free time?
ü What does “fun” mean to you?
ü Have you witnessed important events in your life? Any change in technology?
ü What is the division of labour in your household?
ü Do you know arithmetic? Are you literate?
ü Do you have any physical defect? How does it affect you in your daily life?
ü Can you use weapons? Do you own one?
ü Have you always lived in the same place? If you have moved, why have you done
so?
ü How do you do business with strangers?
ü Do you have access to the courts or other government institutions? How do you use
them?
ü What assets do you have?
- Spend some time learning about your character's world, and then tell your story.

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Assessment

The text will be evaluated with a mark from 0 (zero) to 10 (ten). In order to give an idea of
where to focus your efforts, the work will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

Documentation (number, variety and quality/appropriateness of sources): 30%

Completeness and coverage of the various aspects of your character's life: 50%
Originality and creativity: 10%
Tone and language: 10%

Points will be deducted in general for economic statements not supported by relevant
sources or documents, but also specifically for using non-academic sources (0.2 points for
each of these used), exceeding the word limit (0.05 points for each word over the 1,500 al-
lowed), submitting late (0.01 points per minute of delay) or not respecting the template
(0.2 points).

Plagiarism and academic integrity

This course has zero tolerance for academic misconduct, of which plagiarism is unfortunately a
very common form. Please familiarise yourself with the nature of plagiarism. The minimum
penalty for plagiarism will be a mark of zero on this paper, probably in the course as well. All
cases of plagiarism will also be reported to the central administration of UdeSA. Basically,
make sure that what you are submitting is your own work and not someone else's. If you use
information obtained from someone else's work, cite appropriately. If you're not sure whether
or not something constitutes plagiarism, ask one of your instructors. We are here to help.

Submission

The work must be submitted before 20.00 on May 26, 2022. As mentioned above, you will lose
0.05 points for each minute late (e.g., you will lose 3 points -out of 10- if you turn in your work
one hour late).
• Send it to your tutorial instructor via email using your UdeSA account. No submission
from a personal mail will be valid.
- The work must be clearly labelled with your name and registration number, and must
have all the pages numbered, following the pre-established template.
- Send the work in an email without text, simply putting “WA EH” and your registration
number in the title of the email (for example, “WA EH – N1111”). The file must be in
.docx format, and must be labelled using your name, registration number and the cho-
sen topic as follows: LAST_First_N1111_WA_EH1.docx.

• Before the final submission, the course tutors will evaluate a draft, which must be submit-
ted before 20.00 on May 9, 2022, where they will pay special attention to the formal aspects
of the presentation. Throughout the tutorials it will be explained in more detail what is ex-
pected with this presentation.

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