Describe the sports, games, and amusements that the people of medieval London enjoyed, and explain how and why these differ from their modern counterparts (that is, sports and games in contemporary America).

Medieval Sports and Games

write a 1000 word essay based upon your reading of William Fitzstephen’s description of medieval London and taking into account what you have learned about medieval European culture and society from your textbook and from lectures.

Writing Prompt

Evaluation and Grading:

Thesis and responsiveness:
Clarity, historical validity, and logical construction of argument:
Proper use of evidence:
Writing (organization, grammar, spelling, mechanics):

Thesis: essay must clearly state its thesis in a few sentences in the first paragraph. See the discussion of a thesis in the first essay assignment, but basically the thesis is the main argument that the essay will make. In this case, the thesis should answer the question posed in the writing prompt.

Evidence: essay must make use of direct primary source evidence from the assigned reading and from secondary sources (such as your textbook) when appropriate. Note that all claims that are not simply “common knowledge” must be supported with a quotation or a citation.

Argument: The body of essay must consist of a series of well-structured paragraphs that make a clear, logical, well-supported argument. This argument must correspond to the thesis in the first paragraph, and show that the thesis is valid (it is supported by the evidence, it conforms with what we know about history, it is not biased or logically flawed.

Writing: Essays must be carefully and cleanly written, in good, standard, formal English. This means that grammar, usage, punctuation and spelling should all be reasonably free from errors and that the essay’s meaning is clear. Avoid using slang.

Form of Citations: Because your source texts for this are very short, your citations can be very simple. At the end of the sentence in which you have information that you would like referenced, just put a parenthesis containing the document’s author (or its title if the text is anonymous) and a number corresponding to the page or section of the document to which the citation refers. If a selection lacks numbered sections, just use the author alone. Quoted text must be set off in quotation marks, and the sentence must be followed with an appropriate parenthetical citation. Thus, a quotation might look like this: “When the gods created Gilgamesh they gave him a perfect body” (Epic of Gilgamesh, 1).

Outside Sources: You are welcome to use sources other than the required primary source documents in your paper. If you do, however, you must provide accurate citations or quotations where appropriate. For example, if you cite your textbook, the reference might look like this: “Homer composed the epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey around 800 BCE (Kidner, et al, 64).” Note that “et al” is just a Latin abbreviation meaning “and others.” You must also provide a full reference in a works cited page at the end of your essay. If you use an internet source, you need to provide the URL of the site in the works cited page.

Stylistic requirements: Please double space your essay and submit it in a standard 11-12 point font. Begin your essay with a standard heading, containing your name, my name, your section instructor’s name, the course number, the date, the number of the question to which the essay responds, and the title of your essay. Number your pages. Underline or italicize the titles of books and non-English words.