One reason you are writing a paper for this course is that I believe students who write about history tend to remember what they've thought about, analyzed in detail, and presented coherently on the printed page.
Writing is a form of thinking.
By crafting a paper, you will have to think carefully about evidence and arguments as well as presentation. You will have to use your imagination but also be a cautious evaluator of what other people have written or said. These are useful skills which will serve you well in your other classes at Western Kentucky but, more importantly, they will serve you well in any future endeavor you may undertake. There are a number of pages related to writing on this site, so after having read this page you may want to look at others if you have specific questions they can answer. Western Civ students should be familiar with the Style Sheet for papers and may also want to read the list of Common Problems , so that you can avoid losing points needlessly for easily-fixed mistakes.