- Follow all directions. Don’t leave any parts out.
- Be historically accurate. (You can include things that happened to your group as part of the simulation.)
- Be detailed. I expect you to write at least a page.
- Strive for verisimilitude. Make us see it. Make us feel it.
Here are the ways I answered questions the students had:
- You will write the entry in class, on lined paper, using a pen.
- Write clearly enough so I can read it.
- You don’t have to worry about conventions. People don’t worry about spelling, etc., when they are writing in a diary!
- You can create a persona, a character you are writing as. You can sign that person’s name. Make sure you pick a name people would have used in that time period! Do Google searches for ideas: “Puritan names female” or “pioneer names male.”
- You can pick an age and circumstances for your persona—a ten-year-old boy or a 27-year-old woman with a husband and three children.