Title: Source Reasoning Lab 2: Mobility, Risk, and Environment
Course: The American West: Power, Place, and Memory > Section: Week 6 · September 28–October 2, 2026: Overland Migration, Death, and Environment

THE AMERICAN WEST

Source Reasoning Lab 2: Mobility, Risk, and Environment

ASSIGNMENT

Source Reasoning Lab 2: Mobility, Risk, and Environment

Purpose
Use diaries, material evidence, and quantitative traces to reconstruct mobility without treating migration as inevitable.

Fall 2026 deadline: Friday, October 2, 2026, 11:59 pm Central

Automatic grace period: through Sunday, October 4, 2026, 11:59 pm Central; no permission is needed and no penalty applies. Work is not accepted after the grace period without pre-approval or extenuating circumstances.

Task

Complete a comparative annotation in class, then write a 450–600 word memo using two migrant accounts and one map or quantitative source. Finish an unseen transfer question and the common Decision Record.

Submission

Text entry or file upload.

Criteria for success

1. Comparative in-class annotation (8)
2. Evidence-based reasoning memo (10)
3. Unseen transfer question (5)
4. Complete Decision Record (2)

AI boundary

No AI during annotation or transfer. Organization feedback is allowed only after you draft the reasoning sequence.

Decision Record

1. State your initial claim or plan before substantial AI assistance.
2. Name the most consequential interpretive choice you made and explain why.
3. Identify one plausible alternative you rejected and the evidence behind that decision.
4. Name evidence that changed, narrowed, or complicated your thinking.
5. State one claim you cannot fully establish with the available evidence.
6. Record AI use: tool, purpose, what you accepted, rejected, and verified—or write ‘No generative AI used.’

Process checklist

- My question or thesis is specific, contestable, and historically situated.
- I identify creator, date, audience, purpose, and collection context for key primary sources.
- I corroborate rather than asking one source to prove more than it can.
- I distinguish evidence from inference and acknowledge uncertainty.
- I cite sources and rights information; media includes captions, alt text, or a transcript.
- If I used generative AI in a permitted way, I include the required process disclosure.

Evaluation

This assignment is evaluated on four levels—Exemplary, Proficient, Developing, and Beginning—across the listed criteria. Ask for clarification before submitting if the purpose, task, or criteria are unclear.