Blog

 World War II – United States & Germany

Assignment Instructions:

Create an outline with a thesis and supporting evidence for your point of view: The United States should or should not have helped Germany recover from World War II.

Write a five-paragraph argumentative essay based on your outline. Now that you have reviewed the causes and effects of both world wars, create an outline for an argumentative essay on whether the United States should have helped Germany recover from World War II. You will need to support your argument with at least three pieces of evidence to explain why. Use the historical facts that you have learned in this activity and in past lessons. You may also want to use the following resources:

• The Mackinac Center for Public Policy: “Germany and the Great Depression”
• PBS: “Berlin Blockade”
• Library of Congress: “The Marshall Plan”
• The Soviet Union and Europe After 1945

The outline will help you organize and focus your essay. To make an outline, number the main topics with Roman numerals and the supporting subtopics with capital letters. Details that support a subtopic are numbered 1, 2, 3, and so forth.

Generally, you should never have just one topic, subtopic, or supporting detail; if you have one, you should have at least a second. You may use short phrases or whole sentences but not both in the same outline. Use the outline template below. Notice that it begins with a thesis statement, which is a sentence that sums up your topic and opinion. Think of this sentence as an answer to a question. In this instance, your thesis statement should be the one-sentence answer to the question: “Should the United States have helped Germany following World War II?”

As you form your opinion, consider these questions:

• How did World War I start?
• What happened to Germany at the end of World War I?
• What was life like in Germany after World War I?
• How and why was Hitler able to take power in Germany?
• Is there a connection between the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II?
• How did World War II begin?
• What were the effects of World War II?
• What was Germany like at the end of World War II?
• How did the future of Europe look at the end of World War II?
• What was the Soviet Union’s position at the end of World War II?

Outline Format

I. Introduction

Thesis (Answer the question in a complete sentence: Should the United States have helped Germany recover from World War II?)

1.  Summary of First Reason (Simply list your reasons in a few sentences.)
2.  Summary of Second Reason
3. Summary of Third Reason

II. First Reason

• Support
•  Support

III. Second Reason

A. Support

•  Details
• Details

B. Support

• Details
• Details

IV. Third Reason

A. Support

B. Support

• Details
• Details

V. Conclusion (Restate your belief.)

1. Summary of Reasons
2. Possible Future Impact

Synthesize

The final step in this activity is to write an argumentative essay based on your outline that answers the question “Should the United States have helped Germany recover from World War II?” Follow the guidelines below for writing your essay.

• Your essay should be five paragraphs long.
• Your first paragraph should contain your thesis statement and a summary of your supporting evidence.
• Your body paragraphs should focus on your supporting evidence.
• Cite your sources using MLA formatting.
• Use words or phrases to link ideas and sentences and to show the relationship between your opinion and your reasons.
• Maintain a formal style and objective tone; let the facts, rather than overly emotional language, make your argument.
• Your fifth paragraph should contain your concluding statement, which summarizes and follows from your thesis.
• Your final page should be a works-cited page for all the sources that you have used; these should also be cited within the body of your essay.

For information on how to cite your sources by using MLA formatting and creating a works-cited page, visit the websites below.

For a description of citing your sources within the body of your essay:

• https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html.

For a description of a works-cited page:

• https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_page_basic_format.html.

For a sample works-cited page:

• https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_sample_works_cited_page.html.