Taking on the persona of a soldier in the trenches in 1916, prepare a first-person account of the circumstances of your life. Students may not write about any real historical figure, but must, rather, create a fictional character. Provide as much historical detail as possible and place yourself in the broader context of the period in which you live and/or the historical movements/events in which you find yourself involved. Accounts may take the form of autobiography, diary entries, testimony or correspondence, but must include a short introduction, separate from the fictional text formally introducing the character, the period of time and the specific place where the text is set. In the text, ensure that you offer historical analysis (What is the significance of the moment? What factors lay behind the events? Who is most affected by the events or movement?). Remember, you are writing a historical essay. Provide a strong sense of when and where things are happening.
