The mind boggles...

[moragmacpherson]

So I realize that the majority of my f-list is, in fact, European, but I know at least one of you is in an American studies program at university, so I challenge you: how many levels does this sentence fail on?

"In 1763 Thomas Jefferson began the constitutional period by starting to write a new constitution which he called the declaration of independence."

Comments

[morgentau.livejournal.com]

Jefferson did not write the declaration on his own. (Which was in 1776)
Jefferson did not begin the constituational period. (actually I wonder what the student means by that)
In 1763 Jefferson was far from being a politician, if I recall correctly.

Edit: I should add, that the War of Independence started in 1763.

[moragmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Interesting, you edited to add an error - 1763 marked the end of the Seven Years' War, the first battle of the American War for Independence is in April, 1775. Good thing we're not on Nut Cracker... and also, are women. ;-)

Also, you've missed a major glaring error, the one that caused me to open a fifth of bourbon last night.

[morgentau.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAAARGH. Dammit. I ALWAYS confuse 1763 and 1775. (But I'm only European, right?)

Errr, what error?

[morgentau.livejournal.com]

Don't leave me hanging! It's midnight here and my head hurts. Come tell me or I won't be able to fall asleep at tonight! I'm feeling stupid.

[moragmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The Declaration of Independence wasn't a Constitution - had nothing to do with setting up a form of government, just said that we weren't part of the British Empire anymore. You may now go to sleep. ;-)

[morgentau.livejournal.com]

That's actually why I didn't understand "constitutional process". ;-)

Thank you and good night!

[jedibuttercup]

I am an American, in fact went through American History AP courses at school, and cannot remember ever hearing about a "constitutional period" in my lessons. WTF?

Jefferson was twenty years old in 1763, barely a year out of college, when the French and Indian War ended. That year might be when they date the tensions and legal issues from that led to the Revolutionary War, but he didn't make the Virginia Bar until 1767, whereupon he set up as a lawyer. It wasn't until the mid-seventeenseventies that he became politically active; he'd been writing notable political papers for a couple of years already by the time the Declaration was published in 1776, but none of them were any kind of "constitutional" documents, more "resolutions" for action.

The Second Continental Congress (for which Jefferson did write the Declaration) was also responsible for the "Articles of Confederation", aka the pre-Constitution, which might explain the confusion. That particular document was sent for ratification in 1777 (though not fully ratified until 1781) and was in effect until 1789; that's when the "United States Constitution" (written in 1787 and sent around for ratification again to patch the holes in the government created by the Articles) went into effect.

Too much detail? =)

[moragmacpherson.livejournal.com]

No, but you've earned my eternal love and admiration.

I'm not sure where the student got constitutional period from either - when she came to my review session, I did mention dividing the comprehensive question up into four time periods in order to organize the essay: 1607-1763, 1763-1800, 1800-1850, and 1850-1865. The phrase I used to describe the second period was, "This covers the build-up to the Revolution, the Revolutionary War, the development of the Constitution, and the first few presidential administrations under the Constitution." Somehow this student's brain translated that into 'constitutional period'. That's the best I can come up with.

[booster17.livejournal.com]

To me, it failed on English, and being y'know, readable.

[moragmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no, unlike my undergrad, this university pays no attention to developing students' writing skills. If I let myself get hung up on grammar as well as content, I'd be dead of alcohol poisoning several times over by now.