HIST 420: Historiography
Spring 2008
Dr. Matthew Wells
mwells@eou.edu
204-C Ackerman Hall (962-3709)
Office Hours: W/R 10-12 or by appointment
This class will perform two functions. Many people, including history majors, take history for granted, or "as it is." We may assume from textbooks and lectures that history writes itself, and historians either emphasize different material or fill holes in the overall historical record. Indeed, most of us have been rewarded in the past with good grades for term papers that essentially summarize the reading material from the course based upon a course theme. Historiography, the study of history as a discipline, generally challenges this way of thinking about history by emphasizing the difference between factoids and narrative. Everyone generally agrees that there are some basic trivia we can place in a chronology, but the meaning of these events, their continued meaning and significance, and their epistemology--that is, how they are known--is the real star of our show.
In addition to these fundamental issues, this class is also designed to prepare you to write the senior thesis in history, the capstone project for the history degree at Eastern. For this reason, we will spend considerable time discussing writing, editing one another's work for style and grammar; proper format for footnotes, the body of the paper, and a bibliography; and building bibliographies of the thesis topics. We will also learn about doing research, working with library and online collections, source selection, and so forth.
One word of advice: as students we often absorb information for ten weeks as if our brains were hard drives with limited space. When the class is over, we delete the information to make room for more music or episodes of Lost. I urge you not to do that with this class. Decent grammar, good organization, and a user-friendly format will automatically add 5-10% to the score of any assignment or paper your turn in before it is even read by the instructor. What you can get from this portion of the course are clean writing habits and research skills that will give back to you as you use them in other classes.
ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING
Please note that there is no term paper for this course and no exams. There are, however, a number of small assignments that are due every week. Much of this is group work. Other class members will be relying on you for their grade on their portion of certain assignments. All assignments are therefore due and due ON TIME, whether or not you attend class that day. I cannot stress this enough: if you know you will be gone at some point this term, please make arrangements to due the assignment EARLY as no late assignments will be accepted.
SOURCE ANALYSIS PAPER Due every Monday. The response paper is a short essay of 2-3 pages that presents an argument on one of the photocopied readings. It must both analyze and summarize the reading and follow the standard "five paragraph-essay" format.
Line edits Every Monday, instead of turning in your paper to me, you will trade them and provide your peers with line edits by Wednesday. Line edits will look for grammar, spelling, word choice, clarity, thesis, topic sentences, and content. Comments should be based on Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, which we will study in this class. I will grade this assignment on effort. The more you help the writer, the better you'll do.
Revision After looking over the line edits, I will make comments of my own and return the papers by Thursday. Using both sets of comments, you will revise your essay by the following Monday and mark each change on the first draft with a highlighter pen. Your final grade for the response paper will be based on the entire writing process (content and revision). Your final grade for the edits will be based on your edits alone. These will be two separate grades each week. This means that almost every Monday this term you will turn in one revised essay to me and one draft essay for peer review.
PRESENTATION Class participation will consist of a presentation of material from the text, The Houses of History. Each student will prepare a chapter for presentation about three times during the term. Students who are presenting will provide the rest of the class with reading notes on the chapter. These are detailed notes that both outline the material and summarize ideas and offer some of the presenter's own thoughts on what he or he has read.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Beginning Week 2, we will meet in the library on Thursdays to do research and compile bibliographies for thesis topics. Each of you will produce your own bibliography of the topic, which will be shared with the rest of the class. The bibliography will use Turabian format and comprehensively cover the sources for the thesis paper topic.
QUIZ Four times this term you will take a quiz covering Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. Each quiz will cover two parts of the text (about 30 pages). It is important that you carefully study this book. It will not only be the basis of your line edits, but also of your quiz grades!
Please note that you must complete all of the assignments to pass the course. As indicated above, late assignments will receive an F, but you must still turn in all of the work to receive a passing grade for the course. A final score of 70% is required for P/NP grading. Grades for this course are not curved but represent a raw percentage score (i.e. 87-89%=B+). The final grade will break down in the following way:
Attendance: Mandatory (beyond three absences –3% from the final grade)
Participation/ Presentations: 15%
Source Analysis Papers: 25%
Line Edits: 20%
Bibliographies: 25%
Quizzes: 15%
PLEASE TAKE NOTE:
Assignments submitted late without approval will not be graded.
Plagiarism and cheating are very serious in a university setting. Plagiarism may be defined as the submission of the work of others for academic credit without indicating the source. Students caught cheating on assignments or plagiarizing material for papers will receive a failing grade for the course and face potential disciplinary action from the university such as probation, suspension, or expulsion. Please talk to me or consult the Student Handbook at: www.eou.edu/saffairs/handbook/honest.html if you have any questions.
If you believe you have a learning, psychological, or physical challenge that may impair your ability to complete this course successfully, you are encouraged to contact Disability Services (962-3081) in Loso Hall as soon as possible.
While accidents occasionally happen, "the computer ate my homework" is not a valid excuse for late assignments. Be sure to back up your work. Printing is available on campus. Cell phones can be disruptive and rude. Please turn them off before class begins.
Please note that the university policy on withdrawing from a course states that you must be PASSING the course to receive a "W" for withdrawing after WEEK 5. I enforce this policy. Students who are failing the course can only receive an "F" by withdrawing after week 5.
COURSE READINGS
All required and recommended course materials are available in the University bookstore or on the course website. Powells.com and Amazon.com also sell used copies of the course books for this class.
- Photocopies
- William Strunk and E.B. White, The Elements of Style.
- Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Sixth edition.
- Anna Green and Kathleen Troup, eds., Houses of History: A Criticial Reader in Twentieth-Century History and Theory: A Criticial Reader in Twentieth-Century History and Theory
CLASS SCHEDULE
We will attempt to adhere to the following schedule, making adjustments if/when needed. Readings are given according to the day they will be discussed.
Week One:
Monday: Introduction
Wednesday: Presentation Dr. Wells
Thursday: No Class
Week Two:
Monday: Source Analysis #1
Wednesday: QUIZ #1, STRUNK AND WHITE PTS. I & III
Presentation ______________
Thursday: Bibliography 1
Week Three:
Wednesday: QUIZ #2, STRUNK AND WHITE PTS. II & V
Presentation ______________
Thursday: Bibliography 2
Week Four:
Monday: Source Analysis #2
Wednesday: Presentation ______________
Thursday: Bibliography 3
Week Five:
Wednesday: QUIZ #3, STRUNK AND WHITE PTS. I & III
Presentation ______________
Thursday: Bibliography 4
Week 6:
Monday: Source Analysis #3
Wednesday: QUIZ #4, STRUNK AND WHITE PTS. II & V
Presentation ______________
Thursday: Bibliography 5
Week 7:
Wednesday: Presentation ______________
Thursday: Bibliography 6
Week 8:
Monday: Source Analysis #4
Wednesday: Presentation ______________
Thursday: Bibliography 7
Week 9:
Monday: MEMORIAL DAY
Wednesday: Presentation ______________
Thursday: Bibliography 8
Week 10:
Monday: Source Analysis #5
Wednesday: Presentation ______________
Thursday: Bibliography 9