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Syllabus

Writing the Region

Syllabus

Writing the Region:
History, Literature, and Pacific Northwest Identity


John Findlay, Dept. of History
Smith Hall 308C
Office Hours: Tues. 3:30-4:30, Wed. 10:30-11:30, & by appt.
206-543-2573
jfindlay@u.washington.edu

HIST 498H
Spring 2003
Tues. 1:30-3:20
Smith Hall 306



COURSE SUMMARY


Overview
History 498 is a research colloquium designed for as a capstone course for majors in History (although non-majors are welcome, too). It focuses on a single theme or topic, and emphasizes the reading, research, thinking, and writing skills that are central to the study of history. Students are expected to undertake substantial individual projects, including the writing and rewriting of research papers.

In HIST 498H for Spring Quarter of 2003, we will examine how people have written about the Pacific Northwest, both from inside and from outside the region, and explore whether and how a variety of texts contributed to regional identity. We will devote the first few weeks (II-IV) to common readings, which will include an assortment of interpretations about Northwest writing; a sampling of texts by and about the Pacific Northwest; and a series of commentaries about individual authors and other topics relating to regional literature and history. We will have class discussions of the readings as well as short writing assignments. During this time, students should try to identify topics on which they would be interested in conducting research and writing papers. They are particularly encouraged to develop projects that will be of interest to them. Weeks V-X will be devoted to refining the topics, in consultation with other students and the instructor; conducting research; drafting papers; giving one another feedback on rough drafts; and writing final papers. Students will be evaluated on all aspects of their work in the course (discussions, writing assignments), with the final research paper counting for the bulk of the grade.


Sources of Information
Students in HIST 498H will get information in three different forms. First, all common readings are available online. Selected articles and chapters due during Week II are on e-reserve under HIST 498H at the following: http://catalog.lib.washington.edu/search/rHist+498+h/rhist+498+h/-6,0,0,B/frameset&FF=rhist+498h&1,1. The largest amount of material, though, constituting the bulk of the required readings for Weeks II-IV, is at a different site, hosted by History Department’s Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, called “A Sense of Where We Are: History and Literature of the Pacific Northwest”: http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/sense/Index.htm. This is a new web site, and we welcome your feedback about it. In addition to the required readings at these two URL’s, I have put three optional books on reserve at Odegaard Undergraduate Library, too, as works of reference: Bruce Barcott, Northwest Passages: A Literary Anthology of the Pacific Northwest from Coyote Tales to Roadside Attractions; Laurie Ricou, The Arbutus/Madrone Files: Reading the Pacific Northwest; and Nicholas O’Connell, At the Field’s End: Interviews with 22 Pacific Northwest Writers.

Second, students will work on individual projects of their own choosing. To do this, they will use the University of Washington Libraries, the best available for research on the Pacific Northwest. The Libraries have numerous holdings of relevance for this class. In particular, I expect members of HIST 498H to become familiar with the Manuscripts, Special Collections, and University Archives holdings in the basement of Allen Library. The class will meet with librarians from that collection during the quarter for an orientation session. Using the Libraries’ holdings, and other collections if necessary, students are expected to find the information required to produce successful research papers.

Third, members of the colloquium will get information from one another. Students are expected to complete the readings on time and participate regularly in an informed fashion in discussions. They will be asked to make brief presentations to the class about their projects. Moreover, members of the colloquium will read and comment on one another’s rough drafts.


Goals of the Course
HIST 498H aims to introduce students to the research and writing that historians do and the materials with which they do it. Its aim is to familiarize students with the general topic of history and literature of the Pacific Northwest, and then have them become specialists on specific aspects of that topic through their own research and writing projects. To do this work successfully, students need to examine and critique the interpretations offered by the extant scholarship; become fairly familiar with the variety of texts that qualify as Pacific Northwest “literature”; define their own research topics; propose and refine their own interpretations of the subject matter; do a substantial amount of research in primary sources; think critically about evidence and interpretations; and write and rewrite their papers. In-class discussions will help achieve these goals, and so will the shorter writing assignments during the first few weeks.

Although HIST 498H focuses on one topic and is organized around a research paper, it requires many of the same skills one would use in any history course, and in many courses in the humanities and social sciences. Students are expected to read and think critically about the past, and to write about and discuss primary sources and secondary works thoughtfully and carefully. Another major goal of HIST 498H, then, is to improve students’ abilities to read and think critically, and to write about and discuss history thoughtfully and precisely. As in all History courses, still another goal is to improve students’ abilities to think historically—about the history and literature of the region, as well as about other times and places. Historical thinking entails the recognition of complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty in human affairs; the development of a critical—and often skeptical—attitude toward sources of information; and the understanding that events occur sequentially and that the sequence matters. Historical thinking also requires that one try to understand the past from the different points of view of people living at that time, and to recognize that those points of view usually differ from our own. Students will be expected to demonstrate historical thinking in papers and discussions.

Finally, HIST 498H aspires to improve students’ ability to think conceptually. Coming to terms with the past requires that one impose some intellectual order on the numerous, diverse, sometimes chaotic facts from previous times, to make connections between different trends and events and persons and viewpoints. By working carefully with concepts, we can identify patterns in historical development, and link different events and trends together. In HIST 498B, for example, conceptual thinking might help us connect literary developments at the national level to trends at the state or regional level, or it could assist us in finding commonalities between texts about nature in the Northwest during the 19th and 20th centuries. Conceptual thinking, in other words, permits us to pull together selectively a variety of issues, sources, and events into explanations of the past. Students are expected to demonstrate conceptual thinking in papers and discussion.






SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS

I. April 1--Introduction


II. April 8--Overview of Northwest Literature; Texts By and About Natives

From E-reserves, read: Edwin R. Bingham, “Pacific Northwest Writing: Reaching for Regional Identity,” in William G. Robbins, Robert J. Frank, and Richard E. Ross, eds., Regionalism and the Pacific Northwest (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1983), 151-74; Glen A. Love, “Finding Oregon in Short Fiction,” in Glen A. Love (ed.), The World Begins Here: An Anthology of Oregon Short Fiction (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1993), xv-xxi; Harold P. Simonson, “Pacific Northwest Literature—Its Coming of Age,” Pacific Northwest Quarterly 71 (October 1980):146-151; George Venn, “Continuity in Northwest Literature,” in Edwin R. Bingham and Glen A. Love, eds., Northwest Perspectives: Essays on the Culture of the Pacific Northwest (Eugene and Seattle: University of Oregon and University of Washington Press, 1979), 99-118.

From the “Sense of Where We Are” web site, read: the Welcome, the Essay Introduction, and the Essay and all the Commentaries and Texts for Part I, “Texts By and About Natives.”


III. April 15--Discovering and Settling the Pacific Northwest

From the Sense web site, read: the Essay and all the Commentaries and Texts for Part II, “Discovering the Region, 1570s - ” and Part III, “Writing Home, 1850s - .”

First Paper due, at the beginning of class, consisting of a one-page response to one of the Study Questions. Worth 5 % of Final Grade.


IV. April 22--The Rise of a Regional Literature in the 20th-century Northwest

From the Sense web site, read: the Essay and all the Commentaries and Texts for Part IV, “Aggressive Regionalism, 1920s - ” and Part V, “Northwest Schools of Literature, 1947 – .”

Second Paper due, at the beginning of class, consisting of a one-page response to one of the Study Questions. Worth 10% of Final Grade.


V. April 29--Meeting with Librarians

Details to be arranged. Students should be defining research topics and have questions ready.


VI. May 6--Oral Presentations

Each student presents her or his project to the class. Handouts welcome.

VII. May 13--No class meeting. Professor will hold extended office hours for consultations


VIII, IX. May 20,27--Meetings to review rough drafts, TBA

Rough drafts due, TBA, with enough copies for people doing the reviewing.
Submitting the rough draft on time is worth 5% of Final Grade.


X. June 3--Final class meeting

      Final drafts due, Friday June 6, by 5:00 in John Findlay’s mailbox, SMI 315.
      Papers will be worth 55% of Final Grade.


GRADING AND ASSIGNMENTS

Course grades for HIST 498H will be calculated based on students’ performance on papers and discussion. HIST 498H requires students to write 2 short papers, and a rough and final draft of a longer research paper. It is assumed that the papers will be word-processed. Students are expected to write clearly and with precision; to state a thesis early on and develop it throughout the paper; and to use a consistent method for citing readings. There should be no late papers, although I will try to be reasonable in the event of illness or a family emergency. Please note that students must complete all assignments to get a passing grade.

The 2 short papers are due at the beginning of class during the third and fourth weeks (April 15 and 22). They should cover no more than one side of one sheet of paper (although students may single-space the text and use narrow margins). The papers should respond in some fashion to one of the study questions posed for each week’s readings. These papers are due at the beginning of class, in part because writing them will ensure a higher level of discussion.

The final research paper ought to be at least 18 pages of double-spaced text, with a suitable method of citing sources and a correctly constructed bibliography. It must be based in significant part on research in primary sources (although there is some flexibility as to what “primary sources” means, depending on the topic chosen). It should argue a thesis that presents a new interpretation of the subject, or expands upon or refines an existing interpretation. The topic, of course, should be pertinent to the theme of Pacific Northwest history and literature, but within that broad framework there are many, many possible subjects of study. You are encouraged to select something that suits your interests. The final version of the paper will count for 55% of your total grade for the course. If it arrives late, the grade for it will decline by 0.4 points for every day it is tardy.

Rough drafts are to be submitted according to a schedule we will decide together. At the time of submission, they should be roughly two-thirds complete, and they should have a clear thesis and enough footnotes that readers will get a good grasp of the sources that have been consulted. Rough drafts count for 5% of the final grade; if they are submitted on time and appear to be at least two-thirds complete, they will be graded with an automatic 4.0; if they are late or less than two-thirds complete, they will be graded an automatic 0.0.

Discussion counts for 25% of the final grade in HIST 498H. Students are expected to have done the readings on time, to attend class regularly, and to contribute consistently and thoughtfully to discussions, including the review of other students’ rough drafts.

The University of Washington grades numerically, using a range from 0.0 to 4.0. Each assignment will be evaluated with a single number, such as 3.7 or 2.1. Final grades will be calculated as follows.

Assignments and Grades

First short paper, April 15,      5% of total grade
Second short paper, April 22, 10%
Rough draft, TBA,            5%
Final draft, June 6,      55%
Discussion,            25%
Final Grade       =      100%



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING PAPERS

A key thing to remember is to write an essay that presents a thesis or argument. Too often, students approach an essay as an occasion to write down all they have found in the sources, or all they remember. They forget that they are being asked to address a specific problem, and to develop a thesis while doing so. Don’t treat the paper like a catalogue of information.
     
Essays are an exercise in controlling information and ideas, and not simply inundating readers with them. It is not the quantity of facts and claims that you assert that counts, so much as your ability to think conceptually and historically, and to write your thoughts in essay form.
     
The thesis or argument for an essay should be presented in an introduction, and readers should gain from that introduction a sense of direction for the rest of the essay. Readers should not get to the end of the introduction and wonder what the essay is about. Neither should readers at any time in the main body of the essay be confused about what the author is doing or where she or he is headed.
     
In writing a history essay, you are expected to integrate information and ideas from different places—the common readings for HIST 498H, primary sources and secondary works, discussions, even things you learned outside of the course. You need to draw connections between the different kinds of information and ideas you have learned. Don’t write book reports or summaries of readings. Refer explicitly to authors or titles so that it is clear what readings are being used.

Particularly in a course that focuses on different types of texts, it is valuable to pay close attention to the kinds of evidence you have, and to think and write about texts critically. We want to understand how people from the past viewed themselves and others, but we do not wish to accept what they said and how they said it uncritically.



Additional help for writing papers is available from the History Writing Center (Smith Hall 210A). The Center offers individual assistance, workshops, and useful handouts.
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Last modified: 4/2/2003 10:06 am