HIST494A - O'Mara - Assignments

Class Discussion (15% of grade). In small colloquia such as this one, consistent and respectful engagement in discussion is the key to your success. To receive high marks for discussion, you must be both a thoughtful commentator and a good listener. This is discussion, not oration; I grade on quality of commentary, not quantity. An "A"-range student comes to class with an understanding of the readings and how they relate to one another, and with discussion points already in mind. She actively and consistently contributes to discussion, but she also knows when to let others speak and responds to their comments with respect. Obviously, if you are not in class you cannot show off your mastery of the material and your penetrating analysis of the issues at hand; an unexcused absence will lower your class discussion mark by one third of a letter grade.

Discussion Questions (15%). Posting substantive and thought-provoking questions to the online discussion board is an important component of your participation grade. It also is your opportunity to hone in on issues in the reading that you find particularly interesting and provocative, and for you and your peers to set our agenda for the day. Questions must be posted no later than 2:00PM on the day of class in order to allow your fellow students to read them in a timely fashion. You can post as early and as often as you like during the week, but you must post at least once prior to the deadline in order to receive credit from me.

Web Page Project (15%). The first week of class you will sign up to create a simple web page that places a current campaign issue in historical perspective. Using Simple Site, you and a fellow student will build a single page that includes original content and analysis as well as links to historical materials available on the web. This is not a web design assignment; you do not need to have any experience as a webmaster, simply as a web user. Quality content, clearly presented for a general audience, is the most important criterion for success. The page should trace the evolution of an issue from the 1896 election to the present. Note that all may not have been an issue in every single election; I do not expect an exhaustive chronology. (It may well be just as instructive to discuss why an issue dropped off the table in a particular cycle.) Each team will tackle one of the following: immigration, environment, taxes, war, the economy, moral issues, health care, poverty. To prepare for this project we will discuss examples of useful (and not so useful) web sites in class, and I'll provide a list of recommended sources for primary materials. I also strongly recommend that you and your partner meet with me during my office hours the week of February 20. Come to our meeting with a good sense of the content you'd like to feature on the page, including web sources, and I will help you troubleshoot both substantive and technical issues. I will post outstanding pages on my permanent web site.

Reader Response Papers (10% each, for a total of 20%). You will write two of these essays over the course of the quarter. In order to give you flexibility in managing your assignments for this and other courses, I have not given these fixed due dates. At the first class session, you will sign up for the two weeks in which you will submit an essay; one must be in the first half of the quarter (on or before 2/6), the other must be in the second. Papers should be submitted via the online dropbox. These are not book reports, but concise analytic documents that give me your assessment of the readings for a given week, their relation to one another, and how they reflect other themes addressed in class. You should not be reluctant to point out shortcomings you find in the readings, but criticism must be constructive and convincingly argued. A paper grade and comments will be available for your review on Collect It by noon on Fridays. I will accept rewrites on response papers if you are dissatisfied with your grade. You must submit rewrites to me no more than one week after you have received your graded paper; I will record the higher of the two grades.

Final Paper (35% of grade). What is political history? Using the required readings from this class, write a 10-12 page essay that traces how historians and others have answered this question over the course of the past 60 years, comparing and contrasting the sources, methods, and conclusions of successive generations of scholarship. Conclude with discussion of how present-day politicians, analysts, and voters might learn from this historiography. This will also be submitted via the dropbox.

For more about my grading standards and expectations, click here.