Methodology in History

Course Description
This course is designed as a comprehensive introduction to the field of history as a way of thinking broadly and methodically about studying the past. The goal is to explore some fundamental components of historical thinking, including ideas about context and causation, methods of historical analysis, issues of truth and objectivity, conflicting interpretations, and inquiry into varied historical approaches and genres. The readings will help our students understand how and why historians investigate, interpret, and write about the past as well as contest one another’s findings. By the end of the semester, this course will set a solid foundation for our students to master historical research methods, acquire a fine broad grasp on current historiographical trends, and feel adequately oriented toward their future studies in the department.


Course Requirements 

1.  Grading:

24%     Weekly Response Papers

26%     Mid-term

40%     Final

10%     Participation and Attendance

(Bonus) Book/Article Review Paper, (up to 10%)


2.  Weekly Response Papers:

Each student will write a response paper most weeks connecting common threads, covering key issues, and discussing the major arguments and methods used in that week's readings. Please see the instructions on writing response papers at the end of this syllabus.

Students are required to submit 10 response papers. The best/highest graded 8 (of 10) will be counted toward the 24% of total grade.

Weekly response papers are DUE at 13:00/1PM of every Thursday via Blackboard or email. Papers will be no more than 300-350 words and/or one single page, featuring double space, legible font and font size, and enough margins for comments on the sides.


3. Participation and Attendance:

Attendance is mandatory. If you won’t be able to attend a class due to a valid reason, please contact the instructor as soon as possible.

Absences without a valid reason may require make-up assignments. More than four absences may result in grade penalties.

Students are expected to arrive in class on time and prepared to discuss the assigned readings. The instructor holds the right to deny you entry to the classroom, if you make a habit of coming late and interrupting the lecture.

If you need to leave class early for a valid reason, contact the instructor in advance.

Active class participation is central to our work together. You should focus on identifying and critiquing the methods, arguments, ideas, presentation, and other themes in weekly readings. Above all, you should aim to foster lively and respectful discussion among your classmates.

Students will be graded on the quality as well as the quantity of their participation. Students will also lose participation points for bad behavior, disrupting class, leaving early without permission or a valid reason, chatting to other students unnecessarily, or using their mobile phones.


4. (Bonus) Book/Article Review Paper:

In addition to the required assignments, students may also volunteer for a bonus paper, reviewing a book or an academic article.

If you would like to review an article: Look back over the last 10 years of the American Historical Review or another academic journal. Find an article on a topic of special interest. Read the article and then analyze it in a 1000-1500 word (3-4 page, double-spaced) essay. Consider the following: what is the author’s argument and how does he or she represent it; what types of methods did the author use to come to his or her conclusion; what is the article’s contribution to or significance within historiography; and what are its weaknesses, if any?

If you would like to review a book: Choose a book written in the field of history. Read the book carefully and write a 1000-1500 word (3-4 page, double-spaced) paper. The review should explain the author’s argument, situate the work in its broader historiography, and assess its strengths and weaknesses. Consult the book review guidelines and examples from journals in your field or the American Historical Review, Comparative Studies in Society and History, or Past & Present, to name a few.

Try to address these questions: What is the problem that the author grapples with?  Why does this problem matter?  What method does the author use to address the problem?  What alternative methods might she have considered?  What sources does she employ?  Are there other sources that might have been useful?  Does the article/book’s structure and the author’s writing style support the intellectual project?  Why or why not?

In the paper, you must offer a critical analysis of these articles/books and the historiography more generally. For example, the paper may evaluate core concerns among historians who have written in this field, conceptual or methodological debates with which they grappled, or fundamental problems with the approaches within the field. Or, you might take one of the approaches examined in this course and examine works in your field through its lens.

Students should seek the instructor’s guidance, consultation, and approval on their chosen articles and books to be reviewed. Bonus papers based on articles/books that were not chosen in consultation with the course instructor will NOT be accepted.

Students deciding to write this paper must inform the instructor latest by the week following the mid-term, earlier if possible. Requests after this week will NOT be accepted.

The bonus papers are due in class, on June 3.


5. Policy on Make-ups and Late Work:

As a general rule, there will be no make-up exams. A make-up exam may be given in rare cases and only with officially documented justification.

Late weekly response papers will NOT be accepted. Plan accordingly and turn in your weekly assignments on time.

Regarding bonus papers, late assignments will be accepted, but a grade per day will be deducted (for example, an "A" paper that is one day late will become a "B" paper).


Instructions on Writing a Response Paper
Writing good response papers is not easy. However, like most things, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Since these skills are the skills that you will need to cultivate in your later life and career, the sooner you begin to become expert in this kind of writing, the better.

In brief: A response paper is not intended to be a comprehension test, a book review (e.g., "I really enjoyed the...”) or a rehashing of the content or story (e.g., “this happened, and then that happened"). The term “response paper” might seem to imply that you will be writing about your emotional responses and reactions to a particular text, that you will be answering the question: “How did you feel about the text?” This is NOT what you are to do. Perhaps “How did you feel” is a legitimate starting point, but what is more interesting is why you felt that way….

A response paper is your critical response to an issue, problem, or question raised in the reading or in a group of readings. The response paper consists of your close examination of the text and the questions in the text that most intrigue you. It does not need to be a fully structured and argued essay. It should, however, start to pull together your thoughts about a particular issue in the text.

You are not to summarize what you read. Write it with the understanding that the reader, your professor/instructor, is familiar with the text. S/he does not need you to summarize it for her.  Rather, she’s interested in discerning how deeply you have thought about the concepts, methods, or approaches that exist at its heart. A response paper should engage the text explicitly and rigorously. It should examine and begin to formulate the questions that a more formal analytical essay might take up in greater depth.

What is the value in writing a response paper? In the future, you will have to devise your own paper topics, rather than responding to the questions a professor might pose about a text or a site.  You will be asked to make an academic argument without the guidance of leading questions.  The purpose of writing response papers, then, is to help you get practice identifying issues and, especially, to learn to recognize the ones that most interest YOU.

A proper university education prepares you as an independent mind and equips you with the mental tools that you will need in the world. From there, you can begin to take control of your own individual voice.


Important Guidelines

 1.  Reading Assignments:

Classes will center mostly on discussion of assigned readings, involving a great deal of student participation. Therefore, doing the readings in advance, coming prepared to discuss them, and to answer the discussion questions is essential in this class. This will substantially affect your participation and exam performance.

Most university courses have a heavy reading load, and this one is no exception. You may feel a bit overwhelmed, but without fulfilling the required readings it is very likely that you will have difficulty in succeeding in this class. Read carefully, take notes, and organize your thoughts before class. You are all adults at this point, so show maturity and responsibility.

A careful reading does not mean memorization of everything; it certainly does not mean underlining every single year, name, place etc. You may need to read the same text over more than once; reading through the whole text at first for early impressions and a general idea while making simple marks at crucial points, and a second time for note-taking and careful scrutiny of certain key passages. Concentrate on the arguments, supporting points, materials and evidence, look at the material with a comparative approach, and try to locate the author’s/text’s stance in a broader context of history.


2.  Communication/Email:

Students MUST check their university email account on a regular basis in order to do well in this course.

The instructor will frequently send email messages about upcoming events concerning the course, blackboard updates, as well as handouts and other course materials.

If you are not in the habit of checking your Ipek email regularly, you will need to start, or else have your email forwarded to whatever email address you do use regularly.


3.  Personal Technology in the Classroom:

The classroom is a space of learning and a public forum for dialogue. Thus, all electronic communication devices must be turned off during class. Specifically, cell phones are not to be used in class at any time and students should make sure that their phones have been turned off prior to the start of class.

Laptops and tablets are allowed solely for class-related purposes.



4.  Plagiarism and Academic Honesty:

Plagiarism refers to using words from any source without proper attribution; namely, without placing them in quotation marks and citing the source. Copy-pasting from sources on the internet; failing to properly cite or indicate the words and ideas of someone else; having someone else write a paper and submitting it as one’s own; turning in a paper that has been purchased from a person or a firm; and submitting a paper (in whole or part) that was submitted for any other course is also plagiarism. Looking at another student’s exam or using any outside sources during an examination is cheating. In written exercises and exams, you are expected to produce your own work and cite accurately.

Plagiarism, cheating, and all other forms of academic dishonesty are serious offenses. Those who engage in such practices will earn a course grade of ‘F’ and have their behavior referred to the University.


The instructor reserves the right to change the syllabus at any time.

Materials and readings may be added, subtracted, or changed after the start of the term.

If you have any uncertainties or questions concerning expectations for the course and for assignments, then please do not hesitate to speak to me.


Useful Links

The Basic Guide for Using Chicago Manual of Style citations: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

 What Constitutes Plagiarism? http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&pageid=icb.page342054