History majors all have at least a general sense of what history is all about and why one should study history. It helps a lot, though, to clarify one's thoughts, to be prepared to be precise about what our profession is really all about.
Please read the first chapter of Rampolla's Pocket Guide to Writing History. Comment here on that first chapter. What here strikes you as particularly important? Is there anything you hadn't thought of before? Anything you disagree with?
While reading the first chapter, there were two quotes on the first page that immediately caught my eye.
ReplyDelete"First, a thoughtful examination of the past can tell us a great deal about how we came to be who we are," (Rampolla, p. 1).
"Second, the effort we put into grappling with the worldviews of earlier societies teaches us to see the world through different eyes" (Rampolla, p.1).
The main reason I chose these was that the sentence directly above the first reason talks about the two most important reasons why to ask the difficult questions in history.
The thing that I found interesting is when the chapter lists the ways of developing historical thinking skills and then explains them. This is where I found something that I have never thought in depth about before. I never thought of any history essay/paper I have written as an argument. I always thought of them as "here are the facts and here is how they tie together and why we are studying them." But reading the paragraph under "Argumentation," gave me a new perspective on how my papers would be more exciting and interesting to read.
There wasn't anything I necessarily disagreed with because I realized how immature my writing has been and how much more complex and intriguing it can become.
When reading the part where the author states that "history is not about memorizing "facts", but about interacting with and thinking about the past" (Rampolla, p. 3). Many high school teacher's will teach their class just facts and not actually dive into the interacting and thinking about history. That is why most high school history class are always so boring to students. Diving into history is very important because we need to apply history to the daily lives we have now.
ReplyDeleteI also like how the author states that historians need to dive deep into the information at hand. You can't just find one article and base your history facts just on that one article of information. You need to make sure your historical evidence is backed up by plenty of different historical evidences instead of just one. Make sure as historians we write with comparison.
There wasn't anything I disagreed with reading this chapter because this chapter showed me how to dig deeper in my historical research.
A little something that interested me was when the author states, “The ability to recognize the meaning of events from a perspective other than our own is of inestimable value in our increasingly complex and multicultural society” (Rampolla, p.1-2). We tend to think in our own way nowadays, and changing perspectives to understand others can be enlightening. People in the past did not have the technology we have today, and they lived vastly different lives than we do. It is fascinating to look at the beliefs and ideas of past societies to see how we have progressed over time. People tend to view history as just a bunch of facts and dates in a book, but it is more than just that. History looks at the lives of real people, and we can learn about their experiences and the world they lived in at the time.
ReplyDeleteI also like how the author takes an interesting viewpoint on asking questions. Everyone always thinks questions are just for obtaining information that is more factual, making the content boring and dull. Rather than asking about a certain date or person’s name, the right questions can have really interesting and complex answers. Finding out about a societies’ beliefs or even lost history can be intriguing. Asking the right questions can help towards finding interesting information.
One other idea that I did not really think about until reading this chapter was the interpretation of primary sources in secondary works. Historians each have different focus points related to their work, and understanding that they interpret primary sources can be useful to evaluate books and articles.
I do not disagree with anything in this chapter, as it was all pretty good to know. I think it helped me understand a little bit more about history as well.
With in chapter one the author states, "history is not about memorizing facts, but about interacting with and thinking about the past" (Rampolla, p.3). I found this important because its the one thing many people forget about history. For many history is something they just learn about and memorize. While history is about going back to the past and critically thinking about people, places, things and so on. We would not have the knowledge or technology if it was not for the past.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I found interesting was when the author stated, "We cannot draw generalization about how most people in a particular time or placed behaved based on the alleged actions of a single person" (Rampolla p.4). We tend to look at one particular person or event in one way and make a generalized assumption about people involved. We don't consider that not everyone is like that, every one is different. Like different cultures, lifestyles, believes, and experiences so, the action of one person from a group or place does not defined everyone. Which to me is very interesting because We are seeing it more often not just in history but also the present.
The author made some really good points and new things to think about.
A part of the reading that I found to be important was that in order to be a talented historian, you need to ask many questions. The book said that by asking questions, it shows that history isn’t just memorizing important dates or names. In Middle and High school history classes, I remember taking tests where the name of an event was given and we had to know the date of it. However I really never remember actually learning how said event actually effect future events like did it start a chain reaction.
ReplyDeleteOne thing the reading said is that when you are examining a historical article or work, you should ask yourself who the author was writing it for. In other words who was the indented audience. When reading something for one of my literature classes, my professors have always stressed that I should focus on figuring out who the audience is. However I never really thought that I should do this when it comes to a historical writing. I just assumed that if it’s a historical writing then the audience is very broad.
Like others reading the first chapter, I also thought that the section on argumentation was particularly interesting, albeit for different reasons. I learned how to write well through the debate program at my high school - which means I learned how to write by forming everything into arguments. So, for me, the argumentation section seemed to further cement what my teachers taught me years ago: forming an argument in your writing leads to clear and concise language throughout the paper. I didn't disagree with anything that Rampolla said. I found the writing to be interesting and engaging throughout.
ReplyDeleteI thought the first chapter was thorough and insightful. It provided a good understanding of what writing for history is all about. One line that struck me as particularly important was “For both professional historians and students, asking questions lies at the heart of historical thinking and inquiry.” (2) I found this line important because it showcases what historical writing is all about. Another line I found important was “In other words, the evidence comes first, and it is the historian’s job to evaluate the organize that evidence.” (3) I found this line important because it lets readers know what a historian actually does and what they use to accomplish their work. Finally, I found the final line of the chapter to be good advice: “The challenge posed by critical thinking at this level is not insignificant but, in the end, you will have truly entered the historian’s world by developing a new understanding of the past.” (7) It is important to remember that writing for history isn’t easy but it can be a very rewarding experience.
ReplyDeleteI liked a lot of different things about this first chapter. The main thing that stood out to me was when Rampolla said, "The study of history is the study of the beliefs and desires, the practices and institutions, of human beings" (1). I used to have the bias that history is all facts and no fun, but when you really look at it, history is all fun with some facts sprinkled in. There's so many different things to learn that is more than just dates and people. I definitely didn't disagree with anything she said. All of the brief descriptions of the skills she listed are things that I've noticed and started ti pick up over the last four years in my history degree. Some things that stood out to me were when she talked about contextualization and interpretation. To me, these two things go hand-in-hand, you can't have a good history without these and they're things I need to work on. How to take the history that we learn and give it context, why are these dates and people important and what do they mean for the rest of history.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading chapter 1, there were a lot of things that struck me as important. "The evidence comes first, and it is the historian's job to evaluate and organize that evidence" (3). Being a historian requires critical thinking and finding evidence. Having historical thinking skills is an important piece to becoming a successful historian.
ReplyDelete"An issue of particular interest to historians is the relationship between continuity and change" (5). This is important to remember when writing historically and thinking critically as a historian. This comment made me think about the past historical essays I have written and how I was forced to think like a historian using this idea.
I do not disagree with anything in this chapter. It was exciting to get a new viewpoint on historical thinking and writing skills.
One of the things that caught my eye was when Rampolla says "history is not about memorizing facts, but about interacting with and thinking about the past" (Rampolla pg. 3), and I think this is very important to realize because while we're studying history, we need to be able to think about what we're reading and not just memorize numbers. We need to be able to understand the meaning behind the material that we're studying, so I think this is a great point by Rampolla. Another thing I thought was interesting about the reading was the fact that Rampolla says we need to ask many questions to be considered a talented historian. This was something I'd never really thought of before because to me, History has always been just a bunch of facts put together to form a pretty cool story, but when Rampolla brought up asking questions I think it was a good point because the way to gain knowledge the fastest is to ask good questions, which makes sense to me but I just had never thought of it that way before.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Chapter 1 of the book, There was a few things that I found that where interesting. The first thing was how important is contextualization. "An essential element in critical thinking about history is understanding the context in which evens occurred. "Rampolla 4". I always known or had a general idea on how important contextualization was when I was in high school, but Rampolla has given me a better idea on contextualization. Rampolla has so many interesting ideas. I totally agree with Rampolla with the that knowing the who, what, where, when why is so important because as future historians we need to look into the smallest of things when it comes to history as well as using that smallest of information to write effective papers. Having a general idea on what you are talking about is so important.
ReplyDeleteChapter 1 of the book was very helpful to me as it gave me some pointers on writing that I never thought of before. The first thing that caught my eye was, "The ability to recognize the meaning of events from a perspective other than our own is of inestimable value in our increasingly complex and multicultural society." (Rampolla, pgs. 1 and 2). This to me is a very important thing because it helps us to expand our knowledge on something, and it gives us the opportunity to talk to other people to get some ideas from them as well on the same subject. The second thing I saw as important was, "asking questions lies at the heart of historical thinking and inquiry." (Rampolla pg. 2) This is important because it serves as a reminder that without asking questions, historians cannot write a paper or even get an answer at all. Asking good questions is one of the best ways to get answers and to get things clarified that you don't understand or that you want a cut and dry answer for. The last thing that caught my attention was, "we cannot draw generalizations about how most people in a particular time or place behaved based on the alleged actions of a single person.." (Rampolla pg. 4) Reading this helped me to remember that when I am writing a paper, I need to use more than one source, whether it be a primary or secondary, because if I only use just one source, I am only getting a one-sided opinion on an issue. Honestly, there is nothing I disagree with in the first chapter. Everything seemed to be very helpful tips for writing.
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