On this date on Round and Square's History
31 August 2015—China's Lunar Calendar 2015 08-29
31 August 2015—New York Review of Books Questions: Autumn 2015
31 August 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 08-29
31 August 2014—New York Review of Books Questions: Autumn 2014
31 August 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 08-29
31 August 2015—New York Review of Books Questions: Autumn 2015
31 August 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 08-29
31 August 2014—New York Review of Books Questions: Autumn 2014
31 August 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 08-29
31 August 2013—Syllabic Cycles: Mountains Syllabus (b)
31 August 2012—The New Yorker and the World: Course Description (h)
31 August 2011—Annals of Ostracism: Discovered Notes
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| [a] Text and illustration RF |
History 210
Autumn 2017
Preliminary Writing Assignment
Japanese Sources: The Letter
By
choosing the letter format for your first writing assignment, I am
asking you to build upon the skills you have already begun to develop in
analyzing (and providing examples for) Japanese source materials. You
have already reached a point where you have some experience with Japanese source materials, and your job will be to explain it to an intelligent
non-specialist.
Teach it, really.
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| [b] Reaching, teaching RF |
Teach it, really.
Letters
from “the field” (or our modified “archive” of source materials on the
syllabus) are a good way to refine your thoughts about historical study, and they are a useful medium for beginning the
intellectual “framing process” that will accelerate as we move through
the next two-thirds of the course. The letter writing exercise is
especially useful while studying primary source materials.
The nonfiction writer John McPhee explains to his students that a letter is often precisely the solution to problems of interpretation or clarity—when in doubt, write to mother, he says. In this case, it is not a plea of “send money” that the letter contains, but a reworking, rethinking, and contextualization of your work. You need not limit yourself to kinfolk, but you need to think about who the recipient will be (ideally someone who will welcome a letter about “doing theory”).
You owe it to yourself to listen to this long interview with McPhee (but I know that you are pressed for time). At the very least, though, listen to the first few minutes. It is the very purpose that lies behind this assignment.
The nonfiction writer John McPhee explains to his students that a letter is often precisely the solution to problems of interpretation or clarity—when in doubt, write to mother, he says. In this case, it is not a plea of “send money” that the letter contains, but a reworking, rethinking, and contextualization of your work. You need not limit yourself to kinfolk, but you need to think about who the recipient will be (ideally someone who will welcome a letter about “doing theory”).
You owe it to yourself to listen to this long interview with McPhee (but I know that you are pressed for time). At the very least, though, listen to the first few minutes. It is the very purpose that lies behind this assignment.
John McPhee NPR (1978) 22:40
Click on the second blue circle on the right side of the page (it is worth it)
Click on the second blue circle on the right side of the page (it is worth it)
Now start writing. Toward that end, you should pay attention to the following issues.
1. The letter needs to be “long enough” to get you deeply into several issues regarding historical research methods, including
particular approaches and a few examples. There is no absolute upper
limit, but I am going to make an absolute lower limit of 2,000 words
(about three pages). Realistically, your letter should probably be somewhere in the 3,000 word range (about ten pages). 2,000 words (about six pages) is the bare minimum. Do not turn in an assignment shorter than that.
2. I am asking you to connect with a very specific reader, and to explain “historical research methods”
in a level of detail that she will find satisfying. You are the expert,
and your “audience” is the person who will be reading your letter (think of my role as reading
over her shoulder). I have found that this kind of assignment helps
students to explain even abstruse matters, because the personal
relationship they have with their readers demands an attention to
patient explanation that is often lacking in more “academic” forms of
writing, in which they assume that a professor already knows what they
are writing about.
Your reader probably doesn't.
Make it make sense.
Your reader probably doesn't.
Make it make sense.
3.
You may approach your materials from any angle that you like, but you
will need to “cover” at least the following items, no matter what order
you choose.
a. You must discuss the “what is a primary source?” question. Provide your reader
with at least a few ways of thinking about it.
with at least a few ways of thinking about it.
b. Give your reader a sense of what you have learned up to this point about
how to read primary sources. Use examples from our course materials.
c. Finally, give your reader some sense of what it is like to “learn through sources”
by discussing the details of some of our texts. It might be useful to think of the
“pragmatic/historical” dimensions that are explained on the syllabus.
“pragmatic/historical” dimensions that are explained on the syllabus.
d. You must have at least one illustration. Think about "the rhetorical role of
illustrations" in the New York Review of Books.
4.
The best way to approach the writing process is in three parts (this is
a friendly suggestion). First, jot down some notes for each of the
“sections” of your letter. Second, using those notes as a guide, write a
rough draft of the whole letter. Third, revise, polish, and refine.
Voilà you will have something not unlike what Alexis de Tocqueville might have written about understanding a complex, foreign culture that baffled and enticed him 180 years ago. While your letter won’t be as long as Democracy in America, it is likely—if it is done well—to be much like Tocqueville’s rich and evocative letters back to his family about encountering people, texts, and institutions in a strange land called the United States.
You get the idea. If you don't, just raise your hand and ask me (or send me an e-mail message). I'll be happy to help.
Voilà you will have something not unlike what Alexis de Tocqueville might have written about understanding a complex, foreign culture that baffled and enticed him 180 years ago. While your letter won’t be as long as Democracy in America, it is likely—if it is done well—to be much like Tocqueville’s rich and evocative letters back to his family about encountering people, texts, and institutions in a strange land called the United States.
You get the idea. If you don't, just raise your hand and ask me (or send me an e-mail message). I'll be happy to help.
*** ***
Letters are Due (as stapled hard-copies outside my office, MI 206)
by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 1
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| [e] And then you may rest RF |
