practicum

Exercises / Final projects / Texts / Syllabi / Links

Description and Objectives

The two-credit History Practicum serves as the gateway to the major. The class meets once a week for a common lecture. The students are then divided into two smaller groups (called "Precepts"), which meet for an additional weekly seminar session. Though actual course content depends on the instructor, a common set of issues is addressed. The History Practicum is intended to introduce new majors to the methods and tools of the historian. Attention is devoted to issues of critical reading, informed discussion and, most importantly, effective writing. Students work on a variety of writing assignments throughout the semester, and apart from learning a series of discipline-specific skills, they are expected to produce clear, coherent and persuasive arguments in their written work.

Basic skills to be addressed
Each course regardless of content is expected to deal with two major sets of methodological issues: finding and using evidence and the development of project- specific tools.

Finding and using evidence

Defining and identifying sources (archival, material culture, oral interviews, literature, websources, etc.)
Reading primary sources critically
Reading secondary sources critically; understanding and managing historiography
Exposure to a range of historical methodologies

Project-specific skills

Research skills
Making arguments (gathering and assessing evidence, developing and outlining a thesis, articulating clear historical arguments in writing)
Documentation and plagiarism
Discussion skills, oral presentation, peer-review

Sample exercises

Primary sources	Secondary sources	Other
Primary source scavenger hunt	Identifying scholarly articles	Analyzing visual sources
Analyzing primary sources	Secondary source analysis	Film analysis
Analyzing newspapers	Reading strategies
Formulating discussion questions	Writing a book review	Analyzing websites Sample A Sample B
Writing a historical narrative	Annotated bibliography	Printed sources and web sources

Plagiarism	Quoting and citing
AHA Plagiarism exercises Defining plagiarism Exercise 1 Exercise 2	Quoting and citing sources
Plagiarism and Academic Honesty

Sample final project assigments

Annotated bibliography and historiographical essay (Louthan)
Students will devote weeks eleven to sixteen on a research project. Preliminary topic and bibliography will be due Nov. 1 (Group B) and Nov. 3 (Group A). They will produce an annotated an annotated bibliography (seven to fifteen items) and a four-six page historiographical analysis of their topic. Papers are due the final day of class, Wednesday, December 6.
Tips on research project.
Annotated Bibliography; History Databases
What is a Historiographical/Bibliographic essay?

Civil War Research Paper Prospectus (Adams)

Cold War Research Paper Prospectus (Jacobs)

Atlantic History Research Project (H-J)

Middle Ages Research Project (Caputo)

Sample texts

Mary Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (Bedford/St. Martins; 5th edition, 2006)

Jules R. Benjamin, A Student’s Guide to History, Tenth Edition (Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007)

Richard Marius and Melvin Page, A Short Guide to Writing about History (New York: Pearson/Longman, 2007)

Robert C. Williams, The Historian's Toolbox: A Student's Guide to the Theory and Craft of History (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2007)

Lynn Cheney, "Politics in the Classroom"

Sam Wineburg, "Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts"

Mark Kishlansky, "How To Read A Primary Source"

Sample syllabi

Conflict in Premodern Europe (Louthan, Fall 06)
Atlantic History (Harland-Jacobs, Spring 07 and 08)
Religion and Violence (Sterk, Spring 07)
The Middle Ages (Caputo, Fall 07)
The Cold War (Jacobs, Fall 07)
The Civil War (Adams, Fall 07)
Labor in the Gilded Age and Progessive Era (Noll, Spring 08)
US Labor History (Zieger, Spring 08)

Links

UF Reading and Writing Center

Using Primary Sources on the Web

Doing History: A Guide to Historical Research

Style manuals

HIS 3942 course evaluation