01:506:495, Honors Program
in History
Fall Semester 2009
Professor James Masschaele
Van Dyck Hall 109
732- 932-8250
massch@rci.rutgers.edu
One section of
the seminar will meet on Fridays from
Seminar Description: Most of the work you do in the History Honors
Program is done individually, researching your projects and developing written
theses on the basis of your research.
Each of you will be working in close consultation with faculty advisors
and second readers with whom you should meet regularly to discuss your progress. The standard timetable for completing an
honors thesis requires you to do most of your research during the fall semester
and use the winter break for preparing the first draft of the thesis. During
the spring semester, you will be busy revising your drafts, filling in holes in
your research, preparing for the defense of the thesis, and working on your
oral presentation at the Honors Conference.
In addition to working on your individual project,
you are required to participate in the Honors Seminar. The seminar is designed
to develop research skills and to help you organize the writing and formal
presentation of your thesis. It will
give you a chance to discuss general problems and strategies with other
students engaged in honors research in History.
September
4th:
Introductions;
discussion of program requirements; support from the Aresty Center; tips on developing research
strategies.
Purchase Kate L. Turabian,
Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams,
Wayne C. Booth, Wayne C. Booth, Manual for Writers of
Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th ed. (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2007). Be
sure to buy the seventh edition of this book; older editions do not cover
internet sources very effectively and are out-of-date in key areas. This is the standard guidebook used by
historians for help with formatting footnotes and bibliographies. It is also full of good advice about how to
organize a research paper, how to improve the quality of your prose, and how to
research effectively. I did not place an
order for the book with any of the usual bookstores in
September
11th:
Short paper (2-3
pages) due outlining the general parameters of your thesis, your research
strategy, and what you have done to date.
Be prepared to give a short presentation (4-5 minutes) about your topic
to the other students in the seminar.
September
18th:
Meeting with
research librarians Jim Niessen and Tom Glynn for discussion of Alexander
Library resources, particularly electronic resources.
Meet in the lobby
of Alexander.
September
25th:
Short paper (2-3 pages) due on a
major primary source you intend to you use in your research. Your paper should address the following
topics: What is the format of the primary source (e.g. book, manuscript,
private correspondence, etc.)? Who was
the author? What was the source’s
original purpose and how did it come to be preserved? How do you expect to use it in your
research? Those of you who are working
with unusual or non-traditional sources can modify the questions if need
be. Please write your paper as a formal
essay but with a target audience of fellow students who do not necessarily know
anything about the source or its context.
Come to class prepared to discuss your source and paper with the other
students in the seminar.
October 2nd:
Short paper (2-3 pages) due on a
major secondary source (book or article) related to your thesis topic. Your paper should summarize the main argument
of the work and discuss the primary sources the author used to construct the
argument. Come to class prepared to
discuss the work and its relationship to your thesis project with the other
students in the seminar.
October 9th:
Read Turabian et al., A Manual
for Writers, pp. 5-23. We will
discuss the issues it deals with in class. Think about how the general points made there might shape the way you
approach your thesis.
October 16th:
Reports on progress to date. Each of you should make a short presentation
(4-5 minutes) explaining the progress
you have made to date on your project and what you expect to accomplish in the
remainder of the semester. Each of you
will be required to summarize the discussions you have had with your advisors
thus far (how many times you have met; on what dates; what advice s/he gave
you; and so on). To do this effectively,
you should all make sure that you have met your advisor at least once since
October 5th.
October
23rd –November 13th:
No class meetings. You should devote these weeks to
research. I will be available for
individual consultations or to help deal with unexpected problems that crop up
in your research. You should plan to meet your advisor at least
once during this period.
November
20th:
Small group discussions about the
structure and organization of your thesis.
Topics to discuss might include: how your vision of the thesis has
changed since September; the status of your research notes; how you are
planning to divide your material up into chapters; what order you plan to write
the chapters in; and how you plan to organize your time so that you can have a
first draft completed by the end of January.
November 27th: No class due to Thanksgiving break
December 4th:
Detailed outline
of your thesis is due at the start of class.
Your outline should be approximately 5-7 pages in length,
double-spaced. It should include on a
separate page a formal Table of Contents for your thesis (i.e. what you expect
the final Table of Contents of your thesis will look like). Your outline should give a chapter-by-
chapter synopsis of what you expect to write about and should also indicate
clearly how the chapters are related to each other. Your thinking about the chapter structure
may change later on, but by this stage of your research you should have a
fairly clear idea of how the different parts of the thesis will fit together.
WINTER BREAK
You should use
this month of free time to complete most of the primary source research and
prepare the first draft of your paper.