Week 6: Citing and Actively Reading Historical Sources

Howdy!

Now that we all have had our library orientation and a topic to study, it is time to start reading your sources.   Part of being a historian is reading, but not the leisurely reading of J.K Rowling’s magisterial Harry Potter series, or, in my case, Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy that we remember from childhood.   To do your best work in this class, you will need to become an active reader.  That means you will be quite busy during your reading sessions as you carefully and critically analyze your sources.   (Sadly, despite all of this activity, it hardly burns any calories even though you are working really hard!)     It means taking notes and asking questions of the text in the margin or on your computer.  It takes time and loads of patience but it can can be fun evaluating and analyzing a source.   So let’s start doing the work for this week.

First, let’s read the ‘Reading History Critically’ article because it offers some advice about how to read and interact with your sources.   Second, this week, in the spirit of Mr. Cub Ernie Banks, let’s play two… two secondary sources that is!  We’ll read two secondary sources and I want you to blog how your sources are supporting your research.

Third, finish your blog with citations of both of your two secondary sources.  Your library has citation handouts and hundreds of websites can help you learn how to cite your sources.  Your instructor is also ready to help you.  You are going to have to cite your sources for your project anyways, so let’s get going and know that practice makes perfect!

This is a big week!  A historic week!  A momentum-starting week!  Got your highlighters or computer ready?  Have you limited your distractions?  Let’s start actively reading and blogging.