History 399

Clio by the Book and at the Movies

First Essay: Analysis, Synthesis, and Reflection
due Monday, November 5 by 12 noon
in my mail box, 310 Skinner

In this essay I’d like you identify a theme that runs across the first three units and then build an argument that incorporates pertinent aspects from each of the first three films and from the accompanying readings.  This is not a research paper but an essay that is to draw upon the films, and, as appropriate to your theme, upon the readings, postings, and presentations, and discussions for the first 3 units of the seminar.

I’d like you to think of this as work of analysis, synthesis, and reflection. 

Analysis refers to the process of breaking something large into constituent parts and examining the parts to better understand them and their likely inter-relationships. 

 

Synthesis puts the pieces back together, or “draws the threads together”: it is the process of identifying broad patters of similarity or difference among the particulars. 

Reflection is open to a number of meanings, though let’s agree that they have in common a consideration of broad, historical significance.  In particular, you could consider how your argument and evidence reveal something interesting about the nature of history, about the differences between written and filmed histories, or about the ways in which the historical study of film opens up new understandings. 

To underscore the collaborative aims of the seminar, I invite you to draw up the work of your peers where it seems appropriate.  Review the postings and your notes on the presentations.  If there are ideas there that you find useful or suggestive, incorporate them in your essay just as you would with a secondary source by acknowledging them in a footnote—author, nature of the idea or contribution (Presentation or Posting), date.  You’ll want to review your own postings and contributions also.  As you would do in any kind of essay, you draw on secondary and primary sources to construct an interpretation of your own—so summarizing alone is not the aim.

• Length: 5 to 6 pages

• Identification:  please put your Social Security number on the essay, not your name.

• Format: 1) the introduction should state or foreshadow the argument that you are going to develop in 2) the body of the paper; 3) the conclusion should not only remind the reader of main points and drive home the argument, it should incorporate your reflection on the broader historical significance of your discoveries.

• Acknowledgements: you may use conventional footnotes or parenthetical references (Author, page) that are key to a Works Cited page at the end.

Historians generally follow the referencing defined by the Chicago Manual of Style.

http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/footnote.html

Parenthetical references typically follow the MLA style sheet. See

http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/within.htm