HS490 INDIVIDUAL HISTORICAL RESEARCH 1-4 CREDITS
DR. DANIEL T. DORRITY

PURPOSE AND PREREQUISITES OF THIS COURSE

Independent study under the supervision of the Instructor. This course may be taken for 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits and may be repeated up to a total of 6 credits. It does not apply toward the 300- or 400-level requirements for the History major. Prerequisite: Permission of the supervising faculty.

Students wishing to take this course should remember that it is designed as a directed study.  No classroom sessions will be involved.

PROCEDURES

The student should come in as soon as possible after the start of the semester to discuss with the Instructor his plans or wishes for the course, that is, any particular areas of history he may be interested in. The student will select an area to study with the approval of the Instructor.

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT

The actual research project will require the reading and reporting on two books for each credit.  Hence 1 credit will require the reading of two books, 2 credits will necessitate the reading of 4 books, and so on.

The student will then go to the library and select at least three books for each credit being pursued. Where possible he will also find a brief annotation or description of each book such as is found in Books in Print or Book Review Index. He will then bring the books and descriptions to the Instructor and we will select two books for each credit.

READING AND WRITING ASSIGNMENT

The student will then read the books selected and will write a brief synopsis and critique of each chapter. Each chapter report should be a paragraph or so, not much more.

DEADLINE

See Deadlines on the Home Page of this Website.

CONTENT OF CHAPTER SYNOPSES AND CRITIQUES

In his reports the student should address the following questions:

1. What was the chapter about? That is, what is the specific subject matter of each chapter as distinct from the subject matter of the book as a whole?
2. What is the thesis of each chapter as distinct from the overall thesis of the book? Or in other words what was the argument or the author's point of view? In some ways the thesis is nothing more than the stand that the author takes.
3. Apply questions one and two above to the book as a whole. In other words describe the general subject matter of the book as a whole, as well as the thesis, explaining how well the author defended his point of view, and how enjoyable the book was.