Due Feb 2
Academic Journal Articles
Find three academic journal articles that touch on your topic. They can come from academic journals OR from collections of articles bound as books (i.e. from an “article anthology”). Some strategies for finding articles (try them all, so you get experience using each of these tools):
- Use the standard BU Library search system
- Try out one of the specialized databases available through the BU library portal (I particularly recommend "America: History and Life")
- Plunder the bibliography of a published book or article you found earlier
- Look on Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)
Note: to count for this assignment, the article must (1) date within the last 20 years, (2) be written from a historian’s perspective, (3) focus at least in part on the events and culture of the period we’re studying.
Pro Tip Looking ahead to the essay, what aspects of your topic are you interested in learning more about? Use keyterms (names, events, places) from your Written Report to narrow the focus of your searches to articles that touch on aspects of your topic that are of particular interest for you.
For Class Print out the first page of each article. At the top of each page summarize the article's mission as follows:
- One sentence naming the article's topic
- One sentence voicing the prior understanding that the author addresses (the article's They Say)
- One sentence voicing what the author has to say in response to that prior understanding. What new insight or findings does the author present (the article's I Say)
Fragments HW Find and post another fragment of the past. Explore the possibility of a video fragment, a newspaper article, or a magazine other than Life. Do give the year and any other info necessary for someone else to trace down and use your fragment.
In Class
- Evaluating Academic Journal Articles (which of yours are any good?)
- Primary Sources as Illustrations, not Evidence
- Qualities of a good presentation (Steve Jobs & the iPad)