Welcome back to the History Department!
There will be a required meeting of all History majors, including I.R. (History) majors, C.A.S. (History) majors, and double majors on Thursday, September 2, 2010, at 11:00 am in Scovel 105. We will introduce the faculty, distribute the I.S. Handbook, collect your I.S. Questionnaires, and share some essential information about Junior and Senior I.S. (See the I.S. Questionnaire here).
After we collect the I.S. Questionnaires, you will have the opportunity to elect three of your fellow students to serve as official representatives to the History Department. These individuals will participate in Department meetings and represent your views. They will also help plan social activities for the Department.
Immediately after the meeting we will move to the Kauke Arch for a class photograph.
We will post the name of your I.S. advisor by the end of the first week of classes on the bulletin board in the History hallway. Seniors and students enrolled in Junior I.S. in the fall should signup to meet their advisor before the end of the second week of classes. Those enrolled in Junior I.S. in the spring will have a chance to meet with their advisor in the fall during course advising.
Juniors I.S. students should purchase two books, which are available in the campus bookstore: Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History and Wayne C. Booth, The Craft of Research. Any recent edition will do. Rampolla’s Pocket Guide offers useful information about finding and analyzing sources, taking notes, formatting footnotes and bibliographies. It also provides a very clear definition of plagiarism and helpful tips for avoiding it. Booth’s Craft of Research provides a clear explanation of the process by which a scholar transforms an interest into a topic, a topic into a question, and a question into an argument. It also offers helpful advice on how to formulate a strong argument, how to support it with appropriate evidence, and how to write an effective introduction and conclusion. If you don’t have a copy of these books already, please buy them and start to read them.
My colleagues and I look forward to seeing you again, meeting you (if we haven’t met already), and hearing your ideas for I.S. Please feel free to stop by my office or contact me with any questions.
Greg Shaya
Chair, Department of History