J387 Communications History Fall 2006
Assignments and Grading Policies
Under Construction: Last updated
10-26-06
Please notify the instructor of any errors in this
page
Academic Honesty
Students are expected to do their own work, to give
full credit for the use of other people's work, and to conform to the
university's standards of academic honesty. If you have any questions
about these standards, their enforcement, and possible penalties,
please consult the
University
Policy on Academic
Honesty.
Grades
Individual grades will be available on the
J387 Blackboard
site.
History's Truths Paper: 20 points (10% of Total Grade)
Research Proposal: 30 points (15%)
Research Paper : 60 points (30%)
Examinations: 90 points (45%)
TOTAL: 200 points (100%)
Estimated Grade Distribution
(The instructor reserves the right to adjust grades
to best reflect student accomplishments)
A -- 180-200 points
B -- 160-179 points
C -- 140-159 points
D -- 120-139 points
Grade Appeals
Appeals of grades on all assignments will be heard only within
a two-week period following return of an assignment. Students must
submit the graded assignment and grade sheet, along with a written
memorandum specifying which portion of it should be re-examined, and
why.
Three Examinations
October 13, November 10, and December 1
Important: Note the dates and times carefully.
No advance examinations will be available. Makeup examinations will
be given only in documented emergencies.
Materials Covered in Examinations
The examinations will focus on the material covered in
course presentations, readings, and discussions prior to the date of
the examination.
Written Assignments
History's Truths
Paper
History’s Truths
Due Date: Friday, October 6, at noon
Simplified version of the paper assignment, summarized in 10-1-06
overhead:
Due: Friday, start of class
750-1,000 words, plus attachments
-- Explain and discuss interview with person 60 years or older to
determine a national or international event he or she found
important, and why.
-- Explain and discuss contemporary news coverage of this event.
-- Analyze and compare memories and news coverage as history's
truths.
-- Attachments: Grading sheet (handed out 10-1-06), interview
summary, notes or transcript. Citations.
Detailed instructions (long version):
For this 20-point assignment, you will research and write a short
paper that compares and contrasts one person’s memories of an
historic event to contemporary newspaper and magazine coverage of
that event.
Central questions: Does contemporaneous news coverage of an event
capture its full impact and meaning for ordinary people in their
everyday lives? Is it “the” truth? Or is there more than one
historical truth, depending on perspective and evidence?
To try to explore these questions, you will ask your interviewee
to recall a single national or international event important to him
or her that occurred before you were born. Remember, as historians
we're interested in an event your source recalls as important, not
your present idea of what might have been important. You weren't
alive when the event happened.
You’ll ask for details such as these: How did he first find out
about this event? What did she think about it at that time? Did he
believe what he heard and read? How did the event affect families,
homes and jobs? Can your interviewee recall exact headlines and other
facts from the press coverage?
The second part of your assignment is to find the newspaper and
magazine coverage of the event so you can compare what your
interviewee remembers with the news coverage at the time.
Research instructions:
1. Select a friend, relative or acquaintance who is at least 60
years old to interview. Plan to conduct your interview in person, if
you can, but you may do a telephone or an e-mail interview.
2. Use the
interview
guide to plan and conduct your interview.
3. Use the
interview
summary sheet to record your interview. You will turn this in
with your paper.
4. Using the date of the event, select two or more journalistic
sources to research the news coverage at the time (within a few days
for newspapers, within a few weeks for magazines). One source should
be a mainstream newspaper, such as the New York Times. If you can
also find a newspaper published in the region where your interviewee
lived at the time of the event, that would be good. also. The second
source should be a weekly news magazine such as TIME, Newsweek, U.S.
News, Life, Look, etc.
5. Now evaluate your journalistic sources: How was the event
reported in the sources that you've found? How do the sources differ
from each other and from your interviewee’s recollection? What was
the primary message in these sources? Who was quoted? Who wasn’t? Be
specific and give examples.
6. Now compare what your interviewee told you about the event and
the information you found in the mainstream press and draw some
conclusions about what you have found.
Some research hints:
If you want to examine newspapers such as the Washington Post,
The Oregonian, the Los Angeles Times, or The New York Times, be aware
that using the microforms collection in the Knight Library requires
learning how to operate the microfilm reading machines. Be
considerate of the library staff and don't wait until the last minute
to learn how to navigate the microfilm archives. Not all
publications, especially newspapers, are indexed on the Knight
Library web page. Newspapers in microform are on the shelves in the
microforms section, shelved alphabetically by city. Magazines,
however, are available in hard copy in the AP2 section.
How to conduct your interview
1. Get ready. Plan on at least two hours for this interview: 30
minutes to get ready, an hour for the interview, and 30 minutes to
review your notes and fill in any gaps after you’re done. Use a tape
recorder or some other device to record the interview if you can.
(E-mail interviews will have a transcript, of course.)
2. Define your purpose. It is important for you to understand the
purpose of the interview before you contact your interviewee. It’s a
good idea to actually write this down so that you can read it when
you contact your interviewee. Smile when you read it!
Example: “My history class is doing a research project to try to
find out what ‘real’ people remember about historical events. I don’t
have a whole lot of prepared questions for you to answer—I just
basically want to listen to the answer to this one: Is there one
historical event that really made an impression on you when it
happened? One that might have changed your life? I’d love to hear all
you can remember!”
3. Be ready to listen. This means you should plan on being very
patient. You are asking your interviewee to tell you a story, and
that story may meander a bit. Don’t talk unless you have to! But ….
4. Keep the interview on track and focused.
Although your main purpose is to listen (not just hear or record
the interview, but to LISTEN) to the story, you may have to help the
conversation along a little bit.
For example, your interviewee may suggest a couple of events
before hitting on one that will work for your assignment. As you
recall, the event needs to have occurred before you were born (unless
you are 30 or older yourself, then at least 30 years ago) and it
needs to be of enough significance that it was covered in the
newspapers and magazines at the time.
There are some “events” that will be too big: World War II, the
Korean War, the Vietnam War, or anything else that lasted more than a
month or so. If your interviewee selects the Vietnam War, for
example, ask a few more questions to help narrow it to a specific
event or a specific time period (the Tet offensive, or the My Lai
Massacre, or the killings at Kent State). The event may be something
very happy, too, such as a royal wedding or the landing on the moon!
After you’ve settled on an event, some of these “helper”
questions might come in handy:
“Can you tell me more about that?”
“How did this all affect your own family?”
“How did your neighbors and friends react to the news?”
“It’s amazing that you remember this so well.”
“That must have been scary/exciting/thrilling?”
“Is this something you talk about very often?”
5. Make sure you include “communication” in your history
interview. That is, ask what your interviewee remembers about radio,
newspaper and television coverage of the event. Find out all you can
about how your interviewee heard the news of the event and what kinds
of news stories were broadcast or published. Try to pin down the
exact dates. You might find they don’t remember the news coverage at
all—or that they remember very clearly exactly where they were and
even what they were doing. Ask about the news coverage in the weeks
and months after the event, too.
6. Keep your comments short!
“I didn’t know that before!”
“That’s really interesting.”
“What did you make of that?”
“Really!”
“Wow.”
7. The key to successful interviewing is genuine interest. We’re
not trying to test people on what they know; we’re trying to find out
about different kinds of historical memories and how we should value
as well as evaluate them. There are no “right” answers, and your
research will be the most fun if you allow it to take you places you
never thought you would go!
Three sections would be good, especially because they correspond
nicely to the grading criteria:
1. The interview
2. The documents (newspaper and magazine coverage)
3. Analysis (the comparisons between the interviewee’s memories
and the actual coverage)
Subheads would be very useful, not only because it will help the
reader but also because it will help you organize your thoughts.
The best way to start your paper is with a description of your
interview. Make it interesting! Be conversational but not slangy. Use
first person; it’s okay for you to be in the “story” as long as the
story is about someone else. Make sure to include all the relevant
dates, names and ages.
Next, describe your documents—the other “historical evidence”
about the event.
Finally, compare and contrast what you found talking to your
interviewee and what you found in the documents. You may not have a
perfect match; that’s okay. Your interviewee may have remembered
everything perfectly, and that’s okay, too! Do your best to analyze
your own research experience and to suggest how it might apply to
historical research in general.
Here are some examples.
The interview
[Example 1.]
When my grandfather was 38, the United States sent men to the
moon. He remembers every detail of the landing itself, which he
watched on television along with millions of others around the world
on July 21, 1969. Because of what he saw, he sold his business and
became a television news reporter.
My grandfather’s name is John Edward Beauchamp, and he is 73
years old. He is my mother’s dad and in 1969, their family lived in
Indiana. He had a photography studio there, so naturally he was very
interested in the pictures from the moon landing ….
When the newspapers came out the next day, Grandpa said, the
photographs were a big disappointment. When I interviewed him by
e-mail on Jan. 13, he told me that he ….
[Example 2.]
On December 3, 1967, Dr. Christiaan Barnard did the world’s first
successful heart transplant surgery in South Africa. The surgery was
very big news in the United States, especially to Lenore Stephenson,
my mother’s closest friend.
In our family, we called her Aunt Nora. She is now 63 years old
and she had a successful heart transplant herself 15 years ago. She
was born with a heart defect, and she says she knew even back then
that her heart would not last forever. When I interviewed her on Jan.
16 by telephone, Aunt Nora told me that she went out to dinner near
her house in Fresno, California, to celebrate the big news after she
heard about it on television. Even when Dr. Barnard’s patient died 18
days after the surgery, Aunt Nora was still excited. She remembers ….
The documents
[Example 1.]
The moon landing was the biggest news in the world on July 21,
1969. For my first document, I looked at The New York Times for July
22, 1969. The front page of the New York Times had three stories on
the front page but only one small photograph. The stories emphasized
the scientific achievement of the moon landing and ….
My grandfather doesn’t remember seeing The New York Times on that
day; he thinks he probably saw the pictures in the Indianapolis Star,
which isn't in the Knight Library. However, the pictures were exactly
the same in all the newspapers because they were taken from NASA, so
I will use The New York Times for my analysis ….
For my second document, I looked at TIME Magazine. The pictures
in TIME were ….
[Example 2.]
For my first document, I looked at the newspaper coverage in the
Los Angeles Times, because that newspaper was very popular in
California. The story of the heart transplant was on Page 1 at the
bottom. There was only one story on the surgery and it didn’t talk
about how other people might be excited to get their own heart
transplants in the future….
For magazine coverage, I looked at LIFE magazine for the week of
December 15, 1967. A picture of Dr. Barnard and the patient was on
the front cover and there was a long story inside that described ….
Analysis
[Example 1.]
It was very interesting to compare my grandfather’s memories of
the photos of the moon landing to the actual photos that appeared in
the newspapers and magazines. By today’s standards, the photos were
….
This project has given me a better understanding of how “big”
events can affect everyday people. The media didn’t cover my
grandfather’s decision to change jobs, but it was a huge event in his
life ….
[Example 2.]
When I looked at the news coverage of the first heart transplant
surgery, I was surprised to find that it didn’t contain stories about
people like Aunt Nora. Most of the stories focused on the medical
technology and such….
From talking to Aunt Nora, I have learned that historians also
need to listen to the stories of people whose lives were changed …..
Format and due date
Papers must be printed using a readable 12-point font with 1.5
line spacing. Print on both sides if possible. Include the interview
summary sheet (and e-mail interview transcript, if appropriate) and a
Works Cited page. Use MLA Style for in-text citations and the Works
Cited page.
Staple your pages together BEFORE you come to class. Papers held
together by clips, artistically folded corners, or by wishful
thinking will not be accepted. Please do NOT put your student ID
number on your paper.
Your paper should be about 750 to 1,000 words. It is worth 20
points.
Put your name on your paper in the upper right corner, thusly:
Stephanie Student
J387 History’s Truths
October 6, 2006
Check the
grade
sheet before you start writing. Remember, the grade sheet must be
attached to the front of your paper.)
Research Paper Proposal
A reearch proposal is due at the start of class on
Monday, October 23 to help you prepare for a longer, eight-to-10-page
paper that analyzes some aspect of communications history in the past
(before 1996.)
The proposal will be graded and returned to you
with suggestions for revision. Instructor approval is needed for all
topics. Students may revise and re-submit their research proposal one
time to seek a better grade. Revisions must turned in to the
instructor by Friday, Monday, November 6. The original graded
proposal and grade sheet must be attached.
Due dates to remember (updated)
Research Proposal: Monday, October 23
Revised Proposal (Optional): Monday, November 6
Research Paper: Wednesday, November 22
Proposal requirements
1. A proposed research question, focused on some aspect of
communications in a specific time period in U.S. history prior to
1996. This should be in the form of a question.
2. A list and brief analysis of at least two historical
studies (secondary sources) that you will consult to provide
background, context and interpretation. (See below for more
information on defining secondary and primary sources.)
3. A list and brief analysis of at least eight to 10
primary sources from the selected time period that you will
examine as evidence, and an explanation of how they will help answer
your research question.
4. Veritication that this evidence is available to you.
List call numbers of library materials. Gather this verification
early. You don't want to propose a topic and then find out at the
last moment the sources aren't going to be available. For possible
sources, see the:
5. A "Works Cited" page listing all the sources you are
consulting. Use MLA style.
Understanding Primary and Secondary Sources
"A primary source is a document, image, or artifact that provides
evidence about the past. It is an original document created
contemporaneously with the event under discussion. A direct quote
from such a document is classified as a primary source. A secondary
source is a book, article, film, or museum that displays primary
sources selectively in order to interpret the past."
--Robert C. Williams, The Historian's Toolbox: A
Student's Guide to the Theory and Craft of History, p.58
Primary Sources
For your research paper, you must locate, examine, and analyze a
minimum of eight to 10 original or microform reproductions of
evidence from the past to try to answer your research question. These
sources can include newspapers, magazines, journals, fliers,
letters, or other materials from the time period in the past you
are studying. See the
Knight
Library guide to primary sources for guidance.
You must make documented references to each of these sources in
your paper, in the text and in a Works Cited listing.
Secondary Sources
These are studies of interpretation and analysis that were
written in some time period after the one in which the primary
sources were created. They may use selected primary sources as
examples, but their main value is to provide context and theories
about events in the past.
Historical studies of the past are indexed in regular library
databases for books and journals, as well in the online index,
America: History and Life, which is available on campus from
the Knight Library web page.
Format and other instructions
Research proposals must be printed using 12-point Times type with
double line spacing. Print on both sides of the paper if possible.
Staple your pages together BEFORE you come to class. Papers
held together by clips, artistically folded corners, or by wishful
thinking will not be accepted.
Please do NOT put your student ID number on your paper.
Your proposal should be between about 500 and 750 words. It is
worth 30 points.
Put your name on your paper in the upper right corner, thusly:
Stephanie Student
J387 Research Proposal
October 23, 2006
Check the grading criteria and late penalties on the grading form
before you start writing. Staple the
grading
form to the front of your proposal. It must be attached for full
credit.
You may revise and resubmit your research proposal one time, not
only to seek a better grade but also to increase the likelihood that
your research paper will receive a better grade. A maximum of 5
points will be awarded to substantially improved revisions.
Research Paper
All J387 students must research and write an 8-10 page paper
that analyzes some aspect of communications history in the past
(prior to 1996.) You must gather and document evidence from both
secondary and primary sources, as described above.
Topics must be approved in advance by the instructor, based on
student proposals. The graded proposal and the grade sheet must be
attached to the final paper. This assignment will be discussed at
length in class, and additional information will be provided
below.
Guidelines on Writing the Research Paper
Requirements:
1. Papers must meet journalistic standards for excellence in
composition, spelling and grammar.
2. Use MLA style for in-text citations and for your “Works Cited”
page.
3. The graded research proposal, including the graded revision if
one was submitted, must be attached when you turn in your paper on
November 22. The paper will not be graded until they are received.
4. Research papers must have the following readily identifiable
parts: an Introduction that presents the research question and
relevant background information; a Findings section that contains
description, discussion and analysis of the primary evidence; a
Conclusion that responds to your research question; and a Works Cited
page.
I. Introduction (this section should include the following
elements:)
A. The research question, clearly stated and explained: Why is
this topic, focused on a time period prior to 1996, significant in
the present? What enduring communication issue does it address?
B. Background of topic and time period, drawn from your secondary
sources: Do historians agree or disagree on the facts and/or
interpretations of this event or development?
C. Research method: Describe your choices of primary evidence
from the time period, explaining why you chose this evidence and how
you analyzed it.
II. Findings (this section should address the following:)
A. What exactly did you find in the primary sources? (eight
sources minimum)
B. How do specific examples and brief quotations, which need to
be fully documented, provide evidence for your findings?
C. How are these findings relevant to your research question?
III. Summary and conclusion (this section should clearly state
your conclusion, based on the original materials that you examined:)
A. How did your primary evidence suggest an answer to your
research question?
B. How does your conclusion compare with your secondary sources?
What do you think about that?
C. How does your conclusion inform current communication issues?
IV. Works Cited (Use MLA Style)
Format and due date:
Research papers must be printed using 12-point Times with double
line spacing. Print on both sides if possible. Staple your pages
together BEFORE you come to class. Please do NOT put your student ID
number on your paper.
Your paper should be between eight and 10 pages. It is worth 60
points.
Put your name on your paper in the upper right corner, thusly:
Stewart Student
J387 Research Paper
November 22, 2006
Check the grading criteria and late penalties on the grading
form, which will be distributed after the proposals are returned.
Staple this
grading
form to your paper along with the original and revised proposals
and gradesheets. All must be attached for full credit.