Course

Be forewarned: this is a challenging academic undertaking. The senior seminar is designed as the capstone course for the history major. As such, it is an opportunity for class members to concentrate on the steps involved in the process of writing an original, extended research paper in which they synthesize the skills that they have honed during their undergraduate majors. This particular offering of the seminar will focus on the history of childhood, its twin goals are, first, to read several texts that will form the basis for further research and, second, to write an extended, formal essay on a topic relevant to the course topic. Along the way, the class will complete several smaller assignments that will build toward the seminar essay.

This course demands a great deal of its participants, but those who commit themselves will have a sense of accomplishment at its end. The reading assignments should be completed before the date they are due so that you will have time to digest the material thoroughly. The assignments are due on date indicated on the schedule above. Because the discussions depend on all participants’ having completed the reading or done the assignments, participants are encouraged to make virtues of punctuality and readiness to facilitate lively exchange.

Since this course is an upper division, it assumes that you have attained a certain level of skill and competency; namely, you can read intelligently and write coherently. It also assumes that you can take responsibility in some measure for the course. The course will primarily depend on your contributions and arguments, although the instructor will deliver mini-lectures from time to time to assist us all in our attempts to grapple with a books and research problems.

This course fulfills all/in part the Writing-Intensive requirement in the history major. It does so through the successive stages, namely the topic statement, a bibliography, and an extended outline; these are due on October 6, October 20, and October 27 respectively; the Writing Intensive regimen culminates in a 3500-word research paper. The research paper will be completed through a draft/feedback/revision process. The first draft will be due November 10. I will provide commentary on the draft that will be returned to you on November 17; the revised draft will be due on December 8.

Books

The following book is required for the course. The text is available in the Campus Bookstore.

TypePad

You are required to obtain a Plus-level subscription to Typepad, a blog. TypePad is available at: http://www.typepad.com. All of your writing assignments and projects will be posted to your Typepad blog. The cost is $8.95 per month or roughly $27.00 for the semester (the cost of a modest textbook). The best thing to do is sign up for a free trial; this will furnish you with a month's free service. At the end of the semester, you can cancel your subscription. Or, you may discover that you like blogging so much that you retain your subscription. Alternatively, you can obtain the Movable Type software. It is free, but the installation of the software is challenging and you will need to contact your ISP to ensure that the necessary software is in place. Movable Type will install the application for you for a $40.00 fee, but you will need to arrange to have CGI and MySQL in place. Be aware that most free web page areas do not support CGI or MySQL or charge extra. I do not recommend this option unless you have some solid computer skills and access to a sophisticated ISP, but there may some in the class who can avail themselves of this option.