HIUEU913 week2: Discussion Thread: Collaborative Reading Notes: Protestant Reformation

Discussion
Assignment Instructions

Overview

Discussion
assignments for the comprehensive examinations and readings course
will not be your typical discussion style. You will produce reading
notes, using the template below,
to
prepare for your comprehensive exams as an assignment and share them
with the class in the discussion. Sharing and discussion of the
reading notes will facilitate a collaborative effort in reading texts
and comparing notes, in preparation for the comprehensive exams. You
will comment and interact with your classmates in a discussion to
further explore the significance of the sources provided.

While
often a means of hubris among history graduate students, please keep
in mind that a hallmark of professional, terminally degreed
historians is “talking shop” about the works of other historians.
Of course, this is technically called “historiography.” Please
use the discussions to practice this technique of casually debating
and appreciating competing, historical interpretations. Engage the
points and counter-points of other historians laterally within a
given topic.

Part
of your comprehensive examination at the end of this course requires
you to formally and clearly synthesize major and minor
interpretations (and their research methodologies). Consider the
discussion replies as practicing – informally – that part of the
exam.

Instructions

For
your collaborative discussion, you will be replying to two of your
classmates posted reading notes. Your replies are to be at 500 words
minimum and engage the material. This is not a review of the author’s
ability to produce the work but an analysis of the sources, how they
compare to authors that you have read, and a critic of the evaluation
of the material. The purpose of this is to help you engage additional
resources that you may not have to be in contact with and help
prepare you for the comprehensive exam.

For
your collaborative reading notes:

• You
  will produce reading notes in a Microsoft Word document using the
  template provided below.

• The
  document should be submitted to the assignment submission link and
  the course discussion for other students to read.

• 6
  sources must include 2 relevant peer-reviewed articles, 2 academic
  books, and 2 critical primary sources used as evidence in your
  selected academic books.

• 
  1
  book or 1 article chosen must have been published in the last 2
  years.

Reading
Notes
template for the Two
Books, Two Articles, and Two Primary Sources. (Primary sources should
follow only numbers 1, 5, and 8 below)

1. Citation:
   (provide proper Turabian citation using the Online Writing Center
   citation guide)

2. Author’s
   Credentials:

3. Research
   Questions: (list the
   major research questions raised by the author. Typically, these are
   found in an introduction or even jacket cover. However, each
   chapter might raise an important question. Provide at least two
   major research questions raised by the author.)

   1. ?

   2. ?

4. Methodology:
   (briefly explain the main research methodology and tools the author
   uses. It is best to classify these according to both research
   categories (political, economic, religious, gender, intellectual,
   military, etc. etc.) and/or subfields (history of the sport,
   American South, banking, naval, etc. etc.)

5. Key
   Conclusions: (list,
   describe, and evaluate the main conclusions the author draws to
   answer the main research questions. No specific number is required,
   so please provide all that are most relevant.)

6. Evidence:
   (primary sources or collections upon which the key conclusions rest.
   The same source(s) may be used to answer multiple research
   questions. Consult the author’s footnotes and bibliographies as
   necessary.)

7. How
   does this book or article differ from established
   interpretations or
   how does the author bring new
   ways of understanding
   the topic? (Consult book reviews if necessary. Some authors will
   provide a historiographical section or overview. Articles may
   include a historiographical footnote.)

8. Primary
   sources: (only):
   explain the author, purpose, and significance of the source.