Jessica Kilday

So we’re in our second to last week of classes and we are very close to being fully done with our research projects. I think the presentations so far have been very interesting and I look forward to hearing the rest. My presentation isn’t until next Wednesday so I should have plenty of time to prepare, but also more time to worry about it. It seems like power point is the popular visual aid but I think I’ll be going with a handout to help clarify some background information. I’m also trying to make another appointment with the speaking center to get in some more practice before the final presentation.
Also, our final papers are due on Friday so good luck to everyone with putting the final touches on those! See you all on Friday.

Jessica

So, I think the class discussions thus far have been going fairly well. There much fewer silences between questions today, or maybe I just thought that because my group wasn’t leading the discussion, so it wasn’t on us. I think summarizing and asking questions about the reading is the best way to go, although there haven’t really been any alternatives to compare it to.

Moving on to talk about the research paper, I’ve written the draft to my draft so I have something basic to work with at the moment, but I still have to go through more of my notes and see where I can add to my arguments. The thesis of my paper is basically that there were a lot of factors that caused the reformation, and that the desire for divorce was not the prime factor. Also, if anyone happens to be reading this that wasn’t in class today, our research paper is now due on the 16th instead of the 14th.

Okay, well good luck to the final discussion group on Friday, and good luck on everyones research paper!

Jessica

Chronology of my life:

®    February 6, 1988- I was born in Woodbridge, Virginia

®    First summer and Christmas in Massachusetts, followed by every summer and Christmas after that (where my family is originally from and where most are still living today)

®    August 1, 1989- My brother, Bobby, was born.

®    December 22, 1991- My brother, Matthew, was born.

®    I attended Dale City elementary school for grades K-3.

®    In second grade, I made my first communion.

®    The summer between third and fourth grade, my family moved from Dale City to Manassas where I attended Thurgood Marshall Elementary for grades 4 and 5.

®    I attended Parkside Middle School in sixth grade.

®    A new middle school opened closer to my house, I attended Benton Middle for grades seven and eight.

®    2001- I made my confirmation.

®    November 2001, I broke my wrist and had to wear a cast through Christmas.

®    I attended Osbourn Park High School for grades 9-12.

®    August 2003 (summer before tenth grade) – Got my permit

®    May 2004 (end of tenth grade)- Got my drivers license

®    June 2005 (summer between eleventh and twelfth grade) – Traveled to Europe (Italy and Greece) with students and teachers from my AP European history class. This is where I got very close with my group of friends through senior year and to the present.  

®    April 2006- I decided to attend the University of Mary Washington

®    June 2006- Graduation from Osbourn Park High School

®    June 2006- Stayed at a Lake house in Lake Gaston for a week with some of my friends after Graduation.

®    July 21, 2006- Went to preview at Mary wash and met my roommate for the first time.

®    August 23, 2006- Moved in to the dorm and started college.

®    May 2007- Hired to work at the freedom center over the summer. For the first half of the summer I worked in kid care and for the second half I worked in a preschool camp.

®    July 2007- Went on a short vacation with roomie to Bethany Beach Delaware.

®    August 2007- Moved in early to start Orientation Leader training and help the new freshmen arrive to campus.

®    …which brings us the present- taking history 299 (among other courses), doing my work, and waiting for Thanksgiving/Christmas break

I chose to include these events because they seemed like the most basic and important milestones in my life. I did not want to make it too long and include all the details about everything I did in high school (which is what I would be able to talk about in more detail since it is the more recent past) because then it would feel like I am writing a resume. The events in the beginning of my life are less detailed and most basic because I do not remember everything, or exactly when it happened.

I feel that chronologies are important to historical narratives because they provide a framework in which to place important events or periods in ones life. The chronology itself may tell us a lot about a person or provide insight as to why something is being written. If a chronology were being written in regards to how one chose a career, then the events that one would chose to include would be different than if it were being written to show the different places one has traveled throughout his life. If it is a private chronology, there may be more personal events or emotions included. In addition, one may be able to use a chronology to figure out why someone acted or felt the way they did at a certain time. It can be used to compare the events of one particular life in relation to the events of what is going on at that time period in general (for example it may be a time during a war or particular rights movement). Chronologies can provide a lot of insight when looking at personal narratives.

So, now that we are all fully aware that we are supposed to be posting once a week (although I don’t know if that includes the postings that are chosen on the syllabus or not), this is what I’ve got for the week.

I typed up an outline for the four minute presentation and have so far practiced it a couple of times, however it’s about six minutes long, so I have to fix that, because I don’t want to fail. I also made an appointment with the writing center and the speaking center to get both of those out of the way. For the speech though, I have explanations in the intro and conclusion, but they sandwich what I feel like is mostly a listing of secondary source after secondary source, so that I can talk about enough of them (is there a min. or max. of sources we need to discuss?), but I don’t know if that’s right.

Well anyways, I’ll work on that this week and my presentation isn’t until Friday. Good luck to everyone going tomorrow! Hopefully you all get A’s.

Jessica

The second story that I had written was in fact true. This past summer when we went on vacation my mom sliced her foot open on a rock, or shell, or a piece of glass, or something when she hit the bottom of the lake. The first story is false. I did move ten years ago but it was not from Connecticut, it was only about 15 or 20 minutes down the road. My family is however from Massachusetts, so we make the drive up the east coast on 95 very frequently and you can indeed get to Connecticut traveling on 95 in somewhere between six and seven hours because it only takes us nine to get all the way up to Massachusetts. So, thats how I based my time estimate.

But, good job everyone who guessed correctly!

My mom woke me up early in the morning on the day we moved here from Connecticut ten years ago. It was not as difficult of a move because I was still young, but I remember the seven-hour car ride with my little brothers (six and eight at the time). If we were not entertained with our music and car games then our mother would have to listen to the constant bickering and the cries of “mom, tell him to get his stuff away from me,” and “are we there yet,” for seven hours, as we were all closely confined to the seating of the station wagon. When we arrived, it was not all bad because we had moved close to one of my mom’s old college friends who also had children close to our age; we became friends fast since we really did not know anyone else. We had many people helping us move in to our new house, both my mom’s college friend and friends of hers, but it still felt like a long and exhaustive day. By the time we moved, summer was ending. It was almost time to start fourth grade in my new school where I made many new friends, some of which I am still friends with today.

The most recent family vacation took us to a house on a lake in North Carolina. We rented a house for ten so that another family, friends of ours, could join us there a few days later. The car ride was a short three hours; and when we got there, we were excited to look around the house. Unpacking and settling in took about an hour and it was getting close to dinnertime. My little brother (at the time 17) started campaigning for a swim in the lake before dinner. I was hesitant, but sure enough, we all soon headed down to the dock. We all jumped in (my brothers, my dad, and I) and my mom was last. After she finally decided to hold her nose and take the plunge, she came up screaming, “ah my foot!” We all thought she was just overreacting, until she climbed up the ladder with blood pouring out of her foot. My dad immediately reacted, “Call 911!” so we did. The ambulance arrived and bandaged up my moms foot and then my dad drove her to the hospital for stitches. They arrived back at the lake house early that morning (around 2 a.m.) very exhausted and my mom with eight stitches. Thus concluded our first day of family vacation and we all headed to bed.

Chapter Seven: America Since 1945
William H. Chafe

The thesis of this work is to explore the relationship among social, political, and cultural history from 1945 through the 1980’s. In order to do so, the author divides the period into three categories. The first is the period immediately following World War II until the early 1950’s. The second being the civil rights era and its aftermath. Finally, the 1970’s and 1980’s focusing on the rise of conservatism. Chafe refers to the works of many other historians in order to develop his arguments. For example, he uses Writter to discuss the effects of the Cold War on foreign policy and William Leuchtenburg shows how the availability and ability to buy more “material comforts” increased after World War II. Additionally, Chafe uses The Emerging Republican Majority by Kevin Phillips in order to discuss the rise of Conservatism in particular areas of the United States. This allowed Chafe to show how this affected social and economic attitudes during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Overall, Chafe uses a variety of secondary sources to explore how the growing industries as well as political conflicts and shifts in power (such as presidencies and congress) contributed to the changing society since 1945.

The secondary source which i would like to look at is a journal article: “English Reformation: Product of King or Minister?”

Ban, Joseph D. “English Reformation: Product of King or Minister?” Church History 41, no. 2 (June 1972): 186-197.               http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-64… (accessed September 12, 2007).

1. Provide some information about the author. I don’t know much about this author, but in searching for other works by Joseph D. Ban, the majority of items that come up are all religious in background. So, this is obviously an area he specializes in writing about.

2. Why did the author write this book? What’s the author’s perspective? The author wrote the article in order to explore how the king and his ministers affected the course of the reformation. The author examines both Cromwell and King Henry VIII by analyzing what other authors have claimed about the various roles of these two different people. The author’s perspective is somewhat less bias because he both asserts and rejects various arguments and explores both sides.

3. What is the author’s methodology? What sources does the author use? What is the book’s thesis? The thesis of the article is such that the author wishes to affirm Henry VIII’s role in the Reformation while also exploring the influences of Cromwell. The author uses various literature by two different historians. He discusses Elton’s views of Cromwell and his role in the Reformation, and compares these to Scarisbrick’s arguments for Henry VIII.

4. When was the book written? The article was written in 1972

5. How will you use the source for your paper? To discuss the role of King Henry VIII and the influences which his ministers (ie Cromwell) had on the course of the Reformation.

6. What are some of the problems that you foresee in using this source for your paper? Problems with this source may arise because the author of the article is examining and comparing the views of two different historians. Therefore it is necessary to look for some of the works by the two historians which Ban discusses as well as to find any primary sources that can help support the statements which I can make in my research paper using a combination of these sources.

When taking notes from different sources, there are a couple different things that work best for me.

Whether I’m taking notes on index cards or on paper, I always start with the bibliographic information at the top. Under the bibliographic information, the next thing I write is a general idea or summary of what the source is about or the important point it is getting accross. After that, I include any helpful quotes and page numbers that I believe will be useful in my paper. Also, when taking notes, I like to use a hanging indent a lot. I start out writting about a particular idea or subtopic and all of the relevant information after that I indent. It seperates the different ideas without having a heading, which is useful for an early stage of notetaking when I may not know specifically what I’m looking for.
After I have finished taking notes, I tend to organize my sources by argument. I categorize them by what I’m getting out of each source and where in the paper I think it will be relevant instead of organizing them by author or dates of publication.
These are just a few of things that I tend to do when I am taking notes. If anyone has any more suggestions or something that may be more efficient then feel free to comment!
Jessica

I’m not sure how much everyone knows about the computer but here are a couple things that I find useful and maybe atleast one other person will too.

If I’m using a particular word or Phrase a lot that needs to be capitalized, sometimes i’m inconsistent and don’t always capitilize when I need to. For example, I use the word “Reformation” a lot in my paper, so when I need to revise my paper instead of reading through the paper to find the word “Reformation” I can hit “ctrl+F” and type in the word, then the computer will go through and find all instances where I used the word and I can check and make sure I capitalized it everytime. It just saves time if that’s a specific thing you are revising.

 Also, in my paper I find I use passive voice a lot and it may not be the most direct way of saying what I want to say. But if that’s something you worry about you can set your spelling and grammar check to underline when you use passive voice. If you go into the “Tools” drop down menu and then all the way at the bottom click on options. Then click on the spelling and grammar tab, and under grammar, click on settings. This gives you a lot of more specific options that you can set word to check for you. For this class it is probably especially useful to have word check for the use of passive voice and first person throughout the paper.

 These are just a few of the things I find helpful in word, maybe a lot of you knew all this already but maybe some didn’t. If I come up with anything else I will be sure to add it.

Jessica