Check the files for instructions on what to do. For this assignment, you have to make notes for the reading on Gould.
HISC 117
Summer 2024
Reading Guide
Instructions: While reading, please take notes by addressing the following questions for
primary and secondary sources, respectively. Primary sources are sources produced
during the period of interest. Secondary sources are those produced a later date about the
period of interest. They make use of primary sources and other secondary sources.
These questions will allow you to practice reading comprehension, a skill that takes time
and energy to develop. The questions are designed to help you reflect on what you do, and
do not, understand. While I expect you to try your best, I do not expect you to immediately
understand the major points of every reading. (Even identifying what is and what is not a
major point takes practice.) To the contrary, a partial understanding of something is often a
good starting point for a rich, fruitful discussion, which along with the lecture, should help
advance your understanding. In other words, your notes do not have to accurately answer
each question. As notes, they are merely a way to prepare for our discussion periods in
class and begin to prepare for the two essays. To receive full credit, they should show
some genuine attempt to address most of the questions. Responses do not need to take
the form of complete sentences, but they should be clear. Please make sure to avoid
anachronism, the act of imposing knowledge of the present onto that of the past.
Primary sources:
– Who is the author? What is their profession? When was the source written? What
kind of primary source is it?
– What are the key assumptions the author is making?
– What is the overall purpose, or point, of the source?
– Which details do you not understand? What is confusing about them? Which details
did you find surprising and why?
Secondary sources:
– Who is (are) the author(s)? What is their profession? When was the source written?
What kind of secondary source is it (journal article, book chapter, etc.)?
– Which topic is the source about?
– If there are multiple sections, what is the main claim of each section?
– What is the overall argument of its author(s)?
– Which details do you not understand? What is confusing about them? Which details
did you find surprising and why?
– Optional: Do you have any critiques of the author’s argument?
