Before taking this class, I had never considered myself one who enjoyed history class. My experiences had always been something along the lines of reading notes and history textbooks, memorizing dates, and then relaying that information on a test. However, this class completely changed the way I look at historical data. On the first day of class, my professor made clear that we would not be using a history textbook to aid our class discussions and assignments. Rather we would be assigned articles to read every class that were either primary sources, or research and reflections written by a variety of professionals. Our class discussions often revolved around how an author’s profession, time and location of writing, gender, and other factors could affect their thesis. We learned that you cannot always take one author’s “facts” by truth, as there are many variables that manipulate their message.

Throughout the semester, we were assigned to write response papers on which ever article was assigned for the class. These papers could only be one page long, and consisted of the author’s thesis (or our best interpretation of what that might be), a summary of the supporting claims and evidence given by the author, and our own response to the thesis and the article. These papers helped me develop a higher sense of critical thinking skills that aided in analyzing the advanced rhetorical styles of each article. Below is one of the response papers I wrote.