My name is Curtiss Cline, and I am an undergraduate teaching assistant in the Department of History at Illinois State University. The position of UTA is one held by a regular student like you. I am working towards my degree just like you, and I don’t have any more knowledge than any of the students in this class. I have perhaps a little more experience, but that is all. My position is to serve as a sort of mentor and aid for the other students in this class. To that end, I thought it might be helpful to prepare a short presentation that may help some students succeed in not only this class, but in the History Department over all, as well. This seminar is intended to help, primarily, the new student to the study of History at the college level. A lot of the information contained herein is common sense skills and strategies, so you may already know, and even be practicing some of the techniques recommended. Even if you are, you may find other techniques that you have not tried that may work better for you, or may be able to provide us with some you are using that we do not cover. By no means will this seminar cover every technique, strategy or tactic for studying History that there is. What is important is that you find one that works for your learning style, and use it. This presentation will give you advice and tips on how to achieve success in the departments courses with some common strategies. I would advise you not to reinvent the wheel, and especially not in an octagonal shape. What I mean by that is, find one that works for you from the many techniques that have already been proven to work, don’t try to come up with one on your own that later is a failure, and has cost you a good grade. Nothing of course can replace a commitment of time by you to study and attend class, which are the two most important attributes of the successful student in this department. Everything else presented here today will be merely supplement to those ideal strategies.

Reading History: We will talk about methods you can use to maximize your understanding and retention of what your textbooks and other readings provide you Note Taking: We will discuss methods you can utilize to take comprehensive notes in a manner that maximizes your study of them later Writing Papers: This will go over a simple strategy you can use to write historical papers successfully Taking Tests: During this section we will demonstrate some skills needed to take tests in this department and earn the best grade possible Dr. Tsouvala’s course specifically: The reason most of you are probably here today. We will go over Dr. Tsouvala’s course, and what her expectations are for a good grade in it.

In order to successfully read History books, one has to first understand what the study of history is. History is the study of the written record of people and civilizations. If there is nothing in writing to study about the period, then it is not history, it is pre history, or a dark age. It is no coincidence that History classes assign a lot of reading. It is the basic tool in studying history, and anyone taking a history course here should be prepared for A LOT of reading. 2 ½ hours a week is really not enough time for instructors to really give you all of the information that you need to know to understand a subject. It is barely enough time to hit a highlight, or focus on a particular sub topic. Therefore, the reading is really the meat of the class. Here are some tips to succeeding in your reading: Use your syllabus to schedule out assigned readings for the semester, and place this schedule in your planner. The benefit of this is it allows you to schedule out the reading at your pace. If you like to cram, then schedule out the 100 pages you need to read for that week in one day. If you like to spread it out, schedule yourself to read 20 to 30 pages a day. No matter how you schedule it though, be strict about adhering to that schedule. If you fall behind in your reading, then not only will you have to read a whole lot of material in a short time later, but you will miss a lot in the lecture where the instructor refers to or is supplementing the material from the reading only. Read with an eye for important points: In textbooks, these important points are usually denoted in bold as things like chapter titles, or subheadings. Other important points would be names, dates, places, and particularly the sequence of events, and the relationship between events. Organize the Reading: To organize the reading is really how you translate what the author is saying into meaning for you. You can do this in one of several ways, whatever works best for you. You can take notes from the book, and organize the notes into an outline form. The good thing about this technique is that most books follow some kind of outline, whether it be themed, such as talking about religion, then women, and then art; logical, such as in the Protestant Reformation came about as a result of a change in thought reflected in government documents both before and after the initial movement, or chronological, such as this happened in 1848, then this in 1849, then this in 1850, etc. You can use a highlighter and mark important points in the book. The drawback to this technique is that eventually you may end up with a lot of highlighting that has no meaning for you later. In addition to this technique, if you use it, you may want to make a quick note in the margin as to why it is important to you, otherwise it could late be just a mass of incoherent highlighted thoughts. You can also just stop every three of four paragraphs and reflect on the key information, thoughts, and themes that you just read over. * You can use any of these techniques alone, or in combination with each other; whatever helps you remember the information more clearly. Of course remembering the information is only half the battle. After you have read the material, no matter what technique you use to organize it, you should spend some time placing the reading into the context of what you are learning in the class, and ask yourself where the reading fits into what you are learning in lectures.

The most important thing I can emphasize about note taking in a History class is, don’t try to make an accurate record of exactly what was said in the class. You’ll kill your hand, and eventually go insane. Most lectures are pre planned by the professor, and written out, so they generally follow a theme, a logical delineation, or a chronological order, much like a book. Remember the purpose of taking notes is only to help remind yourself of major points made in class. The only people who need a transcript are the ones who were not there. Here are a few suggested steps for taking notes that you can use later. Write down, or note the theme, or themes of the day. Be sure to separate days in your notes. The easiest way to do this is to start a new page with each days notes, and be sure to date the page! Use an outline method for taking the notes Start with the days main theme or point (sometimes there may be more than one) Use bullet points and indentations for sub themes or important points under the main theme Go even further in bulleting and indentation for sub-sub points *Only write down important points such as clarifying facts, dates, names, places, and events * Take a few minutes before each class to review the notes from the previous class

Writing a paper in a history class is not as hard as it sounds. The basic thing to remember for most history papers is that you are making an argument, and you have to be able to support your argument using sources. The best sources are primary sources; those made by individuals during an event, or who participated in it. Then secondary sources; those sources made after the fact by historians or commentators, mostly using primary sources to come to their conclusions, and you will rarely use tertiary sources; those sources that rely primarily on secondary sources for their argument or observations. The first step in writing a paper is selecting a topic. There are so many historical topics to choose from that often times it is really overwhelming to select one. However, as you read for the class, you should occasionally jot down questions you have. Once you are ready to start your paper, select one of those questions that particularly interests you, and you would like to have an answer for. Then, do your research on the question through reading of sources, and take notes from them in order to develop an answer for your question. One issue that will affect you in following through on this step is picking a significant historical question that would influence an audiences understanding of the subject, or the period, being written on. For example; “Who is Martin Luther?” is not really a significant historical question, however, “What effect did Martin Luther’s over bearing father have on his life?” is. There is a fine line sometimes in determining what is historically relevant, though. “Who is Martin Luther?” could become historically relevant if we have a brand new insight into the man, such as he really was not Martin Luther, but an Augustine monk named Fritz Goelbing that was kicked out of his order, and in his shame assumed a new identity and purpose in life; to bring down the church. Then, who exactly was Martin Luther can become historically relevant, though the real question would more likely be who is Fritz Goelbing? After you have developed a historically significant question, and feel that you have satisfactorily answered it, then develop a complete sentence that states what your answer to the question is. For Example, “The overbearing and rigid conformity of strict morality enforced violently within the Luther household by Martin’s father Johann Luther, is the greatest feature influencing the development of the traits Martin possessed that made his movement successful.” This complete statement of your answer to the historically significant question then becomes your thesis statement. From there, you can begin to outline your paper by developing three or four main points to support your thesis. For example, in the paper we are developing about Martin Luther’s father’s influence over his development, our four points could be Martin Luther’s father during Martin’s childhood Martin Luther’s father during Martin’s coming of age Martin Luther’s father in Martin’s adulthood Traits exhibited by Martin during the movement that reflect his father Now is the point where you begin to use your research within the paper. One thing I should point out is that as you do your research, and make notes, always cite in your notes where you got that little jewel of information. That will make it a lot easier later to complete your citations within your paper, rather than having to go back through every book and trying to find where you discovered that one fact in order to cite it correctly. The ISU History Department uses the Chicago Style citation method. The entire citation method is on the web, just Google Chicago Style, and you will be directed to a number of sites with guides to citing, as well as examples. Your research will provide you with the facts you can use that are relevant to the sub topic you developed, and support the sub topics overall weight in developing a strong, reasoned argument. We use these facts, and supporting information to them, as bullet points and sub headings in our outline, beneath each sub topic. So for example, if our sub topic is “Martin Luther’s father during Martin’s childhood”, our researched facts could include; 1. Johann’s insistence on daily scripture reading 2. Johann’s schedule for Martin’s studies 3. Martin’s mother’s moderation of strict lifestyle 4. Johann’s relationship with Martin’s mother And under each of these we could go even further, for example; 4. Johann’s treatment of Martin’s mother a. Was arranged marriage to her, never really fell in love b. Physically abused her c. Arranged strict schedule of her household chores Once you have a detailed outline, you can begin the rough draft of the paper. Some of the best advice I have ever received about writing a paper is to follow these directions; “Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em” (Your Introduction), “Tell ‘Em” (The Body of your Paper), “Tell ‘em what you told ‘em” (Your conclusion). Try to hammer home your thesis in all three parts. Your opening is usually where you present your thesis. You can have a few sentences leading up to your thesis, such that describe what question you are attempting to answer, or that provide some brief background to the issue. However, you should get to the meat of the matter, your thesis, quickly, so as not to lose the reader, your audience. In other words, don’t make your opening overly long. A reader should have to go through no more than a paragraph or two at the most before they know what they are going to be reading. Here is an example of a possible opening for our paper on Martin Luther; “Martin Luther’s impact on western civilization cannot be underestimated given that his Edict at Wurms signaled the beginning of the Reformation, and the end of the religious dominance of Rome in Europe. Most scholars believe that Luther’s strict morality, his domineering and aristocratic manner, and his never ending commitment to change in the church, despite great odds, were the cornerstones of the successes of the Lutheran movement. What is not normally focused on, however, is the impact and development of these qualities based on Luther’s upbringing. The overbearing and rigid conformity of strict morality violently enforced within the Luther household by Martin’s father, Johann Luther, was the greatest feature influencing the development of the traits Martin possessed that made his movement successful. The body of the paper is where, as I stated, you get to tell ‘em, the audience, exactly what your argument is. Here is where, point by point, you make the argument about why your thesis statement says what it does. Here is where you use the vast majority of your outline, sub topics, bullet points, and facts to develop coherent and complete thoughts that logically progress towards your conclusion. The conclusion is where you get to “tell ‘em what you told ‘em” or restate your thesis. In this brief paragraph, you follow much of the same format as the introductory paragraph. Excepting that in your conclusion you get a chance to briefly restate the sub points of your argument before you restate your thesis. The restatement of your thesis, however, is not the end of your paper though, because you also want to let the reader know, why in the end, what your thesis says has any relevance whatsoever to their life. Some basic tips to remember in your rough draft are that if your paper is to be double spaced (most are) that during typing, if you leave it at single space, and do three pages, it is really six pages when you format it to double spacing. Also remember that adding your citations will take up space, so that a required ten page paper may really only take 1 ½ to 2 pages single spaced when typed. Thinking of it in this way always helped me to view the work required as a little bit less than it seemed reading it in the syllabus. Once the rough draft is completed, print it out and give it to someone like the instructor, TA, or an experienced and competent student friend, to proof read. Encourage them to tear it to shreds. Do not look at it yourself and try to proofread it on your own because by this time, you are probably burnt out on the whole process, and will not give your paper the critical eye it deserves, wanting only to be done with it. Giving it to someone else gets the job done, while giving you a needed break. Be sure to allow them enough time to do the job correctly, and encourage them to take the time they need so they do not feel pressured and cannot go over it thoroughly. If you really want to be through, make a few copies and give it to as many of these as you can so you get multiple perspectives.

Once you have the marked up rough draft back from your proof readers, read through what they have written. If it makes sense to you, and you trust them in that regard, make the appropriate changes. Remember though, that this is your paper, and if you disagree with your editor on proposed changes, you do not have to make them. If their suggestions changed the concept or outlook of my paper, I usually ignored them, however, if their suggestions regarded style, grammar, or punctuation, I usually took them, especially the instructors. In incorporating your editor’s suggestions, you are working on just the second draft of your paper. Once you are through with this second draft, read it out loud. You do not even need to print it out, you can read it directly from your monitor. A well written paper will sound good as you say it. If you find yourself stumbling over certain passages, or they otherwise make no sense when stated out loud, you should consider changing them. Otherwise, as you read this second draft you should be looking for the following; grammar, spelling, style, but most importantly, the logical flow of thoughts, are they complete? Do they follow a logical progression? Do they lead to a logical conclusion? Once you are through this process, you can print the paper out and ask for further proof reading, just to be sure, or you can correct those things you saw, and call it a complete work, or your final draft, ready to be turned in.

Tests in History courses are probably not like those in High School History classes, or in other general education courses. They are not designed to necessarily test your memory of trivial facts, such as the exact date of this and that event, or the name of such and such person, though you may have to know some of that in general. What they do look for is your knowledge of the progression of events, and sound analytical reasoning in examining the impact people had on events, and what the events meant to the people, and how they influenced other events. For this reason, almost all History tests include essay questions, in fact, most of them are almost all essay, or short answer. You won’t find much multiple choice here. In preparing for a test in the History Department here, you should first gather up all of your materials from the class. This includes your lecture notes, reading notes, and any supplemental material such as power point slides, web site postings, study guides, etc. Then go through all of the material, reading it all, and look for major themes, important names, dates, places and events, as well as the chronology of events. Then consolidate this information into even briefer notes, in essence creating your own study guide. Many times, the instructor will provide their students with a list of possible exam questions, or they will make it clear what the exam questions will be in other ways. When studying to answer these questions, you do not need to fully write out and memorize a complete answer verbatim, just one sentence. For each essay question, develop a thesis sentence, this in turn will be the basis of your answer. This is all you have to memorize verbatim. From this, create an outline of how you will answer the question and what factual material you will include in your answer. This outline will be the basis for your study for the essay question. The other most common element of tests in this department are short identification or matching. For these things the best study option is just to repeatedly go over them. If the instructor has not provided these terms before hand, then your best bet may be to identify them yourselves. If you have followed my advice from before, you will already have done this when you identified major themes, important names, dates, and places, and the chronology of events. These are most likely the terms the instructor will want you to identify. Write down just the terms, and see if you can describe them, with no other assistance. The ones you cannot, study, then try again later and see if you can successfully identify all terms. Once you can, use that sheet to reinforce your knowledge right before test time.

Get a good night’s rest before the test. Relax your mind and let it absorb what you have studied. Then a couple of hours before the test, study hard again, only as reinforcement of what you should already know. Don’t burn yourself out on it, because you will only end up hating the class, the subject, and the field, and you truly get more out of it by organizing your study habits and spreading it out, not trying to do too much at once. Sometimes cramming can be unavoidable because of your schedule, but do your best to incorporate breaks, and let your mind absorb the information, and process it for retention.

I will say that you are fortunate to have this instructor this semester, as she truly knows what she is talking about, particularly as we discuss and go through the ancient civilizations. This may be a curse as well, because you will be expected to know what you are talking about when communicating with her through papers and tests, particularly the ones covering the ancient civilizations. She teaches Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and the Wetern Civilization to 1500 courses here at Illinois State.

Just as was discussed earlier in the general tips for success, it is important to keep up with the readings in this class. She will usually only focus on one or two areas during lecture, and there is so much more you will need to fill in that can only be obtained from the readings. That being said, if worse came to worse, the text is more important than the source book. Dr. Tsouvala uses the source book as more of an illustrative tool for certain concepts, and to give a framework to in depth discussion. Now I am not trying to discourage you at all from reading the source book readings, I am only saying that if you fell behind in your readings, as we all sometimes do because of other scheduling concerns, you can hold off on the source book for awhile. It is important to stay with it if you can though, because discussions in class are part of the 20% participation grade in the class, as well as reading it will greatly increase your understanding of the material in class and in the text. You should also keep up with the readings she posts on line in the same manner as the source book. To her, these postings are extensions of the source material. Dr. Tsouvala’s Power Point presentations are a great outline for your note taking. They do not replace note taking in class though. However, her themes and main points are stated within her slides, so use them as your guide in taking notes. Remember when taking notes that she teaches by theme, and not necessarily chronologically. When writing your papers, follow her rules in the syllabus to the letter. She is a stickler for this. To give you an example, one of my weaknesses in writing papers, is I tend not to be able to condense my work. The last paper I did for her she wanted to be no more than 10 pages, double spaced. I got about 13, and decided in order to notch it down some, I would just change the font to 11.5, and this made the paper exactly 10 pages. Now this was despite the instructions in the syllabus that say use a 12 point font. So, I took my rough draft to her to read over, and the first thing she notices is that it is not in a 12 point font! Remember, it was only ½ a point difference, and she could spot it right away, so now you have an idea of what I mean she is a stickler for following the rules she has laid out. She will also check your papers for plagarism, and I know she has not just given an F on a paper, but has given a 0, which is worse since the paper counts for 20% of your grade. I know she has also pursued academic dishonesty cases through the university as well. Quotes and citations are the best way to avoid this! Make sure within your papers you also point out some of the issues with your sources that may affect the firmness of the conclusions you are drawing from them, and why they may not be so reliable. One of her goals for her students in her courses is for them to be able to recognize the limitations and weaknesses of ancient sources, so she will want to know that you recognize these things. Also, while you can use outside sources as support, if you really want to, the paper should, and must, focus on the sources included in the two chapters assigned for your paper option. As a matter of fact, one of her requirements is that you cite at least half of the sources in those two chapters in developing your argument. In developing your argument, come up with a thesis that covers the theme of the differences in your sources. I am going to give you some examples, but I just made these up without reading the source materials, so use them at your own risk, though I would recommend coming up with your own: Paper option# 1 could be along the lines of Mesopotamia was characterized by the dominance of commerce, Egypt by the dominance of religion, and the Levant by the dominance of the military. Option # 2 could be early Greek civilization was dominated by warfare and late Greek civilization was dominated by learning. Option # 3 could be Early Roman civilization was characterized by republican government and internal concerns, while late Roman civilization was characterized by the drive for power in a single ruler, and imperial concerns. Then you can use your thesis to address sub topics, such as if we use our example thesis from topic # 1, religion, government, and social life. You would apply your thesis to these sub topics, and use the sources to provide facts which demonstrate the truth in your thesis. The good news about this paper is that you do not have to use the Chicago Style in your text. Since this primarily a source document paper, you can use just the page number in parentheses as your citation, after your first citation using the book, within the text of the paper. If you are going to use other sources to supplement the source book, I would recommend Chicago Style. You will also need to use Chicago Style on your bibliography page, even though it may only show one work cited, the source book. I also encourage you to have myself, Jamie, or Dr. Tsouvala proof read your rough drafts before you finalize the paper and submit it. We would be more than happy to take a look at it for you. Now on to the tests. First off studying, gather up your notes, the power point slides (print them off of blackboard), and what ever information you have from the readings. Use these to develop your study guide. The slides are particularly important, because she will ask you questions about certain pictures from them. Otherwise, know your definitions of main items she has pointed out, and know who main individuals are, and what they did to become important. Get to intimately know the development of major themes such as government, women, society, warfare, art, and thought, across civilizations, how they differed in each, and how they developed in each. She uses primarily multiple choice questions, some true and false, some matching, map identification, and picture identification, as well as short essay on her tests in History 101. They are by no means easy. Her other history classes are almost exclusively essay. Her expectation on them all is that you demonstrate a proven understanding of the development of themes, who was important to those developments, how they were demonstrated, such as in art, literature, architecture, law, societal rules, etc., and where and when those developments took place, and how they contributed to other developments. I know it sounds like a lot, but if you are paying attention, coming to class, and following all of the other tips I gave you, it really is not so bad.

I hope that this seminar has provided you with some valuable information you can use as you continue to take history classes at ISU, and particularly in Dr. Tsouvala’s class this semester. If there are any questions I can answer for you, you can come by Dr. Tsouvala’s office in 322 Schroeder any Monday or Wednesday from 2:00 to 3:00 for my office hours, e-mail me at clcline@ilstu.edu, or I would be happy to answer any questions you have now. Otherwise, thank you for coming and best of luck to you this semester!

ACHIEVING SUCCESS IN THE ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY Presented by: Curtiss Cline, UTA

What This Seminar Will Cover: Reading History Note Taking Writing Papers Taking Tests Dr. Tsouvala’s Course Specifically

Reading History: What is History? History is the study of the written record of people and civilizations. You will have to read what is written, so reading is the meat of studying History! How to Read Successfully: *Use your syllabus to schedule out assigned readings for the semester, and place this schedule in your planner. STICK TO YOUR SCHEDULE! * Read with an eye for important points * Organize the Reading * Reflect on how the reading fits in with classroom lectures

Note Taking in Your History Class: IMPORTANT POINT! Unless you are a shorthand transcriptionist, DO NOT TRY TO WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN! * Write down or note the theme, or themes of the day * Start each day’s notes on a new page and date the page * Use an outline method for taking notes * Only write down important points * Take a few minutes before each class to review the notes from the previous class

Writing Papers for History Classes: * Select a topic through questioning of information provided in readings and lectures * Develop a cohesive statement that provides what you think is the answer to your question. This is your thesis statement. * Develop an outline of your paper using sub topics to develop support for your thesis * Record facts garnered from sources relevant to each sub topic that demonstrate that sub topics weight in supporting your overall thesis * Write your first rough draft; “Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em”, “Tell ‘em”, “Tell ‘em what you told ‘em” * Give your rough draft to the instructor, TA, or experienced student to read through and offer suggestions.

Writing Papers for History Classes: (cont.) * Incorporate suggestions made on your rough draft into a second draft of your paper * Read the second draft of your paper out loud making sure the ideas flow in a logical progression to a sound conclusion * Once you have your corrections made from your reading over of the paper “out loud”, then you can call it DONE!

Taking Tests in History Courses: * Gather up all of your study materials such as notes and class handouts Read through the materials, focusing on major themes, dates, places, names, and the chronology of events Consolidate this information, creating your own study guide Prepare for exam questions by creating and memorizing a thesis statement that is the basis for your answer. Create an outline of how you will answer the essay question, and what facts you will include in your answer. Use this outline along with your thesis to study for the question For short ID or matching, make a list of terms, then try to answer as many as you can without assistance. Study the ones you did not know, and repeat your self quizzing until you know them all

Taking Tests in History Courses (cont.): Get Plenty of Rest, and Let Your Mind Absorb the Information!

Succeeding in Dr. Tsouvala’s Course: Or: “She’s all Greek to me!”

Succeeding in Dr. Tsouvala’s Course: * Do the readings as she has scheduled them Use the in class Power Point Presentations as an outline to your notetaking When writing your paper, follow the rules in the syllabus exactly Use the Power Point slides, your notes and readings to study for the test, and focus on themes, people, culture, government, and achievements

Questions? Curtiss Cline Office: Schroeder Hall Room 322 Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 2:00-3:00 P.M. E-Mail: clcline@ilstu.edu