Each student will produce a seminar paper of at least 20 pages in length, with appropriate notes and bibliography. A key in the choice of a paper topic will be the availability of primary sources; students will be expected to consult early and often with the instructor, to make certain that sufficient research materials are readily accessible.  In producing the seminar paper, each student will be expected to draw conclusions about the importance of his/her research within a larger historical framework.  

Student learning outcomes:

(i.e. what specific skills will students learn in the course?)  

1. Students will identify key primary sources relevant to their research interests.

2. Students will discuss recent trends in scholarly writing concerning their research. 

3. Students will compose and deliver an oral report that outlines their research projects. 

Assignments:

We will begin by reading two well-regarded and recent works in European legal history:  

Tales from the Hanging Court, by Bob Shoemaker and Tim Hitchcock

and

The Collaborator, The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach, by Alice Kaplan (University of Chicago Press, 2000.)  

These are required readings that we will use as models.  Other materials you utilize will depend upon the project that you select to complete.  

A key component of this course, as a seminar-style class, will be the production of original work in history by each graduate student.  Our emphasis will be upon the nuts and bolts of writing for publication in our “publish or perish” profession.  Students will produce, individually, a seminar paper of at least 20 pages in length, with appropriate endnotes and bibliography.  

The Old Bailey Sessions Papers are available in fully searchable form at www.oldbaileyonline.org/. These online documents provide a wealth of information about criminal cases in England from the late 1600s through 1914; we have a fine example of how to mine them in the Shoemaker/Hitchcock book. For students more interested in grander principles or more famous cases (or who are focused on continental rather than British history), the Kaplan book likewise will serve as an apt model.   

Scheduling of classes and attendance:

In a seminar course at the graduate level, a significant amount of work will be done independent of the group -- as individual research and writing. Please plan to attend each scheduled class session. It may be that we will not meet the entire class period, especially toward the beginning of the semester, so that you can use some time for library work or consultation with me.  As we present papers at the end of the semester, we likely will meet for the entire three hours each week.   

In general I expect you to miss no more than one scheduled class meeting in a semester.  Repeated absences may be penalized within your final draft paper grade (that paper counts for 25% of the course grade). Please note that I reserve the right to determine that your attendance has been inadequate to pass the course.                                               

Academic standards:

We will adhere to the University policies on academic honesty, as found in your student handbook and the current copy of the UTA undergraduate catalog.  The University requires that I remind you of UTA’s official policy on academic dishonesty:  

            It is the philosophy of The University of Texas at Arlington that academic dishonesty is a completely unacceptable mode of conduct and will not be tolerated in any form. All persons involved in academic dishonesty will be disciplined in accordance with University regulations and procedures.  Discipline may include suspension or expulsion from the University.  "Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or  materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an examination for another person, any act designed  to give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts." (Regents' Rules and Regulations, Part One, Chapter VI, Section 3, Subsection 3.2, Subdivision 3.22)  

If you have any questions about academic honesty, please let me know. For some general guidelines, especially about utilizing internet sources, I recommend James Lipson’s book Doing Honest Work in College.     

You are responsible for dropping the course according to the registrar's deadlines and procedures, including obtaining the necessary signatures.  I will not drop you for non-attendance!  Failure to follow the registrar's rules in dropping a course may result in a permanent "F" for the course on your transcript!  If you have any doubt as to whether you are properly dropped or added to the rolls, ask me, the staff in the History Department office, or the Registrar.

Americans With Disabilities Act: 

The University of Texas at Arlington is on record as being committed to both the spirit and letter of federal equal opportunity legislation; reference Public Law 93112 -- The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended.  With the passage of new federal legislation entitled Americans With Disabilities Act - (ADA), pursuant to section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act, there is renewed focus on providing this population with the same opportunities enjoyed by all citizens.  As a faculty member, I am required by law to provide "reasonable accommodation" to students with disabilities, so as not to discriminate on the basis of that disability. Student responsibility primarily rests with informing faculty at the beginning of the semester and in providing authorized documentation through designated administrative channels.   

If you require an accommodation based on a physical or learning disability, I will be happy to work with you and UTA's Office of Students with Disabilities in order for you to participate fully in the course.  Please let me know during the first week of classes, if this is the case.  

Student support services:  The University supports a variety of student success programs to help you connect with the University and achieve academic success.  They include learning assistance, developmental education, advising and mentoring, admission and transition, and federally funded programs.  Students requiring assistance academically, personally, or socially should contact the Office of Student Success Programs at 817-272-6107 for more information and appropriate referrals.  

Librarian Contact:  Ms. Rafia Mirza, Reference Librarian for History: rafia@uta.edu. Please make an appointment with Ms. Mirza if you have research questions.  You will find her extremely knowledgeable and helpful.   

E-Culture Policy:  The University of Texas at Arlington has adopted the University email address as an official means of communication with students.  Through the use of email, UT-Arlington is able to provide students with relevant and timely information, designed to facilitate student success.  In particular, important information concerning registration, financial aid, payment of bills, and graduation may be sent to students through email.  

All students are assigned an email account and information about activating and using it is available at www.uta.edu/email.  New students (first semester at UTA) are able to activate their email account 24 hours after registering for courses.  There is no additional charge to students for using this account, and it remains active as long as a student is enrolled at UT-Arlington.  Students are responsible for checking their email regularly. I occasionally will post announcements through your university email addresses—please check them frequently!     

I try to answer all emails within a few hours of receiving them.   

Grade Grievance Policy:  Please refer to the catalog for the university policy on grade grievances and appeals.

Grading

There will be five graded assignments in the class, due throughout the semester:

1. An essay on primary sources for the paper (15% of course grade)
2. An essay on secondary sources relevant to the paper (15% of course grade)
3. An essay on a model for the paper –a commentary about an article on a parallel subject from a relevant scholarly journal, or a book chapter (15% of course grade).
4. A rough draft of the paper (15% of course grade)
5. An oral presentation of the paper to the class (15% of course grade)

6.      The final draft of the paper  (25% of course grade)

The days when class will not be held are noted on the syllabus.

Please follow these rules in completing the written assignments:

*Turn them in on their due dates.  You may submit electronically any time until midnight for an on-time paper. 

*I require electronic submissions of all of your papers.  I aim to email you within a few hours after I receive any paper by email to let you know that a paper has been received and is readable. Please note, though, that if you submit a paper at an unseemly hour, I will not reply immediately.

*Papers will be marked as on-time based on their time-stamp in my email.  Please do not wait until the very last minute to submit papers, because that will be exactly the occasion of an electronic problem. 

*Late papers will be penalized one letter grade per day that they are late.

*Keep a copy of all of your papers.

standards for writing assignments

General guides to style:  For general tips on style for formal paper writing, please refer to any standard guide, such as the Chicago Manual of Style (also known by the name of its editor, “Turabian”).  In addition, you may want to make use of the UTA Graduate School’s style guide for theses and dissertations, which can be accessed at: 

http://orgs.uta.edu/CurrentStudents/raft.asp. 

Another way to find the site is via the UTA website; click on the graduate school’s Virtual Graduate Advisor.  The UTA thesis standards, for example at pp. 8-9, include detailed instructions on matters such as using block quotations, setting margins, and selecting fonts.

Paper lengths:  Each paper that you write for me should be typed, double-spaced, with a 10 or 12 font (Times New York and Ariel are preferred) and reasonable margins.  Please do not deviate far from the length specifications for each paper without consulting me first.

Notes/endnotes/footnotes: You do not need to include footnotes or endnotes in any of the papers except for the rough draft and the final draft.  There, you may use either endnotes or footnotes.  If you quote directly or cite from another author in the papers other than the two long (i.e. rough and final) drafts, then please use a simple parenthetical citation -- e.g.  

Cawthon argued that forensic medicine had a reputation as “the beastly science,” even among medical professionals, as late as the 1880s in England.  (Cawthon, 64).   

Bibliographies: The rough and final drafts do need to include full bibliographies, divided into sections according to the type of source used. For instance manuscript sources should have their own section of the bibliography, and secondary sources their separate section. We will discuss this in class in more detail, for there is some leeway in organization of bibliographies.    

Titling: When composing all of the papers but most especially the rough and final versions, please give special thought to your paper’s title. It may be clever, or scholarly, or simply informative.  A time-honored technique is to select a direct quotation or phrase to interest the reader, then to insert a semi-colon, and then to explain the paper’s substantive and chronological scope in the rest of the title, e.g.:  

            “The beastly science”; forensic medicine and expert testimony in English courts, 1850-80.

Note that when you place the paper title on a separate title page or at the top of the paper’s first page, the title should NOT be in quotation marks.   

Here are some specific instructions for completing each of the assignments.  Please attempt to answer all of the questions I have listed below.   

1.      An essay on primary sources for your paper (15% of course grade)

Due:  Thurs. Sept. 17

Length of paper:  maximum of 3 pages  

Which primary source or sources will be the basis for your paper?

It would be traditional for you to rely, first and foremost, upon a case report in doing a case study. Make certain that you explain, in this essay, what the case citation is and exactly how you will obtain access to the case report (e.g. online? --In a printed set of law reports?  --At which physical location?  Please actually go to any location, in person, and confirm the presence of a source on which you intend to rely extensively in your paper.)  At which level of decision will you be examining the case (e.g. in a criminal court decision or on appeal?)  Please give the formal case citation, including the year of the decision, at the outset of this essay.    

But are there other primary sources that can corroborate the case report, or can expand your paper’s focus.  For example you might rely on newspaper records, or law articles from the time of the case, or the writings (e.g. diaries or autobiographies) of participants in the case, such as the accused or the attorney or a judge.  Where are those sources located, in a physical sense?  How will you get access to the sources?  Are they available in electronic format or in print or manuscript form? Have the sources ever been reprinted?  If so, discuss the various versions or editions that are available.   

Are there any difficulties that you foresee in accessing or interpreting these sources (e.g. are they translated?  Can you translate or read them?) If they are on microform, are the records available for borrowing or will you have to travel somewhere to get access? (Where?)  

Have any of these sources (esp. the case itself) been the subject of any previous historical research?  This is not the place to discuss that secondary research extensively—that is the purpose of assignment #2 in our class.  But you will want to note, here, whether the case and other sources are familiar to scholars, and whether they often has been the subject of scholarly comment or controversy.   

Please note that you will be incorporating this discussion about primary sources within your longer paper. That is, you may be able to literally cut and paste it, in whole or in part, within the beginning paragraphs of your longer paper, after taking my suggestions into account.   

What do you expect to illuminate, through your examination of the source?  What unique perspective do you, personally, bring to this research?     

2. An essay on secondary sources relevant to your paper (15% of course grade)

Due:  Thurs. Oct. 1

Length of paper:  maximum of 3 pages  

Have your sources (especially the case report) been utilized in studies by scholars?  When?  This is the place to provide a thorough review of when and how scholars already have addressed your primary materials, with special focus on whether and where the case has been their object of attention.  

Have those other scholars been historians, or have they also included scholars from other fields (e.g. geographers, theologians, artists, psychologists, lawyers, etc.)? Do you perceive any difference in the handling of the sources, from field to field or within fields?  Has the scholarly treatment of the sources changed, over time?  Explain how and (perhaps) why –although the why may need to be described, further, in your longer drafts. 

Where have scholars disagreed among themselves about the interpretations of the source materials?  Do you have a preliminary opinion about where you will “fit” among the range of scholarly opinion?   

Please note that you will be incorporating this discussion about secondary sources within your longer paper. That is, you may be able to literally cut and paste it, in whole or in part, within the beginning paragraphs of your longer paper, after taking my suggestions into account.  

If there is not an extensive body of scholarly literature about your source/s, then  you will want to use this opportunity to discuss sources that are related to (or perhaps parallel to) your source.  For example, if this aspect of English legal history never has been explored, then maybe there is a parallel with regard to the history of another nation’s laws….      

3. An essay on a model for the paper –a commentary about an article on a parallel subject from a relevant scholarly journal (15% of course grade)

Due: Thurs. Oct. 15

Length of paper:  maximum of 3 pages  

This is an opportunity for you to select an article for use as a model for your paper.  Please select an article from a reasonably recent (i.e. within the last 20 years) scholarly journal.  The journal may be from history, law, or a related field.  

Ideally, the article will be parallel to your proposed paper, in certain key ways—

e.g. its length, its focus on a particular type of source that also interests you, and its method of presentation.  Please select a model for your work with which you are fairly impressed—i.e. do not set up a straw dog!  

You may NOT use any articles by your instructor, either in a negative or positive sense, in this paper!   

Explain why you are impressed with the author’s work.  What has he/she done, particularly well?  Describe in detail the article’s strengths—e.g. in writing, argumentation, research, historiography, interpretation, organization.    

Why is the article applicable to your work?  Be specific about the aspects of the

article from which you wish to learn.  Be certain to spend a significant amount of space (e.g. at least one page of this three page paper) explaining exactly how you propose to apply this author’s work to your own upcoming paper.  (e.g. It is not sufficient merely to characterize the author’s work as “excellent”, and to say that you want your paper to be excellent, too!) The further afield the article that you have chosen is, from the substance of your research, the more explanation you will have to do, about why this author’s work can serve as a model.   

Although you probably will not incorporate this paper verbatim into your longer drafts, you may use a part of this paper’s argument in your introductory paragraphs, or even as a long footnote toward the start of your longer paper.

4.   A rough draft of the paper (15% of course grade)

Due: Thurs. Oct. 29  

Length of paper:  15-25 pages  

Please be certain that your rough draft has these elements:  

--a title

--an introductory section –probably consisting of two or more paragraphs

--a section on historiography, probably as part of the first few pages

            --this should include remarks on the primary sources and

            --the secondary sources that you will employ

--a concluding section

            --which summarizes key points you have made, and

            --offers suggestions on questions unanswered by your work, and/or

            --posits ideas for future research

            --footnotes or endnotes

                        --these do not have to be complete or in final format in the rough draft

            --bibliography

                        -this does not have to be in final form, either, and items may be added into your final draft

            --an argument or set of arguments about your subject

                        --this will be a key point on which I am evaluating the rough draft,

                        although you may refine your argument/s somewhat, or even change them, in the final draft  

            The rough draft does not have to be grammatically or stylistically perfect.

            In fact, please note that I will not edit your rough draft in great detail (e.g.

pointing out individual misspellings).  But I will critique style,

composition, organization, and grammar, generally.  And in preparing the

final draft you will be responsible for detailed proofreading.  

5. An oral presentation to the class about your paper/project 15% of course grade)

Due:  Thurs. Nov. 5, 12, and 19 (class meets as a group on those days)

            Assignment of dates for oral reports will be by lottery.   

Length of assignment:  there is no written material to turn in.  You will give a talk

            of no more than 15 minutes to our class. (Please note that going

overtime may be penalized! You may want to practice delivering your talk in advance, in order to be sure you are within the time limit.)                         

This session is intended to simulate a conference presentation at which you deliver the results of current research in front of a gathering of other scholars who are interested in your topic.

                        Please summarize the work you have done so far on your research paper. 

                        You may bring in audio-visual aids or outlines to distribute, and you may use

notes or even read from a prepared script if necessary. You probably will not be able to get through an entire 20+ pages manuscript, though, in 15 minutes; so you will have to winnow the paper.  

                        Please answer the following questions, as well as others that interest you:  

                                    Why were you drawn to in this topic? 

                                    Why do you think it is of interest to historians or important as history?

                                    Which types of scholars, beyond historians in your own field, do you

expect to be interested in this research?

                                    Where do you fit in, in regard to existing scholarly debates concerning this

 topic or related subjects?    

                        The class and I will ask questions at the end of your talk, for about 5 minutes. 

                        This is friendly questioning only, and is not a critiquing of the presentation.  I will write my comments about the presentation, and will convey that to you individually, several days after class. 

6. final draft of the paper (25% of course grade)

Due: Thurs., Dec. 3  

                        Length of paper:  more than 20 pages but within reason in terms of maximum length.   

The final draft will be a carefully proofread, well-considered improvement on the rough draft and oral report.  It will feature a clear set of arguments/theses, ample evidence, polished organization, and well-crafted writing.  The paper will explain why this research is original and is of value to the field of history.  

The paper should be in such good condition that it could be submitted, as written, as a journal article, an entry in an essay contest, or a chapter in an M.A. or Ph.D. thesis.  And, ideally, that is exactly what you will do with it!  

                                                Schedule of class meetings

Thurs. Aug. 26:             class meets: introduction and internet “tour” of resources

Thurs. Sept. 3:              class meets: discussion of The Collaborator

Thurs. Sept. 10:            class meets: discussion of The Hanging Court

                                    plus discussion of primary source essays

Thurs., Sept. 17:           no class today, but primary source essays are due electronically;

                                    I will send comments on the essays to you by email ASAP, so you see those comments prior to turning in your next assignment

Thurs. Sept. 24:            class meets:

discussion of secondary source essays  

Thurs. Oct. 1:               no class today: secondary source essays due electronically

Thurs. Oct. 8:               class meets:

discussion of model essays  and individual appointments as needed

(individual consultations are not required)

Thurs. Oct. 15:             class meets: model essays due electronically;

discussion of rough drafts

Thurs. Oct. 22:             no class today

Thurs. Oct. 29:             class meets:  rough drafts due electronically

                                    discussion of oral reports

Thurs. Nov. 5: oral reports today

Thurs. Nov. 12:            oral reports today

Thurs. Nov. 19:            oral reports today

Thurs. Nov. 26:            no class today—Thanksgiving holiday

Thurs. Dec. 3:  no class meeting today—

final drafts of seminar papers are due electronically

Thurs. Dec. 10: final drafts should be graded and course grades ready; I will notify each person individually of her/his grade, via email