The student journal is the main assignment in this class.  The purpose of the journal is to provide you the opportunity for frequent thoughtful, analytical, and personal commentary upon course—related material.  The advantages of the journal, to my mind, are that it breaks work down into regular and manageable chunks, and that it enables you to seize hold of the curriculum in a way which reflects your own interests and style.

The journal will be graded in two installments.  It will be due on Thursday, March 1, the second class after Reading Break.  This installment will count for 20% of the course grade.  The journal will then again be due on the day of the Final Exam.  This installment will include both a 20% grade for the second installment and a 20% grade for the journal in its entirety.  I plan to set up brief one-on-one meetings early in the semester to discuss the journal.  Please also e-mail me as frequently as you would like with questions and comments.

In order to give you a basic structure and to clearly communicate my expectations, I will specify certain mandated entries and suggest a format for reading responses.  However, while it is required that all work in the journal be your own original writing, you are encouraged to be imaginative in your own investigation and analysis of European History.

The entries will, no doubt, vary in format, length and quality.   Do not hesitate to take risks and to express your own opinions.  It's fine if some entries read more like summary than analysis; it can be useful to put what you have learned from an article or a video into your own words.  Other entries may make unexpected connections between the European past and issues that deeply concern you.  Try, however, not to succumb to the temptation to write in an easy, stream—of—consciousness style.   There is no inherent tension between analytical rigour and personal insight.

Include any printouts of particularly interesting internet material in an appendix to the journal.  I will assume that everything in the body of the journal represents your own writing unless indicated otherwise.

The good journal will:

• be at least 30 pages long.

• include the required common entries as specified through oral and written instruction.

• include at least 5 reading responses to articles or History in the News readings.

• include other entries that draw upon class material and/or your independent research.

• demonstrate to the instructor (a.k.a. me) that you are approaching the readings and the course with care and effort.