HIST7782 Advanced Writing Seminar
Syllabus
Instructor: Dr. WANG Yu Office: E21-202
Time: 19:00- 22:00, Friday Venue: E21- 2005
Email: ywang@um.edu.mo Office Hour: 18:00 – 19:00, Friday
Course Description
This is a course designed as a writing seminar, in which students will read some important works as examples of history writing. This course aims at preparation for MA students to write their MA thesis. Students will learn the most basic skills of history writing, such as how to choose a research topic, how to collect, read, and cite sources, how to structure a history writing, how to make arguments, and so forth. Students are required to write a MA thesis proposal, and this course will guide students to go through all processes step by step toward its completion. Students will also comment and criticize the works of their classmates.
Learning Outcomes
During the semester, students will:
1. Enhance their ability to ask questions of, accurately evaluate, and effectively synthesize primary and secondary historical writings;
2. Develop the ability to effectively express their own ideas in written and oral forms；
3. Expand their knowledge of the historical and social contexts that created diversity in past and present human cultures.
Required Readings
Stephen Eric Bronner, Critical Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2011).
王东杰：《探索幽冥：乾嘉时期两部志怪中的知识实践》，成都：巴蜀书社2022年版。
Other References
https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-2.html
https://writingproject.fas.harvard.edu/files/hwp/files/2014_his_lit.pdf?m=1442609091
https://www.southwestern.edu/live/files/4173-guide-for-writing-in-history.pdf
https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/hwp/files/bg_writing_history.pdf
Attendance Policy
Attendance is mandatory. Students will fail the course after more than two absences, except in the case of university-excused absences. Make-up quizzes are not automatically given; they will be given only when students have a university-approved absence for missing the regular quizzes. Students are expected to notify the instructor in advance if the quizzes must be missed.
Academic Dishonesty
Throughout the course students must adhere to normal standards of academic honesty. Violation of these standards (for example, cheating on examinations or plagiarism on papers) will result in at least an “F” on that assignment or an “F” for the course.
Course Grading
Attendance and Participation 30% (10%+20%)
Writing Assignments 50% (5*10%)
MA Thesis Proposal 20% (5%+15%)
Requirements
1. Leading at least one class discussion (up to the seminar size). Students would be asked to co-lead one class, introduce the assigned readings, discuss sources, methods, and arguments, raise questions, challenge statements or conclusions, and/or bring up relevant issues;
2. For each class, all the students except for the leading discussant must share comments or raise questions (at least three points) through email by the mid- night before the class; and
3. Writing assignments and one MA thesis proposal.
Weekly Schedule
Week 1, 19 August. 2022
Induction: How to choose a research topic
Watson Andaya, “Presidential Address: Oceans Unbounded: Transversing Asia across ‘Area Studies’,” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 65, No. 4 (2006), pp. 669-690.
Assignment One:
Write a summary essay on the paper; no more than 2 pages, due Week 3.
Week 2, How to read primary source I, 26 August. 2022
Yvon Y Wang, "Yellow Books in Red China: A Preliminary Examination of Sex in Print in the Early People's Republic." Twentieth-Century China 44.1 (2019): 75-97.
Primary sources: selected publications
Week 3, How to choose a theoretical framework, 2 September. 2022
Stephen Eric Bronner, Critical Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2011).
Assignment 6.1:
Write about one or two concepts/theories that you are interested in using for your MA thesis, no more than 2 pages, due Week 4.
Week 4, How to write a review I, 9 September. 2022.
Dayton Lekner, “Echolocating the Social: Silence, Voice, and Affect in China’s Hundred Flowers and Anti-Rightist Campaigns, 1956–58”, The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 80, No. 4 (November) 2021: 933–953.
Assignment Two:
Write about a review of this article, no more than 2 pages, due Week 6.
Week 5, How to read primary source II, 16 September. 2022
Sha Qingqing and Jeremy Brown, “Adrift in Tianjin, 1976: A Diary of Natural Disaster, Everyday Urban Life, and Exile to the Countryside” (Maoism, 179-198).
Primary source:
Selected personal diary
Week 6, How to write a review essay, 23 September. 2022
Evelyn S. Rawski, “Presidential Address: Reenvisioning the Qing: The Significance of the Qing Period in Chinese History,” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 55, No. 4 (1996), pp. 829-850.
Ho, Ping-ti, “In defense of Sinicization: A Rebuttal of Evelyn Rawski's ‘Reenvisioning the Qing,’” The Journal of Asian Studies, 57.1(1998), 123-155.
Assignment Three:
Write a review essay comparing the two papers; 3-4 pages; due Week 8.
Week 7, How to read primary source III, 30 September. 2022
Aminda Smith, “Long Live the Mass Line! Errant Cadres and Post-Disillusionment PRC History”, Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, vol. 29, no. 4, 2021, pp. 783–807.
Primary source: selected personal letters
Week 8, How to write a review essay, 7 October. 2022
王东杰：《探索幽冥：乾嘉时期两部志怪中的知识实践》，成都：巴蜀书社2022年版。
Guest lecture: Prof. Dongjie Wang on his book
Assignment Four:
Book Review, 2-3 pages, due Week 10.
Week 9, How to read primary source IV 14 October. 2022
Bin Yang and Shuji Cao, “Cadres, Grain, and Sexual Abuse in Wuwei County, Mao’s China (Mid-1950s–Early 1960s).” Journal of Women’s History No.28, Issue 2, 2016, pp. 28–57.
Primary source: selected judicial cases
Week 10, How to write a literature review II, 21 October. 2022
He, Qiliang. “Afforestation, Propaganda, and Agency: The Case of Hangzhou in Mao’s China.” Modern Asian Studies.
He, Qiliang. “‘Watching Fish at the Flower Harbor’: Landscape, Space, and the Propaganda State in Mao’s China.” Twentieth-Century China, 46, no. 2, (May 2021): 181–98.;
He, Qiliang. People’s Westlake, “Intro”.
Guest Lecture: Professor Qiliang He on his new book
Assignment Five:
Based on the weekly readings, please write a literature review; 5-6 pages; due Week 12.
Week 11. How to write a thesis proposal, 28 October. 2022
“University of Macau Department of History Guidelines for Writing a Research Proposal” https://fah.um.edu.mo/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/ResearchProposalGuideline.pdf
Assignment 6.2: thesis proposal, no more than 8 pages, due Week 13.
Week 12, How to cite sources, 4 November. 2022
University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff, Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), pp. 330-445.
Week 13, 11 November. 2022
Thesis Proposal Sharing Session I
Week 14, 18 November. 2022
Thesis Proposal Sharing Session II
Week 15, 25 November. 2022
Thesis Proposal Sharing Session III
*The schedule may be subject to minor changes.
STUDENT AFFAIRS OFFICE (SAO): PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELLING & DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICE
(1) Psychological Counselling Service:
SAO provides confidential and professional psychological counselling, aiming at enhancing students’ adjustment to university life, capability to cope with challenges and psychological well-being. To make an appointment or learn more about the service, please contact us:
Appointment form：https://go.um.edu.mo/vhbjftiy
Email：sao.counsellor@um.edu.mo
Tel：88229000
Webpage：http://www.um.edu.mo/sao
Wechat Official Account: UMcounselling
(2) Disability Support Service:
SAO provides disability support services so students with permanent or temporary disabilities can have equal opportunity in education, university life and other services in the university. If you have physical, visual, hearing, speech, learning or psychological impairment(s) which substantially limit your learning or activities of daily living, please contact SAO directly. SAO will assess your special educational needs and communicate with your instructor so as to provide you with the most appropriate support. To learn more about the service, please contact us:
Email: sao.disability@um.edu.mo
Tel: 8822 4901
Webpage: http://www.um.edu.mo/sao
- Teacher: ywang, Wang Yu