FACET CHECK - Evidentiary Support of a Thesis

Supporting Your Thesis Is Zen

Last week, you learned how to form a thesis statement. This week I wish to talk about evidence. 

Here's the weird thing about History: the discipline suffers from the old "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" conundrum. Think of the cute little chickie as the thesis and the egg as a yolk-filled sac of reading materials. The thesis cannot exist without first considering the readings and discovering the evidence that lies within! But the evidence does not come to light unless there's a thesis to make them shine! Maddening. 

So let's clear this up. Your thesis, if done right, is really a statement about YOUR interpretation of reading materials. However, History demands that you prove yourself. "Because I said so!" doesn't cut it. If you make the mistake of not supplying evidence, then all your work looks to be opinion rather than scholarship.  YOU are a scholar, and supplying ample evidence is what you do.

So, what exactly is "evidence"?

Great question! In this class, evidence comes in three guises - primary, secondary, and current events. 

Primaries

According to the University of Washington, primary documents are created by witnesses or participants during a past "event." I'll add in the word "trend." Primaries can be a letter, a diary entry,  "interviews, oral histories, photographs, newspaper articles, government documents, poems, novels, plays, and music," basically anything that involves human language.

But (there's always a but), some of those "witnesses or participants" to past events were likely biased. In fact, you should always assume that those from yesteryears saw things way differently than you and I do today in the here and now. The bigger element, though, is that primary materials are the windows by which we travel, the portal to comprehending past viewpoints, and an opportunity to understand why long ago people made the choices they did.  

Secondaries

In the field of History, secondaries exist because scholars asked questions. These scholarly questions likely arose when they read the primaries. Scholars then form their own ideas about the primaries (and the past they represent) and write it down in the form of a thesis. Aha! Then, the scholar will work to prove their thesis is correct using - get this - evidence.

Warning: evidence should be primaries AND secondaries. Also, scholars are humans and they, too, can be biased.

The most important element to remember here is the end result. Secondaries can be books, journal articles, documentaries, lectures made by your professors, basically anything that involves the human language but in an interpretive and scholastic way.   

Both primary and secondary evidence should be used to gussy up that thesis of yours. BOTH.

Current Events

The Connections Paper assignments ask you to connect the past and to the present. Thus, in that third and final paragraph of your work, evidence is necessary from current sources. Again, anything a human produces in the here and now is considered a current event. Mostly, when we think of current events we think of media outlets. But we live in an age where "media" comes in all sorts of forms, can be done on the cheap, and produced by humans that relish in their biases.

Warning: Be extremely careful, here. Do you really wish to quote an article from the RT News Network (Russian Times), Fox News, MSNBC, Breitbart, OAN, The Palmer Report, some vlogger spouting neo-Nazi conspiracy theories?

Listen, your arguments will fall apart if you choose to utilize disreputable sources. You can hedge your bet by using the interactive Media Bias Chart, but that's just a tool and a conversation for later. 

How do I use Evidence and Why...?

The simple advice I place before you is this: only use evidence that supports your thesis. Fall in love with your thesis, get to know it, and then send your thesis gifts of evidence, but only the gifts your argument will enjoy.

Transitioning to a hypothetical: Let's say you have a significant other that is really into cooking, but on that person's birthday you gift them with a ceramic chicken figurine. Is that significant other going to feel supported in their cooking efforts? 

As we are practicing scholars, playing the role of a historian during this semester, the one question I know you are going to ask is, "How much evidence should I use?" My usual response used to be, enough to prove your thesis - but that's too trite. Instead, I will suggest that you use at least three pieces of evidence in the first paragraph of your Connections Paper to support your interpretive argument (thesis). At this level of your collegiate career, if you use three, at the least, then you have proved that you can make connections between what you read and what you write with a whole bunch of thinking in between. 

Note: Evidence should appear in each of the three paragraphs.  

Examples of Evidence in Support of a Thesis

Last week we looked at how to create a thesis using the reading materials to the right. Here is that thesis: 

"Between 1828 and 1855, Texas and Mexico loomed large in American politics. The United States failed to merge two stalwart elements: Manifest Destiny to the institution of slavery, and the result was increased political tensions." 

Now comes the evidence. Which documents above mention the concept of Manifest Destiny, either directly or indirectly? Which documents talk about slavery? Which mention both concepts all at once? 

Certainly, Santa Ana in 1836 objected to U.S. citizens moving west into Texas and bringing their slaves with them. Mendivil stated in 1837 that Yanks would not be satisfied with Texas but would continue to move west taking California and other Mexican lands. Henry Clay stated that this movement west must not infringe upon Mexico as the end result would be war. In 1847, Wilmot argued against the expansion of slavery westward. The secondary by Kelley addresses this situation as well.

Look, the more evidence you use, the more love your thesis feels. And if your thesis is defended, the happier you will be. Zen. 

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 Image Source: "Chicken or the Egg" by DonkeyHotey is licensed under CC BY 2.0

FACET CHECK - Thesis Development for Beginners

Making Sure Readers Know Your Argument

A thesis in the humanities is not that much different than a science-based hypothesis: something needs to be proven. A thesis is a clear and concise statement. The image to the right is a thesis:

“Love is the stupidest thing ever.”

The biggest mistake students make with thesis development within the humanities is to overthink it. This is why this page is here, to help you realize how simple and easy it is to turn your thoughts, your argument, your observations into a simple two-part thesis.

Part I - Be Definitive

"Love is the stupidest thing ever." Now that is a definitive statement.

But I could say things like, "Baseball is better than football," or "The Beatles are overrated," or, "The South really won America's Civil War." All four of these statements are clear, concise, authoritative sentences. They are also only partial elements of what a good thesis is. There is a need to further develop these declarative ideas. If you wrote, "Love is the stupidest thing ever," bravo! ( *I think* ) However strong this statement may appear, we still don’t know why love is stupid.

Part II - Be More Precise

If you had left "Love is the stupidest thing ever," as your thesis, the statement may be powerful but let me ask: how are you going to defend it? This is where the second part of your argument comes in, precision. And in the case of "love," absolutely necessary.   

"Love is the stupidest thing ever. Throughout my dating history, I invested my time, my money, and myself in people and have gained nothing but emotional scars."

Or 

"Baseball is better than football. Really, the number of athletes that suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a rarity in baseball whereas football’s numbers are just downright inhumane."

Or

"The Beatles are overrated. Seriously, numerous artists have outsold the Fab Four in terms of record sales from Michael Jackson to Beyoncé, the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin, and many others."

Or

"The South really won America's Civil War, especially when we look at America in the twenty-first century and realize the great number of cultural similarities." 

What happened by inserting the second part of a thesis statement, you not only added a portion that can now be defended, but also added clarity and precision. 

Put another way: Love can be stupid in a myriad of ways, perhaps even infinite. But in the second part of the thesis statement, we now know that the author is going to pinpoint the stupidness of love by way of personal experience. 

• In the thesis on baseball, the argument comes down to CTE head injuries.

• In the thesis on the Beatles, the argument solely focused on record sales.

• In the thesis on who won the Civil War, the argument is twenty-first-century cultural similarities.

Precision helps you to choose the evidence to support your thesis. Being precise means saving yourself a whole lot of time.

Thesis Development and Connections Papers

In a typical week, I ask you to read a few primary documents and perhaps a secondary. After reading, taking notes, trying to make sense of them, I then ask that you form your own observation (write a thesis).

A student might write:

"Between 1828 and 1855, Texas and Mexico loomed large in American politics." 

Now that's a fine declarative statement, but the thesis remains too broad. How did Texas and Mexico affect American politics? A precision sentence will assist. 

"Between 1828 and 1855, Texas and Mexico loomed large in American politics. The United States failed to merge two stalwart elements: Manifest Destiny to the institution of slavery, and the result was increased political tensions."

Now we have a thesis. This student will use the documents assigned for that week to defend this argument.  

If you need further guidance, I am a Zoom session away! 

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Image Source: "Sidewalk Graffiti: Love is the stupidest thing ever" (Links to an external site.) by Franco Folini (Links to an external site.) is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0  

Online Communities are not only Possible, but Downright Doable

Teaching college courses online can be a bit difficult, especially when attempting to get “a feel” for the class. Where are students at in the week’s lesson? How are they feeling about it? What are students thinking?

In other words, online teachers often lose that sense of community, a sense of place that a brick and mortar classroom naturally provides. To counter this, think about the most successful communities on the web - social media. Emulating, as best as possible, the more positive aspects of what social media purports to do can create a thriving online community within your own little teaching domain.

I did this with music in my online survey course covering World History, 1500 to the present.

I created a page (screen shot to the right) that describes the purpose of sharing music reflecting the studies embedded within the course. I also created a semester-long online discussion board where students can post their found music and discuss it at length. Students get to read and listen to what other students posted, thus creating a community. The only direction I give them is to pick and write about music that were either written during the time period under study, or songs that reflect back to that past point.

The big benefit is that students are doing History. By searching for and sharing found music in conjunction with where we are at in the course, students reveal both primary and secondary documents but in music form. Additionally , students are creating a community. By sharing music and writing about it, they create their own distinct stomping ground.

The other plus is I am exposed to a great treasure trove of songs from centuries past, and exposed to living musicians and groups that reflect and write music about humanity’s past. Give it a try!

"Society and the Civil War": Student-Generated Podcasts on America's Bloodiest Conflict

I teach to make a difference in student lives. I have a small window to accomplish that. Semesters last a mere sixteen weeks. In the Early American History survey course, how does one do this? From pre-landing to the Reconstruction Era, there is a lot of ground to cover.

As a historian, the study of colonial America and the antebellum period of the young United States, one discovers that one led into the other. Even from the seventeenth century, decisions made by England and its colonial leaders were foundational choices that led to America’s Civil War (1861-1865). Thus, what we learn about the Charter of Virginia (1607), or the 1656 Navigation Acts, or the Creation of the Board of Trade of Plantations (1696), held significant impacts that differentiated northern colonies from southern.

All that said, America’s Civil War exacted a heavy toll - some 600,000 to 800,000 military deaths depending on who you ask. The war was not only bloody, but it was everywhere. In other words, the war descended on upon Americans, northerners and southerners alike. What was life like then for individuals to navigate this uninvited war?

For students, this was the driving question as they were tasked to research, write, and produce podcasts based upon their findings. They used an incredible database hosted by the University of Virginia, Valley of the Shadow. Here they found family letters, census reports, newspaper items, tax records, land holdings, maps, photographs, military accounts, and much more. Two regions in one valley, the Shenandoah Valley, dissected by a borderline construct known as the Mason Dixon line. North of that line lay Franklin County, Pennsylvania. South of the line lay Augusta County, Virginia. One free. One slave. Both at war and both struggling to survive the conflict. Students were tasked with researching just one of these American families using the materials on the Valley of the Shadow database and elsewhere and create a podcast reflecting their findings.

Remarkable.

Here is one my favorites: four of my students; Brian Carrozza, Ethan Eriksen, David Ceja, and Chris Maderos take on “The Brooks Brothers,” four strapping young lads attending Washington College in Lexington, Virginia when the Civil War paid a visit in 1861.

"I Am America": Student-Generated Podcasts in USA Multicultural History

Before me sat students eager to learn. Inside me simmered a need to give students an authentic experience, a set of skills, and a desire to have whatever they created made public. I also wished to call upon the diverse experiences of these students, their stories of growing up in America in the twenty-first century. I wanted them to create a history of… them. The results exceeded my expectations. This space is dedicated to showcasing those students who successfully attempted their hand at podcasting AND history writing where the subject was themselves. Not as easy task.

Here is Yolanda Antone’s “On the Res”":

Here is Jacob Maphet’s “The Forgetting”:

Here is Chen Lo’s “From Homeland to Promised Land”

Switching the Focus on College-Based Group Projects

I think it’s fairly safe to say that nearly every college instructor wants their students to learn. In fact, I know more than a few of my colleagues who design their courses around this very idea. Toward that end, group work appears enticing, a peer-to-peer tool gleaming in our “teacher toolbox” with the promise of lessons learned. Right?

But we all know the story, dysfunctional group dynamics often tower over the project and the lessons the project was intended to imbue. Our job then shifts, we focus more on group management rather than promoting and supporting the project’s intended virtues.

But what if the “group work” tool performed as advertised? What if we put the student at the center of their own learning instead of the project?

This has implications.

Perhaps these images will help. As you can see, the “Project” is at the center of everything in a “Typical Group Assignment” setting. But what if each student were at the center? What then does a student-focused project look like?

With the student at the center of his or her own learning, the student takes ownership of their own project. In the first drawing (the one on the left), the project owns the students. But in the second drawing, the student owns the project. The shift is profound. In the “Typical Group Assignment” scenario, it’s often Student “A” and Student “B” that do the bulk of the work with Student “C” and “D” riding their coattails. What happened, then, was that Students “A” and “B” were overworked and stressed, and Students “C” and “D” did not learn (or at least fully learn the lessons unto which the project was intentionally given).

If we “Switch the Focus” so as to make learning the priority, it is obvious who gets to be at the center of attention: the student. Look, it’s simple: a “project” does not have the capacity to learn, but a student does. In the “Switch the Focus” scenario, student “D” is now in charge of student “D’s” project, and thus his/her own learning. Student “D” can no longer ride the coattails of other people’s work. Student “D” is placed in a position of responsibility not only toward their project but toward empowering themselves to maximize their own learning.

Additionally, with the group’s focus centered on each individual’s learning, the roles change. Student “D” is now the captain of his/her own project and the captain of his/her own learning. Student “D” is the boss, the entrepreneur, and will reap the rewards of the work that goes into the project. Student “D” is, initially, given “advisers.” In this case, students “A,” “B,” and “C.”

Another important aspect is this: student “D” gains empowerment. Not only does the student learn from the project (which is important), but student “D” learns entrepreneurialism. Student “D” is his own boss. If student “D” is unhappy with how the project is progressing – student “D” has options. Sure, consulting an expert (you know, the teachers) might be a good idea; sure, seeking advice from his advisers (you know, his group mates) might be a good idea. But if both teacher and peers are not working out, what can be done? Every small business owner faces a similar dilemma, sometimes things do not go according to plans. And just like an entrepreneur, a student must call the shots, adjust the game plan, and all in pursuit of success.

Last, the Beatles once sang on the album Abbey Road, that the “love you take is equal to the love you make.” Students are compelled to help because they will, similarly, seek out such assistance: reciprocity – it works. And us teachers can tweak this concept a bit further: prizes or grade enhancements or some other recognition for the group with the best composite grade concerning the project at hand.

Placing the emphasis on the learning, focusing on the student rather than the project, empowers the student to grow, to think, and to become their own boss. Make students the priority rather than the project and group dynamics will become less of a problem.

About "Practices"

Pedagogical practices need constant updating. Students change from year to year to year, decade by decade. What once worked, will suddenly not. This portion of the “Joe Historian” website invites new ideas for pedagogy. It’s best to have a bevvy of tools at the ready.

All that said, the biggest success I find in the classroom is to be yourself. Authenticity goes a long way.

More to come.