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Exercise 3: Finding Women and Gender in Early Modern History (due in class & electronically, February 13)

Overview

In class on February 6, you attempted to sketch out a story about an early modern woman.  Think about the empty spaces in your vision, and the questions they raise.  In this exercise, you will begin the research needed to answer one of these questions.

You basic task is to use the on-line research tools described below to identify two good sources related to a topic in the history of early modern women. (The key elements are: women or gender, between 1300 and 1750.)  One of these sources should be an article from a scholarly journal; the other should be a historical monograph (that is, a history book written for a scholarly audience). The article should be a substantial piece of original research, or a review of the scholarship on a particular topic of at least 15 pages. You can use the short book reviews you find in the journals to help identify and evaluate your book, but they do not count as articles.

You will need to specify the question you are trying to answer, the topic(s) you used to guide your research, and explain briefly how you found each source, and why you think it is useful and reliable.  A successful exercise will demonstrate careful thought in the selection and evaluation of these sources, explaining why they were chosen when others were not.  You can complete this exercise entirely from a computer with VPN connection to IU’s library resources, but you are encouraged to go to the library and browse the shelves.

Steps for locating and evaluating scholarly resources:

  1. Clarify your thinking:

    • What question would you like to answer?
    • Where did this idea come from?
    • If you are stumped with regard to a topic, you can find one by browsing the journals you will find using the resources described in step 3.

  2. Return to the source that gave you this idea:

    • What information can you tell about its sources?   What material does it cite in its footnotes?
    • Has the author written anything else on the topic?  Can it give you keywords for your search?

  3. Search for this keyword / author in IUCAT, History journals in JSTOR and ProjectMuse and Historical Abstracts.

      • IUCAT will give you books.
      • JSTOR and Project Muse will give you articles from well-regarded, peer reviewed scholarly journals. They will also give you reviews of scholarly books. If you need help distinguishing between book reviews and articles, you can use an "advanced search" to limit your search by "document type." JSTOR has check boxes, Project Muse a pull down menu.
      • JSTOR includes more journals, but leaves out the most recent scholarship; Project Muse is not as comprehensive, but includes current work.
      • Historical Abstracts includes a wide range of scholarly and popular material.

  4. Look for clues to evaluate the quality of this source:

      • What question is it trying to answer?  Is this a broad, complex issue?
      • What sources is it using?
      • Who wrote it?  Have they published other things?  (You can determine this with a click on their name in most of these resources.) What are their qualifications?
      • Who published it?  What clues does this give you about the “conversation” to which this work belongs?
      • What do other people have to say about it?   Use an "advanced search" in JSTOR, ProjectMuse, or Historical Abstracts to locate book reviews, or search the full text journals for citations of the article.

  5. Read your sources

    • You can get access to the full text of articles through JSTOR and Project Muse.
    • GoogleBooks will give you significant sections of many academic books. You can learn a lot about the conversation of which the book is a part, and often find better sources, by physically going to the library and browsing the shelves.
    • You do not have to read an entire book, but you should be able to answer the following:
      1. What question is the book/artlcle trying to answer? What is its central argument? You can often get this from chapter headings, and introductions usually contain a thesis statement in the first and/or last paragraphs. Book reviews will also highlight the main arguments.
      2. On what evidence (sources) does it base these arguments?
      3. How does/might it answer your initial question?

Questions from the form:

The questions that will appear on the form you will use for electronic submission appear below. You can access the form at http://www.indiana.edu/~wfh/assignments/spring2007/wk3assign.php.

  1. What question are you trying to answer? [3 lines]
  2. What topic/key words did you use in your search? [2 lines]

When formatting your citations, please consult the Chicago Style Guide on the History J300/J400 Resource Site for guidance, and look at the Annotated Bibliographies page for an example of the kind of comments you should make on each of your sources. You might also find use in the History Resource Site's discussion of Finding Sources and Reading Sources.

  1. Article Citation: [1 line]
  2. How did you locate this source? [10 lines]
  3. Write a paragraph suitable for an annotated bibliography, addressing the following questions: [Box 25 lines]
    • Why do you judge this to be a reliable source?
    • What are its main arguments?
    • What evidence (sources) does it use?
    • How it will help you address your question?
  1. Book Citation: [1 line]
  2. How did you locate this source? [10 lines]
  3. Write a paragraph suitable for an annotated bibliography, addressing the following questions: [Box 30 lines]
    • Why do you judge this to be a reliable source?
    • What are its main arguments?
    • What evidence (sources) does it use?
    • How it will help you address your question?