Wednesday, July 29 session

  • There will be notes posted for every online session available via the home page of the 2026 projects site and recordings available on request
  • The Aug 13 session has BEEN MOVED to MONDAY, AUG 17 from 7-8pm
  • To receive credit, students need to successfully complete two more assignments:
  • Communication is key in the summer
    • Notify Prof. Pinsker in advance if you will miss a Zoom session
    • Request any extensions of deadlines in advance
    • Take advantage of draft review (share materials by email or WP post)
  • Grades will be available within about a week after assignments; transcripts will be mailed in early September; and students can register for letters of reference from Prof. Pinsker via Common App or other platforms AFTER receiving final grades

 

General advice for historical close readings:

    • Pick a text that engages your historical imagination but consider focusing on either Douglass or Lincoln
    • Stick to simple past tense
    • Use Chicago-style footnotes (and consult Methods Center for more details
      • SAMPLE FOOTNOTES FOR PINSKER:

[1] Matthew Pinsker, Boss Lincoln: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln (New York: WW Norton, 2026), 27.

[2] Pinsker, 31.

      • SAMPLE FOOTNOTES FOR WEBPAGES (adapted for online publication):

[3] Phillis Wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa (1773), Knowledge for Freedom Seminar [WEB]

[4] Wheatley [WEB]

NOTE that for articles behind paywalls, you should indicate that in brackets as well, like this [JSTOR]

    • Always guard against plagiarism, especially when you paraphrase. REMEMBER:  never summarize a source while you are looking at it.  Close the book or the tab and do it from memory.  And don’t use AI platforms for reading, drafting, or editing (other than spell check / grammar check / citation check).   You may use AI platforms like a search engine to find sources and quick information.

 

  • Advice for strong openings:
    • Consider attempting a narrative vignette built around a snippet of quotation, like this:  “Stand with anybody that stands right,” Abraham Lincoln said in 1854, “Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong.”
    • Provide brief but effective summary context of the document under study
    • Then pivot to a clear thesis statement that offers an original interpretation about the significance of the author’s writing strategy but one that you can demonstrate with evidence not only from the text itself but also from secondary sources

 

  • Advice for strong text summaries:
    • Summarize the entire text (or text excerpt) deftly using both paraphrase and snippets of quotation (provide endnotes at the end of a sequence or a paragraph)
    • Don’t forget to describe the format of the text (including whether it was public or private, how it was printed or published (and provide an image if possible), and a word count)
    • Always acknowledge if you are focusing only on an excerpt

 

  • Advice for strong context sections:
    • Good context requires some outside research using high quality secondary sources; remember to take advantage of Dickinson resources like our library databases (especially American National Biography Online and JSTOR)
    • Judge secondary sources by the expertise of the authors (requires BYLINES) and whether the format has been peer reviewed (requires academic publishing) or at least edited (requires professional publishing)
    • Always start with context information about author and audience and then consider expanding into time period essentials –but always be judicious and don’t overwhelm your analysis with too much context

 

  • Advice for strong subtext analysis:
    • The best way to decode subtext is to consider what’s left out
    • The easiest way to understand what’s missing from a document is by wide-ranging comparison. For example, how is this document different from earlier documents written by the same author? How does it compare to similar documents written during the time period by other authors? What about comparing the document to previous classic documents (such as the Declaration of Sentiments with the Declaration of Independence)?
    • Remember to compare backward in time (not forward).  This is a historical close reading exercise.

 

  • Advice for strong closing arguments:
    • Return to the opening vignette or idea
    • Reframe or rephrase the original thesis into something thoughtful –don’t just restate it.

 

  • Multi-Media Reminders
    • Don’t forget to include two to three images with captions and clickable credits, expandable (attach to media file) and formatted neatly within paragraphs or between them

 

    • Don’t forget a short document video produced in WeVideo and including clear, well read audio narration, a compelling music track, carefully selected and high quality images, some nice production elements such as call out text or transitions, and a well organized credit slide

Next Session:  Wednesday, August 5

  • Read the introductions to both the Delbanco collection on Lincoln and the Gates / Stauffer collection on Douglass and we will begin to discuss the plans for the Lincoln-Douglass final essay
  • For the final two Zoom sessions (August 17 and August 19 at 7pm), we will discuss Part III of Boss Lincoln (chapters 9-12) plus the Epilogue