McLean
English 102, Spring 2012
Personal History Project: 100 points total
Due Dates: Point of Departure: Tuesday February 14. (10 points)
First Source Summary/response: Tuesday March 6. (20 points)
Second Source Summary/response: Thursday April 19. (20 points)
Third Source Summary/response: Thursday May 17. (20 points)
Presentation: Tuesday, May 5or Thursday, May 17 (30 points)
Throughout the class, we are reading about how people discover their “personal histories” in
different ways, learning more, as they go, about their own lives, families, and place in the world.
Your “Personal History Project” is an opportunity for you to discover more about your own
background--about the people, places, events, or interests that went into shaping who you are
today. There are lots of angles you can take in your approach to this project, but you should
begin by thinking of something about your personal history that you are interested in knowing
more about. It might be something you know a little about but want to investigate further, or
something you know nothing at all about and want to uncover. Your personal history project is
like a journey of your own, and once you start with a question that interests you, you can see
where it leads you.
There are five parts to your Personal History Project, which will be due at different points
in the semester. Each one is described in detail on the attached pages.
Personal History Project
Step One: Point of Departure
Due Tuesday February 14 (10 points). 1-2 pages, typed, double spaced.
This journal is your starting point for your semester-long Personal History Project. In it you
should do the following:
a) State, at the top of the page, the question you have chosen as a starting point for
your project. Make it a specific, focused question. It should be about something you are
interested in knowing more about, that is important to your own life, and that you think
you can learn more about by doing some basic research such as conducting interviews,
reading a book or article, researching on the internet, looking at photographs, looking in
an encyclopedia, doing a site visit, or exploring relevant artwork or music.
Once you have a specific question to focus on, it will make it much easier for you to do your
research. Your question might focus on a particular person (“What was my mother’s life like
growing up in India?”), an ethnic group you are a part of (“When and why did AfricanAmericans begin to settle in Oakland?”), a specific time or place (“What was Hayward like when
my grandparents were growing up here?”), an event (“How did the Vietnam War affect people in
my family?”), or even an activity or occupation that has relevance to your own life (“How did
punk rock music get started?”).
b) Discuss why you decided to focus on this question, and what you can learn from it
about yourself. What does the question mean to you? How does it relate to you
personally? What do you hope to find out? What doubts or concerns do you have about
researching it? What knowledge do you already have that might help point you in the
right direction? What resources might help you find out what you need to know? Where
will you begin to look? Who could you turn to for help?
Basically, this is a 1-2 page journal in which you tell me what you have chosen to focus on
and why.
Personal History Project
Steps Two, Three, and Four: Source Summary/Responses
Due:
First Source Summary/response: Tuesday March 6 (20 points)
Second Source Summary/response: Thursday April 19 (20 points)
Third Source Summary/response: Thursday May 17 (20 points)
1-2 pages each, typed and double spaced.
The next step is to begin research. We will have a library orientation to help you start to look for
information on your personal history. You will probably come across a good number of sources
that might be related to what you want to know, but you should ultimately focus on and write up
3 sources that you feel really helped you learn more about the question you are pursuing. A
source can be:
An interview. (If you do an interview, even if it is with someone you know well, prepare
in advance by writing up 10 or so questions you want to ask them. Make an appointment
with them so they have time to sit with you for at least a half hour and really talk. It often
helps to record the interview, and to take careful notes for yourself. If you think of
follow-up questions after the interview, ask the person and write those down, too). Up to
two of your three sources can be interviews.
A book. You may find a good book on the history of a group or people you belong to, a
place you live or have lived, or an event that shaped your family’s lives.
An article. Newspapers and journals may have articles on a group, event, time period,
place, person, or migration experience you are interested in.
An encyclopedia entry. These sometimes give a good overview of a time or place or
people. Subject-specific encyclopedia entries are especially useful as they have more indepth articles.
A quality website. There is good information on the internet, and there is also a lot of
biased, unreliable stuff. Up to two of your sources can be internet sources, but they must
be high-quality sources for you to get credit for them. That means it needs to be detailed,
well-informed, and you need to be clear on who is publishing it and why. Check all
websites with me before using them as a source. Wikipedia is NOT a valid website, as it
can be edited by any reader without review. However, Wikipedia entries often provide
bibliographies (at the bottom) that list sources they used—these can be a good place to
start in your research.
A film. There may be films—fictional or documentary—that relate to the experiences
you want to find out more about.
Even music, art, photographs, other cultural items, or a site visit (to a specific place
relevant to your research) may be appropriate sources. Please check with me if you have
an idea about these.
On the dates listed above, you will turn in three Source Summary/Responses. These are
1-2 page typed, double-spaced write-ups of the 3 different sources you end up finding most
useful for your project. For each source:
a) at the top of your paper, cite the source in MLA format (this shows exactly what kind of
source it is). Use the library MLA citation handout to see how to cite your particular
source
b) take 1-2 paragraphs to summarize the most important information you got from your
source. If your source is an interview, include the specific questions you asked, and
summarize the answers to the questions
c) take 1-2 paragraphs to respond to what you have learned. What do you feel or think
about what you discovered? How does is affect you personally? Does it change the way
you think about yourself and your history? In what ways? Does it relate to any of the
readings or issues we’ve been talking about in class? How so?
Personal History Project
Step Five: Presentation
Due Tuesday, May 15 or Thursday, May 17. (30 points).
To conclude your Personal History Project, you will prepare a 10 minute individual presentation
to share with the class. Your presentation should include a visual component as well as a verbal
component: that is, prepare something to show the class as well as something to tell them. The
visual component might include a powerpoint presentation, a posterboard display, a video, a
collage, a cooked dish or food item, a dance or music, a film clip, a website, etc. The verbal
component should explain to the class what your topic/question was, why you picked it, why it is
important to you, and what you feel you learned or gained from the research.