Make your own historical marker online

Historical Marker

World Historical Marker Commission of TSU Public history is any type of history that is directed at the general public (that is, NOT something done mainly for students and teachers in the history classroom). Historical markers are a form of public history that just about everyone has seen sometime, somewhere (there are several on the TSU campus). You will be creating your own historical markers for sites that were historically significant in the period before 1500 CE. As creators of markers you will fill many roles. As RESEARCHERS/AUTHORS you will look up information in appropriate peer-reviewed reference works as defined in the Historical Marker assignment and present the information in historical marker format with an emphasis on historical relevance and interest to the public. You also have the opportunity to serve as FACT CHECKERS AND EDITORS for the markers of others. As such you will double-check the factual information on someone else’s marker for accuracy using appropriate sources and will make corrections/suggestions on matters of grammar, style, organization, clarity, and overall impact of the marker (does it "grab" the reader?). Fact checkers and editors must post their own markers before they can edit someone else’s and will not edit their own markers. Each student in HIST 2060 is responsible for handing in at least two markers by the deadline and is encouraged to act acting as fact-checker and editor to up to three additional markers (researched and written by other students). For more information on public history and historical markers: National Council on Public History, "What is Public History?" http://ncph.org/cms/what-is-public-history/ Historical Marker Database. http://www.hmdb.org/

Assignment Write three historical markers (one for each major period covered by the course). Upload your marker into the D2L (elearn) dropbox for the assignment. Due dates and topics are indicated below. Your lowest grade will be dropped. Compose a text (entirely in your own words) that is historically accurate, full of interesting detail, grammatically correct, and no longer than 150 words. The focus of your marker should be on the time period covered in the course (before 1500 CE and as indicated in the assignment). Your historical marker assignment should include the following sections: (1) Text of the marker. Required elements are a brief description of the historical site/object (remember that in real life marker readers are generally able to see the site, so keep this to a sentence and/or focus on things not necessarily visible), historical context (what was going on in that place generally, such as religious movement, establishment of an empire, etc.), specific historical details relevant to the site, and historical significance. Put information entirely in your own words. Try to avoid quotations since a real-life marker doesn't include facilitate citations, EXCEPT you are encouraged to quote briefly from primary sources if relevant (and you must, of course, clearly identify the sources). Even though real-life markers do not include citations of secondary sources, you should cite sources for all information (citations not included in the word count). Remember to stick to the 150-word limit. (2) Process paragraph: This paragraph (about 100-200 words) will discuss your process in creating the marker. The first part of your paragraph should address the academic decisions you made in putting together the marker. Things to include are your decision to leave out some information (not enough room on the marker), your decision to include other information, things that you wanted to add but couldn't find information about (for example, if you wanted to give the population of a city but couldn't get that info), and decisions that you had to make about organization and presentation. Be sure to provide in-text citations of sources in this paragraph. The second part should be a more personal discussion. You can discuss why you chose your topic, how well you liked (or disliked) the available sources), any surprises along the way (either good or bad surprises; for example, there was a name that could be spelled several different ways, which made looking it up difficult, or if you found out something cool you didn't know before or if your sources gave seemingly contradictory information), and any help (from a librarian or a writing tutor, for example) that made your marker better. You will be graded on content (providing insight into how you worked) and writing (paragraph structure, grammar and style). (3) Full citation (Chicago Manual of Style) of all sources used in your marker and in the process paragraph. You must use at least one article (minimum 200 words) in the collection Oxford Reference Online Premium (available on the eBooks page of the TSU library; password required for off-campus access); you may also use your textbook (give full citation of book and cite specific chapter and page numbers) and articles from the History Compass Journal (in Wiley Online Library on the TSU library’s Database page). If you wish to use any other sources, you must get written permission from the instructor (email edachowski@tnstate.edu) at least 48 hours before the assignment is due and attach a copy of your correspondence to the assignment. Your fact-checker and the director will be looking to make sure that the information you include is supported by your sources, so include in the text of the marker ONLY information that you found in your sources and include in the citation section ALL sources used. If there is a disconnect between sources cited and the information in the marker text, you will be severely penalized. Your editor and the director will be looking to make sure that the form of the citation is correct.

Grading will be as follows: Each marker will be worth 10% of your final grade and will be graded on a 10-point scale. The text of the marker will be worth 4 points, the citations 3 points, and the process paragraphs 3 points. Late markers will be penalized a point a day up to a maximum deduction of 5 points out of 10. Participating in fact-checking and editing is optional and will gain you bonus points on your final grade. To receive full credit, you must post your own marker to the discussion board by the deadline and do a fair and honest job with the markers of other students, and complete both of these tasks in a timely manner. First Marker (choose ONE and focus on the period before 500 BCE) Marker due: September 14. Fact-checking and editing due: September 21. Revisions due: September 28.

Altamira caves (focus on pre-historic info, NOT on modern rediscovery) Tell El-Amarna (hint: Akhenaten/Amenhotep IV) Nineveh Phaistos (Festos), Crete Mohenjodaro El Tajín (hint: Mesoamerica)

Second Marker (choose ONE and focus on the period 500 BCE to 500 CE) Marker due: October 14. Fact-checking and editing due: October 21. Revisions due: October 28.

Kerma (hint: Kush civilization) Fishbourne (Roman villa in Britain) Great Wall of China (focus on period before 500 CE) Palenque (focus on classic period, before 800 CE) Alexandria, Egypt (focus on period before 500 CE) Varanasi (or Benares; focus on the period before 500 CE)

Third Marker (choose ONE and focus on the period 500-1600 CE) Marker due: November 11. Fact-checking and editing due: November 18. Revisions due: Novembe 21.

Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle; city in Germany; hint: Charlemagne) Krak des Chevaliers Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan Varanasi (Benares) (focus on the period before 1500 CE) Great Zimbabwe Bukhara, Uzbekistan (on Silk Route) (focus on period before 1500 CE)

Directions for submission of markers 1. Be sure to complete all parts of the assignment (text of marker, process paragraph, citations) and put them in a single file. 2. Save your marker in an appropriate file format (acceptable formats are Word and Rich Text Format). Keep formatting simple (no text boxes, please) and be sure to put your name on the first page of the marker and give your file a meaningful name (for example, author’s last name and first initial followed by a hyphen and the name of the marker: BrownA-Babylon.doc). 3. Upload a complete file to the Dropbox for the marker in eLearn. Be sure to put the marker in the correct folder (misplaced markers will not be graded).

Directions for fact-checking and editing of markers (bonus point) 1. Go to the appropriate Discussion board in eLearn and choose one marker to fact-check/edit (not your own marker). (Note that ability to read posts on the discussion board will be restricted to those who have made their own post to the appropriate Discussion board.) 2. Write a message assessing the marker. You MUST address the following in your comments (you may choose to divide these up into separate posts; just be sure that it is clear what you are doing and that you address all information before the deadline for comments):

a. Discuss how well the author selected and arranged the subject matter of the marker text. Summarize and discuss at least one piece of information from the marker text to support your evaluation. b. Discuss the use of sources in the marker. Fact-check at least one statement in the marker against the cited sources. Quote from and provide a citation of the source that supports the statement in the marker. (If the marker text does not appear well-supported from the cited sources, then mention which sources you looked at and what types of information they provided; if you think that the writer of the marker misread something, cite what the source says and indicate how the marker text seems to have presented the information incorrectly.) c. Discuss the overall writing in the marker. Consider organization, clarity of style, vividness of imagery, and overall technical proficiency (spelling, grammar, etc.). Be sure to give specific examples from the text of the marker to support your evaluation. d. Did the student follow the directions for the assignment? Specifically, is the topic from

the assigned list of topics? Are the sources from the specified collections only? Is the word-count

for the marker text correct? Did the student include the required process paragraphs?