To write history is not an easy task. But I was able to meet the challenge upon doing my first historical writing of the United States. The first one was quite a great task for I have in my hands, 50 documents about the war, the personalities, speeches of the presidents, acts and treaties and the like. Those are primary sources. Raw and unedited primary sources. The question that I immediately have to answer was how to recreate the past using the documents. What followed was a massive amount of work but I was able to make it.
The next time I was asked to write about American History from 1950 to 2000 was quite a challenge. I belong to the contemporary times and have known the History of the United States for some time now but how to rewrite it again is definitely not an easy task. It got harder knowing that I am allowed to do research and background reading.
The more that I read, the more I got consumed of the articles and the facts and the more that I got confused of what to include. But I remained committed to my task. The historical perspective that I have in mind was not sufficient to put into paper. I did background reading and much to much dismay, I got brain freeze. I was bent on to writing which are the more important and which are not. It is a wrong idea to write history thinking of what I am going to include. In a way, I became biased. So what happened was that I am not able to capture the experiences of the nation that I am writing. Throughout my writing, I tried to focus on including facts but it falls short of my expectations. I was constrained by circumstances that made me think that I am doing a term paper and not a historical writing.
Accomplishing the goal of recreating the past became a tedious task for me. I need s strong chronology and a strong conceptual framework but my writing shows that I failed in so doing, but I am able to include the major themes that I believe is important in my writing. The themes about the presidents although short have given me a sense of a pattern in connecting bits and pieces of history. Each period of American history is signaled by the start of a new presidency. Each of the presidents has shown good and bad leadership that had caused a change in the course of American history.
To put a face in the historical experience of the United States is quite hard. Taken together, it is an experience worth writing. Good narrative is primarily a product of good sentences and a good coherence. On my part, I would say that this is one of my strongest points. The revising process is also an opportunity for me to incorporate my own writing style. But as far as I know, I wasn’t able to resolve the bitter issue that confronts new historian and that is to be biased upon the selection of what is history and what is not.
Being aware of some contemporary events, I was faced with the question of what recurrent events should be included in my work. But I tried to be fair. It will depend largely on how the audience will view my writing. Historian and future historians might also analyze the case of writing history from the context of influence. I believe that writing history is about making choices. Nowhere is this process more difficult than to write about recent events. We are bombarded with headlines and today’s headlines can become tomorrow’s history.
To write about recent events require courage and the all encompassing question of “Is my writing worth the time?” when the newspapers are all writing about it. But as far as I can tell, I was able to connect events and able to evaluate the documents. It is a difficult process that I am able to achieve.
The next time I was asked to write about American History from 1950 to 2000 was quite a challenge. I belong to the contemporary times and have known the History of the United States for some time now but how to rewrite it again is definitely not an easy task. It got harder knowing that I am allowed to do research and background reading.
The more that I read, the more I got consumed of the articles and the facts and the more that I got confused of what to include. But I remained committed to my task. The historical perspective that I have in mind was not sufficient to put into paper. I did background reading and much to much dismay, I got brain freeze. I was bent on to writing which are the more important and which are not. It is a wrong idea to write history thinking of what I am going to include. In a way, I became biased. So what happened was that I am not able to capture the experiences of the nation that I am writing. Throughout my writing, I tried to focus on including facts but it falls short of my expectations. I was constrained by circumstances that made me think that I am doing a term paper and not a historical writing.
Accomplishing the goal of recreating the past became a tedious task for me. I need s strong chronology and a strong conceptual framework but my writing shows that I failed in so doing, but I am able to include the major themes that I believe is important in my writing. The themes about the presidents although short have given me a sense of a pattern in connecting bits and pieces of history. Each period of American history is signaled by the start of a new presidency. Each of the presidents has shown good and bad leadership that had caused a change in the course of American history.
To put a face in the historical experience of the United States is quite hard. Taken together, it is an experience worth writing. Good narrative is primarily a product of good sentences and a good coherence. On my part, I would say that this is one of my strongest points. The revising process is also an opportunity for me to incorporate my own writing style. But as far as I know, I wasn’t able to resolve the bitter issue that confronts new historian and that is to be biased upon the selection of what is history and what is not.
Being aware of some contemporary events, I was faced with the question of what recurrent events should be included in my work. But I tried to be fair. It will depend largely on how the audience will view my writing. Historian and future historians might also analyze the case of writing history from the context of influence. I believe that writing history is about making choices. Nowhere is this process more difficult than to write about recent events. We are bombarded with headlines and today’s headlines can become tomorrow’s history.
To write about recent events require courage and the all encompassing question of “Is my writing worth the time?” when the newspapers are all writing about it. But as far as I can tell, I was able to connect events and able to evaluate the documents. It is a difficult process that I am able to achieve.
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