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Academic Reading and Writing notes
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ARW lecture 1, Sep 13, 2019 Sep 13,2019
What is academic reading
Critical reading is not scrolling!: processing, evaluating and analysing a text
o What does it say?
o Who wrote the text and with which purpose?
o Is the text reliable?
o Eliminate distractions!
o Take time for reading, processing etc.
o Paper and pencil recommended
o Active process: notes, highlighting, looking up words
o “Knowledge never stands alone, it builds and plays against the knowledge of
previous knowers and reporters, whom scholars call sources”
o Questions at university do not have a single (simple) answer: Not only dealing with
sources, but taking care in their use!
Research is not clicking!
content
Reading
Academic writing:
o Understand the existing perspectives, then formulate your own
o Identify your research niche- what interests me?
o Gather sources, read them, compare and contrast
o Develop central argument
o Elaborate central argument with supporting arguments/counter arguments and
evidence
o Write the essay
What is an academic essay?
Original piece of writing on a clearly defined topic of scholarly interest
NOT:
o a personal narrative
o a summary of facts
o marketing material
o an explanation of what someone else thinks (paraphrasing at some point is okay, but
be critical)
descriptive:
o “discuss several instances”
Explanatory:
o “”This essay will consider the extent to which the government is potentially
responsible for…”
Argumentative focus
o ”This essay argues that…”
An academic essay is:
o Focused: central purpose of the essay is clearly stated in the thesis statement
1
, o Analytical
o Structured (3 parts)
o Coherent: linking words
o Scholarly in tone: academic register
o Well supported: reliable evidence, quotes and parapührases other scholars
o Logical: built on argumentation
o Ethical: no plagiarism
o Engaging
Assignments
Library tutorial, due in week 40, 10%
Critical reflection 20%
Bullet point list of arguments 20%
Final essay 50%
Global History
Guns, germs and Steel
Global history and case study for ARW
“The great divergence” (Pomeranz)
Debate: how did Europe become so powerful, even though it was so underdeveloped up
until the mids of the 2nd millennium
o Presence of coal in Europe and of other elements: make it more likely that Europe
becomes industrializes first
Assignment
“California School and beyond” Vries
Economic side of the divergence debate
o Role of state, class,
“Military revolution” Andrade
How Europe came to dominate Asia with its military material (e.g. Opium wars)
o Role of military innovation and how that led to state building
Question: How do we explain the rise of the west versus the Rest? Why is the west so affluent?
What separates those who have from those who don´t?
Jared Diamond
Has written and dealt with:
o Physiologist
o Ornithologist
o i.e. broad intellectual
Why is the west so affluent?
Book responds to this: Genetics? Survival of the fittest?
Argument: complex civilisations to colonise the rest of the world
2
, o Condition: food surplus
Horizontal orientation: constant climate for food surplus
o Allows for specialisation
E.g. domesticated animals that contribute to efficient food production and
transport (not too possible outside of Eurasia)
o Domesticated animals carry diseases that sprung over to people
Those who survived were resistant to flu, Tuberculosis, Malaria,…
o Those diseases killed masses of people in the Americas in the 15 th and 16th century
o Wars only with those settled: no wars with hunters and gatherers
Innovation through violence
o Because of that innovation in other fields (steel,…)
o Breakthroughs through that lead to more innovation, possible through specialisation
Why not Asia?
o Asia “flat”, because of that one big society
o Societies broke apart in Europe due to geographical reasons
o That lead to competition and thus to
Efficient military techniques
Efficient economic structures in order to fund that military
o Shipping: only efficient states survive militarily
o Efficient tax collection
o Asia: big, central-led empires
Innovation haltered
Intrigues
Example: Zhen He: big ships and innovation, but inward-turned
policies: China lost its advantage
Why is this book influential?
Thought-provoking thesis
o Broad strokes argument
o Criticism
Geographic determinism
Economic progress in Asian societies ignored
Also barriers could have emerged in Europe and resulted in the
isolation like it happened in Asia
Few references
Translated into several languages
Preparation for ARW Tutorial on Sep 20, 2019
Jared Diamond, “Guns, Germs, and Steel” – Preface
search for ultimate explanations, why world history unfolded differently in different regions,
no racism
only brief treatment of history outside of western Eurasia and northern Africa, as well as
brief treatment of history before writing
increasing interest in history outside of western Eurasia: majority of people as well as
emerging strong powers
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