Steffany’s Reviews > A Pocket Guide to Writing in History > Status Update

On this page it discusses critiques and book reviews. I for one have always struggled with these because of what Rampolla talks about; assessing weaknesses and strengths. I have always found this hard because I didn't think I could talk about it since I wasn't qualified it the purpose behind these is to be able to analyze.

Towards the end of this page the author mentions with the use of primary and secondary sources it allows for the historian to provide a unique point of view from multiple sources. In my opinion I think this skill is so important to have especially when dealing with research because one must gain an understanding of it as a whole and the only way to do that is by multiple perspectives.

Rampolla uses a word I was not familiar with entirely for history uses: synthesis. The idea is to do all other steps that the book discusses and then create your own perspective. I will have to do this on my research, it is an extemely daunting task. Hopefully I can gain this skill soon.

On this page the book discusses the idea of examing where the evidence came from. Who had it, where was it.. etc.. this is an extemely important role when trying to understand something from history, one must understand its context.