Outcomes and Student Feedback
Outcomes.
The “Description of the Project” is only a description of the intentions of this project. These were: 1. To familiarize students with the ways in which archival research can aid their analysis; 2. To give English students experience with multidisciplinary humanities research 3. To enhance student understanding of the intellectual processes of literary scholars and academics; and 4. To create a collaborative project that they could look on with pride, and use in their personal portfolios as evidence of their skill in writing in a variety of genres. The responses of the students should give the reader a better understanding of the actual outcomes of this project. What the following comments suggest in common is that the most important aspect of this course was its practical value: engaging them to explore and become familiar with the databases. Secondly, the students seemed to appreciate the depth with which they were able to understand a moment in time by adding new tools to their research.
Student Responses.
“The Hogarth project gave me added insight about the period—typically we just focus on facts about literature and not on the broader effects that it has on other art forms. It’s also interesting to learn about prints. As an English major, I read a lot of books and rarely get to expand my knowledge base to other things in class, so this was a welcome change. As a librarian/educator, it was helpful to know how to search for peer-reviewed articles, and how to use Stony Brook’s databases.”
“Even in classes where outside research was highly encouraged, I rarely used the library resources unless I absolutely had to (weird for an English major, maybe). Being forced to do so for the Hogarth Project revealed that navigating these databases isn’t as bad as I thought it would be (it still is a bit tedious). Going forward, I could definitely see myself using these databases to write better essays. Besides the value that the research project has for me personally, I can also definitely see why researching and understanding older texts has inherent value. I found that studying the language they used, the issues they were concerned with, the form of their writing—it all pointed to this idea: that 200 years wasn’t all that long ago, and less changed below the surface than one might think.”
“It is valuable to learn about this time period because you can see how the written form of the novel becomes common. Also, the reemergence of critical thinking and analyzing the world in which eighteenth-century Englishmen lived is essential in understanding the human condition. This discipline allows us to look critically at our own history and see how we can improve.”
“It was an interesting experience. I explored many older texts on databases for the project and developed a few tricks on how to find things more easily. I also was able, through this means of easy findings, to cut my research time, which is not an easy task. In the future I think that research and exploring databases won’t be as daunting a task as before this project.”
“The Hogarth project taught me about 18thC English history, but more importantly the tools for analyzing satire and, on a larger scale, the use of wit to influence people’s opinions. In this sense the project was quite valuable. In terms of history, I learned the turmoil of the Methodist church and societal trouble it caused. A richer experience still was the analysis of satire and learning how comical appeals to wit and reductio-ad-absurdum can sometimes be more effective than serious dialog.”
“It is easy to research the 18th Century and develop a straightforward understanding of the time. However, after researching William Hogarth, I feel as though I have a significantly deeper understanding of the time period, which is important when we are trying to study this era.”
“This project will be helpful for my studies in law school and eventually my career as a lawyer because I learned how to use the Stony Brook databases to do research instead of just using Google. The project was also very interesting because using articles from the 1700s revealed certain aspects of English culture at this time and worries and concerns held by the English people about politics and religion.”
“Understanding the discipline of literary studies is an important tool to learn because it helps us find the deeper meanings of the poems/novels and lets us better understand the point that the author is trying to convey. It also helps us sift through large amounts of text so that we can look for/focus on the most important aspects. There are in skills we can learn from and use in the future; whether you’re studying English, Art, History, or Business, reading through, and understanding texts is a skill everyone has to learn and this project definitely helped with this.”
“Through using different databases that I have never used during my undergraduate at Stony Brook University, one thing that I learned from this was that doing research from moments of representation rather than reception was fascinating for me. There is value to learning about this period because British history prior to the Revolutionary War with the Americans is ambiguous to the nation-- you do not try to put effort into something that you think has no relevancy to the US, when it actually does. I found interest in the research component of this class because Hogarth’s prints evoked something compelling to me. His Four Times of Day had humor on the surface while in actuality it provoked Londoners to take a better look at their secrets. Hogarth brought through concerns as to the way people treat each other, such as poverty and sin and taboo.”
Outcomes.
The “Description of the Project” is only a description of the intentions of this project. These were: 1. To familiarize students with the ways in which archival research can aid their analysis; 2. To give English students experience with multidisciplinary humanities research 3. To enhance student understanding of the intellectual processes of literary scholars and academics; and 4. To create a collaborative project that they could look on with pride, and use in their personal portfolios as evidence of their skill in writing in a variety of genres. The responses of the students should give the reader a better understanding of the actual outcomes of this project. What the following comments suggest in common is that the most important aspect of this course was its practical value: engaging them to explore and become familiar with the databases. Secondly, the students seemed to appreciate the depth with which they were able to understand a moment in time by adding new tools to their research.
Student Responses.
“The Hogarth project gave me added insight about the period—typically we just focus on facts about literature and not on the broader effects that it has on other art forms. It’s also interesting to learn about prints. As an English major, I read a lot of books and rarely get to expand my knowledge base to other things in class, so this was a welcome change. As a librarian/educator, it was helpful to know how to search for peer-reviewed articles, and how to use Stony Brook’s databases.”
“Even in classes where outside research was highly encouraged, I rarely used the library resources unless I absolutely had to (weird for an English major, maybe). Being forced to do so for the Hogarth Project revealed that navigating these databases isn’t as bad as I thought it would be (it still is a bit tedious). Going forward, I could definitely see myself using these databases to write better essays. Besides the value that the research project has for me personally, I can also definitely see why researching and understanding older texts has inherent value. I found that studying the language they used, the issues they were concerned with, the form of their writing—it all pointed to this idea: that 200 years wasn’t all that long ago, and less changed below the surface than one might think.”
“It is valuable to learn about this time period because you can see how the written form of the novel becomes common. Also, the reemergence of critical thinking and analyzing the world in which eighteenth-century Englishmen lived is essential in understanding the human condition. This discipline allows us to look critically at our own history and see how we can improve.”
“It was an interesting experience. I explored many older texts on databases for the project and developed a few tricks on how to find things more easily. I also was able, through this means of easy findings, to cut my research time, which is not an easy task. In the future I think that research and exploring databases won’t be as daunting a task as before this project.”
“The Hogarth project taught me about 18thC English history, but more importantly the tools for analyzing satire and, on a larger scale, the use of wit to influence people’s opinions. In this sense the project was quite valuable. In terms of history, I learned the turmoil of the Methodist church and societal trouble it caused. A richer experience still was the analysis of satire and learning how comical appeals to wit and reductio-ad-absurdum can sometimes be more effective than serious dialog.”
“It is easy to research the 18th Century and develop a straightforward understanding of the time. However, after researching William Hogarth, I feel as though I have a significantly deeper understanding of the time period, which is important when we are trying to study this era.”
“This project will be helpful for my studies in law school and eventually my career as a lawyer because I learned how to use the Stony Brook databases to do research instead of just using Google. The project was also very interesting because using articles from the 1700s revealed certain aspects of English culture at this time and worries and concerns held by the English people about politics and religion.”
“Understanding the discipline of literary studies is an important tool to learn because it helps us find the deeper meanings of the poems/novels and lets us better understand the point that the author is trying to convey. It also helps us sift through large amounts of text so that we can look for/focus on the most important aspects. There are in skills we can learn from and use in the future; whether you’re studying English, Art, History, or Business, reading through, and understanding texts is a skill everyone has to learn and this project definitely helped with this.”
“Through using different databases that I have never used during my undergraduate at Stony Brook University, one thing that I learned from this was that doing research from moments of representation rather than reception was fascinating for me. There is value to learning about this period because British history prior to the Revolutionary War with the Americans is ambiguous to the nation-- you do not try to put effort into something that you think has no relevancy to the US, when it actually does. I found interest in the research component of this class because Hogarth’s prints evoked something compelling to me. His Four Times of Day had humor on the surface while in actuality it provoked Londoners to take a better look at their secrets. Hogarth brought through concerns as to the way people treat each other, such as poverty and sin and taboo.”