HST 206, Historical Inquiry, introduces students to essential skills in investigating and interpreting the past.  The course stresses active participation, writing, and intensive reading of primary documents and secondary literature.  Required of History Majors, HST 206 also serves as the class that fulfills College of Arts and Science writing requirements.  It meets the following outcomes:

1. Recognize difference between primary and secondary sources, describe primary sources (chronology, authorship, audience, genre, bias), and use primary sources.
2. Identify thesis, argument, and use of evidence; analyze and critique arguments; recognize historical genres.
3. Practice research skills by learning to choose a topic and shape a thesis; search the literature and documentation, and recognize that research is a process.
4. Learn to write historically by taking notes, using sources, structuring an argument, integrating primary and secondary sources, and recognizing how and when to use documentation.
5. Demonstrate a familiarity with opportunities for career preparation by having completed the one-hour program "Basic Interviewing Skills," offered by the Center for Career Exploration Success (CCES), either in-class, as an on-site CCES class, or as a webinar.