Critical Response Paper

Help me study for my History class. I’m stuck and don’t understand.

A critical essay that tells the reader what a historical monograph (book) means to you. It reflects a close reading of the work, contains specific examples drawn from the work (documented parenthetically with page numbers), and provides your well–considered opinion of the work’s strengths and/or shortcomings. The essay demonstrates that you have read the book, internalized and contextualized its arguments, and can articulate and substantiate your reactions to it.

This paper asks you to respond to how the ideas in the book connect to the similar ideas in the textbook.Ask yourself the following questions as you prepare to write your response paper. You don’t need to include the answers to these questions in your paper, but they can help you organize your thoughts and decide what you’d like to write about in your response.

1.What were the main topics in both books that really interested you? Why is that? What is the evidence that makes it interesting? How does the topic change over time? Why is the topic different in different parts of Africa?

2. How is the book “talking” to the textbook? Who are their subjects? How do the themes in the book relate to those in the textbook and the course

3. How do these books relate to what interests you about African history? What did you learn from them? If you didn’t learn much, why was that? What questions did the texts leave you with? What would you like to learn more about?

4. Most importantly, do the books and thy way they are “talking”to each other help you understand the period better? Do they answer questions you may have had from the course, and reading? Does it open up questions that you don’t have answers to? These might be topics for you to explore in your final project.