Overview

Each of you will be reviewing a data-driven historical project. This can be an academic paper, a piece of long-form journalism, a website, or any other substantive work that focuses on some historical topic and uses data in its analysis or presentation. You will write a 700-800 word written review that evaluates the project’s argument, underlying dataset(s), methodology, and design/organization. Rather than just describing the project, your review should focus on what works, what could be further developed, and/or what is missing.

In addition to the written review, you be sharing your review with your classmates via a 5-minute presentation that offers an overview of the project and your evaluation of it.

Assignment Goals

  • Help you develop data literacy, or the ability to critically evaluate data “in action” using real-world examples.
  • Learn about a wider body of data-driven historical research
  • Develop skills in writing and communicating for an online readership

Assignment Instructions

Choose your project

You will choose one project to review. The project can be an academic paper, long-form journalism, or any other substantive work that focuses on some historical topic and uses data in its analysis and/or presentation. You will need your project to be approved by Prof. Blevins ahead of time.

Review Guidelines

The review should follow the guidelines for Digital History Reviews published regularly in the Journal of American History. I would recommend browsing a few of these reviews from recent issues to get a sense for their length and scope.

In the review, you will provide a short introduction to the project (creators, topic, etc.) before evaluating it on the following criteria:

  • Argument and Interpretation: What is the project’s interpretative point of view? How effectively is it communicated?
  • Data and Evidence: What is the underlying dataset? How well do the project’s authors use that data? How does that data fit with other kinds of evidence?
  • Organization and Design: Does it have a clear, effective organization? Is it easy to navigate? What sort of design decisions did the creators’ make and how well do they work?
  • Communication and Audience: Is the project’s argument and evidence clearly communicated? Does it have a clear audience? How well does the project address the needs of that audience?

Format

This assignment is going to be written as a page on your personal portfolio website, geared towards an online readership. We will be walking through the process of building this portfolio website separately so that you have the infrastructure in place to write your review.

Unlike the printed journal reviews, on your website you can and should take advantage of non-textual media. Make sure your post includes screenshots or other visuals that illustrate your points.

Submission

Submit a URL link to your page on the Canvas assignment page.