Emails Sent to Class List Server

(This page provides an archive of all important emails sent to students in 460.)

Honors Credit in 460 and the Honors / Grad Section (301), Sent on August 28

If you are an undergraduate who wishes to earn honors credit in History / Geography / Environmental Studies 460, or if you are an honors undergraduate or graduate student still hoping to register for the special Honors / Grad section (301) of 460, please read on.

If you are an honors undergraduate or a graduate student enrolled who would still like if possible to register for the special Honors / Grad section of 460, which meets from 8:30-9:40am on Wednesday mornings (20 more minutes than one of the regular sections), there are still a small number of seats available in that section. If that slot is open on your schedule and you would like to be considered for admission, please email me at your earliest convenience explaining your reasons for seeking to be admitted. I may be able to authorize you to do so. The sooner you can get back to me about this, the more likely it is that I'll be able to authorize you to register for the section.

If, on the other hand, you are unable to attend the special Honors / Grad section but would still like to earn honors credit for 460, you are welcome to do so. You will need to complete the longer, more fully researched version of the final place paper (described in the syllabus), but are otherwise welcome to remain in the section for which you are currently registered. You'll need me to sign a course change form authorizing you to register for honors credit if you've not already done so, but that's the only bureaucratic step you'll need to take. If this is an option you'd like to pursue, please just bring your completed course change form on the first day of class and I'll be happy to sign it for you.

Again, let me know ASAP if you're interested in being admitted to the Honors / Grad section.

If You're In a Section of 460 That You Cannot Atten, Sent on August 28

Please read the following if you are currently enrolled in a section of History / Geography / Environmental Studies 460, "American Environmental History," that does not fit your schedule and that you cannot attend. Registration in such a section does NOT entitle you to swap into another section that better fits your schedule!

In past years, in the days of touchtone registration, I spent many hours trying to help students change sections or gain admission to the course after the start of classes. Unfortunately, the last time I tried to do this, I discovered that web registration no longer makes it at all easy to do. (Indeed, the net effect of my efforts to move students between sections by hand under the web registration system was that the course wound up having many more open seats than it should have because I had to block on-line registration to complete all the manual transfers.) So I'm afraid you will be on your own with the web registration system as far as section changes are concerned.

If you need to change sections, you'll have to look on the Registrar's web page to see if there's open space in a section to which you'd like to move, and transfer over to it as quickly as possible. If you're still trying to get in to the course, the only way to do so will also be to seize an open seat in a section you can attend using the on-line registration whenever you're permitted to do so. Section attendance is mandatory, and you must be enrolled in a section you can actually attend in order to remain in the course.

You cannot register in one section but attend a different one. Please do not ask your section leader to let you do this. If you're currently in a section that conflicts with another course in your schedule, you will have to drop one of the two courses unless you're able to shift to another section that has open seats and that fits your schedule. Neither the teaching assistants nor I will be able to authorize a section change; you can only do this using the standard web process.

PLEASE NOTE: Being registered in a section you cannot actually attend will not be any help to you in determining whether you'll eventually get into a section that WILL work. Indeed, hanging on to a section that doesn't fit your schedule will only delay the inevitable, and make it more difficult for some other student who might have been able to register for that section to do so. (This is actually a pretty good example of an environmental concept called a "tragedy of the commons" that we'll discuss in the course itself.) I would therefore urge you to drop unworkable sections sooner rather than later so everyone will have a chance to get in to sections that will work for them.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience I'm sure this will cause a few of you, but there is really no other way to handle changes under the automated web registration process. If you need to make a change, I wish you the best of luck—I truly do!—in navigating the automated system. If past experience is any indication, a number of seats should in fact open up in various sections during the first week of classes.

Introductory Message, Sent on August 26

Friends—

Welcome to History/Geography/Environmental Studies 460, "American Environmental History," in which you are currently enrolled.

Please read the following carefully so you'll be ready the first time we meet for lecture, on Wednesday, September 8, at 2:30pm in 2650 Humanities.

COURSE WEBSITE AND SYLLABUS:
We have a course page on my personal website at http://www.williamcronon.net/courses/460.htm which you'll want to get to know well. You'd be wise to bookmark it, though you can also reach it by Googling my name plus the number 460: "William Cronon 460." Handouts will appear on it for each individual lecture, along with many other readings and resources relating to the course. I've just posted on it the files for this year's updated master syllabus, which you'll find formatted both for printing and for on-screen viewing. The HTML version of the syllabus can be accessed at http://www.williamcronon.net/courses/460_syllabus_fall_2010.htm, which I'd urge you at least to skim as soon as possible (but remember, that is NOT the best version for printing). It gives a comprehensive overview all assignments, including the required books that are now on sale at the University Bookstore in case you want to try to acquire copies early at more favorable prices.

SECTION MEETINGS:
We will hold section meetings for the first time during the week of September 6--and your section will meet that week no matter whether it occurs before or after the first lecture. We'll do general introductions and talk about the goals of the course in that first section, and will spend some time answering any questions about the final place paper assignment, about which I've already written you in an earlier email (pasted below, and also available along with all other course emails from a link on our course web page).

READINGS:
As you'll see from the syllabus, we would very much like you to take the time to read The Craft of Research, by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory Colomb, and Joseph Williams. Although we won't be discussing it during any particular section, this classic guide provides invaluable advice for working on your final place paper assignment. In truth, it can fundamentally change the way you approach any major research project you tackle here at UW-Madison and later in your life. The sooner you can work your through it, the better, so if you've got time to start reading even before the semester begins, by all means do so.

That's about all for now. Enjoy what's left of the summer, and we'll see you soon!

Bill Cronon

Initial Message about Place Paper Assignment, Sent on August 4

Friends--

I'm sending this message to all students currently registered for History / Geography / Environmental Studies 460, "American Environmental History." Although I'll be in touch with you again as soon as I've finished revising the syllabus for the course, I didn't want to delay any longer in encouraging you to give some thought now to your final "place paper" for the course, since some of you may want to do some work on that paper even before the fall semester starts--especially if you happen to be located right now in the place you'll be writing about!

Basically, this assignment--which many students enjoy quite a lot, and which has generated some of the best papers I've ever read in an undergraduate course--asks you to take a place you know well and write an environmental history of how people have lived in and changed its landscape over the years.

There will be a full description of the assignment in the syllabus, and I'll let you know when you can download that document from my website, but the place paper itself is described in full at:
http://www.williamcronon.net/courses/460_place_paper_assignment.htm
You can download and read many samples of excellent student place papers from past years from:
http://www.williamcronon.net/courses/460_place_papers.htm
These and other resource pages will always be accessible to you through our course web page at:
http://www.williamcronon.net/courses/460.htm
You may want to bookmark especially the last of these links so you can always find it, though it should be the top hit if you Google my name "William Cronon" along with our course number "460."

Here's why I'm writing you about this even before the semester begins.

The sooner you can identify the place about which you'll be writing, the better able you'll be to integrate material from the course into what you have to say about it, and the greater the likelihood that you may be able to spend time studying that place before you write about it. It's quite possible that many of you are currently located in or near the place you'll eventually choose to write about—many students select a place in their home town or in a favorite summer location—and if so, you might well want to do some thinking about that place while you're still near it. Walking around your chosen place, taking photographs, talking with people, perusing family scrapbooks, and perhaps even seeing if you can locate a few documents (maps, photos, newspaper clippings) about it in a local library or historical society may be much easier to do where you are now than would be true in Madison.

You are certainly not required to start gathering thoughts and documents for your place paper now, but since many students eventually find themselves making a special trip during the semester to do just these things, I thought it might be helpful to let you know about the assignment now in case you'd like to start thinking about it before the semester begins. Again: you will find lots of information about the place paper in the syllabus and on the place paper page I've mentioned above, so please look at that section sooner rather than later if you happen now to be in a place you think you might want to write about from an environmental history point of view.

We hope you'll use your place paper as an opportunity to hone your research skills. Toward that end, we encourage you to start reading and exploring our special course website on "Learning Historical Research," which you'll find at http://www.williamcronon.net/researching/index.htm
It was created by a group of UW-Madison students, and offers many tips and suggestions that can be very helpful for your place paper. You are also strongly encouraged to read The Craft of Research, 3rd ed., by Wayne C. Booth et al., which is a an absolutely superb introduction to the skills involved in doing a major research paper. Students who have read this book in the past say that it changed their entire approach to writing papers in college, so if you can possibly find the time to read it carefully, we don't think you'll regret doing so.

By the way, emails like this one are archived on the following web page if you ever need to look at them again:
http://www.williamcronon.net/courses/460_emails.htm
There's a link for this on our course web page as well.

Thanks for taking the time to read this message. I'll send along further details about the course--especially the list of textbooks if you want to order them ahead of time--as soon as I've finalized the syllabus, probably by next week at the latest.

Enjoy what's left of the summer, and I'll see you soon!

Bill Cronon