How to study for the Humanities?

[TheBateman]

Seen a lot of science study tips threads so thought it'd be a good idea to have one for humanities classes.

Could all you SDN veterans and knowledgeable folk tell us your secrets for studying classes in the humanities (sociology, psychology, history, etc)?

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[Lukkie]

you don't

 

[TheBateman]

Wow that was really helpful. Thanks.

 

[DrYoda]

Get a good nights sleep, eat some breakfast, drink some coffee and then proceed to scribble as vauge an answer as possible down on the answer sheet.

 

[pianola]

Heh, ok, as a double humanities major, I'll take a stab at the question.

A lot of times "humanities" tends to mean that there's a lot of reading and/or writing involved. So it's important to be able to read quickly without missing the point of the writing. So, practice reading the document quickly for an overview FIRST and THEN follow it up with a more nuanced reading for details. Ideally you need to make time for both the fast reading and then the slower reading...

It may be helpful to go to the writing center (if they have one at your school) to get guidance on proper grammar, style, and organization if you're having trouble with any of those areas.

It's kind of dependent on the exact course, though.

Maybe that was a little helpful? 😕😕

 

[funkydrmonkey]

you don't

Exactly, I mean come on, its not like it is a science class, or anything important...

Get a good nights sleep, eat some breakfast, drink some coffee and then proceed to scribble as vauge an answer as possible down on the answer sheet.

If you really wanna do something, follow this advice...

 

[funkydrmonkey]

(sociology, psychology, history, etc)?

Never took Socio or psych, but those are social sciences...
History is a humanities class, though,

Studying for humanities classes depends on what the professor talks about, what the class is about, what the format of the tests are etc... it is different for each class, and the best way would be to ask a veteran of your specific class...

 

[HumidBeing]

Notice the points that the prof emphasizes. If you wind up having essay questions, make sure you use as many of them as are appropriate when answering the questions. It will help you organized your thoughts and for the ones that don't bother to read thoroughly through everything, but check to see if you've brought up the points they think are important and use those for scoring, it's key to doing well.

It also helps to have someone who likes to discuss the concepts with you. The verbal interaction can help. Anything that helps you to organize your thinking helps.

Know the instructor's testing style and study with that in mind.

 

[pianola]

I don't know how helpful this comment will be, but knowing how to analyze an argument will get you a long way in any literature, history, or psychology class. Probably most humanities classes, come to think of it.

Knowing how to analyze an argument is largely reliant on several things including:
(1) knowing the elements of the argument that may be weak
(2) being able to effectively communicate the balance of your thoughts
(3) [having some degree of common sense]
(4) understanding how to qualify your thoughts to say EXACTLY what you mean for them to say.

Those are just some thoughts off the top of my head.

 

[pianola]

PS. Thank you SO much for asking the question, OP 😀. Nice to feel like I can contribute something 🙂.

 

[TheBateman]

Thank you even more for your answers!!

 

[justdoit31]

I think the key for me is being able to read material and then to know how to express what I read in words not identical to the reading- in science regurgitating definitions can be part of life but in humanities they seek a more thoughtful answer. Being able to understand literature and critically analyze material is the key!

I also work in my humanities classes to be able to understand stories, events, philosophies well enough I could explain them to someone not in the class and that individual be able to understand.

It has worked so far- I have a lot of humanities hours- both lower and upper level- and have A's in all of them!

 

[135892]

you don't

Exactly...

Isn't the whole point of taking a humanities course to have an easy class that you don't need to spend any time on 😕

 

[Narmerguy]

Exactly...

Isn't the whole point of taking a humanities course to have an easy class that you don't need to spend any time on 😕

I don't know what kind of humanities you have been taking but those classes can be some of the most intense and extreme because it's so vague what is expected of you. Science is simple. There's a right answer, there's a proven way to find it, and you follow the steps and use some logic and you've got the answer.

 

[postnational]

Seen a lot of science study tips threads so thought it'd be a good idea to have one for humanities classes.

Could all you SDN veterans and knowledgeable folk tell us your secrets for studying classes in the humanities (sociology, psychology, history, etc)?

Humanities = Classics, Philosophy, English, Religious Studies, Languages, etc

Social Sciences = Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Political Science, etc

History, Anthropology, Cultural Studies usually play in either group depending on the school.

There really isn't a "method" in studying well for the humanities/social sciences. Different subject matters require different study methods even within the same department. As Pianola suggested always keep in mind what it is you are reading, why and when was it written, is it a strong or a weak argument, how does it relate to previous readings, could the author be responding to some previous readings, do you have any objections to it, etc.

If you are struggling with a Philosophy or a theoretical Sociology course for example, a lot of the Cambridge or Routledge guides (found in any schools library) may help you even if they are not on the official syllabus.

Some general comments:

Try to find courses with subject matters that already interest you because you will be able to focus a bit more.

The only other piece of advice I can give you is to always be up to date with your study. Cramming up a week or a day before a test simply won't fly.

Also don't forget the common student trap. There is this notion (especially for science students) that there are Mickey Mouse courses such as those in Womens or Cultural Studies. Some students think that "hey, I'll walk in say how men suck and I'll get an A". However, most thinkers involved in a Womens Studies course are hard and the reading material is going to be very tough (especially for a student who is out of touch with the subject). Reading some of them is in fact much harder than reading Plato, Cicero or Hume. So approach every class with the same seriousness that you would approach a science class because what you perceive as an underwater basketweaving course may indeed cost you a D or an F on your transcript.

 

[Quix]

There is an excellent work called How to Read a Book that goes through reading strategies based upon the discipline in question, which I'm pushing to make required reading for freshman.

In terms of the humanities, a key is to look at the metamessage of the text in question - it's not necessarily the words that are written so much as the message that is conveyed. There are also particular techniques that are discipline specific, e.g., applications of literary theory and symbolism in literature, applications of historiography in historical analysis, critical thinking/deductive/inductive/analogous thinking in philosophy, etc.

Office hours work just as well for instructors in the humanities as in the social, biological, and physical sciences, too. 😉

 

[enjoydrywax]

What I have found when taking bull**** humanities courses is that the more you visit the TA/teaching assistant/professor, the higher your grade will be at the end of the term.

Let me explain: I have turned in the most putrid and foul essays (in terms of faulty arguments, terrible vocabulary and syntax, and lackluster structure) and pulled out with As and Bs every single time. As long as you keep bringing in your papers for "help" and pretend that you really care about doing a thorough job, the professors or whoever is grading your paper will generally give you a high grade. I assume these grades are a factor of having the professor/TA look at the paper and correct it before hand, thus when it actually comes time to grading they have thoughts of "oh well, I looked at the basic structure of this paper already, helped him correct it, and well, they are MY corrections, so therefore this paper must be better than those who didn't see me for help." BAM, A.

Thank me after your next A.

EDIT: The same applies for essay tests. Just make sure you visit you professor/TA/whoever is responsible for your grade and pull **** out of your ass. Stay there long enough to have a good convo, but don't stay too long--you don't want to fall into "this student is pretty annoying" territory.

I suppose the bottomline is that grading in these subjects is so subjective that you really just have to brown nose and pretend to give two ****s in order to survive. Or, I guess, you could actually be interested in the subject and actually do a good job. Maybe that would work, but it hasn't been my experience.

 

[TheBateman]

enjoydrywax,

I found that this worked extremely well in high school but it's hard for a class with let's say 4 TA's. I don't know which one will read my paper and most of them to refuse to read prior drafts saying it is a waste of their time.
I think I'll try this anyhow for some other classes.

Thanks for all your input guys.

 

[pianola]

enjoydrywax,

I found that this worked extremely well in high school but it's hard for a class with let's say 4 TA's. I don't know which one will read my paper and most of them to refuse to read prior drafts saying it is a waste of their time.
I think I'll try this anyhow for some other classes.

Thanks for all your input guys.

OK, so this might sound like a bizarre suggestion because I came from a small school where the concept of a TA was more or less unheard of, but, could you just ask the professor to read it over 😕😕😕 Most of my professors have been willing to do so and, who knows, you might be the only student who has asked the professor to read it over -- I mean, there's a good chance there aren't 5,000 people who have also asked the professor!

 

[TheBateman]

The prof explicitly stated in class multiple times that she would not read any drafts.
lol

 

[Quix]

The prof explicitly stated in class multiple times that she would not read any drafts.
lol

There may or may not be a good reason for this; I don't want to put words in your professor's mouth. In my case, I buy red pens in bulk, read early drafts, and provide critical feedback (conceptual - grammatical fixes take too much time, and I refer them to the writing center for language critiques). I don't grade easy on these papers, so don't think that essays in the humanties can be crap. If you've lucked out with an easy professor, more power to you, but that's not really par for the course.

 

[pianola]

The prof explicitly stated in class multiple times that she would not read any drafts.
lol

oh wow. That's not cool at all.

Well, I guess my suggestions might be more specific if I knew the nature of the class: In literature classes, it can be helpful to do everything from reading the Cliff's notes to reading other analyses on the web. It can be helpful to question the nuances of the language used in the literature. Also, understanding a historical and stylistic framework can often be a good starting point for analysis. Understand the author's guiding principles and what the author is "known for". <-- you might think that it'd take a long time to look at all that, but it really doesn't involve much more than skimming wikipedia and/or other information dense sources and then citing the same information from a *reputable* source.

I'm not suggesting plagiarizing any of these sources, but they can be a good springboard for your own analytical ideas.

**This may or may not be of any help, but, if you're writing a long paper, write it single-spaced first. It's easier for me to visualize the organization of my paper when it's single-spaced first. It's easier to review what you just wrote, too, so that you retain a coherent train of thought.

PS. I'm actually a better writer than my internet posts may suggest 😛 so I apologize for anything that isn't clear.

 

[pianola]

Also, if you have time for this at all, I would try to finish any papers 2-3 days in advance. Sleep on what you wrote for a couple of days -- don't look at it. Then come back to it and read it with fresh eyes -- you might find places in the writing where you realize you didn't quite say what you *meant* to say.

Another option is to "proofread from the end" -- in other words, read your essay backwards and see if you are still clear in what you want to say and that the organization is what you want it to be. I haven't found this method terribly helpful but I know others have.

Best of luck! I'm totally rooting for you to make an A in this class btw 😀 😀.

 

[Keona]

Each different humanities class has a different method for how you should study. In writing essays it's helpful to have friends or even parents who are good writers. They can critique your papers for you, as long as you finish writing it early enough. If you go this route make sure you have more than one person read your paper, some people think they're much better proof readers than they actually are.