World Views: War and Its Alternatives - Summer Assignment

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SUMMER ASSIGNMENT : Reading and Writing Oral Histories of War

The summer assignment serves several purposes. Perhaps most important, it invites you to begin this class as you will want to begin all your classes-as a contributing participant in inquiry, discussion, analysis and reflection. It also leads you to take a critical attitude toward the reading for this course, in this case, by extending Terkel's project with additional oral histories. More practically, it ensures lively discussion in the first few meetings as you and 15 or 16 strangers become a class. And it provides your instructor with a sample of your writing. We hope you'll have some fun with this assignment.

The assignment comes in three linked parts: the reading you do will lead to an interview you make, and the reading and the interview contribute to a paper you will write. Please read all three parts through, and then return to Part 1.

PART 1: SUMMER READING

Over the summer, all first-year students will read sections of Studs Terkel's "The Good War": An Oral History of World War II, a collection of taped and edited interviews about various experiences of WWII. You are welcome and encouraged to read Terkel's entire book, but you are only required to read the following pages: 19-185 and 235-297.

Terkel's interviewees have many stories to tell: happy, sad, exciting, surprising, idealizing, disillusioning stories. Read for their stories, of course. But read critically as well. Before you begin, think about what you know about WWII and how you know it:

• What have you read?
• What have you studied in school?
• What movies have you seen?
• What stories have you heard from your grandparents, parents, others who may have been there?
• Why is WWII "the good war"?
• Who was it good for?

Then, as you read Terkel, pay attention to how this text both confirms (and perhaps adds to) and disrupts (by calling into question or reinterpreting) what you think you know about WWII. Pay attention to the interviewees' experience:

• What do Terkel's interviewees make of their own experience of war? (That is, how do they characterize it? What did it consist of for them?)
• Was it a "good war" for them?
• What surprises you? Why? (You may be surprised, for example, by what Terkel's interviewees don't talk about!)

This would be an ideal time for you to get in the habit of writing as you read. So get a notebook and keep it with you as you read; write up your responses to individual interviews as you read them, noting especially the questions they raise for you.

PART 2: YOUR OWN INTERVIEW

After finishing the Terkel reading, arrange to interview someone who has personal experience with war. Make an appointment when you can spend at least 45-60 minutes together.

The interview will be about personal experiences of any war (including WWII). It doesn't matter whether the person you interview was a combat soldier, nurse, protestor, or civilian, as long as s/he felt directly affected by the war. If you can't find a family member or friend to interview, make arrangements for an interview through your local church, senior center, veterans group, or other community organization.

Be sure to get permission to do the interview. Explain to your interviewee the purpose of the assignment and ask him or her for permission to quote interview statements in your paper (and possibly in class). The interviewee must fill out and sign the attached "Interview Permission" form. Save the signed "Interview Permission" form and hand it in with your paper. If someone does not want to sign the "Interview Permission" form, you will need to find another interviewee.

Ideally, the interviews will be made with some type of recording device (cassette recorder, camcorder, etc.), but if that's not possible, just take extensive written notes during the interview.

Plan your interview questions ahead of time. Think about what especially interested you or surprised you in the reading and ask questions that will help you pursue this issue. You will, of course, want to be clear before you arrive for the interview about what participation in war was (as a combat soldier, a protester, a worried mom, etc.) for your interviewee. You might keep some interviewing tips in mind:

• It's generally best to start with a few fairly easy questions-ones that can be answered factually (What war? What dates? Where were you?)
• Then move to the ones more about their personal experience.
• You might want to ask for clarification about differences in how they felt during their war experience and how they feel now, looking back.
• Be gentle: if your interviewee seems not to want to answer a question, you might have to move on.
• Frame your questions so that they cannot be answered simply yes or no.
• Ask them to illustrate their experiences with specific examples or stories.
• Be alert for interesting lines that the interviewee introduces, even if you don't have a question to fit them! This is part of the value of interviews.
  

PART 3: THE PAPER

Write an essay in which you explore some aspect of the experience of war based on the interview you conducted and at least one interview from Terkel's book. The questions you asked will help to establish the focus of your paper. You should focus on a single aspect of their experience (for example, how a mother in the US believed she could support her child fighting overseas, or what a soldier understood about the cause for which the US was fighting). Try to go beyond simply reporting what your interviewee said and what a Terkel interviewee said, beyond simply noticing similarities and differences. Try to account for similarities and differences. Or show how what you've learned from your reading and interviewing goes against clichés and commonplaces. Or reflect on the significance of this aspect of the experience of war.

Write for readers who do not have Terkel, your interview, or this assignment sheet in front of them. This means that you need to give brief introductions to the characters whose experience you discuss: "John Abbott, a draftee whose draft board classified him as a conscientious objector in WWII, remembers . . ." or "Al Johnson, my uncle and a 1968 draftee to the war in Viet Nam, claims . . ."

Your paper should be between 800 and 1600 words long.

When you quote from or refer to material from Terkel, give a parenthetical reference following the quotation or reference in this style: (Terkel 168). Quotations or references to your interview should be obvious from the context in your paragraphs.

At the end of your paper (a separate page is not necessary), skip a few lines, and provide bibliographic information for the Terkel book. Supply the following information for your interview: Interviewee's last name, first name. Personal interview. Date of interview.

Presentation details:

• Proofread the paper carefully for grammar, punctuation, spelling, missing words.
• Put your name top left of the first page.
• Title your paper, centered, two lines below your name.
• Print the paper directly below (no title page), double-spaced in 11 or 12 point font.

PART 4: The first day of class, August 25

• Bring your completed paper (including the "Interview Permission" form, stapled to the last page).
• Bring the Terkel book.
• Be prepared to talk in class (informally) about your paper, interview, and Terkel. In particular, be prepared to read and discuss what you see as the single most interesting, revealing quotation from your interview. Presumably this quotation will appear in your paper, so you can read it from your paper.

Your instructor will explain how you will present your papers to the rest of the class during the first meeting.

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