In this assignment, I was assigned various New York Times articles based on my birthday. Since my last name starts with “F”, I was assigned the years 1877, 1933, and 2001 all on March 10th to research. Our task was to read each paper, then take note of how information was presented and with what kind of tone was used, what the current events were locally and globally, and what kind and how advertisements were presented.

In my case, significant information was the documentation of criminal activity in America in 1877- or more precisely, con-artists stealing a woman’s money in her own home.  It seems there has always been someone out there tricking people into giving up their funds.

Another significant part of my research was in 1933, the rise of Hitler’s Nazi Army during World War II. Coverage of fighting and wartime difficulties were no doubt an ongoing theme during this time.

I was able to use a myriad of personal skills for this assignment. I used the micro form machine in the Perry Library at ODU to view these old newspapers, and I used a lot of computer skills to research citations and basic Chicago-style documentation rules. The use of word processing software was paramount in this assignment, as without previous knowledge of how to insert footnotes and hanging indents, I would have required someone train me on this during the assignment.

Assignment #2 HIST201