1.What skills are acquired / practiced when studying History? Make a list of as many of these skills as you can. (If you are not sure, think about what historians do when examining or writing a historical work, when evaluating and critiquing the works of other historians, and when teaching people about history – at any level of the educational system. After making a detailed list of skills that are involved in the study of History as an academic discipline, briefly discuss the potential usefulness of these skills for other professions and/or in our everyday lives. This will help you to see how the academic study of History is useful as part of our general education.)
Investigative
Research
Communication
Patience
Writing
Commitment

History is the ultimate puzzle. Mastering the skills developed through studying history gives you the ability to discern fact from fiction and reality from myth. It makes you more able to document an event with better accuracy. In Science, this can help you reach a desired solution or result by depicting the outcome of trials and tests with better understanding. In everyday life you will be more critical of events as they are told or received initially by you. You will look for ways to justify or corroborate facts/ events presented to you. I think you will become less likely to fill in the spaces and more likely to pursue proof to validate the event and to better separate fact from fiction for yourself.

2. What can you do with History in a practical sense? (Think about both the skills which are used and content knowledge.) How can the fruits of an academic study of History be used in our everyday lives or professionally? Make a list of as many meaningful personal and professional / occupational applications as you can imagine. Be creative. (As a Ph.D. in History myself, I am always interested to see how students answer this question.)

Genealogy – Can be used to piece together a family genealogy, lineage, and heritage.
Criminal Justice – Vital skill to present as detailed/accurate case as possible. Determine relevance to a case to prove/disprove an event or incident. To prove guilt or innocence.
Laboratories – Process of elimination, what worked what didn’t work.
Statistics/chronology – Gathering data. Organizing ideas/events into correct order.

In your everyday life you draw upon past experience(hopefully) to determine your best course of action in a specific event in your life at that moment. If it is a first time event perhaps you will recall a friends experience or something you read somewhere and apply it to your situation.
3. What areas of History do you enjoy the most (so far) and why? Have you read any book-length and specialized works in this area, or only online and/or magazine (or comic book) materials? [Be honest – my wife became interested in History by reading manga in high school, and she is now a Ph.D. in History.] What other area would you most like to know more about? (Note: These areas do not need to be within the sphere of this course – I am merely curious in this survey question.)
The period of History I enjoy most would have to be the American Revolutionary period. Mostly because many of the events and conflicts occurred in areas I am familiar with and can relate to being from that area. I would like to know more about the period after the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 to about 1100(the early Middle Ages). This period seems shrouded in mystery and many texts and documentaries seem to struggle when trying to describe in detail exactly what took place when during this time.