Check Exercise

I found that in the check exercise there were a lot of differences and similarities between the way in which we carried out the exercise and the process of analyzing and qualities of history. Some similarities were that, like historians, we were supplied with bits and pieces of information which we had to examine and make logical assumptions about to draw the best possible conclusion we could about what the documents entailed about the family we were investigating. It was also similar in the way we made multiple hypotheses as we gained different information by acquiring more checks and how, in the end, we took all of our hypotheses and combined them into a logical conclusion about what they meant. Another similarity was that overall process we followed in getting the information and analyzing it reflected the history diagram we discussed in class which defined history and showed how it was evaluated. Some differences between the way in which we carried out the exercise and the process of analyzing and qualities of history, were the fact that we had such a constricting time limit because although it is true that a historian may have a certain deadline for a historical paper or analysis, it would certainly not be within ten minutes of when they relieved the information they were to evaluate and that is what we were expected to do. Also in our situation we there was no way for us to gain any information outside of what the checks implied (for example going to the mortuary listed on one of the checks and asking who died on the date given on the check), but in the situation of a real historian trying to discover what happened with the family they would have the freedom to use many other outside sources of information beside the checks. Another difference in our situation was that we had a group of people working at once to come to a finite conclusion only once whereas in real life there would be many different groups of historians analyzing the same evidence and evaluating and editing each other’s conclusions about the evidence multiple times to try and reach the best conclusion possible. These are the differences and similarities between the check exercise we did in class and the way in which history is analyzed in life.