The assessed portion of the coursework for this module consists of one long essay, two drafts of a long essay prospectus, one five minute presentation, and a combination of reflective posts and handouts. In addition, students are required to come prepared every week having completed the required reading plus one elective reading category. Students will be expected to be able to articulate the main argument of each assigned reading or, absent one, its contribution to the week's theme.
Note: Paper submissions are not requested for any of the assessments. You may upload the submissions directly onto MMS. Your handout for an in person presentation should also be uploaded to the presentation section of MMS by midnight the evening before class when you give your presentation.
At the top of all your written work or on a cover page, you are required to include the following:
- The date of submission
- The assignment you are submitting (e.g. Long Essay, etc.)
- Your student number
- A specific title for your essay in the case of the Long Essay
- The total number of words (use the word count feature of your word processor, including footnotes)
When formatting your assignments, you are required to follow these guidelines:
- Add page numbers
- Use a minimum of 12 sized font
- Please double space your long essays so I may more easily add marginal comments
Other aspects of formatting are highlighted in the School of History style sheet. See the following section.
Please carefully read the St Andrews School of History Style Sheet:
This document, sections 1-4, contains extremely valuable information on how to compose your essay, including how to format your footnotes and bibliography. In particular, please follow the instructions for footnotes carefully. You will be penalized in your long essay mark if you do not follow the style guide. Note that blog entries don't need any bibliography.
In your bibliography, please have separate sections for your secondary sources and the primary sources you used.
If you prefer and do so consistently, you may use the Chicago Style (Notes and Bibliography) over the St Andrews note formatting. I encourage you to manage your sources in a referencing tool such as Zotero which makes it easy to automatically generate formatted notes and bibliography if you have the correct information for each source.
\pagebreak
The essay for the course is worth 50% of the total coursework and has a limit of 5,000 words including footnotes. This is not an essay you research and compose in the second half of the semester and can expect a good grade for: it requires you to make progress on it throughout the semester. Narrow down an area of interest, read within this area of interest, isolate a few themes of interest, carry out further reading and analysis, and then proceed to write an essay which makes a convincing historical argument.
Some class time in most weeks will be dedicated to discussing the essay. It is not uncommon for a student to change topics once or twice during the semester, as the feasibility of one topic or another is evaluated and the sources explored. My suggestion is that you answer two questions for yourself very early in your research: 1) Once you have a general topic or area of history you are interested in, think about what kinds of arguments or historical approaches have been applied to this area before that will serve as the starting point for your intervention? 2) What kinds of primary sources do you have realistic access to for use in the essay. Most first class essays will show an ability to carry out original research that includes use and analysis of primary sources, but students may choose to do a historiographical essay.
Your essay should be an argument driven analytic research essay. You may write your essay on any topic related to the history of Japanese empire, or on the history of Japan (1850s up to 1952) or on colonial or early postcolonial Korea/Taiwan.
Journals for Inspiration: I would suggest browsing some of the following journals, and especially note articles that fit the above description:
The Journal of Asian Studies
Monumenta Nipponica
Journal of Japanese Studies
The Journal of Korean Studies
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
Journal of Modern Chinese History
Korean Studies
Korea Journal
Japanese Studies
Modern Asian Studies
Critical Asian Studies
positions: east asia cultures critique
Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies
Seoul Journal of Korean Studies
European Journal of Korean Studies
The academic study of history embraces change in the past as a way to explore solutions to particular problems. The object of an analytical historical research essay is not to tell us simply what happened, but to use what happened in order to make a historical argument about some problem clearly defined. For example, if an essay was written (to take an example from Chinese history) about some aspect of the religious aspects of the Boxer Rebellion, it should not consider its task complete when the major facts of the Boxer Rebellion and its religious elements have been retold. That is closer to the genre of the encyclopaedia entry than of academic historical study. It should endeavour to use the Boxer Rebellion as an opportunity to tell us something, to make an argument about something: what does the rebellion reveal about the nature of Western imperialism? The rise of new religious movements in China? The weakness of the late Qing state? The rise of Japan? And so on. The possibilities are many, but in every case, they offer an answer to the question: So what? Why does this history matter? History can and should tell stories, but a research essay embeds a story within an arc of an argument - if it contains narrative elements, it must also always include an analytic element.
The historical argument in your long essays, in particular, should be clearly and unambiguously stated in the span of 1-3 sentences somewhere in the opening third of the essay, preferably in the opening paragraph or two. It should not be obvious, trivial, or a well-known and rarely contested fact. Challenging as false an existing historian's argument that has become considered obvious and rarely contested, however, is one ambitious way to find your way to an interesting and original argument but only if your evidence is sufficient. Alternatively, if you have found evidence that supports the existing arguments of historians in a given area of research in a new set of sources, from a fresh perspective, or in greater depth, or in a comparative light, that also often yields a strong argument. If you have identified a debate in the historiography and wish to take a position on it without simply repeating all of the points made by one of the participants of the debate, that can also yield an essay with a strong argument but you should take care to acknowledge the position and evidence of the other side.
Presenting your Argument: There are a number of different ways to write a strong essay and present the argument, but in this module, I would like to strongly encourage you to "front-load" your argument and do so clearly, that is, to present clearly early in the essay what it is you will argue and why it is important. For example, avoid sentences such as "I will explain..." or "I aim to understand..." or "I will explore..." unless such sentences are immediately followed by the explanation, what you ended up understanding, or what the result of your exploration was. Otherwise, there is a danger that your essay will merely provide a summary of some quantity of information you have found, rather than present the results of your analysis of that research in a useful way. In other words, do not use the introduction to make predictions about what you will do, but tell the reader in very clear terms what you have argued and shown in the essay. There are many ways to do this in more or less subtle language but there is no harm in a very clear, "In this essay, I will argue that..." followed by a short overview of what kinds of evidence you will use, how your argument fits into a historiographical context (how your argument relates to what other historians have to say about the matter), and why you think it is important.
For example replace:
In this essay, I will explore the relationship between the alarm clock sleep function and our productivity in modern life.
with something like:
I will argue that the alarm clock sleep function is a major hindrance to our productivity without contributing at all to our rest after a night of sleep. I will base this upon the studies of Hansen and Jenson in 1983 and in a series of interviews with wise old people in 2014. This argument is important because, as I will show, evidence shows that the increased availability of time in the morning to eat a healthier breakfast, carry out some light house chores, and do morning exercise, not only allows for greater evening rest after a long day of work, but decreases the tiredness we feel throughout the day.
Sticking to your Argument: All of us come across many interesting stories, anecdotes, and sub-points that we want to share in writing our essays. However, it is important to stay sharply focused on the argument you are going to make in the essay. After you have finished writing your essay, read it through and for each paragraph and sentence ask yourself if it supported your argument, provided essential background to establishing your argument, or else if it does not offer much of a contribution. If it doesn't, cut it ruthlessly from your essay to make room for better material.
Engaging with the historiography: What does this phrase mean? It means directly and explicitly acknowledging what historians have said about your topic and your specific question in existing work. Point out both positive contributions and problematic ones when appropriate. Who has worked on this before, and what specifically have they argued? See your essay as part of a larger conversation (it doesn't necessarily have to be an adversarial one) that includes previous historians.
Some other questions to ask yourself as you write the long essay:
- Does the essay have a clear introduction which articulates the argument I wish to make in the essay? Does it move beyond telling the reader what the essay is "about" and what the essay "will do" to tell the reader very clearly what has been accomplished in the essay and what be specifically shown in the essay, and not leave this only for the conclusion?
- Does the essay have a clear conclusion which restates the main points and then makes some effort to contextualise the findings in the broader issues of the course?
- Does the essay situate the argument being made in the context of the sources used, and its relevance to the study of our module topic?
- Does the essay show a good understanding of the sources used, and use them effectively in supporting my argument with clear and specific examples to enforce my points?
- Does the essay avoid long quotations from secondary works whenever possible? Do I instead summarise, without plagiarising, and cite the work of secondary work except when the particular wording or language is key to the argument I wish to make?
- Have I cited with footnotes all claims that are not a well-known and general historical fact.
- Have I used a variety of appropriate sources?
- Have I avoided using phrases like "many historians argue" or "much scholarship" or "it is often argued" and offer specific examples and citations?
- Does the essay retain a strong focus on the main argument, and avoid passages which stray significantly from the main points?
- Does the essay avoid being a summary or introduction to a particular topic, event, or person in order to make a clear argument that is falsifiable?
- Have I gone back and considered my major claims from a critical perspective, and answered any major possible weaknesses in my essay?
- Is my argument non-trivial? That is, does it go beyond a well-known historical consensus about a topic?
- Has the long essay engaged with the historiography on the relevant issue effectively throughout?
- Does the essay consider alternative explanations, acknowledge inconvenient facts, and point out sources or historians who may have differing approaches?
- Did I proofread my essay, check the spelling, and reread for sentences that are unclear?
- Did I carefully follow the style guide for the School of History for all my footnotes?
- Did I include a bibliography at the end of my essay and is it formatted according to the School of History style guide?
- Have I avoided using websites and newspaper articles not by academic authors to support my claims when there are good academic historical scholarship (in monograph, journal article, or online published forms)
- Have I taken care that the background for the argument does not take up too much of the entire length of the essay (less than 25%, usually)
- Did I include a word count in the header and followed the other header guidelines?
When you have selected a question or topic for your longer essay the first, most obvious place to look for information on the topic is among the various books and articles that are assigned or proposed in this course, especially the further reading of each week. Early on, it is useful to focus on skimming through sources as you find them, noting carefully works of potential interest found in the footnotes or bibliographies of these works to help you broaden and then later focus in your research. As you find works of interest, make note of the authors and look for other articles or books by the same author, then repeat the process, looking again through the footnotes and bibliography for sources more specifically related to the topic you are researching.
When you do not find enough through the above method of beginning your trail with our existing assigned works, proceed to search in various databases for relevant keywords:
-
Our library catalogue
-
Major journal databases we have access to such as JSTOR
-
Google Scholar (scholar.google.com) which can then direct you to other journals our library may provide access to
-
Google Books and The Internet Archive (archive.org)
-
Consult with librarians - they are your friend. Bring them what you have found already and work with them to find further resources.
-
LLMs - Large Language Models such as ChatGPT are highly problematic tools given their propensity to confidently manufacture completely false information, but may be useful as one part of your early brainstorming process.
-
Learn to use Google more effectively:
- Search for phrases in quotation marks " " when appropriate
- Try adding filetype:pdf to limit results to PDF files
-
Frog in a Well Primary Source Guides:
The long essays should at at least a dozen sources which are not websites and the inclusion of primary sources is strongly encouraged but not required if you choose to write a historiographical essay. An essay based on sources that are the results of a simple google search can be written in an evening of frantic last minute work, but rarely demonstrates much effort, research skill, or ability to isolate high-quality materials to support an argument. This is not because there are not excellent websites with overviews on a topic, excellent wikipedia entries, etc. but because there is still usually far greater quality material found in published articles and books on most historical topics, including those which are assigned above. It is wise to make use of online research skills to get oriented in a new topic, but use this course as an opportunity to explore the wealth of academic research on your topics. Your essays will be assessed, in part, on how effectively your sources demonstrate your research efforts. Of course, digitized primary (archival sources, documents) or secondary sources (e.g. articles in academic databases) found in digital collection are permitted and an online source or two in addition to your other sources beyond the minimum is fine if chosen carefully for quality.
When you have found a good selection of a dozen or two sources through a process of skimming of footnotes and bibliographies etc., start your more detailed reading with something of broader coverage to give you some ideas of potential specific arguments or hypotheses. Then move swiftly and with more focus to search through the other sources in the specific sections that are likely to show whether your potential argument holds or not. In researching for an essay you rarely have to read an entire work, and even when you do so, you should skim less relevant sections. Unlike reading for pleasure, historical research involves reading as a hunt for answers to problems. If you find that your argument does not hold or has insufficient evidence to support it, zoom out again and restart the process.
This circular movement is one very effective approach to historical research. Start broad, find potential key arguments and inspiring ideas. Moving quickly, test these ideas and arguments by searching in other sources and zooming into detailed cases and examples. If this doesn't work or is insufficient, zoom out again and repeat. Once you are happy with an argument and the available evidence, then read more slowly and with determination, taking more detailed notes, and outlining your essay as you go.
The Worst Possible Way to Proceed: Perhaps the worst possible way to do research for your essay is to find a dozen or two works on your broad topic by title search. This usually results in you finding several very general and introductory works on your topic. Allow this collection of books and articles to rest comfortably on your shelf until the deadline nears, and then sit down and attempt to read all these works and hope that your essay will emerge from the vast knowledge you have gained in reading these books.
The points that follow should be fairly clear from the questions posed above but are restated from the perspective of the marker of a very strong long essay:
- The essay gives a clear presentation of its argument in the introduction of the essay
- The essay is written well and has a clear structure.
- The essay is within the word limit and of a sufficient length for its proposed scope.
- The argument is well signposted, with different sub-arguments of the essay clearly introduced with clear topical sentences.
- The essay shows that extensive reading and research was done in order to write this essay.
- The School of History Style Guide was carefully followed.
- A well-formatted bibliography is provided showing that research was carried out using sources of an appropriate quality and number.
- The essay consistently cites its sources with footnotes and these footnotes are generally formatted well.
- This essay employs evidence based on its sources in an effective manner.
- Unless it is a historiographical essay, the essay works with primary sources which make a substantive contribution to its main argument.
- The essay engages with the relevant historiography on this topic directly and effectively
- The essay has a good balance between empirical examples and presenting evidence on the one hand, and strong analysis contributing to the argument on the other
- The argument of the essay is not trivial, overly general, or merely represent a summary of the widely recognized academic consensus on a given topic
\pagebreak
15% of your mark for the module comes from two drafts of a 500 word proposal for your long essay, including a draft articulation of a possible argument and an indicative bibliography. The first draft (this is a required submission) of this will be posted on our Moodle in Week 5 and we will discuss it in groups in class. You are also strongly encouraged to come to office hours to discuss the draft. No formal written feedback is offered on this.
Prospectus (500 Words): Write a brief summary of your essay as if you have already written it. What did it do? What kinds of sources did you use? How did you structure the essay? Include in this 500 words a sentence in bold which is a statement of the essay's proposed argument. At this early stage of your research, this is highly speculative, and it is very unlikely to end up being the actual argument you will make in your essay. Your eventual final argument will also likely be much more concrete than it is here in the prospectus but use this as an opportunity to practice stating a possible argument you will make.
Indicative Bibliography: Divided into two sections, primary and secondary sources, offer a list of sources that you will have access to in a language you can read that you think will be useful for your essay based on your reading so far. For each source, include one complete sentence explaining why you think the source is useful. List no fewer than 10 sources and no more than 30 (for this exercise).
The second draft of your prospectus, argument, and indicative bibliography is submitted to MMS and will receive a mark. Include a copy of the first draft prospectus after your submission. You will be primarily be evaluated on how you have developed your ideas in response to your first prospectus (if you have changed topics, which is not uncommon, you should still work on improving the quality of the proposal) and whether your argument is clear. You will be only secondarily marked on the overall historical merit of your proposal, whether the sources appropriate for the task, and whether the structure and scope indicated by your prospectus are well crafted.
Being able to synthesise reading and present ideas orally in class is a key skill. You have assessed and non-assessed presentations in this module. You will be formally assessed on one presentation. Non-assessed presentations: In any given week, you may be asked to speak to the class for 2-3 minutes about the elective reading you have signed up for that week. You should be able to introduce the reading to other students who may not have read the reading, and articulate its main contributions to the week's themes in a concise manner.
You may choose to deliver your assessed presentation in person, in class (5 minutes, with handout and Q&A), or by means of a recorded presentation presentation (8 minutes, no handout or Q&A).
Recorded Presentation:
You can record your voice over slides in Apple Keynote and in Powerpoint or some other application, but must export the result as a movie file - you may not submit a powerpoint or keynote file. The advantage is that you can do this entirely from the comfort of your own home and no supplementary handout is required. The disadvantage is that you must submit the video at least 3 days before the class related to the content, or you will receive a late penalty for each day as if it were an essay submitted late. A strong first class recorded presentation will not have very text heavy slides, will have an excellent connection between visual, textual, content and linking of slide content and spoken word, and will be delivered in a dynamic manner.
- IMPORTANT: You must submit a movie - not a powerpoint file with embedded sound, and not a keynote file, but a movie file. Again: you must submit a movie file (MP4, etc.).
- Confirm that your movie can be viewed using the open source software VLC.
- After saving as a movie file, please confirm that voice is clearly audible (not a faint or unclear voice) and your slides display. If you are unable to do this, then give your presentation in person on the appropriate day relative to your topic.
- The recorded presentation video should be uploaded to the class files in Microsoft Teams no later than 3 days before the class relevant to the content. No handout is required for recorded presentations and no Q&A.
- Please name the video file you upload strictly following this format: the week number, your first name, and a title of the text your presentation is about. For example: W5 - Sarah - The Book Title
- Recorded presentations assess a slightly different set of skills than the in person presentation: they are a good way to practice and improve your ability combine images with your voiced narration and a small amount of text on screen. More time is required to prepare a recorded presentation, but you have the advantage of being able to re-record sections you are unhappy with. More time is required to find effective visual material and evaluate the amount of textual material you will present to supplement your voice, but you don't need to worry about either the handout or responding to questions.
In Person Presentation:
You may deliver your presentation in class the day of. The advantage is that you give the talk without any slides, and you may prepare until the day of the class related to the content of your presentation. You don't have worry about exporting to a movie file, or be concerned about audibility of your voice, etc. The disadvantage is that you can't simply re-record or edit your presentation for submission since it is delivered live. You are also expected to produce a supplementary handout (up to 2 pages) and answer one or two questions after your presentation. A strong first class live dissertation will not be read from an exact transcript, nor will it reproduce exactly content from handout bullet points: it will be well-practiced and allow the student to spend most of the presentation looking around the room at their audience.
Pair Presentation: You may choose to work together with one other willing student to do an in-person presentation on the same book (together 10 minutes instead of 5). In this case each student will receive a separate mark for their presentation, but part of each mark will relate to how well the presentation works as part of a combined whole. Think about how you want to divide your material in the presentation and work to make it a coherent presentation of the work.
Presentation Content: Unless you secure permission for a special topic from me, the topic of your presentation should be a single author monograph (not an edited volume of different chapters). Throughout the seminar readings provided below you will see a (P) next to appropriate texts you may present on. Many of these are found in the further reading section. Unlike your weekly elective reading handout, however, your presentation should cover the entirety of the work, not merely any assigned chapters.
Because you are presenting on the work as a whole the presentation assessment will evaluate your demonstration of your ability to:
- choose what is most useful to share: author background, key arguments in the work, cases it considers, strengths and weaknesses, links to other reading of the week when relevant
- choose a quantity of information that will still allow you to speak at a measured pace
- include illustrative examples that give the listener a feel for the work
- project your voice clearly, make use of effective pauses, modulate your voice effectively
- make use of a spoken rather than a written register that engages the listener
- avoid exactly reproducing the content of a handout
- don't sound like you are using bullet points
- present in a way that, even if you are referring to a written set of notes or text, still flows naturally and smoothly
- if a recorded presentation with slides, make effective use of images, show restraint in the use of text, generally slides that are merely a list of bullet points (in other words, don't do what lecturers often do at St Andrews!).
The assessed presentation should be 5 minutes in length for in person and 8 minutes in length for recorded presentations and not a minute longer. Being slightly under the time limit is fine. The presentation should summarise the main arguments, point out what was most interesting or useful as a takeaway from the chosen text, and include at least some consideration of your critical evaluation: discuss at least one limitation or shortcoming. This should be substantive, based on an evaluation of concrete content, not superficial ("it was too long", "it was boring", "it was too theoretical"). It should not a detailed and exhaustive retelling of the content: it should highlight the arguments, strengths and set the context. Nor is your goal to determine whether or not you can "recommend" that someone should read a book. Part (but not all) of the presentation may offer greater detail on a particularly important section.
Some questions to consider as you prepare:
- Did the student project their voice clearly, modulate their voice appropriately, make effective use of pauses, and speak at an appropriate speed?
- Did the student appear to move beyond simply reading a written document?
- Did the distributed handout accurately summarize the general points to be made in the presentation in the form of concise bullet points?
- Did the handout include any important dates, sources, key people, or, if necessary, a map that serves as a useful reference?
- Was the 5 (8 for recorded) minute limit very strictly observed in the presentation?
- Did the presentation provide the context of the work, and very briefly introduce the author?
- Was the presentation well-structured, organized, and focus on a only a few key points?
- Was there a good balance of arguments, examples to support them, and critique?
- Did the presentation avoid being a presentation of a series of bullet-point style facts?
- Did the presentation make an effort to connect the readings to other readings for the day or find ways to connect to the reading and discussion from previous weeks?
- Important: Did the presentation avoid being a reproduction of the handout, using it instead as a complement.
\pagebreak
20% of the grade for this module comes from four reflective posts your write in response to weekly reading. Additionally, you are required to submit at least three reading handouts (these are not marked, but submission is required to pass the module). Each week on our module Moodle, by Monday 11pm, you have the opportunity to upload a reading handout attached in PDF format, and/or paste directly into a Moodle post a reflective post. This will allow fellow students to read both from week to week. After Week 3, you may only submit one item of any kind in any given week. For example you may submit nothing (if you are not running behind), a reflective post, a handout, a reflective post and a handout (but not related to the same text!), but not two reflective posts or two handouts. Again: you will receive no credit for more than one item of a given type submitted in any given week. The purpose of this policy is to ensure you engage with your reading across the semester, not merely close to the deadline for final submission on MMS.
Note:
- In week five you are free submit both a first draft of your essay prospectus and either a reflective post or reading handout. Also, you are free to submit something during independent learning week if you want to get ahead. You are also free to submit more than the required four posts, and then select the four posts you like the best to MMS at the end of the semester. You still only permitted to post one of these to Moodle per week, however.
- The first reflective post / handout deadline is Week 3. You may submit handouts from readings related to Week 2 or Week 3 and only for this first submission you are permitted to submit up to two posts and up to two handouts (if you want to submit one related to Week 2 readings and one for Week 3 readings)
Example: Student A submits reflective posts to the Moodle in Week 3, 4, 7, and 9. They submit handouts in Weeks 3, 4, and 10. This is fine. Student B is eager to get this out of the way and submits posts on Week 3, 4, 5 and 7, and also handouts on Weeks 3, 4 and 5. They have completed everything in the first half of the semester so they can concentrate on their long essay. Student C is worried about their mark and wants some extra practice. They submit six posts to Moodle in weeks 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 as well as their three handouts in various weeks. In the end they decide to submit just the last four posts which they thought were strongest. Student D is in trouble: they did all their three handouts but procrastinated on the posts and only submitted reflective posts to the Moodle in Week 9, 10, and 11. Thus they ran out of weeks and will receive a 0 for the missing fourth post.
Submission: While you must post reflective posts and handouts to the Moodle during the semester, the assessed final submission of the reflective posts is Tuesday of Week 11. Submit a document with the usual required headers/cover, and in this document you must list the dates you submitted your posts and handouts where these may be found on Moodle (no need to post the handout contents into your MMS submission, just the dates where I can find them on Moodle). They must be visible on the Moodle for the days you list them. Then copy and paste in your four reflective posts that are already on Moodle into the document for submission. Your reflective posts may vary of length, but together should be at least 2,500 words in length. If you posted more than four posts on Moodle, select only four them for submission to MMS at the end of the semester. You should not make substantial changes to your original Moodle reflective posts, but you are permitted to correct typos, rephrase a sentence, etc.
Reflective Posts - What to Write:
- You can focus on one or more required readings, elective reading.
- Use the postings to reflect on your reading, highlight or contrast or critique interesting arguments, put readings into conversation with eachother, etc.
- Please make explicit reference to at least one source. You don't need formal footnotes or bibliography, but mention the title clearly in the text and include relevant page number references in parentheses. If you are mentioning a text not assigned that week.
- Your reflective posts should ideally each aim to be between 400-1,000 words
- The posts should have a single overarching purpose and unified focus - if you find your post getting too long ask yourself if you have remained focused throughout.
- Avoid vague references to what you like and don't like; what you found interesting or not interesting - unless you follow this up with concrete and specific reasons why something is interesting or valuable.
- Be concise and avoid repetition.
Here are some ideas of what make good postings (but you aren't limited to this):
- Focus in on a passage in a primary source, quote part of the passage (try not to make the quote too long) in the posting and then offer a reflection on it.
- Same as above, but instead of just offering a reflection, put that passage into meaningful conversation with another secondary or primary reading we did either this week or another week.
- Describe or synthesise a point that you find important or interesting from a secondary reading and say why you think it is important.
- Put the arguments of two secondary sources into dialogue with each other
- Reflect on how the arguments of a text might contribute to our understanding of some other clase in another place or time
- Write a posting on the use of language or terms in a source and why you think it is meaningful or important
- Write a posting around a certain pattern you see across multiple texts
Reading Handouts
- These are required submissions but not marked.
- If you will submit a handout for a week, compose a 1-2 page overview or outline, or briefing sheet that will primarily be aimed at your fellow students.
- You might have a paragraph at the top that provides a summary
- If it is empirically dense, consider listing some key dates, events, people, or concepts
- Consider providing an overview of the structure, the way it is divided into sections and what those sections contribute.
- The whole thing may be in the form of hierarchical bullet points if you like, but make most of these full sentences whenever possible, rather than fragmented phrases except when outlining structure or listing things.
Feedback is generally provided directly on the mark sheet, which will be posted to the MMS within two weeks. Presentation feedback is provided at two points in the semester so they may be marked in groups. Some formative feedback on Moodle posts (before they are submitted to MMS) will be made sporadically throughout the semester, especially on the first or second post made by a student.