Assessment
This module is a Second Year Applied Option. For the deadlines, see Tabula.
- Seminar contribution ongoing throughout the term: (20%).
- EITHER Digital object (EITHER a podcast OR a videocast): 3,000 words (80%)
- OR Primary source review: 3,000 words (80%).
NB Students should check the subjects of their digital object or their source review with the module tutor.
For details of the submission of assessed work, click here.
NB Each assessed element will be marked according to the standard assessment criteriaLink opens in a new window. Students should ensure that they follow the MHRA style guide or the Chicago Manual of StyleLink opens in a new window carefully, especially for the presentation of the footnotes and the bibliography.
Seminar Contribution
- This will be assessed across all seminars. It will be assessed according to the seminar contribution guidelinesLink opens in a new window.
- There will be a summative end of module self-evaluation which will be adjusted by the tutor if necessary. This is an opportunity for students to reflect on their seminar contribution across the whole module. NB This will represent the assessed mark for the module. NB Students must submit the summative self-evaluation formLink opens in a new window via Tabula according to the deadline.
Podcasts and Videocasts
The podcast or videocast is to be posted on the module MoodleLink opens in a new window. You can use it to answer a seminar question or you can agree another question with your tutor. The spoken content should be 3000 words. NB Please submit a Word document with a URL link to the podcast or the videocast via Tabula. The Word document should include the full text of the podcast or the videocast (including the word count) together with footnotes and bibliography, correctly formatted according to the MHRA style guideLink opens in a new window or the Chicago Manual of Style.Link opens in a new window
For podcasts, we recommend that you use Audacity software, which you can download hereLink opens in a new window. For advice on making an audio recording and on using Audacity, see hereLink opens in a new window.
For videocasts, we recommend that you use wevideo software, which you can download hereLink opens in a new window. For advice on using wevideo, please see this guideLink opens in a new window.
For a podcast or a videocast, the “organisation… presentation and appropriate skills” expected will be slightly different to those within an essay. In addition to the standard assessment criteriaLink opens in a new window, markers will consider your:
- Preparedness: to what extent does the argument come across as prepared? You don’t have to read from a script, but you do have to know the direction of your argument – if rehearsal is obviously lacking, this will count against you.
- Clarity of speech: Can the listener understand each word distinctly? Are you using full sentences all of the time? Is the vocabulary appropriate for an academic podcast?
- Media skills: Have you edited the podcast/videocast appropriately, for instance by removing long silences (and even fillers). If using images and/or video: are they appropriate, what do they add to the vocal presentation?
Primary Source Review
The aim of the Primary Source Review is to shift your attention to primary sources and allow you to seriously engage with them, in preparation for more extensive research as in your final year dissertation.
The key question you are trying to answer with the review: How can we use this source (or these sources) to illuminate violence in early modern Europe? NB Sources need to have been produced in a European country in the period c. 1450-c.1750 As such you should choose a source first, not a theme, and that source should drive the content of the review. (In this sense, this is different from what you are asked to do in a normal research essay)
Choose a sizeable source(s) eg. a book, or a comparable quantity of written/visual sources (but be realistic: you need to be able to get to know your source/s well in the time available) NB Please choose your source(s) in consultation with the module tutor. They will be able to advise you on the sources available. By the Friday of Week 7 you should let your tutor know by email which source(s) you have chosen.
Having chosen the source, read or examine it carefully, BEFORE you do too much secondary reading. Go back and read/examine it again after you have read more about its context.
The Review should include discussion of:
- what kind of source is it? Its form, author, purpose, language, audience, context.
- what forms of violence are represented in the source?
- what can the source tell us about contemporary attitudes to those forms of violence?
- what are the advantages and disadvantages of the source for an understanding of violence in early modern Europe?
Examples of topics could include:
- selecting a play or a novel or other literary work.
- selecting a series of legal documents (such as the trials published in Cohen and Cohen's Words and Deeds in Renaissance Rome though not the one studied in the seminar).
- selecting a group of images by a particular artist or by different artists. In addition to the questions above, you might discuss why did the artist choose that form? and what role did patronage play in their creation?