Summative assessment

The assessment for this second-year, 30 CATS option module is:

• 1,500 word essay (10%), due in term 1, week 5, ie. Wednesday 30 October 2019, at 12 noon
• 3,000 word essay (40%), due in term 2, week 8, ie. Wednesday 26 February 2020, at 12 noon - not term 2, week 5, as stated earlier
• 2 hour exam (40%), term 3, some time in weeks 4-9 - exam date TBC
• oral participation/engagement (10%)

Deadlines for visiting students vary depending on the duration of the students' stay at Warwick. These deadlines will be made available on Tabula and on the assessment page in the department handbook.

The first essay is based on a primary source - see here for details.

The second essay is an answer to a seminar question of your choice - you may also devise your own question, to be approved by the tutor.

Oral participation/engagement will be based on students' contributions to seminars over the whole year. There is no class presentation - the assignment is simply to do the seminar reading, turn up to seminars, and contribute to the discussion in class.

The exam will be similar to this sample exam and to the 2018-19 exam paper.

Format. The exam for this module has been replaced with a take-home open-book assessment. Please read the Covid-19 Exam Guidance carefully. The following points, copied from the guidance, are particularly important:

We have added additional questions to all exam papers for modules affected by the strike. This will ensure that students will be able to select from 10 questions related to topics covered in weeks not affected by the strike, as well as from additional questions related to the topics due to be covered during the strike.

Answers should be a maximum of 1500 words.

You are allowed to consult your notes and other sources [during the assessment]. If you do so, then you should include a list of the sources consulted at the end of the question.

If you have any questions or concerns you may email the module convenor within the first working day of the paper being published. Convenors are only able to clarify terminology or wording of questions.

Content. The content of this assessment, as opposed to the format, has not been affected by the pandemic. You will still be required to write two essays, each on a different question. You will still have a total of ten questions to choose from, with the caveat just quoted due to the strike. The questions will still resemble the sample exam and the 2018-19 exam paper, which are linked to above. As in past years, each question corresponds roughly to one week of the module. That said, you are encouraged to bring in material from multiple weeks to answer any given question. None of the questions on this assessment are copies of any of this year's seminar questions; but answering the seminar questions is good preparation for the assessment.

Revision strategy. How many weeks of the module do you need to revise to succeed in this assessment? This is a common question from students. There is no general answer, except to repeat the facts of the situation. There were twelve full weeks in the module, not counting the introductory week, the revision week, and the five weeks affected by strikes. There will be ten questions relating to these twelve weeks. Each of these questions corresponds roughly (but not exactly) to one of those twelve weeks. You need to answer two of these questions. That's the equation; it's up to you how you solve it.

Reading. You should consider revising some or all of the Required Reading. You shouldn't feel obliged to revise the Further Reading as well; this is designed for the essays you have already submitted. However, you are welcome to use the Further Reading if there are points in the Required Reading that you would like to explore or clarify.

Access to resources. Lecture slides and outlines are available on the timetable page, as usual. Seminar questions and readings are available on Talus Aspire, as usual. If, during the revision period, there are Required Readings that you would like to access, but are unable to access on Talus Aspire, please let the module convenor (m.bycroft@warwick.ac.uk) know.

Using resources during the assessment. As per the guidance quoted above, you can use your notes and other sources during the assessment. 'Other sources' includes lecture slides, lecture outlines, seminar readings, and your own notes on all of these. You will have the same level of access to these sources during the assessment as you do now. On referencing, note the following from the exam guidance:

All submissions will be rigorously checked for plagiarism, so be careful when writing your answers that you do not unintentionally include anything lifted from another source without attributing it. You do not need to provide footnotes and references as you would in an essay assignment, but if you consult any material (including your own notes) you should make a note of this at the end of each answer. If in doubt, include the name of the author whose quote or argument you are citing in brackets after using it. Needless to say, any form of collusion will be considered under the University’s rules on cheating and plagiarism and might result in disciplinary action, so please do not contact one another about the exam during the 7 day period. Please see the UG Handbook for more details on plagiarism and collusion regulations.

Revision resources. The introduction lecture states the main themes of the module, ie. the intellectual, social, and global dimensions of science. It is worth returning to that lecture to refresh your memory about what these three themes mean. In previous years, there has been a pair of revision seminars in term 3 in which students are shown a series of slides from across the module, and asked about the broader significance of these slides, ie. if you were using that image in an essay, what sort of point might you make with it? See here for a version of these slides adapted to the 2019-20 module.

Duplication

The History department's policy regarding duplication is that there must be no substantial overlap between two pieces of assessed work submitted by the same student. This means that your second essay should be on a different topic to your first essay, and that your answers on the exam should be on different topics to your two essays. If you are unsure what counts as 'overlap', visit your tutor in their office hour.

Contact Hours

Student contact hours for this second-year 30 CATS option module are as follows:

• Module duration: Twenty-three weeks
• Lectures: Nineteen one-hour lectures
• Seminars: Nineteen one-hour seminars and two one-hour revison seminars
• Tutorials: Four hours of feedback and essay preparation
• Total: Forty-four hours