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Department of History

Assessment

This module is a Final Year Advanced Option.

  • Seminar contribution: ongoing throughout the module (10%).
  • Review of a historiographical debate: 1,500 words (10%)
  • Primary source review: 3,000 words (40%)
  • Digital object (EITHER a podcast OR a videocast OR a blog): 3,000 words (40%). [NB From 2024/25 blogs will not be available as a form of assessment]

NB For details of each assessment, please scroll down this page.

NB You should check the subjects of your source review and your digital object with the module tutors.

For details of the submission of assessed work, click hereLink opens in a new window.

NB Each assessed element will be marked according to the standard assessment criteriaLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window. You should ensure that you follow the MHRA style guideLink opens in a new window carefully, especially for the presentation of the footnotes and the bibliography.

Seminar Contribution
Review of an Historiographical Debate

We suggest you answer the question from Seminar One: 'What are the key issues which the historian of folklore needs to address?' Using the bibliographies for Seminars One and Two as a starting point, we suggest that you select and engage with at least six articles, book chapters, or essays which take a range of approaches to the history of folklore in Europe. Identify key aspects of these approaches and key issues or questions which these approaches raise. Try to structure your review thematically, comparing and contrasting the different approaches rather than discussing one approach and then the other approach.

Primary Source Review

The aims of the primary source review are to focus your attention on primary sources and to allow you to seriously engage with them.

The key question you are trying to answer with the review: How can we use this source (or these sources) to illuminate the history of folklore in Europe? As such you should choose a source first, not a theme, and that source should drive the content of the project. (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/musical/material/visual/digital 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 tutors. We will be able to advise you on the sources available.

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 folklore are represented in the source?
  • what can the source tell us about contemporary attitudes to those forms of folklore?
  • what are the advantages and disadvantages of the source for an understanding of folklore in Europe?

Examples of sources could include:

  • a play or other literary work.
  • a film or a TV series or a computer game.
  • a collection of songs.
  • clothing or household objects.
  • a series of legal documents.
  • 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?
Podcasts and Videocasts

The podcast or videocast should be submitted via Tabula in the normal wayLink opens in a new window. All students are required to submit two files: the podcast/videocast itself and a Word document of the 'script' for the podcast/videocast. 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 windowLink opens in a new window.

For podcasts, we recommend that you use Audacity software, which you can download hereLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window. For advice on making an audio recording and on using Audacity, see hereLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window.

For videocasts, we recommend that you use wevideo software, which you can download hereLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink 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 windowLink 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?
Blogs [These will not be available as a form of assessment from 2024/25]

For assessment by blog, 4 x 750-word blog posts are required. The blogs are to submitted via TabulaLink opens in a new window. You can use the blog to answer seminar questions. These should be on a range of topics. NB Please submit a Word document with URL links to all the blogs post via Tabula.

The word limit for each post is 750 words, excluding notes. As these posts are short, make sure you choose something specific enough to cover fully in the word limit. Also ensure that you include references to historical analysis and scholarship.

Blog posts are not academic essays. While they should still be written properly, with full sentences and correct grammar, remember that you are writing for a public audience. Therefore keep your language simple and avoid historical jargon.

You should also keep your paragraphs short and snappy, and include images (or video) to break up the text.

You should still reference your sources, but you can embed relevant links in the text itself if you are using websites (use full footnotes for other sources). You do not need a bibliography.