Assessment guidance for PGTs

Since this is a model all about the risks of pursuing perfection, let me just say here: there is no 'perfect' essay or assessment! But below I will talk through some of the many ways to produce excellent and creative work that will meet or exceed the criteria for each piece of work.

Let's start with the basics! What I hope you will all learn across the module is how to 'read' the perfectionist demands of the world we live in for what they are: invitations to judge and assess bodies-- including our own -- according to a wide variety of standards and assumptions that are deeply cultural and historical. The call to perfect ourselves is also an invitation to consume an endless array of products and information sold on the basis that they will move you ever closer to an ever-receding 'perfect'. So there is an emphasis across the assignments below on developing your skills at identifying and critically analysing primary sources that manifest humanity's historical search for 'perfect' bodies.

Equally, this module is focused on setting ideas of human perfectibility into their historical context. What a given culture establishes as 'perfect' embodiment changes based on the politics, economics and moralities of the day, as well as the availability of tools to reshape how we live in our bodies, and how our bodies look, feel, and function. So across the assessments, I'll be looking for you to root your arguments and evidence in a detailed contextual frame, drawing on the best quality scholarly literature. That means drawing on our module's required, background and further readings, and other sources that you can find in scholarly databases like JSTOR and Project Muse, and in the Library. It is absolutely fine to get started with a quick look at Wikipedia, just to learn some good search terms and parameters (chronology, geography, major events and actors, that sort of thing), However:

Neither Wikipedia nor the materials churned out by the various AI-assisted search engines can be relied on as authoritative scholarly sources.
Nor should you use journalism (online or in print) as a trouble-free source of facts. Treat the media as another primary source, always in need of interpretation and contextualisation.

So: on to the specifics!

If you are taking this module for 30 CATS, you will be assessed by a mixture of participation, and written work:

25% of your mark will be based on the production of three 500-word historiographic reading guides or source analyses to be shared with the whole class for discussion in the weeks YOU select based on your interests.

A historiographic reading guide will focus on one (or more) of the required texts for the week and briefly set it into its theoretical and scholarly context. This may be done as a short essay or a series of bullet-points, but should include some assessment of the reading's strengths, weaknesses, and relationship with wider historical scholarship.

A source analysis will select and share a primary source you have identified that relates to the week's topic. It will include a) the source itself (e.g., an image, peice of historical news coverage, object, editorial cartoon, etc); b) brief identification of the item's key characteristics (e.g., date of production, creator or author, manufacturer or publisher, and intended/expected audience; c) a brief summary of how the object relates to the topic of the week, and what it reveals.

You will submit these three pieces to Tabula on the assigned date in Term 3 (so you will have a chance to revise them based on our discussions in class!).

75% of your mark will be based on a 4500-word standard essay or policy briefing.

A standard essay should focus on a historical topic relating to the themes and case studies we have covered in the module. You will identify a topic of interest to you and frame your own question (with my support and approval). Your essay should call upon primary and secondary sources, which should -- of course! -- be fully cited via footnotes across the essay and referenced in the bibliography. Notes and bibliography will not count toward your word limit.

A policy brief should focus on a matter of current policy discussion or public debate related to he themes and case studies we have covered in the module. You will identify a topic of interest to you and frame your own question (with my support and approval). For more information on how to write a policy brief, follow this link!

If you choose to do a policy briefing you may use endnotes, rather than footnotes, and should attach a separate bibliography for your references. For more on how to write for policy, follow this link!

If you are taking this module for 20 CATS, you will also be assessed by a mixture of participation, and written work:

25% of your mark will be based on the production of two 500-word historiographic reading guides or source analyses to be shared with the whole class for discussion in the weeks YOU select based on your interests.

You will submit these two pieces to Tabula on the assigned date in Term 3 (so you will have a chance to revise them based on our discussions in class, but this is by no means required!).

75% of your mark will be based on a 3000-word standard essay or policy brief.