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School of Modern Languages and Cultures

FR256 Summative Assessment

Important Information

Summative assessment for 2021-22 consists of one 3000-word essay (worth 70% of the overall mark) and one 1500-word close analysis (worth 30%). Full details on titles and deadlines are available on the Moodle page.

Primary and secondary sources

The argument in your essay or commentary should be supported by detailed references to both primary and secondary source material. Primary source material includes the documents in the module sourcebook, which should be referenced in the footnotes using the title of the source and the sourcebook page number.

You may, If you wish, discuss the same text/thinker in a summative assignment as you have discussed in a piece of formative assignment, but you must not reproduce in part or whole any of your formative assignment in your summative assignment.

FR 256 - Model essays and commentaries: Please take a look at these three models of good practice, selected from formative work submitted in 2017–18 and made available with the authors' permission. You might find this particularly useful if you have not taken a political/historical module before and want to see strong examples of critical discussion of primary and secondary material. Equally, if you have not previously written a commentary but might like to do so for the summative assessment, the two commentaries below demonstrate how to construct a effective analysis of an extract in its wider context.

Formative essay on Vichy

Formative commentary on Valois - 1

Formative commentary on Valois - 2

 

You should note that in the examination for this module, you will not be permitted to answer a question relating to material on which you have submitted an assessed essay.