Brief

The Director of Final Year Studies for History wanted to offer a one-hour online skills workshop specialising in primary sources for dissertation students.

The intervention in summary

The intervention built on the initial brief by offering both a demonstration of a primary sources database, and an activity which asked students to find and apply the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) to a source using Gale Primary Sources. This approach enabled students to understand the research process of finding, questioning, and interrogating. For the latter, the students were guided through QFT using Padlet.

  View an example flowchart (Padlet). If you would like accessible assistance to read this flowchart, please contact us at Lucie Thomas Lucie dot Thomas at warwick dot ac dot uk or Jade Millar Jade dot Millar at Warwick dot ac dot uk.

Our work allows students to connect with the work of our archivists at the Modern Records Centre.

In 2021, a group of postgraduate History students took a tour of the Modern Records Centre with the guidance from the Academic Support Librarian for History. The visit allowed the students to explore the capacity for the centre to support their research. The session highlighted the skills required for engagement with historical primary sources - including palaeography, the study of ancient writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts.

To facilitate a connection with the MRC for your students, please send us an enquiry.

Dissertation planning can be a bewildering process. In this intervention, we draw upon urban development theory to create a unique and engaging way of planning a research project visually.
 
Students are asked to share their initial instincts about their potential dissertation topics, and then consider five elements: the paths, edges, nodes, districts, and landmarks which will lend definition to their preliminary interests.
 
Students will be asked to consider:

• What are the landmarks of your project? (key texts/artefacts/arguments to engage with)? 
• What links those landmarks? (what are the threads of your research questions/what are your arguments)? 
• What are the districts that form nearby? (which texts/artefacts/arguments form near landmarks)? 

Students will then build a visual of their ‘city’ which will then facilitate well planned, astutely structured research. This session will be supported by the relevant Academic Support Librarian for your students, who will be able to guide participants towards rich sources of information for each project and advise on the development of quality dissertations.