Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

Evidence and Argument is designed to prepare students for independent study at undergraduate level, and to introduce the basic skills of the historian’s craft to the student in a lively and accessible way. It will introduce students to what undergraduate level study and historical research entails and equip them with the skills to make the transition from school/college education to independent learning. The module seeks to achieve this in two ways.

First, the module is delivered through a series of lectures and associated materials which explains to students how to best approach their degree, whilst developing foundational skills in reading, research, arguing, referencing and writing that are intended to underpin their future intellectual development. By the end of the module, then, students will understand what the basic expectations upon undergraduate students are, what the fundamental disciplinary standards are, and have practiced applying those skills within the context of a particular historiographical debate.

Second, the module will foster and develop these key historical and study skills through the detailed study of a specific historical and historiographical debate, closely related to the field of research expertise of the individual seminar tutor. Alongside lectures (and replacement materials), students will experience small group teaching through seminars, which explore a particular debate over the Semester. Students will be given an introduction to the topic or theme by their seminar leader, and will then be guided through the development of the historical scholarship in that field over the course of the semester. In so doing students will learn how to read and analyse a key chapter and debate in the historiography and explore its role in establishing a historical debate. In subsequent weeks they will be introduced to, or asked to find, other journal articles, essays from edited volumes and monographs (books) that deal with the same topic, but which disagree with the initial article, approaches the topic from a different perspective, or advances the debate in other ways. Over the course of the semester students will learn how historical debates develop and arguments operate. Students will learn the differences between different forms of historical writing (books, articles, chapters), and how to find, use and reference them for their own purposes. These are understandings and skills that are central to the discipline of history, and that you will need to apply in all the rest of your history modules throughout your university career.

By the end of the module you will therefore have built up a detailed understanding of one particular historical debate, but you will also have some understanding of how historical arguments and debates operate and of the skills involved in reading, analysing and commenting on a range of secondary sources. You should understand the differences between these types of source, and how to find, use and reference them for the purposes of your own research. These are understandings and skills that are central to the discipline of history, and that you will need to apply in all the rest of your history modules throughout your university career.

This module aims:
•       To develop the various research, reading, and writing skills required during a university career.
•       To introduce students to how lectures and small-group seminars operate.
•       To introduce students to a range of historical writing – including journal articles, monographs and essays from edited volumes – and to guide them in the reading and analysis of secondary sources.
•       To demonstrate the ways in which historical argument and debate operate within a specific historical context, but also more generally.
•       To develop technical skills in when, where and how referencing is required.

Outline Of Syllabus

Module topics covered may include the following:


Lecture Series (one-hour lecture)
Lectures may include the following topics, which are offered as a indicative guide.
- Induction to the Module via a Module Talk
- How to read as an undergraduate – Methods of reading, why and how to read for undergraduate purposes, reading for argument.
- Different types of historical writing, and how to recognise them. Monographs, Journal Article, Chapter in Edited Collections, Book Reviews. How to spot quality. University level texts. Reference works. Beware of the Web.
- Taking Effective Notes – What, how, and why do I need to take notes.
- What is a footnote, when and why do we reference? [Grafton – The Footnote. How footnotes played an important part in the evolution of history as a discipline, and its centrality to the historical method]
- Having an Argument [The importance of building and defending an intellectual position via evidence.]
- Evidence and its interpretation
- The Historians' Draft: Writing your book review, and How to set about writing your first essay? The process and challenges of writing
- To quote or not to quote - that is the question! [Explain when and why quote. How to integrate quotes into your sentence. When to paraphrase]
- Learning from your feedback – What is feedback? How do we provide it? What does it mean?
- Conclusions - Developing the Historical Mind // Historical Skills and Careers (What we have learnt and why it matters for the degree).

Seminar Series (two-hour seminars)
Seminars will follow the particular pathway dictated by the research-led specialism of seminar leaders, but the intention is that all groups will follow a similar approach, exploring how a particular historiography has developed, while also reinforcing the skills-based approach in the lectures. The expectations is that approximately half of the seminar will be dedicated to the content of the particular topic, and half to explicitly developing skills. Seminars might broadly follow the following general schema over the course of the seminar.

1.       Introduction - background on the topic
2.       Key Articles communicating an orthodox position
3.       Counter-posing arguments in response
4.       Alternative approaches
5.       Revisionist approaches
6.       Comparative / Transnational / Non-Western Approaches
7. New approaches in Monographs
8.       New theoretical approaches
9.       Summary of the debate


Skills Workshops (Two x two-hour skills workshops)
1.       Library Skill Workshop
2.       Writing Skills Workshop

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

The module will provide student with knowledge of historian’s craft to succeed at undergraduate level. It will provide students with knowledge and understanding of the discipline of history, and the basic professional disciplinary standards expected of historians. Students will, of course, acquire knowledge of a particular topic, an area determined by the research specialism of the corresponding seminar leader, but the focus of the lectures will be on the knowledge about how and why historians practice their craft.

More specifically, on successful completion of the module students will have:
• Detailed knowledge of a particular debate in history, and its evolution
• General knowledge of how historical debates operate – the kinds of arguments that are used and how they are supported.
• Knowledge of different types of historical writing (secondary sources), and how to find and use them.
• Knowledge of the conventions of when and why referencing is necessary, and the technical requirements of how to format those references in Chicago style.

Intended Skill Outcomes

This module is designed to support students’ transition from school/college students through to stage 1 at undergraduate level, and to develop historical skills that will enable students to become independent learners. Its pedagogic focus is as much upon learning foundational skills, as it is developing specific knowledge of a historical or historiographical debate. The module is intended to provide a bedrock of skills for all subsequent modules, specifically to prepare and provide a pathway to Stage 2 modules. The module will develop students’ skills in several key areas, including:

Practical skills
•       An ability to read efficiently for argument and evidence in both articles, and book-length studies
•       Ability to summarise the arguments, and evidence on which they are based, of a range of secondary sources (journal article, monograph, essay in an edited collection).
•       The ability to take accurate and appropriate research notes
•       Ability to write clearly, concisely and fluently, understanding when and where to provide quotation, as opposed to paraphrasing
•       Ability to accurately and precisely reference a range of secondary sources in Chicago style
•       Development of the skills required to write a critical review of a monograph (book-length study)
•       Development of the skills necessary to write a historiographical essay or literature review

Key skills
•       to achieve effective oral and written communication
•       to show initiative, self-discipline and self-direction in learning
•       to improve performance through reflection, self-assessment and using feedback from the tutor effectively
•       to respond flexibly to a wide range of challenges

Cognitive (thinking) skills
•       To critically evaluate, analyse and discuss a wide range of secondary source materials and historical ideas
•       To construct extended written and oral arguments supported by relevant historical evidence.
•       To develop historical thinking and a historical mind.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

As a Stage 1 module, aside from an in-depth understanding of the content of the module, the teaching methods, which focus on small group work, presentational and oral skills, team work, lecture delivery and independent research and writing, relate to the core learning outcomes of supporting students in developing sophisticated research skills across a wide range of sources, being able to synthesise the information they collect and form convincing and coherent arguments.


LECTURES (and associated lecture materials) focus on developing key academic skills necessary for undergraduate historians to acquire in order to develop as independent learners at undergraduate level. These skills will enable students to start to assemble a basic toolkit of skills necessary for future success, for example in critical reading, note-taking, developing arguments, understanding and using evidence, writing skills, and referencing skills. It is envisaged that these lectures will be delivered present in person, although in the event that on-campus sessions need to be reduced, there is the capacity for lectures to be recorded and delivered as online learning materials.

SEMINARS encourage independent study and will enable students to engage closely with a historical field and debate taught by a specialist researcher in that area. Seminar promote improvements in oral presentation, interpersonal communication, problem-solving skills, research skills and adaptability.

Small group teaching will allow the students to explore ideas and patterns together in a structured way, and great emphasis will be placed on critically reading and analysing historical scholarship, its interpretations, arguments, and the evidence on which these are based.

Independent learning is essential to this module: students are expected to develop skills of critical reading, note-taking, and historical argumentation in an independent and effective manner. Seminar teaching complements these skills by allowing students the opportunity to share and debate information gathered independently. Oral skills of argument and presentation will be developed. Moreover, a significant part of seminar teaching will test the development of primary source analysis and problem solving.

In the event that on-campus sessions need to be reduced, there is the capacity to hold live seminar discussions online and retain timetabled slots.


WORKSHOPS: Workshops will focus on the key practical skills associated with the study of History, including: especially skills and knowledge necessary for using information and the library effectively, and developing academic writing skills.

In the event that on-campus sessions need to be reduced, there is the capacity to hold live workshop discussions online and retain timetabled slots.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

This module (1) supports and assesses student progression to university and (2) endeavours to support their skills development, including academic and employability.

The formative piece of assessment takes the form of an Online Referencing Assessment, which is intended as a means of reinforcing the key skills of referencing, and to consolidate students' learning in lectures especially in how to correctly and consistently format references in Chicago style. This exercise will help develop key skills valuable for subsequent history modules.

The 1000 word Book Review (or review of a number of articles) is an opportunity for a student to engage closely with a key piece (or pieces) of scholarship pertinent to the debate explored in their seminar group, and develop the skill of critically analysing and evaluating a book length study, focusing particularly on the argument, evidence, and historiographical contribution of a book.


The 2000 word historiographical essay enables students to develop key essay writing skills, and engage closely with the historiographical debate and historical field they have been studying in their seminars, drawing upon their learning in seminars, and applying the skills acquired in the lectures, especially in terms of developing their own arguments, supporting points with evidence, and communicating complex ideas in academic prose.


Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending semester 1 only are required to finish their assessment while in Newcastle. Where an exam is present, an alternative form of assessment will be set and where coursework is present, an alternative deadline will be set. Details of the alternative assessment will be provided by the module leader.

General Notes

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