Department of History
Undergraduate Handbook for Part-time Degree
Students
2012-2013
Please note that some information contained in this
Handbook may not be relevant to your degree. If in doubt,
please contact either Mrs Jean Noonan (room H321) or
Professor Chris Read (room H323)
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DATES OF TERMS
2011/2012
Autumn Term
Spring Term
Summer Term
Monday 3rd October 2011 - Saturday 10th December 2011
Monday 9th January 2012 - Saturday 17th March 2012
Monday 23rd April 2012 - Saturday 30th June 2012
2012/2013
Autumn Term
Spring Term
Summer Term
Monday 1st October 2012 - Saturday 8th December 2012
Monday 7th January 2013 - Saturday 16th March 2013
Monday 22nd April 2013 - Saturday 29th June 2013
2013/2014
Autumn Term
Spring Term
Summer Term
Monday 30th September 2013 - Saturday 7th December 2013
Monday 6th January 2014 - Saturday 15th March 2014
Monday 23rd April 2014 - Saturday 28th June 2014
2014/2015
Autumn Term Monday 29 September 2014 – Saturday 6 December 2014
Spring Term
Monday 5 January 2015 – Saturday 14 March 2015
Summer Term
Monday 20 April 2015 – Saturday 27 June 2015
2015/2016
Autumn Term Monday 5 October 2015 – Saturday 12th December 2015
Spring Term
Monday 11 January 2016 – Saturday 19th March 2016
Summer Term Monday 25 April 2016 – Saturday 2nd July 2016
2016/2017
Autumn Term Monday 3 October 2016 – Saturday 10th December 2016
Spring Term
Monday 9 January 2017 – Saturday 18th March 2017
Summer Term Monday 24 April 2017 – Saturday 1st July 2017
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THE HISTORY DEPARTMENT
PART TIME STUDENT HANDBOOK
Note from the Head of Department
We hope that the information provided here will be useful to you all. It is drawn from
the full-time student handbooks, but we have filleted out what we think will not be
relevant for you.
Most of the Department’s regulations as regards full time students also apply to you.
Probably the most important difference is that your Level One modules take place over
two rather than one year.
We would be most grateful for your feedback about the contents of the handbook –
please channel any comments and suggestions for improvements through the SSLC, or
drop in on me in person.
The History Departmental Secretary, Mrs Jean Noonan, (H321), and the History
Undergraduate Secretary, Miss Paula Keeble (H342) are always ready to help and will
support the care and attention you already receive from the Part-Time Degrees Office.
We have also a Departmental administrator, Mr Robert Horton (H319), who is also
available to help sort out any difficulties. The part-time degrees academic co-ordinator
is Professor Chris Read (H323) who will answer any academic queries you may have
and will also be your personal tutor. I will always be happy myself to deal with
problems.
If you feel there are points you would like to discuss with me about any aspect of the
Department’s offerings, please do not hesitate to make an appointment to see me with
Jean or Paula.
And good luck with your studies!
Maria Luddy
Head of Department, History
Room H304, Humanities
Email: m.luddy@warwick.ac.uk
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Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Communications
Staff Student Liaison Committee (SSLC)
The Library
Seminars, Essays, Tutorials and Lectures
How to make the most out of assignment feedback
Learning Outcomes
Research and Reading Weeks
Plagiarism
Names and Meaning
Submission of Essays
Questionnaires and Student Feedback
Examinations and Assessment
Sample Essay Cover Sheet
Student Sickness and Medical Certificates
APPENDIX 1: Essay Writing Checklist
APPENDIX 2: Department of History Undergraduate Style Guide
APPENDIX 3: Research Interests of Current Staff
APPENDIX 4: Regulations Governing Examination and Assessment for
Part-time Degree Students
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5
5
6
8
10
11
12
12
13
14
14
15
20
21
22
24
33
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1.Communications
The atmosphere in the department is friendly and informal and it is normally easy to see
individual members of staff. All staff post ‘office hours’ on the doors of their rooms
when they will be available, and you can always set up appointments at other times by
e-mailing them. (It may take 10 days or so at the start of term for office hours to be
finalised for the year—if in doubt, email the tutor to ask when it is convenient to meet).
Undergraduate students have pigeonholes which are typically used for notes from tutors
and any mail addressed to you in the department will be placed there. These
pigeonholes are located in the foyer outside room H305.
Academic members of staff have clear plastic pigeonholes located outside their offices
where you will be able to leave notes and short essays. Part-time seminar tutors have
folders located with the student pigeonholes where again notes and short essays can be
left.
The History notice board is located in the foyer outside Room H305. Many important
notices will be placed here, and you should get into the habit of checking the notice
board regularly. Course tutors and personal tutors will also use the doors of their own
offices to post notices of interest to their own students.
2. Staff Student Liaison Committees (SSLC)
These Committees consist of both staff and students. They are an important means of
representing your views and consulting you about any changes to existing arrangements
proposed by departmental committees and the Staff Meeting. Representations from the
SSLCs have had a significant influence on recent changes in the syllabus and other
departmental practices.
5
Meetings are held up to twice a term. Anyone who wishes to raise an issue concerning a
particular module, a degree programme or any other departmental issue should raise it
with one of their SSLC representatives.
History and Politics and History and Sociology degrees have their own SSLCs
convened by their directors. French and History students should, in the first instance,
bring any issues concerning either French modules or the organisation of the degree as a
whole to their student representatives on the French SSLC.
The Centre for Lifelong Learning has its own SSLC for part-time and 2+2 degrees,
including Historical Studies. Any Historical Studies students wishing to join this SSLC
would be very welcome and should contact Sally Blakeman
(s.a.blakeman@warwick.ac.uk) to receive details of future meetings. If possible each
year a member of this SSLC is nominated as a representative to the History SSLC and
ensures that issues raised by part-time undergraduates are raised where appropriate and
news from the History SSLC is reported back to the Part-time and 2+2 Degrees SSLC.
There is a separate notice board in the History corridor for SSLC matters where agendas
and minutes of meetings will be posted. Student representatives are invited to attend
and report at least once per term at the departmental Teaching & Learning Committee
(TALCOM) and/or the Departmental Council Meeting, on items arising from the SSLC.
The SSLCs also appoint student members of the departmental Teaching and Learning
Committee where they join staff in detailed discussion of policy issues, reporting to
both the SSLC and the Council Meeting. Student feedback on particular modules is
solicited through confidential questionnaires both at the end of the first term (so that it
can affect the running of modules for the remainder of the year) and at the end of each
year. Staff take matters raised through this medium very seriously.
3. The Library
Library website: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/library/
THE LIBRARY - A SURVIVAL GUIDE
The Library is your most important academic resource. We try to make it easy to use,
but if you devote some time early in the term to learning how to find books, periodicals,
dictionaries etc and how to use the online resources, you’ll get the most out of your
working time, and it will really pay dividends.
Library website: Contains information on library facilities, resources, opening hours,
etc:
http://go.warwick.ac.uk/library/
Get Started sessions will run during weeks 1 – 3. These tours will give you the
opportunity to become familiar with the Library facilities, meet staff and find out about
resources for your course. Look out for sign-up sheets.
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You can access bite-sized Get Started sessions online now at:
http://go.warwick.ac.uk/lib-getstarted
Your University card is needed to enter the Library. You also need it to borrow or
reserve books.
Study space: We provide different study environments in the building. Floors 1 and 2
offer networked PCs, group study areas and service points. The atmosphere is relaxed;
you can talk and use your mobile, and bring in drinks and cold food. Floors 3 to 5
provide a more “traditional” library environment – books and quiet study areas, laptop
use is restricted to marked areas, and no food or drink is allowed. There are also silent
reading rooms in the extension on floor 2. Wireless net access runs throughout the
building.
Library Catalogue: Contains the complete stock of the library, including electronic
resources. It will tell you if a book you need is out on loan and will show the date it is
due back. You can reserve books that are on loan through the catalogue (see below).
Loan periods: Most books are for standard loan, i.e. two weeks for undergraduates.
Some copies of higher-demand texts are borrowable only for 3 days (Part-time
students may borrow 3 Day Loan books for seven days). Both standard and 3 Day
Loan copies are shelved together in the main stock. Some texts cannot be borrowed at
all: these are either marked ‘Use in Library’ or ‘Reference’.
Returns: Books should be returned by the date due or fines are payable. You can
renew books for another loan period provided no-one else has reserved them. Books
can be renewed in person, by phone or on the Catalogue
Reservations: If a book you need is out on loan, you can reserve it by clicking on the
‘Request a Hold’ link on the catalogue and entering your Warwick login name and
password. The library will inform you by email of reserved books awaiting collection
(we use your ‘@warwick.ac.uk’ address). Books are held for you for up to 7 days and
can be collected from Short Loan.
Please note: books on loan to you can be reserved by other users. When standard (twoweek) loan books are reserved they are recalled after a week - so you may find you are
required to bring books back before the date on your receipt. The fine for late return of
any reserved book is £1 per day. We will inform you by email of all books recalled
from you.
My Library Account: Log in on the catalogue with your Warwick username and
password to check the books on loan to you, renew them, check the progress of your
reservations, pay fines online and look at your reading history.
Short Loan Collection: Short Loan is designed to make high-demand texts available to
as many people as possible in a short time. You can borrow 2 books from the collection
for up to 24 hours, or over a weekend if taken out on a Friday. Books must be returned
by 11am on the due day or fines of £1 per hour or part thereof are charged. You can
renew Short Loan books if they haven’t been reserved by another borrower
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Short Loan Reservations: You can reserve any two Short Loan books for a specific
day (or weekend) up to 7 days in advance by clicking the ‘Book Short Loan Copy’ link
on the catalogue.
Photocopies of selected periodical articles from reading lists are available for a Short
Loan period. Please ask at the first floor Help Desk.
E-resources: databases, electronic journals, e-books, etc., are in the catalogue. Eresources for history are also accessible from the library’s pages for History:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/main/tealea/arts/history
You will need your Warwick username and password to login to electronic resources.
Course Extracts: Many modules now provide digitised core texts or online articles.
Links to these may be on module web pages. You can also access them from the library
web pages:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/main/electronicresources/extracts
Learning Grid is a study centre in University House. It’s open 24/7 and offers copies
of highly-used textbooks for Reference use only (i.e. they cannot be borrowed), PCs,
wireless network access, video editing and training facilities, and a variety of study
environments. Staff and student assistance with LG facilities is available into the late
evening.
Help: If you have any questions or problems with library use, please ask at the Help
Desk on Floor 1 (weekdays, 9am - 7.30pm).
If you need help finding material for your study, please contact Lynn Wright
Lynn.Wright@warwick.ac.uk.
If you have any questions or problems with library use, please ask at the Enquiry Desk
on Floor 1 (weekdays, 9am - 7.30pm).
4. Seminars, Essays, Tutorials and Lectures
Apart from your personal tutor, your main source of help will be your seminar tutors in
particular modules. The majority of seminars meet weekly (except weeks 6 and 16,
which are Reading Weeks) but the occasional day-time seminar meets for 1.5 hours
fortnightly. The seminars are your most important regular commitment. They are
compulsory (see below for details). If you have to miss a seminar for any reason always
leave a note for your seminar tutor or e-mail him or her explaining your absence—if at
all possible, in advance.
Participation in seminars is central to the process of learning. Seminar participation
allows you to test out your ideas about a subject together with a tutor and other students,
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and, in the process, develop oral communication and group-work skills which are likely
to be as important as your writing skills in whatever you find yourself doing when you
have finished at Warwick. Potential employers are usually just as interested in what
your tutors have to say about your participation in seminars as they are in the marks you
get for essays and exams, which require a distinctive set of skills. (See Appendix 1.)
There are three golden rules for making the best use of seminars:
One - come prepared. Manage your time so that you have always done the
required reading. Unless you read for seminars you will not be able to
participate effectively, or even to understand properly what is being discussed
by others.
Two - participate. You should always come to a seminar with something to say.
But don’t feel that you have to be certain before you speak. Seminars are about
exchanging ideas and testing out your understanding. Asking questions and
articulating your own difficulties in understanding things will help both you and
other students, who may well share the same difficulties.
Three - don’t try to dominate. Participation doesn’t mean talking all the time!
Seminars are about the exchange of ideas, and it is just as important to learn to
listen to what others are saying and to respond to their ideas as it is to present
your own views. The skills you should be aiming to develop in seminars are
group-working skills - not how to push yourself forward, but how to act as a
valuable member of a team.
In a word - take some responsibility on yourself for the success of the seminar as a
group. If you are in any doubt about your performance in seminars, please ask the
module tutor for advice.
Short essay deadlines will differ from module to module. Make sure that you
understand the dates on which essays are due, and plan your work well ahead in order to
avoid a last minute rush. If you are in danger of missing an essay deadline always speak
to your tutor about the problem in advance. First-year students are often anxious about
what exactly is required of them in essay-writing. Some guidelines are provided in the
Essay-Writing Check List in Appendix One. You should also make use of the
departmental Undergraduate Style Guide (Appendix Two).
After they have marked your essays seminar tutors will set up short individual feedback
meetings with students to discuss their feedback. These feedback tutorials are one of
the most valuable aspects of the teaching, giving you an opportunity to clarify with the
tutor anything that you find confusing and to discuss your performance in seminars and
your progress in the module. If handed in on time, coursework is normally returned
within 2-3 weeks, and often earlier. Please note that University policy is four weeks.
Lectures will play a central role in your preparation for seminars. They are never a
substitute for reading, but they will give you a broad framework within which to
understand the main themes of the module and the particular material you are reading.
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Listening to a lecture is not a passive activity: you will need to give serious attention to
developing your skills in note-taking if you are to get the most out of the lectures.
Attendance at seminars (and language classes where relevant) and the writing of essays
is compulsory. Your attention is drawn to the University's Regulation 13.1, (University
of Warwick Calendar, Section 2; online at
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/gov/calendar)
Regulations
Governing
Attendance at Classes, Submission of Coursework and Progress with Research).
A student who fails to attend prescribed classes or to complete prescribed course work
may be required to submit additional assessed work, or to sit an additional written
examination, or, in extreme cases, to withdraw from his or her course of study
altogether. Most students enjoy their work and we seldom have to invoke these
sanctions: we will do so, however, when necessary. The Staff Meeting considers
progress reports on all students throughout the year. Any student in danger of being
required to produce extra work will first be warned of this in writing (including
email) by the Senior Tutor and given an opportunity to mend their ways. If
medical (including psychological) problems lead to problems with your attendance
and/or work, it is essential that you provide the Undergraduate Secretary with a
written note from a professional verifying your condition. Legitimate, documented
problems of this sort are not addressed by the department through invocation of
Regulation 13.1.
Course costs
Students should be aware that there may be some costs, such as field trips,
photocopying costs or book purchases, associated with certain modules.
6. How to get the most out of assignment feedback
The most effective feedback is one that takes the form of a dialogue (often between a
tutor and student but also important are the conversations that take place between
students). You will get feedback in a variety of forms and it is important to make the
most of these opportunities as they provide the most valuable method for further
development. Every tutor will provide one-to-one feedback tutorials to discuss
assignments. These will be held 2-3 weeks after the assignment has been submitted.
Feedback is also provided on module examination/long essay performance in the last
week of the summer term. But also consider the other ways you will receive feedback.
Some examples are: e-mail exchanges with tutors on essay or seminar preparation;
discussions among students; and tutor to student or student to student comments in
lectures or seminars.
Here are some tips to make the most of feedback-dialogue opportunities:
1.
Be confident! Feel the fear! Go and see your tutor for feedback!
2.
Prepare a few questions you want to ask before seeing your tutor
3.
Think about what you want feedback on e.g. structure, analysis,
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referencing?
4.
Discuss your assignments with other students (this is not 'copying')
5.
Learn how to give and receive constructive, tactful and positive feedback to
other students
6.
Give constructive assignment feedback comments to other students
7.
Recognise different types of feedback opportunities - verbal, written,
email, audio, peer, self
8.
Think about when and where you can get feedback - seminars, tutorials,
before/after a lecture, workshops, via email, phone, other students, yourself
9.
Be organised - if you want feedback for your next assignment (from tutors
or students) - don't leave it until the last minute.
10.
Use exemplars/plans of assignments and discuss with other students –
this will help you understand what is being required.
6. Learning Outcomes
Whichever degree programme you are following, any modules that you take in History
are designed to enable to acquire the range of knowledge and skills that characterise a
History graduate. Course outlines for individual modules will spell out in detail the
particular learning outcomes that you can be expected to achieve. What follows is a
broad outline of what you can expect to have learned - provided, of course, that you
apply yourself.
A. Knowledge
1. Knowledge and understanding of significant themes in the history of Europe
(including Britain) since the later Middle Ages. Optional modules provide opportunities
to acquire more detailed knowledge of particular countries and regions in Europe, the
Americas, India, China, Australia and Africa.
2. Awareness and understanding of a range of specialised approaches used within the
historical discipline, social, cultural, political, economic, intellectual, religious, medical,
gender and environmental history.
3. Knowledge and understanding of the development of history as an academic
discipline, and its interaction with other disciplines in the humanities and social
sciences.
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B. Skills
1. The critical analytical skills necessary to:
a) seek out, assemble and interpret evidence relevant to the analysis of particular
historical problems;
b) evaluate interpretations offered by historians.
This will include an appreciation of the complexity of most historical knowledge, the
often fragmentary character of the sources from which it is derived, and the provisional
and contested character of historical explanation.
2. The imagination, empathy and capacity to distance oneself from contemporary and
local ‘common sense’ that is required to understand the workings of unfamiliar
mentalities and social structures.
3. A self-reflexive approach to learning, and the intellectual maturity needed to move
self-consciously between different approaches in seeking to grasp the complexity and
diversity of human cultures.
4. As an integral part of your course you will be encouraged to develop further the
following ‘key skills’:




Time management and study skills
Research skills, including the capacity to make full use of IT resources
The ability to communicate effectively both in writing and orally
The capacity to work as part of a group
In addition, you will have the opportunity to develop your numeracy skills in particular
optional modules.
5. The ability to conduct substantial original historical research and to marshal
substantial historical evidence in an extended, coherent, analytically-orientated
argument through the production of a dissertation in the final year of study.
7. Reading and Research Weeks
Week 6 in Terms 1 and 2 is designated the Reading and Research week and no classes
run in that week. The point of these weeks is to allow students more free time to
research and read for their assignments and essays; and to allow academic staff to stay
in touch with their own research and to conduct more intensive teaching preparation.
Most staff will not be in the Department during these weeks and if you need to make
urgent contact with them you should contact the Undergraduate Secretary.
8. Plagiarism
When writing essays, always identify your sources for specific information and, where
appropriate, the ideas which you use. It is bad academic practice for a student to fail to
do so, just as it would be for an author writing a book or learned article.
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Commissioning research by other persons for your essays constitutes plagiarism, even if
you subsequently re-write the commissioned work. Copying without acknowledgement
from a printed source is as unacceptable as commissioning research or essays, as is
plagiarising another student's essay.
It is equally wrong to reproduce and present as your own work a passage from another
person's writing to which minor changes have been made, e.g., random alteration of
words or phrases, omission or rearrangement of occasional sentences or phrases within
the passage. This remains plagiarism even if the source is acknowledged in footnotes.
Unacknowledged quotation, disguised borrowing, or near-copying will be treated
as plagiarism and penalised according to its extent and gravity.
Your attention is drawn to the University's Regulation 11B, (University of Warwick
Calendar, Section 2; online at:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/gov/calendar. Procedure to be Adopted in the
Event of Suspected Cheating. The History Department may use plagiarism software or
other appropriate mean to identify plagiarism in students’ assessed and non-assessed
work. In the last few years the University disciplinary machinery has imposed penalties
in several cases on students who have been convicted of plagiarism in assessed work.
In extreme cases, the penalty for plagiarism is a grade of zero in the whole module.
History-specific training in proper referencing is provided on the first-year core module,
‘The Making of the Modern World’ skills programme; online at
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/undergraduate/modules/hi153/skills/. For
further
information
about
what
constitutes
plagiarism
go
to
http://warwick.ac.uk/services/elearning/plato/. Section 1, ‘About Plagiarism’, defines
plagiarism, gives you examples of plagiarism and checks your understanding of the
issue. We would urge you to look at this site.
If you are still uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism, please talk it over with either
your personal tutor or your seminar tutor.
9. Names and Meaning
Students (and staff) should be careful about their use of terminologies to describe other
people.
Names do not have permanently fixed meanings, and terms that were once considered
acceptable, even polite, may become offensive, or at least obsolete. For example, in
2001, the highly-respected Journal of Negro History, which had been founded in 1916,
changed its name to the Journal of African American History. This change reflects the
transformation that has taken place over the last century in the English-language
terminology used to describe blackness. In 1916, when the journal was founded,
‘negro’ was considered an appropriate and respectful term. By 2001, the term was
considered antique. Other African-American organisations that have chosen (unlike the
Journal of Negro History) to retain their historic names nonetheless employ different
terminology when describing their aims and objectives.
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The United Negro College Fund, which was founded in 1944, currently describes itself
as the ‘oldest and most successful African American higher education assistance
organization’.1 The words used by people to describe themselves has changed over
time, and as scholars we should be alert to these transformations, and to the meanings
they convey.
When in 1966 Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale decided to found a political party
dedicated to the defense of African American rights they called it the Black Panther
Party for Self-Defense, whereas the group founded in 1909 by (among others) W.E.B.
DuBois and Ida Wells-Barnett to campaign for civil and political rights called itself the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. As a website devoted to
African American art and history notes: ‘A variety of names have been used for African
Americans at various points in history. African Americans have been referred to as
Negroes, colored, blacks, and Afro-Americans, as well as lesser-known terms, such as
the 19th-century designation Anglo-African. The terms Negro and colored are now
rarely used. African American, black, and to a lesser extent Afro-American, are used
interchangeably today’.2 Students should thus distinguish between the terminology
used in the historical material they study, and the terms they themselves employ in their
essays and in class.
In summary, please be alert to the historical contexts out of which particular terms
emerged, and do not transpose terms from one context to another without careful
thought.
10. Submission of Essays
Short coursework essays should be given directly to your seminar tutor in seminars or
left in his or her pigeonhole and submitted on-line at
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/undergraduate/esubmission
All long assessed essays must be handed in to the Undergraduate Secretary and
submitted on-line at
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/undergraduate/esubmission
Never leave assessed essays in staff pigeonholes: the secretary will sign in these essays
and you will receive a receipt.
11. Questionnaires and Student Feedback
Regular feedback from students plays an important part in planning modules and
developing teaching skills within the department. In order to ensure that students can
make a direct impact on the ways in which they are being taught, every tutor asks
students to complete a questionnaire at the end of the first term and circulates a written
report on this feedback prior to discussing with the students concerned any resulting
changes. At the end of the module tutors will circulate a second questionnaire, so that
1
2
http://www.uncf.org/history/timeline.asp (my emphasis).
http://www.africanaonline.com/introduction.htm
14
they can take account of student comments in any revisions they make for the next year.
(In core modules these processes will usually be organised not by seminar tutors but by
the module director.)
Very occasionally, students may feel that a module tutor is unresponsive to their
concerns. If this happens to you there are a number of steps that you can take.
You can talk to your personal tutor/Director of Part-time Studies about the problem, and
ask him or her to intervene either with the tutor concerned or with the Senior Tutor,
Director of Undergraduate Studies (or CAS Director, for a module with the AM code),
or the Department Chair. Part-time students can also take problems to the CLL if they
wish. (If, as could happen, it is your personal tutor who is the teacher with whom you
are having problems, then you should make an appointment to see the Senior Tutor,
Director of Undergraduate Studies or the Head of Department.) Alternatively, you can
ask one of the student representatives on the SSLC to take the issue up either in an
SSLC meeting or privately with the staff member responsible for convening the SSLC.
While most problems can in fact be sorted out by discussing them directly with the
teacher concerned, if this does not work you should not hesitate to take the problem to a
third party in one of the ways outlined above. It is in the interests of everyone involved
that any such problems are known about and dealt with as soon as possible. Making use
of these procedures, when appropriate, is both your right and your duty.
The department relies on students to draw to its attention problems that cannot be
resolved in direct discussion with tutors. Do not just let things slide: be a good citizen.
12. Examinations and Assessment
The Place of Exams in Your Degree
The only timed examination that Level One students will sit for History modules in the
first year is the Making of the Modern World exam in June.
Copies of past examination papers are available online
(http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/exampapers). Some of your module essays and a
group project in the Making of the Modern World will also be assessed. Assessment in
your other History modules will be based on essays written during the year.
Work done during Level One does not contribute directly to the grade of your final
degree, although it is during this year that you will acquire many of the skills necessary
to perform well in the programme as a whole. You do, however, have to pass all your
Level One modules, and students failing any modules (examined or assessed) are
require to sit and pass additional exams in September before being allowed to proceed
to the following year.
Full details of the regulations governing Level One examinations and assessment are
given in Appendix Four. You should read these carefully and ask your tutor if there is
anything you do not understand.
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The examinations which you sit at the end of the Honours Level modules form the basis
of the degree classification you receive at the end of the course (marks are not carried
forward from Level One modules). Copies of past examination papers are available
online: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/exampapers. Assessment will normally be
based on long essays.
Full details of the regulations governing Honours Level examinations and assessment
are given in Appendix Four. You should read these carefully and ask your tutor if there
is anything you do not understand.
To help you to judge your own progress you will be given marks corresponding to the
final degree classifications on all your written work throughout your studies.
All undergraduate modules are marked using one overall system, which runs from 0100. Marks fall into different classes of performance:
70-100
60-69
50-59
40-49
0-39
First Class
Second Class, Upper Division (also referred to as "Upper Second" or "2.1")
Second Class, Lower Division (also referred to as "Lower Second" or "2.2")
Third Class
Fail
The 17-point marking scale
For students who started their degree course in 2010 or later, History essays and
examinations will be assessed on the University’s 17-point marking scale, i.e. tutors
will award each unit of assessment one of 17 pre-defined scale points in the range
from 0 to 100 (some numerical / language work in other departments may be
marked on a 100-point scale, where tutors can use each individual percentage
mark between 0 and 100; for full details see section D2 below and the University
Teaching Quality website:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/quality/categories/examinations/markscalesconven
tions/forstudents/)
Classification Criteria
Classification is a complex matter, requiring skill and judgement on the part of markers,
and no brief list can hope to capture all the considerations that may come into play. The
purpose of this document is to give staff some guidelines about the Department’s
expectations. Feedback on essays is likely to address the success with which students
have fulfilled the various criteria listed here.
There is no requirement that a piece of work would have to meet every one of the
specified criteria in order to obtain a mark in the relevant class. Equally, when work
displays characteristics from more than one class, a judgement must be made of the
overall quality. In some respects expectations differ between essays and exam answers.
The latter will, for example, normally contain less detailed evidence than the former.
Presentation, style, grammar and spelling are important aspects of the ability to
communicate ideas with clarity. Students are expected to familiarise themselves with
16
the
Undergraduate
Style
Guide
(available
at
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/undergraduate/modules/hi203/resources/styl
eguide and in the student handbooks) and get into the habit of following its
recommendations on presentation, footnoting, bibliography, etc. Poorly written essays
are less likely to meet the criteria laid down for a particular class then well-written ones.
In 2009-10, first- and second-year students will be marked on the university’s new 17point scale, third- and fourth-years on the conventional 100-point scale. The former is
explained in more detail below (as well as in a departmental workshop to be organised
in the autumn term).
The University-wide descriptors in the following table are interpreted as appropriate to
the subject and the year/level of study, and implicitly cover good academic practice and
the avoidance of plagiarism. Faculties and departments publish more detailed marking
criteria (see the specific History descriptors below).
With the exception of ‘Zero’, the descriptors cover a range of marks, with the location
within each class dependent on the extent to which the elements in the descriptor and
departmental/faculty marking criteria are met.
Class
Scale Point
Excellent 1st
First
High 1st
Mid 1st
Low 1st
Upper Second
(2.1)
Lower Second
(2.2)
Third
Fail
High 2.1
Mid 2.1
Low 2.1
High 2.2
Mid 2.2
Low 2.2
High 3rd
Mid 3rd
Low 3rd
High Fail (sub
Honours)
Fail
Low Fail
Zero
Zero
University Descriptor
Exceptional work of the highest quality, demonstrating
excellent knowledge and understanding, analysis,
organisation, accuracy, relevance, presentation and
appropriate skills. At final-year level work may achieve or
be close to publishable standard.
Very high quality work demonstrating excellent knowledge
and understanding, analysis, organisation, accuracy,
relevance, presentation and appropriate skills. Work which
may extend existing debates or interpretations.
High quality work demonstrating good knowledge and
understanding, analysis, organisation, accuracy, relevance,
presentation and appropriate skills.
Competent work, demonstrating reasonable knowledge and
understanding, some analysis, organisation, accuracy,
relevance, presentation and appropriate skills.
Work of limited quality, demonstrating some relevant
knowledge and understanding.
Work does not meet standards required for the appropriate
stage of an Honours degree. There may be evidence of
some basic understanding of relevant concepts and
techniques. Poor quality work well below the standards
required for the appropriate stage of an Honours degree.
Work of no merit OR Absent, work not submitted, penalty
in some misconduct cases
Numerical
Equivalent
Range using
the 0-100 scale
96
93-100
89
81
85-92
78-84
74
70-77
68
65
62
58
55
52
48
45
42
67-69
64-66
60-63
57-59
54-56
50-53
47-49
44-46
40-43
38
35-39
25
19-34
12
1-18
0
0
Marks for all work, whether marked using every point on the 0-100 scale (numerically
based work and similar) or on the 17-point scale (essays, dissertations etc) fall into the
same categories. A piece of work given a mark of 81 has reached the standard for "Mid
1st" whether it is a Mathematics exam or a History essay, an oral language exam or a
design project in Engineering.
In addition to these university-wide descriptors, you may also find useful the following specific
History descriptors:
17
First Class (70+)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Persuasive and direct answer to the question, establishing the wider significance of the issues
concerned.
Comprehensive coverage of the relevant material; accuracy in the details.
A direct and coherent argument, well supported by relevant evidence.
Critical analysis of relevant concepts, theoretical or historiographical perspectives or
methodological issues.
Fluent and engaging writing style; persuasive presentation and structuring of arguments.
Work which, in addition, displays evidence of creativity, originality, sophistication and freshness
of arguments will be awarded marks of 75+.
Upper Second (60-69)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Direct answer to the question, establishing the wider significance of the issues concerned.
Adequate coverage of the relevant material, accuracy in the details.
Skilful mobilisation of evidence in relation to the argument being presented.
Narrative and description taking second place to analysis.
Competent manipulation of relevant concepts, theoretical or historiographical perspectives or
methodological issues.
Fluent writing style; effective presentation and structuring of arguments.
Lower Second (50-59)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Basically satisfactory answer to the question.
Limited coverage of relevant material; some inaccuracy in the detail.
Some attempt to mobilise evidence in relation to the argument being presented.
Analysis taking second place to narrative and description.
Limited understanding of relevant concepts, theoretical or historiographical perspectives or
methodological issues.
Adequate writing style, presentation and structuring of arguments.
Third (40–49)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Barely satisfactory answer to the question.
Inadequate coverage of relevant material; major inaccuracies in the detail.
No understanding of relevant concepts, theoretical or historiographical perspectives or
methodological issues.
Poor presentation and structuring of arguments.
Fail (less than 40)
One or more of the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Serious misunderstanding of the question.
Failure to provide any answer to the question.
Failure to show knowledge of relevant material.
Seriously muddled presentation and structuring of arguments.
As well as giving a mark on each assignment the student produces, essay markers will
put comments both throughout and at the bottom of work. These comments are
designed to make the student understand where they might improve, and to highlight
where they are going wrong or might reconsider their arguments. Students are
encouraged to ask for clarification if there is anything in the tutor’s comments that they
do not understand.
18
At the end of their course, students are awarded a classified degree (‘First’, ‘Upper
Second’, etc). The award of the class essentially depends on the arithmetical mean of all
eight modules studied in the second and final years. For full details see the University’s
‘Honours
Degree
Classification
Convention’,
available
at:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/quality/categories/examinations/markscalesconven
tions/forstudents/ug08/honoursconvention/.
19
13. Sample Essay Cover-Sheet
Department of History
Short Essay Coversheet
________________________________________________________________________
STUDENT NAME:
STUDENT NO:
DEGREE COURSE:
YEAR OF STUDY:
FULL TIME/PART TIME
MODULE:
TUTOR:
ESSAY TITLE:
DATE OF SUBMISSION:
WORD COUNT:
_________________________________________________________________________
Comments:
Ways to Improve:
Mark:
20
14.
Student Sickness and Medical Certificates
If you fall sick during term and are forced to miss seminars or essay tutorials, you must
inform the tutor in advance, either by phone, by e-mail, or through the Department
Office. If the sickness is going to affect your attendance over three consecutive days,
you must provide a letter of explanation or else a verbal report either to the Department
or to the student’s personal tutor. A self-certification form is also accepted, but is not
essential. Prolonged absence from the university requires a doctor’s certificate, as does
a temporary withdrawal on medical grounds. In the latter case, the university normally
requires another medical certificate six weeks before your return, stating you are fit to
resume study.
In the case of sickness which affects attendance at an examination or the meeting of a
deadline for submission of a major piece of assessed work, you must provide a doctor’s
certificate. This should be obtained either during the sickness or as soon thereafter as
the student is fit to do so. The certificate should be lodged with the Undergraduate
Secretary. Extensions on assessed essay deadlines can ONLY be granted by the
Director of Undergraduate Studies Dr Mathew Thomson (Room H310).
We stress the need in particular for students to provide full written evidence about
their state of health regarding examination attendance and submission of assessed
work. Failure to comply could lead to failure in examinations and a requirement
to re-sit your first year exams in September.
‘Medical’ problems may include conditions such as depression and emotional distress
such as that occasioned by recent death or serious illness of a member of your
immediate family, or of another individual with whom you have a close personal
relationship. In such circumstances you must discuss the situation with your personal
tutor.
21
Appendix One
ESSAY-WRITING CHECK LIST
Here are some of the things you need to think about in preparing an essay. Few of them
are iron rules. Good essays come in many forms, and a good essay writer will
sometimes ignore some of these guidelines. But to become a good essay writer you
would probably do well to start by following them.
Please remember that writing an essay involves skills of discussion and argument which
differ from those that might be used in the informal setting of a seminar. In the first
place, argument and analysis in essays will usually have to be more carefully structured
than the comments you might make in a seminar or tutorial discussion. In essays, you
should demonstrate awareness of more than one argument, acknowledge differences in
the views of historians, and adopt a critical appreciation of evidence and its sources.
You should also provide the necessary scholarly underpinning for your analysis by
showing the sources of your information and arguments in bibliographies and footnotes.
On questions of presentation, footnoting, etc. you should follow the advice given in the
departmental Undergraduate Style Guide.
The Essay Question
Have you really answered the question?
Have you thought what might lie behind the question - e.g. if it asks 'Was the First
World War the main cause of the Russian Revolution?', have you thought about what
alternative explanations might be suggested?
Is each paragraph clearly related to the overall question, raising a new topic and moving
the argument forward?
The ultimate test is that if you left the title off the top of your essay, could a friend guess
the question from your answer?
Your Analysis
Have you made an argument - or is the essay simply relating what happened?
Is your argument logical, coherent and clear?
Are you contradicting yourself?
Are you using appropriate evidence to back up each part of your argument?
Are you aware of counter-arguments?
22
Have you combined evidence and ideas from several different sources at each stage of
the argument, or are you merely summarising what your sources say one by one?
Your Research
Have you done enough reading? (Six books/article/chapters is suggested for a short
essay; ten or more for a long one.)
Are you up to date on the historical debate? (Do not rely only on the older texts.)
Have you listed in the bibliography all the sources you used, and only those sources?
Presentation
Is it legible? Is it double-spaced with wide enough margins for comments?
Is the essay written simply and fluently, so that the reader does not have to read
sentences twice?
Have you numbered the pages? (Some tutors type their comments rather than writing
them on the essay, so they need page numbers to refer to.)
Is it too long? (Almost every essay would be better if the same things were said in fewer
words. Recommended word lengths are a maximum, not a minimum.)
Have you given footnotes and page references for any direct quotations? Are these set
out properly, in accordance with the Undergraduate Style Guide?
Are your punctuation and your spelling correct?
wordprocessor.)
(Use the spell check on your
The one iron rule
Finally, there is one iron rule. Everything you quote from someone else must be
in inverted commas. The worst sin you can commit is plagiarism: using someone
else's words without acknowledgement. To avoid doing this by mistake always
put inverted commas into your notes around any passage you copy out, and keep
a record of the source.
23
Appendix Two
UNDERGRADUATE
STYLE GUIDE
24
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
UNDERGRADUATE STYLE GUIDE
CONTENTS
Introduction
1) Format
2) Quotations
3) Numbers
4) Dates
5) Money
6) Footnotes & Endnotes
7) Bibliographies
8) British versus American Usage
9) Some Common Errors
INTRODUCTION
Presentation matters: it is an essential part of the historian’s craft, not an optional extra.
Neglected or poorly executed, your style will irritate and distract readers, weakening the force
of your arguments. An essay that is well written and properly laid out will, in contrast, gain
your readers’ confidence and convey your message to them as efficiently as possible.
Many different conventions are used in scholarly publications, and this can be confusing.
What we recommend here is drawn from the best current practice and should enable you to
deal with most problems that arise. You should make consistent use of these rules and
guidelines in all your written work—assessed essays as well as term work.
To help you acquire presentation and referencing skills we have devised a skills’ programme
which you can find at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/undergraduate/referencing/
This site will show you how to format your essays, how to quote, how to write numbers,
money and dates in your essay and how to footnote your work and construct a bibliography.
Writing an essay can be a long, hard struggle, and at the end of the process (or in the wee
hours of the morning) you may not wish to go over your text yet again. But that is exactly
what you must do, to weed out typos, awkward sentence structures, unclear arguments etc.
Spelling mistakes may seem trivial, but they are always irritating to tutors, and tend to
undermine the reader’s confidence in your work. Before printing the final version of your
essay, use the spelling-check in your word processing programme and double-check doubtful
words in a dictionary. Then reread your essay to catch errors missed (or created) by the
spelling-check. You will identify far more errors and infelicities if you set the essay aside for
at least a few hours before your final reading and correction of it.
If you are unsure about any of these guidelines, please ask your essay tutors for clarification.
1) Format
a) Margins: You should leave wide margins at the sides, top and bottom of your
essay.
25
There should be a 1.5 inch (4 cm) margin at the left hand side of the page.
b) Spacing: The text of your essay should be double-spaced. The footnotes (or
endnotes) should however be single-spaced. Your bibliography may also be
single-spaced, though it is helpful to double-space between individual entries.
c) Indentation: Except for the very first paragraph of your essay, the first line of
every paragraph should be indented. You do not need to add extra spacing
between paragraphs: the indentation alone tells the reader that you have begun a
new paragraph.
d) Pagination: Number each page of your essay.
e) Word-count: Provide a full word-count for your essay, either on your title-page or
cover-sheet.
2) Quotations
a) Ordinary quotations: Use single (not double) quotation marks for ordinary
quotations.
Note that the final quotation mark is normally placed inside punctuation (comma,
period etc). However, when the quotation forms a complete sentence, the
quotation mark comes after the full stop. If the material you cite itself contains a
quotation from source, you will indicate this quote-within-a quote by using
double quotation marks.
Evans argues convincingly that ‘the industrial revolution was a
Protracted process, not a single catastrophic event’.
According the Evans, ‘Recent research suggests that the industrial
revolution was a protracted process, not a single catastrophic event.’
Chatterjee’s claim that ‘a group of propertied observers shouted
“Hang all the convicted felons by the toes” as the procession passed
by’ suggests the intensity of middle-class support for public
executions.
b) Inset or block quotations: When you quote four or more lines of text (or quote
lines of poetry), use an inset quotation—that is, type the quotation as a separate
block of double-spaced text consistently indented from the left margin (the righthand margin of an inset quotation is not indented). Do not use quotation marks in
inset quotations except to indicate a quote within the inset material: use double
quotation marks to indicate this quote-within-the quote. Avoid over-using inset
quotations, especially in short essays. Be judicious about what you cite—short
quotes that are pithy and to the point are more convincing than extended blocks of
other writers’ text. Your own voice—not those of the authors you cite—should
dominate your essay.
Examples:
c) Ellipses: Always use ellipses—that is, three dots—to indicate that you have
omitted material within your quotation.
Example: Evans argues that ‘the industrial revolution was…not a single
catastrophic event’.
3) Numbers
Numbers up to one hundred, when they occur in normal prose and are not statistical, should
be written in words rather than numerals. When there are many figures, however, it is better
to use words only for numbers up to nine. Avoid beginning a sentence with a numeral. Spell
out ‘per cent’ rather than using the % sign in the text.
26
Dates
These should normally be given as 2 September 1939: commas should not be used. Spell out
centuries rather than using numerals: write ‘the eighteenth century’ not ‘the 18th century’.
Use hyphenation to indicate adjectival usage of centuries: ‘In the eighteenth century, barbers
commonly performed surgery, but unfortunately for patients not all eighteenth-century
barbers were adept with knife and needle.’
5) Money
Simple sums of money should be given in words: ‘A pint of beer cost two shillings.’ Sums of
money which are more complex may be written in figures: ‘A shortage of grain raised the
price of beer shockingly, to 2s. 6 1/2d.’ British currency was decimalised in February 1971.
There is however no need to convert old currency into decimal equivalents.
6) Footnotes and Endnotes
The secret of good footnoting is good note-taking. Always keep a complete record of the full
source (author, title, date and place of publication, specific page numbers) as you take notes.
Whenever you copy any passage—even a short phrase—verbatim into your notes, be sure to
use inverted commas in your notes to indicate that you have done so. This will help you to
avoid accidental plagiarism.
You may place your notes either at the bottom of each page (footnotes) or at the end of your
text, before the Bibliography (endnotes). Most of your notes will be reference notes,
identifying the books and other sources from which you have drawn your quotations,
evidence or data. All quotations you use must be identified with either a footnote or an
endnote. You do not need to reference general information widely available in the historical
literature: for example, you do not need to provide a footnote to substantiate your claim that
the French revolution began in 1789. However, if you note that peasants in the south of
France burned 112 chateaux, destroyed over 567 metric tons of seigneurial documentation and
drank 892 bottles of their former seigneurs’ wine in 1789, you need to indicate in a note the
source of your statistics. Notes should give readers all the information that they would need
to trace your sources, but not more than is necessary. They should be clear and consistent in
presentation. Normally, an essay will average two or three footnotes per page, but this
number will vary according to the content of your text. Your essay tutors will help you to find
the right balance between under- and over-referencing.
Every footnote must refer to a source which you have actually examined. It is never correct
to cite a source that you have not personally examined without indicating this fact in your
note. Thus, if you are citing a letter from F.D. Roosevelt quoted by the author William
Leuchtenberg, your footnote might read: ‘F.D. Roosevelt to Cordell Hull, 28 August 1940,
cited in William Leuchtenburg, Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, p. 305.’
Models for footnotes and endnotes drawn from various types of sources are given below.
Make careful note of the kind and placement of punctuation, the use of italics etc:
a) Articles in scholarly journals:
First citation: Use: Author’s full name, ‘Full Title of Article’, Journal Name, volume
number (date), page number(s).
e.g. Peter Bailey, ‘Parasexuality and Glamour. The Victorian Barmaid as Cultural
Prototype’, Gender and History, 2 (1990), pp. 150-53.
27
Second and subsequent citations: Use: Author’s surname, ‘Short Title’, page
number(s).
e.g. Bailey, ‘Parasexuality and Glamour’, p. 164.
b) Books
First citation: Use: Author’s full name, Full Title of Book (Place of publication, date
of publication), page number(s).
Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes. The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991 (London,
1994), p. 67.
Second and subsequent citations: Use: Surname, Short Title, page number(s).
Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes, pp. 352-54.
c) Edited books
First citation: Use: Author’s full name (ed.), Full Title of Book (number of volumes if
work has more than one volume, Place of publication, date of publication), volume
cited, page(s) cited.
W.H.B. Court (ed.), Studies in the Coal Industry (2 vols., Birmingham, 1947), I, pp.
144-46
Second and subsequent citations: Use: Surname, Short Title, volume number, page
number(s).
Court (ed.), Studies, II, p. 76.
d) Chapters in edited books
First citation: Use: Author’s Full Name, ‘Full Title of Chapter’, in Full Names of
Editors, Full Title of Book (Place of publication, date of publication), page number(s).
Sarah Gaunt, ‘Visual Propaganda in the Later Middle Ages’, in B. Taithe and T.
Thornton (eds), Propaganda. Political Rhetoric and Identity, 1300-2000 (Stroud,
1999), pp. 27-40.
Second and subsequent citations: Use surname, ‘Short title’, page number(s).
Gaunt, ‘Visual Propaganda’, p. 39.
e) Manuscript sources
First citation: Birmingham University Library, Court Papers, ‘Court Manuscript on
Coal’, W.H.B. Court to Sir Keith Hancock, 24 July 1916.
Second and subsequent citations: Court Papers, Memoranda on Wage Differentials,
1943-45. Memorandum No. 2, 1944, p. 432.
Birmingham Central Library, Charles Parker Archive, MSS 24/7b, Charles Parker to
Arnold Wesker, 2 March 1964.
Public Record Office, HO 317/52. Letter from G. Weller to J. Armitage, 24
September 1916.
28
Nottinghamshire Record Office, GC98/1-3, Notebooks of Sir Gervase Clifton JP,
1795-1803.
Warwickshire County Record Office, D/234, Parish of Astley, Overseers’ Accounts,
1732-1741.
f) Websites
First citation: Use: Author’s full name, ‘Title of Page’, Title of complete work if page
is part of a group of documents, date page was created. URL (date you saw page).
Debbie Abilock, ‘Research on a Complex Topic’, Nueva Library Help, 8 August
1996. <http://www.neuva.pvt.k.12.ca.us/-debbie/library/research.html> (1 October
2001).
Second and subsequent citations: Use: Author’s surname, ‘Short title’.
Abilock, ‘Research on a Complex Topic’.
Note: These precise formats may not suit all circumstances. Works published as
printed books or articles, but which you have consulted on a Website, should be cited
in the usual way for printed material, but with a note—[consulted at http://www…
(date)]—added in brackets. This rule also applies to manuscript or printed documents
that have been made available on the Web.
g) Photographs, illustrations, etc:
If you copy a photo, illustration, chart, etc. from another source into
your essay, use a credit line to indicate your source. The credit line
should be placed immediately below the illustration and should include a
descriptive title for the illustration plus full bibliographical
information on the source from which it derives. The bibliographical
information will adhere to the same style as a footnote - except that it
will not begin with a footnote number.
Examples:
Illustration 1: Photograph of a man-eating tiger in Bihar, 1872. From
Harold Jameson, The Tiger in Modern History (London, 1989), 322.
Illustration 2: Oil painting of a man eating a tiger in Bengal, 1754.
From Jane Lewis, 'Eating Tigers in Historical Perspective', History
Today, 11, 3 (June 1999), 67.
7) Bibliographies
Your essays should always end with a bibliography of all works referenced in your text. Note
that bibliography form departs in a number of respects from footnote (or endnote) style: you
will need to reformat your footnotes to make your Bibliography. In particular, note that
material in your Bibliography is organised alphabetically by the author’s surname. When
referencing articles or chapters in edited volumes in your Bibliography, cite the page numbers
of the article or chapter as a whole—not just the particular pages you have cited in your
footnotes. Manuscript sources should be listed in a separate section of your bibliography.
Sample Bibliography:
29
Abilock, Debbie, ‘Research on a Complex Topic’, Nueva Library Help, 8 August 1996.
<http://www.neuva.pvt.k.12.ca.us/-debbie/library/research.html> (1 October 2001).
Bailey, Peter, ‘Parasexuality and Glamour. The Victorian Barmaid as Cultural Prototype’,
Gender and History, 2 (1990), pp. 148-71.
Court, W.H.B., Studies in the Coal Industry (2 vols., Birmingham, 1947).
Gaunt, Sarah, ‘Visual Propaganda in the Late Middle Ages’, in B. Taithe and T. Thornton
(eds), Propaganda. Political Rhetoric and Identity, 1300-2000 (Stroud, 1999), pp. 27-40.
Hobsbawm, Eric, Age of Extremes. The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991 (London, 1994)
8) British versus American Usage:
The style illustrated above is standard British usage. A number of the books and articles you
read will be published in the US and thus will employ standard American style, which departs
in various respects from British usage. (For example, American usage calls for use of double,
rather than single, quotation marks in ordinary quotes and around journal titles, and places
punctuation marks outside, rather than inside, terminal punctuation). For your essays at
Warwick, always consistently employ standard British usage as detailed above—even when
referring to material published in the US which uses American conventions. If you spend a
year abroad at a US university, however, you will need to employ American style in your
quotations, footnotes, etc. If your course tutor in the US does not provide a style guide, you
will find all the information you need in the Chicago Manual of Style, the standard reference
on American usage, which will be available in the reference section of your university’s
library.
9) Some Common Spelling, Grammar and Syntax Errors:
a) Contractions (abbreviated verbs): Do not use contractions in essays, unless they
appear in material you are quoting. Example: use ‘does not’, not ‘doesn’t’, use ‘is
not’, not ‘isn’t’, use ‘cannot’, not ‘can’t’.
b) Common spelling mistakes:
occurred (NOT occured)
entered (NOT enterred)
propaganda (NOT propoganda)
supersede (NOT supercede)
preferred (NOT prefered)
separate (NOT seperate)
c) It’s/Its: ‘it’s’ is the contraction of ‘it is’; in contrast, ‘its’ means ‘belonging to it’.
It’s true that misuse of these terms makes tutors foam at the mouth—an ugly
sight. It’s also true that an essay in which this mistake is made is likely to have
its final mark lowered by an outraged tutor.
You can avoid this problem by avoiding contractions: ‘it’s’ should not appear in
your essay in the first place, leaving all the more room in its sentences for proper
use of the possessive form of ‘it’.
d) Singulars and Plurals: If the subject of your sentence is singular, you verb must
be singular; if the subject is plural, your verb too must be plural. Two nouns
30
whose singular and plural forms are often confused are datum (singular)/data
(plural) and criterion (singular)/criteria (plural).
Incorrect: The data is consistent.
Correct: The data are consistent.
Incorrect: The criterion are shifting.
Correct: The criterion is shifting.
e) Genitive apostrophes:
To form the possessive of a singular noun, add ’s: the bee’s knees (that is, one bee
has many knees)
To form the possessive of a plural noun, usually you will add the apostrophe after
the terminal s: the bees’ knees (that is, the many knees of several bees)
The most common exceptions to this rule are the plural forms of men, women and
children: men’s, women’s and children’s
f) Commas: Use commas to help the reader negotiate a complex sentence, but do
not use them to string together a succession of linked sentences or to link a
seemingly endless succession of main clauses. If you use a comma to separate
two independent clauses in a sentence, always insert ‘and’ before the second
clause: ‘During the suffragette agitation the Liberal party was besieged by angry
feminists, and Irish nationalists further destabilised political equilibrium.’ In
general, you need a comma where you would naturally pause if reading the
passage out loud.
If you are using a comma to separate out part of a sentence as a minor digression,
remember to put commas both at the beginning and the end of the phrase in
question: ‘Decolonisation in the Far East, Japanese occupation policies
notwithstanding, was primarily an anti-western impulse’.
g) Colons and Semi-colons:
Use a colon within a sentence as a bridge, either introducing an illustration of a
point made at the beginning of the sentence or to introduce a list. Thus,
“Nationalism is often a virulent force: tens of thousands have died in conflicts
over nationality in eastern Europe.’ Similarly, ‘Vichy collaboration can be
ascribed to many forces: self-interest, defeatism and Gestapo entrapment.’
Use a semi-colon to link two thematically related but grammatically independent
sentences. For example, ‘The erection of the Berlin wall marked a new phase in
the divisive Cold War; the subsequent reunification of the two German states
arguably signalled a dramatic new development in European unification.’ Semi
-Colons may also be used as super-commas, where the complexity of
sentence structure renders a comma alone insufficient.
For example, ‘Imperial developments precipitated large-scale migration: migrants
moved from the colonies to Europe; within the different colonies of a single
nation, as illustrated by Asian migration to South and East Africa; and also from
Europe itself, particularly the Celtic fringe, to colonised territories.
h) Passive and Active Voice: Where possible, avoid the passive voice, choosing
instead sentence structures in which it is clear who is doing what to whom.
31
Passive voice constructions include phrases such as: ‘the cost of living was
raised’, ‘the monarchy was abolished’, and ‘racist ideologies were widely
disseminated’. In all of these passive constructions, it is unclear where agency
and causality reside. Attempts to assess and assign agency and causality form
the very heart of historical analysis, and use of the passive voice detracts from
that essential task. Use active voice constructions wherever possible: they will
add clarity to your writing and help you to focus on analysis rather than simple
narrative. For example, the passive constructions above might be rewritten as
follows. ‘The failure of agricultural production to keep pace with rising birth
rates raised the cost of living.’ ‘The monarchy was abolished by a small group
of disaffected financiers determined to seize power for themselves.’
‘Newspaper proprietors eager to increase circulation of their journals were at
the forefront of efforts to disseminate racist ideologies at the turn of the
century.’
32
Appendix Three
Research Interests of Current Staff
For more detail, please see the academic staff section of the Department website:
www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/people/staff_index
Professor Maxine Berg
BA Simon Fraser, MA Sussex, DPhil Oxford,
FRHistS FBA
Dr Roberta Bivins
BA Columbia, PhD MIT
Dr Daniel Branch
BA Sussex, MA London & DPhil Oxford
On research leave during 2012/2013
Dr Alice Brook
BA Cambridge, MSt DPhil Oxford
Dr Howard Chiang
BA University of Southern California
MA Columbia, MA PhD Princeton
Dr Jonathan Davies
BA PhD Liverpool
Professor Rebecca Earle
BA Bryn Mawr, MSc MA PhD Warwick
Dr Bronwen Everill
AB Harvard, MSt Oxford, PhD London
Dr Roger Fagge
BA London, PhD Cambridge
Dr Anne Gerritsen
MA Leiden, PhD Harvard
Dr Gabriel Glickman
PhD Cambridge
Professor David Hardiman
BA London PhD Sussex
Dr Sarah Hodges
BA Brown PhD Chicago
Professor Rainer Horn
BA Minnesota, PhD Michigan
On research leave during 2012/2013
Expertise: Global History, especially Asia and Europe in the
early modern period; history of knowledge and technology;
history of material culture, history of writing and
historiography 1920s-60s.
Expertise: History of technology and medicine in the 20 th
century; post-war immigration in the UK and US.
Expertise: Modern African history, especially the Mau Mau
rebellion in Kenya during the 1950s.
Expertise: Colonial Latin American literature; drama and
religion; Early modern women´s writing; contemporary Latin
American poetry by women
Expertise: Modern Chinese History and Cultural Studies;
History of Science and Medicine; Gender, Sexuality, and the
Body; Sinophone Postcolonial Studies; Critical Theory and
Quantitative; Methodology in the Social Sciences
Expertise: History of the Italian states c.1300-c.1600; history
of the elites; history of ritual; history of violence; history of
universities
Expertise: Colonial and nineteenth-century Spanish
American history
Expertise: Imperial networks and humanitarian movements in
Africa.
Expertise: US history since the Civil War; J.B. Priestley
Expertise: Society and religion in early-modern China;
women and gender in late imperial China; Ceramics in global
history; Jiangxi local history
Expertise: British politics and religion c.1660-1750,
concentrating on the significance of the international context
Expertise: South Asia during the British colonial period;
Indian nationalism; history of subordinate groups;
environmental history
Expertise: Modern South Asian history; gender history;
history of modern science and medicine; history of
international development
Expertise: Continental western European history, 1930s1970s; transnational history; history of social movements and
moments of transition
33
Professor John King
MA Edinburgh, BPhil DPhil Oxford
On research leave during 2012/2013
Professor Mark Knights
MA DPhil Oxford
Professor Beat Kümin
MA Bern, PhD Cambridge
On research leave during 2012/2013
Dr David Lambert
BA PhD Cambridge
Dr Tim Lockley
MA Edinburgh PhD Cambridge
Professor Maria Luddy
BEd PhD NUI FRHistS
Professor Hilary Marland
BA PhD Warwick
Professor Peter Marshall
MA DPhil Oxford FRHistS
On research leave during 2012/2013
Dr Christoph Mick
MA PhD Dr habil. Tübingen
Dr Adam Morton
BA MA PhD York
Professor Christopher Read
BA Keele MPhil Glasgow
PhD LSE FRHistS
Dr Sarah Richardson
BA Manchester MA Hull
PhD Leeds
Professor Giorgio Riello
BA MA Università Ca’ Foscari, PhD UCL
Dr Penny Roberts
BA Birmingham, MA Warwick
PhD Birmingham FRHistS
On research leave during 2012/2013
Dr Rosa Salzberg
BA(hons) MA Melbourne, PhD Queen Mary
Dr Laura Schwartz
PhD UEL
Dr Jennifer Smyth
BA Wellesley, MA MPhil PhD Yale
Professor Carolyn Steedman
BA Sussex, MLitt PhD Cambridge
Expertise: Latin-American literature and cultural history;
twentieth-century Argentinian history; Latin-American
cinema; Caribbean literature
Expertise: political culture of early modern Britain; the role
of print; interaction of politics, literature and ideas
Expertise: English and Central European social history,
c.1450-c.1650; the history of inns and taverns; parish
communities in the Age of the Reformation.
Expertise: Caribbean and Atlantic
histories, especially of slavery,
resistance, abolition and their legacies;
nineteenth-century British exploration
and cartography; networked histories of
modern empires and oceans; histories of
Whiteness; the (ab)use of
counterfactualism.
Expertise: Colonial North America; southern history; slavery;
Native Americans
Expertise: Irish history, women’s history, nineteenth and
twentieth centuries
Expertise: Medical history; history of midwifery, childbirth,
childhood, public health and insanity
Expertise: Early modern English cultural and religious
history, especially the Reformation and its impact
Expertise: Modern German and Eastern European history,
especially Poland, Russia, Ukraine; history of science and
technology, memorial culture and nation building
Expertise: Visual culture and Anti-Catholicism in early
modern England, from the Reformation to the Glorious
Revolution
Expertise: Russian Revolution; Russian intelligentsia 19001930; Communism and cultural revolution
Expertise: Historical computation; nineteenth-century British
political history and electoral politics
Expertise: Global History, 1400-1800 – history of design and
material culture, history of fashion and textiles, small scale
manufacturing in Europe
Expertise: Sixteenth-century French history
Expertise: Italian Renaissance history; early print culture;
migration history
Expertise: Modern British history, particularly feminism and
domestic workers
Expertise: Twentieth-century US cultural history and cinema
Expertise: British social and cultural history, eighteenth to
twentieth centuries; history and literature of the self
34
Dr Claudia Stein
MA Bonn, PhD Stuttgart
On research leave during 2012/2013
Dr Mathew Thomson
BA London, DPhil Oxford
Expertise: History of medicine in early-modern Germany;
sexuality and gender in early-modern Europe
Expertise: British history, nineteenth and twentieth centuries;
history of social policy; psychology and eugenics
35
Appendix Four
DEPARTMENT OF
HISTORY
Regulations Governing
Examination and
Assessment for
Part-time Degree
Students
2012-13
36
FOR LEVEL ONE STUDENTS
REGULATIONS GOVERNING EXAMINATION AND ASSESSMENT IN
HISTORY.
Read very carefully and ask your tutor if you have not understood all of this important
document
1.
Making of the Modern World
Students will write three essays over the course of the year.
Assessment is made up in the following way (total 30 CATS):
Group Project or 3000 word essay
One–hour examination (June):
Best two of three assessed essays
2.
10
10
10
Options
There are no timed examinations in options. The number of assessed essays
required for Options varies: in some Options students are assessed on one
long essay and the best two of three short coursework essays; in others they
only write two short coursework essays and are assessed on two long essays.
3.
Length of essays:
short essays 1500-2000 words, excluding footnotes & bibliography
long essays: 4500 words, excluding footnotes & bibliography
You must place a word count on the front page of your essays. The maximum
word limit (which is exclusive of footnotes and appendices) must be observed.
Any essay that exceeds the word limit by more than 10% will be penalised as
follows:
2000 word essay: 1 mark off for each 20 words (or part thereof) over 2200
4500 word essay: 1 mark off for each 50 words (or part thereof) over 4950
4.
Preparation of Essays
All essays should be typed or word-processed, unless permission to submit
handwritten work has been obtained from your tutor. The typing should be in
double spacing, and on one side of the paper only. It should be easy to read.
Hand-written essays, for which permission must first be obtained, should be
presented on good-grade, lined paper, sufficiently spaced to allow for easy
reading, and written on one side of the paper only. An essay which is judged
illegible may have to be typed at the expense of the writer.
37
When preparing essays make sure that you have digested fully the advice on
presentation and footnoting contained in the Undergraduate Style Guide
(Appendix 2)
An assessed essay must not include any significant amount of material already
presented in assessed essays in other modules.
All essays submitted on all modules must be of a satisfactory standard in terms
of length, presentation and content in order to be accepted by tutors.
5.
Deadlines for the submission of essays:
Making of the Modern World: all short essays must be submitted by the
deadlines set by course tutors. The deadline for the final essay is 12.00 pm on
the Friday of week three of the Summer Term.
Options: All short essays for options must have been submitted by the
deadlines set by option tutors. All long essays for first year Options have to be
submitted by 12.00 pm on the Tuesday of week three of the Summer Term.
You are responsible for meeting these deadlines. Late essays will be regarded
as non-submitted work, unless there is a good cause (e.g. illness supported by
a medical certificate).
If you think you are in danger of missing a deadline and you have good reason
for doing so then you must seek permission for an extension. In the case of
short essays speak to your module tutor. Extensions for long essays can only
be granted by the director of undergraduate studies (Professor Peter Marshall):
if you are seeking such an extension as the Departmental Office for an essay
extension form.
6.
Penalties for the non-submission of essays:
MMW
A mark of zero will be recorded for any essay which is not submitted. The
average for the overall assessment mark will in this case be calculated over the
total number of essays required, and will result in a much lower average.
Options:
A mark of zero will be recorded for the non-submission of any long or short
assessed essay. The average for the overall assessment mark will in such
cases be calculated over the total number of essays required, not of the number
which count towards assessment.
Where an extension has not been granted, assessed essays handed in late will
be subject to a penalty of 5% per day.
38
9.
Penalties for non-attendance
Seminars in all modules are compulsory and any avoidable absence should be
explained to your seminar tutor either before the seminar or as soon as
possible afterwards.
Persistent non-attendance, particularly when accompanied by failure to submit
coursework on time, may result in a student being required to take extra
examinations, to submit extra assessed work, or to withdraw from the
University altogether.
Attendance at seminars and language classes (where appropriate) and the
writing of essays is compulsory. Your attention is drawn to the University's
Regulation 13.1, (University of Warwick Calendar, Section 2; online at
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/insite/info/gov/calendar/) - Regulations
Governing Attendance at Classes, Submission of Coursework and Progress
with Research). A student who fails to attend prescribed classes or to complete
prescribed course work may be required to submit additional assessed work, or
to sit an additional written examination, or, in extreme cases, to withdraw from
his or her course of study altogether. Most students enjoy their work and we
seldom have to invoke these sanctions: we will do so, however, when
necessary. The Staff Meeting considers progress reports on all students
throughout the year. Any student in danger of being required to produce
extra work will first be warned of this in writing by the relevant tutor and
given an opportunity to mend their ways.
10.
Resit procedures
Please note:
It remains permissible for a board of examiners to allow a student to progress (to
Honours or Pass) carrying a fail mark(s) if it wishes. There is no new obligation or
expectation that students should always be offered a resit attempt.
The Teaching Quality Office has provided the following statement:
"Section II(2) of the new classification convention for students who joined Warwick in
autumn 2008 or later (ie the exam board conventions to be applied by final year
boards in summer 2011, for three year degrees) requires students to pass a minimum
number of credits, but does not impose any new obligations on departments to offer
resits. The convention is at:
www.warwick.ac.uk/go/assessmentconventions/forstudents/ug08/honoursconvention/
Section I(4) of the convention does state the following, but again this does not impose
any new obligations on departments; it simply deals with the situation where resits are
permitted: “Marks from all modules taken in the relevant years/stages shall be used in
the calculation of the mean, including any fail marks. Where a module which
contributes to the degree classification has been failed but passed on resit, the pass
mark (40%) will be used in the calculation of the mean”.
39
Making of the Modern World:
Failure in the examined component (June exam) will involve resitting a one
hour examination in September.
Failure in the assessed essays component will normally involve making up the
deficient essay(s).
A candidate who fails the assessed component through not handing in the
required number of essays will normally be required to make up the missing
essays and produce a supplementary essay.
A candidate who fails the assessed component through non submission of the
required number of essays will normally be required to make up the missing
essays and produce a supplementary essay.
Failure in the group project, or its equivalent, will normally involve
submission of further appropriate assessed work.
A candidate who fails the group project, or its equivalent, through non
participation or non-submission, will normally be required to produce a
supplementary piece of work.
Options:
Failure to achieve an overall pass-mark will normally involve sitting a threehour examination paper in September, or, at the discretion of the Exam
Board, producing additional essays.
11.
Consequences of failure at resit stage:
Failure in MMW Resit or Option Resit in September means that, normally,
the student will be required to withdraw from the University.
Please note: a full set of the university’s regulations can be consulted online at
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/insite/info/gov/calendar/. These cover such
matters as procedures in the event of suspected cheating in a university test
(Regulation 11); procedures in the event of absence for medical reasons from a
university examination (Regulation 12); and regulations governing attendance
and termination of registration (Regulation 13).
40
FOR HONOURS LEVEL STUDENTS
REGULATIONS GOVERNING EXAMINATION AND ASSESSMENT IN
HISTORY
A: General
1.
Please study this document carefully, and REMEMBER THAT IT IS YOUR
RESPONSIBILITY THAT YOU COMPLY WITH THESE RULES. If there
is anything you do not understand please consult your tutors.
2.
Examination Papers. The norm is:
1 unit examination - a 3 hour, three question paper
½ unit examination - a 2 hour, two question paper
Examination answers must not include any significant amount of material
already presented in any assessed essays.
B: Assessed Essays
Length and Presentation of Assessed Essays
Second year Options and Advanced Options and Special Subjects
4500 words, excluding footnotes & bibliography
Dissertation (1 unit)
9,000 words, excluding footnotes & bibliography.
You must complete a departmental cover sheet (available from the History Office / esubmission website) and attach it to your assessed essay. Among other pieces of
information, the cover sheet contains an exact word count. The maximum word limit
(which is exclusive of footnotes, bibliography and appendices) must be observed. Any
essay that exceeds the word limit by more than 10% will be penalised as follows:
9000 word dissertation: 1 mark off for each 100 words (or part thereof) over
9900
4500 word essay: 1 mark off for each 50 words (or part thereof) over 4950
All assessed essays should be typed or word-processed, unless permission to submit
handwritten work has been obtained from your tutor. The typing should be in double
spacing, and on one side of the paper only. It should be easy to read.
When preparing assessed essays make sure that you have digested fully the advice on
presentation and footnoting contained in the Undergraduate Style Guide (Appendix 2)
You will be advised by the Centre for Lifelong Learning of the deadlines for choosing
whether you will be combining assessment with examination on your modules. This
deadline is taken very seriously: normally you cannot change this decision after
the deadline.
41
An assessed essay must not include any significant amount of material already
presented in assessed essays in other modules.
Choice of Assessment
Where optional assessment is available each student will make his/her own decision
after consultation with the tutor in the module concerned.
You may not submit identical, or substantially similar, assessed essays for different
modules.
Deadlines
Assessed work, together with the completed cover sheet, must be handed in to the
History Secretaries' Office and 'signed in' on the appropriate record sheet kept there
for this purpose, and a receipt obtained. In addition, all assessed work also has to be
submitted online at:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/undergraduate/esubmission/.
Second year Options
12 noon on the Monday of Week 4 of Term 3.
Advanced Options, Special Subjects and Dissertation
Essay(s) due by 12 noon on the Wednesday of Week 2 of the Summer Term.
Applications for extensions of time will not normally be allowed unless an
appropriate medical certificate is produced. Extensions should be applied for before
expiry of the deadline. Extensions for assessed long essays can only be granted by the
director of undergraduate studies: if you are seeking such an extension you must fill in
an essay extension form in the Departmental Office.
5.
Penalties for late submission
Where an extension has not been granted, or where an extension request did
not reach the Director of Undergraduate Studies before the deadline for the
assessed work, such assessed essays handed in late will be subject to a penalty
of 5 percentage marks per working day.
6.
Plagiarism and Cheating in Assessed Essays
Always identify your sources for specific information and, where appropriate,
the ideas which you use in assessed essays.
It is bad academic practice for a student to fail to do so, just as it would be for
an author writing a book or learned article. Commissioning or purchasing
research for your essays constitutes plagiarism.
42
Like using unacknowledged commissioned or purchased research conducted
by others, copying without acknowledgement from a printed book is as
unacceptable as plagiarising another student's essay.
It is equally wrong to reproduce and present as your own work a passage from
another person's writing to which minor changes have been made, e.g., random
alteration of words or phrases, omission or rearrangement of occasional
sentences or phrases within the passage. This remains plagiarism even if the
source is identified in footnotes.
Unacknowledged quotation, disguised borrowing, or near-copying will be
treated as plagiarism and penalised according to its extent and gravity.
Your attention is drawn to the University's Regulation 11B,
(University of Warwick Calendar, Section 2; online at
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/insite/info/gov/calendar/.) - Procedure to be
Adopted in the Event of Suspected Cheating. The History Department may
use plagiarism software or other appropriate mean to identify plagiarism in
students’ assessed and non-assessed work. In the last few years the University
disciplinary machinery has imposed penalties in several cases on students who
have been convicted of plagiarism in assessed work. In extreme cases, the
penalty for plagiarism is a grade of zero in the whole module.
If you are uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism, please talk it over with
either your personal tutor or your seminar tutor.
Please note: a full set of the university’s regulations can be consulted
online at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/insite/info/gov/calendar/. These cover
such matters as procedures in the event of suspected cheating in a university
test (Regulation 11); procedures in the event of absence for medical reasons
from a university examination (Regulation 12); and regulations governing
attendance and termination of registration (Regulation 13).
43