- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: M
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
- See module specification for other years: 2023-24
The course is designed to help students acquire the skills to design a research project in history, locate relevant primary and secondary sources, handle those sources and prepare a research proposal.
The module introduces the sequencing of research design—that is, how to turn an interest into a research topic and finally into a viable research project for which there are adequate and accessible sources; it also debates how to present arguments, such as how to make a claim backed by evidence and reject a counter claim for which the evidence is scant or erroneous.
The module divides into three blocks, which align with three learning cycles. The first requires students to debate Research Practicalities; the second builds on this ethical and empirical foundation by posing common Research Challenges; the third focuses on narrowing down and proving the viability of an initial idea for dissertation, and tackles matters of Research Design.
The reading to be undertaken in advance of seminars will facilitate debate on generic and discipline-specific issues regarding research design and provide illustrative examples of historical and interdisciplinary scholarship that will appeal to all MA cohorts. Seminars will be organised on a cross-cohort basis to facilitate discussions, with teaching and learning immersive and discursive.
Plenary hours will introduce aspects of research (including the building up personal resilience as you research) and set up discretionary follow-up readings. Students will expend the majority of the hours on the module designing their own research dissertation/project proposal–that is conducting a preliminary literature survey, culminating in an annotated bibliography which provides a foundation for writing a draft introduction/literature survey.
Students must complete this module to progress to the Research Dissertation.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
The aims of this module are to:
Students who complete this module successfully will:
There is a one-hour briefing, eight one-hour plenary sessions, plus four one-hours seminars for which students read texts in advance and discuss aspects of research design.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
Students submit a draft 750-word proposal (including two annotated references of approximately 150 words each) in Week 9 and receive written feedback in Week 11 before revising it for submission as a summative assignment.
Summative assignment—a 1,500-word dissertation proposal plus a 1,500-word annotated bibliography including a minimum of eight secondary sources and a maximum of sixteen— will be due on Thursday, Week 15, and assessed on a pass/fail basis.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
At the final workshop, students will receive oral feedback from the seminar leader on their proposals.
For the summative assessment task, students will receive an outcome—pass/fail— within 25 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading: