The Body in History
Your research essay should engage directly with the course themes; so be sure to reference the readings from the course in your essay. You can bring new information and themes from your own research or from the extensive reading list provided to you on our course site. Remember that the podcast lectures cannot be quoted from in the same way as an article or an academic book: references need to be scholarly publications such as chapters from academic book collections or articles from journals that have been formally peer reviewed. If you want to include a website or online materials, choose only those written by academics/historians. If you are not sure about the status of a reference you want to use, please check with your tutor. Aim to use at least 10references in your essay.
When you submit your essay, it will be put through text matching software and you will see a report on your essay itemizing any matches with text on the web. This matching includes past essays from this course as well as essays from this year’s cohort. Usually an essay will get a report of around 25% reflecting matching of short quotes from sources and the list of references in your essay (your bibliography).
When you submit your essay online there is no need to include a cover sheet or title page. All you need to make sure to include is your name and the short TITLE of your essay topic at the top of the first page. Please number each page and be sure to use double space. Essays should be submitted in word doc.
essay question :
Essay Question 7: Masculinity and the modern man
How were men to be masculine in the modern world? In your essay you might choose to answer this question by focusing on the boy scout movement; the emergence of body building regimes; or anxiety about masculinity in modern urban life at the turn of last century.
A poor essay:
Lack of engagement with the course topics and themes or the course materials
Lack of appropriate references ie should be quality published sources, whether electronic or paper.
Submission shows lack of drafting and overall poor writing and structure of essay.
Failure to reference – whether you use footnote or endnote, all sources must be acknowledged. If you quote directly you need to provide the page number as well.
A good essay:
Engages with the themes of the course.
Inclusion of references largely from the course outline.
Essay properly organised: double spaced, with paragraphs, a title, and referencing of readings either as endnotes, footnotes or in the text of the essay.
But overall, lack of any real argument: points are simply made but not connected to each other.
A very good essay:
Brings themes and resources from the course to bear on the essay question.
Uses references from the course extension lists and some new works from own research.
Shows a real effort to submit an essay in appropriate style: care taken in proofreading and drafting; evidence of time spent on preparing the essay.
An argument is evident: the introduction sets out intentions, the paragraphs lead into one another, and there is a conclusion relating to the essay topic.
An excellent essay:
Building on the above, but with a higher degree of reading and reflection and a greater attention to the construction of an argument. The essay is clear in its response and goes that bit further. It reflects real engagement in the course, and exhibits strong essay writing skills helped by taking the time to redraft.
An outstanding essay:
The rare example of an essay that takes the topic to a new level. The author has read widely and engaged in a sophisticated manner with the topic. S/he has offered a strongly organized and extremely well written account in which the course themes and aims are shown to have been not only understood but applied with skill to her/his topic.
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