Introductory description

This 15 CATS second-year module is compulsory for all single-honours History students, and is not available to students of other courses.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Lecture/workshop (all students on course). These will be either: a) discussions with a group of staff about how/why they use different types of sources b) workshops on practical issues :

1. Introduction to the Research Project
2. Written sources
3. Visual sources
4. Other sources e.g. Material culture /oral history
5. Quantitative sources
6. Reading week
7. Archives / MRC
8. Library
9. Digital Storytelling
10. Academic Writing and Presenting

Seminar: These will be grounded in analysis of primary sources but will also cover research and writing skills. Students will be asked to bring their own sources (e.g. from a database) each week, in order to encourage independent learning and enable them to focus on their area of interest.

1. Introduction to historical research and historiography (Library session)
2. Written sources
3. Visual sources
4. Other sources
5. Quantitative / data sources
6. Reading week
7. Research and writing skills (close reading of primary sources)
8. Research and writing skills (integrating and finding secondary literature)
9. Research and writing skills (formulating a question, referencing and writing)
10. Research and writing skills (putting the research project together)
11. Student presentations

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of sources for the study of an aspect of history.
• Communicate ideas and findings, adapting to a range of situations, audiences and degrees of complexity.
• Generate ideas through the analysis of a broad range of primary source material.
• Analyse and evaluate the contributions made by existing scholarship.
• Act with limited supervision and direction within defined guidelines, accepting responsibility for achieving deadlines.

Indicative reading list

Primary Sources

• Modern Records Centre Archives
• Warwick Records Office Archives
• Early Modern English Books Online
• American Newspapers Archive
• The Old Bailey Online
• Nineteenth-century British Newspapers
• Illustrated London News
• British Parliamentary Papers
• British History Online
• Web Gallery of Art
• A full list of databases available via the library can be found here: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/search~S1/v?history

Secondary Sources

• Black, Jeremy, and Donald M. MacRaild, Studying History, 3rd ed. (Basingstoke, 2007)
• Davies, Martin, Doing A Successful Research Project (Basingstoke, 2007)
• Gunn, Simon, and Lucy Faire (eds), Research Methods for History (Edinburgh, 2011)
• McDowell, W. H., Historical Research: A Guide (London, 2002)
• Storey, William Kelleher, Writing History: A Guide for Students, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 2008)
• Swetnam, Derek, Writing Your Dissertation, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 2000)

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes.

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes.