Guidelines for the Preparation, Presentation and Submission of the Honours Project in History


1. Preparation

The Honours Project in History is designed to encourage the development of skills of historical analysis through the concentrated study of a chosen topic. It generally takes the form of an extended essay (maximum 8,000 words including footnotes and appendices, but excluding bibliography; 1.5 pts will be deducted for every 1000 words [or part thereof] in excess of the word limit)) on a narrowly defined topic, but may also involve new developments in learning and information dissemination, such as the production of a website, film or video, oral history presentation etc. Group projects are also welcome, their length being dependent on the numbers involved. Regardless of the medium used, the Honours Project in History outcome is assessed on the quality of the library research and analysis and on the oral presentation of the findings to other students and two tutors. The Project may build on work you have done in another module, but it must break new ground and use substantially new research. It must not have been submitted in whole or part for any other module.

2. Procedure

  1. The Honours Project in History may be undertaken in either the First or the Second Semester of the Senior Honours year. Students must themselves identify a suitable topic since a key aspect of the work is the emphasis on independent research. The Project may involve original sources or printed documents or be historiographical in nature.

  2. A programmed process of fortnightly supervision forms an integral part of the work. These group meetings are to discuss general approaches and difficulties of researching, preparing and presenting the outcome of the Project. You will be assigned to small groups (usually of 4-6 students) for a series of one-hour meetings over the semester. Your tutor will be assigned on the basis of availability, not expertise in your chosen topic.

  3. You will meet with your assigned tutor in week 1 of the semester to outline what you might do for the Project. Fortnightly discussions are the appropriate fora for raising issues pertaining to the work undertaken. Technical or minor questions by email are acceptable in small number, but students must recognise that this is an independent research project.

  4. Your first goal is to produce an abstract (max 300 words) of your project to be presented at the next meeting (week 3). This should be handed in before the meeting in order that it may be discussed with the group.

  5. The next stage is the submission of a bibliography (week 5). It should be firmly based on library and text-based resources (not simply websites) and it should be annotated since you will be expected to discuss the types of literature available for your topic. This bibliography should also be handed in before the meeting. The Project requires the use of recent monographs and edited collections and/or periodical literature.

  6. Week 8 you will submit a structural outline of the project. Again you will be expected to talk it through with the group and answer questions. By this stage the work should be in a fairly advanced stage as the Project will be due for submission at the end of wk 10 in semester 1 and wk 9 in semester 2.

3. Submission

  1. The submission deadline is Friday, 5.00 pm, week 10, semester 1 and Friday, 5.00 pm, week 9, semester 2. Late work will be marked down in line with School guidelines.

  2. You are normally required to submit two copies of the work in the chosen communications medium to the Modern History Secretary (room 0.03, ground floor of St Katharine's Lodge). You must also have uploaded an electronic version of your work to the relevant portal (WebCT or MMS) by the same deadline.

  3. The work should clearly display a title, your name and the name of the supervisor. In the case of a textual dissertation the submitted work should be in a secure binding (folder, stapled, bound) and contain the following information on the front cover:

    • Title of the work (in the top half of the cover)

    • Your name (in the centre)

    • Supervisor's name (at the bottom, in the form Supervisor: Dr X)

    • Word count

4. Assessment

  1. Assessment of the Project is by a written/multimedia portion (75% of the total for the module) and an oral presentation (25%). The criteria for mark the written portion of the work (if you choose that medium) are the same as for essays

  2. The written/multimedia part will be double marked and then all will be sent to the external examiners. Oral assessment will take the form of a 15 minute presentation (to students, the tutor and another tutor who will act as second marker to this and the written portion) followed by 5 minutes of questions. This final session may last up to 2.5 hours. Further guidelines for students on oral assessment may be found by consulting the form used to assess this component of the Honours Project in History.

5. Feedback

It is regretted that no feedback can be given until the formal release of module marks at the end of the examination period. Only general comments on the quality of work can be given to students who ask for feedback.