1. Online Contribution (25%): 

Due Date: assessed across semester

This assessment task is ongoing across the semester, and requires you to make thoughtful and informed contributions to online classroom discussions and activities each week: one original post and at least two responses to the posts of others. To be eligible to obtain a contribution mark, you must be absent from no more than 2 tutorials across the semester (without medical certificates or other explanation of unavoidable absences). Note: this is not a mark for merely making contributions - the emphasis is on informed, constructive and respectful interactions with your peers and your teacher. 

For this assignment, you need to share two things online in week 3 discussions:

1. the topic area you hope to pursue for your research project (remember, it needs to map onto one of the lecture or tutorial topics we are covering in the course);

2. a primary source that you can use as evidence for your research project – you must obtain this primary source online. Please provide a link to the source you have found, or attach a PDF, etc.

We will be discussing your findings  (you will need to explain what your topic is and what your primary source is, and how you think it might be useful) and you will be giving feedback to at least two of your fellow students. You will obtain the full 5 marks for this task providing you meet these criteria.

For this assignment, you will need to upload a rough draft of your research proposal online for workshopping and feedback in small groups. You will be grouped together in groups based on the topic of your proposed project (which must map onto one of the tutorial or lecture topics in the course, however broadly). Once you have submitted your proposal and read at least two other proposals (final numbers will be determined later) and given feedback, you will earn your 5 marks. You will be supplied with a rubric form to guide and structure your feedback; the feedback you give and receive will help structure your final research proposal, due later that week.

1200 words max

This task will assess your ability to develop a research question and approach, as well as your ability to locate and analyze primary and secondary sources. It is the first step towards developing your research essay and the proposals will be returned in time for you to work on your research essay after the mid-semester break. You should proceed as follows: 

Thinking about a topic: looking at the weekly lecture and tutorial schedule, what themes or topics are of most interest to you in this course? What questions are you interested in exploring? Do you want to write about Australia or the US, or both? Try to think about popular culture historically: that is, think carefully about how we can use popular culture as evidence of past attitudes, representations, ideologies and points of view. You are aiming to relate popular culture to broader social, cultural and political events and ideas, and to relate popular culture to the broader society which produced it.

Developing a question: your question needs to be focused and directed, because you will be assessed on how you answer it: eg 'How did X reveal ideas about Y in 1950s America?' You can focus on media debate about a particular pop culture text or group of texts, or examine responses of a particular kind of pop culture consumer to an item of pop culture. You can trace the ways responses to a particular event, new technology (eg TV) or social movement (eg. feminism, the Iraq War) played out in popular culture, or explore how certain popular culture texts represent gender or race or sexuality in particular historical contexts and reflect – or contest – dominant representations. If in doubt about how to shape and refine your question, contact Michelle. 

If you have not handled different kinds of primary sources before, the following website offers useful guides to different kinds of media even though it is focused on American history: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/browse/makesense/

The proposal must include:

1.     Your research question.

2.     Approaching the question: (this section will form the bulk of your proposal – at least 800 words) how will you answer your question? Write short answers to the following questions:

a)     What is my topic about? (include period & place)

b)     What are my main primary sources (are they accessible and why are they useful)? List at least three and explain how at least one of your sources relates to your research area and question, explain its key themes and how you might use it as evidence (what components of the source are most useful to you?).

c)     What secondary sources will I need to shed light on my primary sources and my topic?

d)     What secondary sources will I need to find out more about the historical background/context of my topic? (eg. if you are writing about film and the Gulf war, then you need to include works on the Gulf war as well as its cinematic representations).

e)     What other themes or issues do I need to understand in order to explore this topic properly? E.g. do I need to find out more about changing gender roles? How propaganda works?

3.     Annotated bibliography: There are two components to this, but your annotated bibliography must have seven entries and be around 200-400 words in total:

a)     You need to find two secondary sources that discuss the primary source you covered in Q3 b). Your first searches should be of scholarly databases held by the university library. These two sources need to have different (not necessarily opposing) arguments about your source. (hint: the footnotes of one article may help you find the second!)

b)   At least one entry in the annotated bibliography must be one of the readings from week one - evaulate one of these reading's usefulness for your approach to your question, and your approach to popular culture more broadly. (Hint: you will need to read all of the readings in order to determine which one might be most helpful!)

c)     The remaining four entries in the annotated bibliography should be the most relevant secondary sources for researching your project (you will of course need more than four sources for your research essay!) If you are not sure about what an annotated bibliography is, have a look at the following website: http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/pdf/anno_bib.pdf ).

 Grading Criteria

You will be assessed on the following criteria:

1. Understanding and focus on the task of presenting a detailed, relevant research project proposal.

2. Knowledge of both the historical and the historiographical context of the proposed area of research.

3. Communication: clarity of prose, use of correct grammar and spelling.

4. Referencing/annotated bibliography: appropriate use of source material and academic honesty/relevant annotations in the bibliography.

 5. Presentation: presence of page numbers and bibliography, double-spacing of text, justification of margins, completion of the entire assessment task.

For this assignment, you will need to upload a rough draft of your research essay online - an draft introduction and outline of your argument and structure in bullet points  - for workshopping and feedback in small groups. You will be grouped together based on your project topic. Once you have submitted your draft and read at least two other proposals (number will be finalised later) and given feedback, you will earn your 5 marks. You will be supplied with a rubric to guide and structure your feedback; the feedback you give and receive will help structure your final research project.

3000 wds max

This assessment task evaluates your ability to construct an argument in response to your own self-devised research question, based on primary and secondary sources.  This task is the culmination of your assessment tasks in this unit; all your previous assessments are 'scaffolding' this final task. You need to observe the conventions of writing and referencing as outlined in 'Writing essays in History', found at: http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/faculties_and_departments/faculty_of_arts/mhpir/current_students/writing_essays_in_history/

Remember to submit the essay self-assessment sheet with your essay (available on iLearn). You must also include a short statement (about 1 paragraph) on how you have utilised the feedback you received on your research proposal, and from the in-class workshops, in preparing your final research project.

NOTE: there is a rubric for this assessment task included as a PDF download in the 'assessments' section of the MHIS365 iLearn site.