2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

HIST3500 History Dissertation

40 creditsClass Size: 350

Module manager: Professor Andrea Major
Email: A.Major@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

This module is mutually exclusive with

HIST3800

IHP Dissertation

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Objectives

On completion of this module, students should be able to:
1. address a historical problem in depth, involving the use of contemporary sources and secondary literature;
2. design and research a sustained and independently-conceived piece of historical writing, according to a research method defined by the student;
3. gather and select suitable evidence to develop and sustain a historical argument in an extended piece of coursework;
4. present their argument with clarity, fluency and coherence.

Skills outcomes
- Locating and handling appropriate primary and secondary source material;
- Interpretation and analysis of complex documentary-based material;
- Engaging with the historiography of the topic and situating their research within relevant scholarship;
- Researching a topic using methods appropriate to the historical discipline and subject matter;
- Undertaking research with intellectual integrity and, where appropriate, with due consideration of research ethics;
- Presenting findings in an extended written report conforming to the academic standards of the historical discipline.

Syllabus

Students will write a dissertation of 12,000 words based on their own research, utilising primary and secondary sources according to a research method and programme designed in consultation with the supervisor. The dissertation can be written on a topic of the student's choice, provided it can be supervised by a member of staff from the School of History. Normally, supervision will be undertaken by the student’s special subject tutor.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Workshop	4	1.00	4.00
Supervision	4	0.50	2.00
Lecture	1	1.00	1.00
Private study hours			393.00
Total Contact hours			7.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			400.00

Private study

Independent online learning consists of:
- Working through online resources relating to the research process
- Reading exemplary dissertations held in Leeds History First
- Reviewing guidelines and advice on fieldwork, where appropriate

Private study consists of:
- Bibliographic research
- Preparation of a project proposal
- Preparation and tasks relating to supervision meetings
- Reading and research in primary and secondary source materials in libraries and archives
- Preparation and writing-up of findings.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

- Four one-to-one meetings with supervisor;
- Production of a project proposal towards the end of semester one;
- Review of a chapter outline / structure;
- Submission of draft material from the assignment.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay or Dissertation	1 x 12,000 word assessed dissertation	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

There is no reading list for this module

Last updated: 18/10/2024

Disclaimer

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