Quantitative Research Skills
Assessment
This strand of TSM is assessed via an essay of 2500 words, based fundamentally upon the quantitative analysis of material drawn from appropriate historical sources. The purpose of this essay is for students to demonstrate skill in the use of quantitative analysis to support their historical research. The training necessary for undertaking the essay is provided by the bespoke module on quantitative and qualitative research skills and the individual source workshops held in term 2. Additional support in the use of IT packages such as Excel is available from IT services and from the undergraduate ‘Computing for Historians’ online package.
Research for this essay is likely to involve the creation of some sort of analytical database, but this is not a requirement. Your database, should you be using one, might consist of an Excel spreadsheet containing data derived from a primary source such as a census. It might instead constitute a ‘text database’. (A text database is a ‘collection of related documents assembled into a single searchable unit’, such as a book.) In past years successful essays have analysed topics ranging from the composition of the population runaway slaves in the American south to the frequency of biblical references in early modern English literary works to mortality and health records from the Boer War. The central requirement for the successful completion of this essay is that you engage intelligently with your source material and that you demonstrate competence in the manipulation of quantitative data for the purposes of historical research. The essay does not require sophisticated mathematical skills or the construction of a vast electronic database.
In many cases this will be your first experience of conducting primary research. Choosing a topic therefore constitutes part of the challenge of writing this essay. You might wish to use the essay to explore themes that you will explore more fully in your dissertation, or you might instead base the essay on material and/or historiographic questions emerging from one of your modules. In all cases you should focus fundamentally on the research questions explored in the essay, on the virtues and defects of your chosen source(s), and on the historiographic and/or methodological context in which you situate your own research.
Depending on the nature of the research question explored in the project, marking will reflect, variously, the effort and originality of the collection of data under analysis, the historical and historiographical significance of the conclusions reached, the complexity and accessibility of the source material, and the clarity of the exposition. Specifically, you will be expected to demonstrate:
a) skill in the use of quantitative analytical methods such as counting, or the construction of percentages, averages and frequencies to analyse and interpret historical sources.
b) consciousness of the significance of the conclusions reached for the historical understanding of the problem under consideration. This might include analysis of the relevance of the project to an existing historical or historiographical debate.
c) sensitivity to the strengths and weakness of the source(s) used for this project. This might entail discussions of:
i. the process of transferring information fromthe source(s) to a database for the purpose of analysis (this process is often called data modelling)
ii. treatment of your source(s) in other historical works.
iii. specific issues raised by particular types of data (for example your treatment of foreign or archaic currencies, or the decisions you have taken in classifying the occupations listed in a census).
d) competence in the creation and manipulation of spreadsheets and/or databases and/or text databases, including, where appropriate, the use of software packages such as Access or Excel.
e) presentational skills. The essay should contain:
- a succinct report on the methodology used to analyse the sources. This methodology might consist of a relational database or spreadsheet. It might instead comprise a more unstructured analytical form such as a Word document.
- a clear statement of the conclusions reached.
- clear and informative visual presentation of material (where appropriate).
Databases and spreadsheets are not themselves required as part of the essay (although where appropriate, they might usefully be included as an appendix). Please note that all essays should have numbered pages and you should consider the most appropriate method of integrating any graphics into the text of your essay. Charts and tables should not be included in the word count. All essays should be accompanied by the coversheet provided below.
Above all, the project should demonstrate the use of quantitative skills in the service of historical analysis rather than as an end in themselves and it will be assessed on that basis.
As introductory reading you might wish to consider:
Charles Harvey and Jon Press, Databases in Historical Research (Basingstoke, 1996)
Pat Hudson, History by Numbers: An Introduction to Quantitative Approaches (London, 2000)
John H. Kranzler (ed.), Statistics for the Terrified (3rd edn, 2002)
Sonja Cameron and Sarah Richardson, Using Computers in History (Basingstoke, 2005)
Programme
Term 1
Week 1 Diagnostic Test of Basic IT skills for all MA students
Information to be on Tuesday 2.00 – 3.00pm, Graduate Space
Wks 2,3 & 5 Classes in MSExcel and MSAccess
For those students requiring additional training in basic IT skills. (15 places available on these initial dates)
These classes meet on Fridays 1.00-4.00 in the IT Services Training Suite WS04 or WS05
10th October: Microsoft Excel I
17th October: Microsoft Excel II
31st October: Microsoft Access for Beginners
Week 5 Why Quantify: An Introduction to Quantification in Historical Research (Sarah Richardson)
Tuesday 28th October, Graduate Space, 12.30-2.00
In this session we will discuss the following:
§ the assessment procedures for the quantitative research skills section of TSM
§ why quantification matters to historians
§ source assessment and data-modelling by historians (for some guidelines see Sonja Cameron and Sarah Richardson, Using Computers in History, pp. 76-87)
Week 7 An Introduction to Sampling (Sarah Richardson)
Thursday 13th November, Graduate Space, 12.30-2.00
All historians sample their data in some way. This session will consider different approaches to sampling with their strengths and weaknesses.
Reading:
P. Hudson, History By Numbers (2000), ch. 7
R. Schofield, ‘Sampling in Historical Research’, in E. A. Wrigley (ed.), Nineteenth-Century Society, pp. 146-90.
Week 8 Basic statistics for Historians (Sarah Richardson)
Tuesday 18th November, Graduate Space, 12.30-2.00
This session will cover some basic but essential statistical methods for historians including using time-series, indices and descriptive statistics.
Reading:
P. Hudson, History By Numbers (2000), chs. 4-5
M. Botticini, 'A loveless economy? Intergenerational altruism and the marriage market in a Tuscan town', Journal of Economic History, 59 (1999)
Steve Hindle, 'Power, poor relief, and social relations in Holland Fen, c. 1600-1800', Historical Journal, 41 (1998)
Martha Olney, 'When your word is not enough: race, collateral and household credit', Journal of Economic History, 58 (1998)
Robert E. Dowse; John A. Hughes, 'Girls, Boys and Politics', The British Journal of Sociology, 22 (1971)
Week 9 Presenting Quantitative Material (Sarah Richardson)
Tuesday 25th November, Graduate Space, 12.30-2.00
Reading: P. Hudson, History By Numbers (2000), ch. 3
How should historians use graphs, charts, maps and pictures to present their data effectively?
Week 10 Trouble Shooting (Sarah Richardson)
Tuesday 2nd December, Graduate Space, 12.30-2.00
This session will discuss the assessment. Students are encouraged to bring ideas for their projects to the session.
Term 2
Weeks 1-4 Source-specific sessions.
The source-specific sessions offer students more intensive training in the quantitative analysis of particular types of source material, such as census data. Sessions reflect the particular needs and interests of each year's student body, together with the particular research specialisms of faculty. A more detailed programme of offerings will be circulated at the end of term 1.
Week 5 Assessment due