Humanities and
Social Studies
Education
History Handbook
CONTENTS PAGE
1 History at NIE 2
1.1 What is history at NIE? 2
1.2 A Historian’s toolkit 3
2 Writing Essays 4
2.1 Before you start your research 5
2.2 Research 6
2.3 Planning and Writing 7
2.4 Footnotes 9
2.5 Common Problems 11
2.6 Plagiarism 12
3 Interpreting Sources 14
4 Taking Examinations 16
1 – HISTORY AT NIE
1:1 What is History at NIE?
History encompasses the study of all past human lives and social systems: loves and hates, battles and building, civilisation and culture. To understand history is to glimpse how the world came to be what it is and, within that world, how Singapore evolved, and how its neighbours view it.
At one level, then, most of us use history, and we do it intuitively. We seek to understand the history of people we meet, places we go, film sequels we see, students we need to understand, so we research their recent or even distant history, by remembering, by asking people, by looking it up on the internet and even, occasionally, by using books.
To study history formally, then, is to refine skills we need and use everyday, skills of research and analysis, empathy and criticism, report writing, presentation both individual and collective, and putting events and people in context.
At another level, however, history has its own, specialist set of procedures, to ensure we understand the past better, and minimise inaccuracies. The attempt to understand the past on its own terms, to get inside the minds and times of other people, is history’s special characteristic, one at once fascinating and demanding.
This means that anyone studying History needs to understand its core standards and skills. The aim of this pamphlet is to introduce anyone taking a history course or module with the National Institute of Education to some of the most essential of these expectations. It covers three areas: writing, examinations, and using sources, before finishing with a list of staff interested in history, and their contact details.
Each module, and each tutor, will of course have their own passions, and their own demands. That is inevitable given the range of history courses, and social studies courses which contain history as well as geography, which are run by the HSSE Academic Group. These embrace Asia, America, Europe and Australia, and topics as varied as Film, Biography, Historical Methods, War, and Gender. They vary from the four year BA (Education), to Dip.Ed and inservice courses.
So this pamphlet is not, and could never be, comprehensive. Instead, what follows is a brief primer or ‘survival guide’. It begins, below, by suggesting a ‘survival pack’ or historian’s toolkit.
1:2 A Historian’s toolkit
Everyone’s needs are different, and HSSE’s history courses are designed to introduce expectations and methods early on. Students who want a head-start and extra tools might, however, consider reading, or even buying, a few of the items from this list.
· A historical dictionary or dictionaries. What sort depends on the module or course you are taking. For instance, many BA (Education) Academic modules have a nineteenth and twentieth century focus, making a dictionary of modern history, or even twentieth century history, very useful. We have stocked the library with a wide range of such tools, including specialist dictionaries on subjects such as imperialism, Who’s Who editions for various countries, and biographical dictionaries. You should be aware of these and seek them out when appropriate, but it is best to own at least one good, historical dictionary yourself.
· An historical atlas or atlases. History is not abstract, it is about real places, so seeing how the world has looked different, and how rivers and locations of production fit with battles and cultures, can help a great deal. Here owning an historical atlas can be of great help. There are many historical atlases. But only one is comprehensive, modestly priced, and small enough to read on the bus. This is the Atlas of World History by Hermann Kinder and Werner Hilgemann. Published under several imprints including Penguin, each volume (Vol I from the beginning to the French Revolution, Vol II to the present), combines maps with chronologies and organizational charts. If you find another that suits you better, excellent. Again, our library has a range of specialist atlases, of areas such as Indonesia (Robert Cribb’s superb atlas), Jewish History, Britain and so on.
· A basic history primer, such as Jules R. Benjamin , A Student’s Guide to History (New York: St. Martin’s, 1987). This will give you more detail on what goes into research, writing, and on other issues.
· Exposure to a book which reflects on the nature of history would be a bonus, preferably one which writes in plain, interesting language. Perhaps the shortest, clearest, cheapest and most stimulating is still E.H Carr’s What is History? If you are tempted by another, make sure it is short and reads well. For a simple guide to different types of history, there is John Tosh, The Pursuit of History, and for the research student, there is the rather traditional, but nevertheless sound, Geoffrey Elton, The Practice of History.
· Yourself, your own personality, experience and desire to know not just ‘what’ happened, but what it meant to experience it, and why it happened. Your desire not only to acquire ‘facts’, but to develop an instinct for asking the right questions, and the research and writing skills required to explore those questions. The ideal group is one where learning happens not just from teacher to student or trainee teacher, but between all the individuals. Sometimes, at least, you may provide perspectives or information which is new to your lecturer. Your own personality and background is an essential tool.
2 - WRITING
No matter how enthusiastic you may be about history, that interest still has to be turned into a tangible result, often in some form of writing. History modules require research and writing in many forms: for individual essays; for group and project work; and for writing answers to essay questions in examinations.
The skills of research and writing which this develops are of great value outside of the classroom as well as in preparing lessons. Whether dealing with schools, school clusters or organisations outside education, your ability to affect developments and foster change may one day depend on writing well researched, persuasive reports, presentations and memoranda.
But most of us, at some point, experience our minds going numb when faced with a blank page, or a difficult question Even a good historian, armed with plentiful notes, can suffer from this ‘writers block’.
This section on research and writing aims to pre-empt or overcome that block, by addressing the skills and stages common to most of the forms of writing mentioned above.
2:1 Before you start your research
· Define your own research topic. If you are asked to choose your own, this may need refining as you go along, to improve focus, and to take into account the nature of sources available. Too wide a topic may result in you spending too much time working out what happened, and too little analysing and writing.
· If the research topic or question is given, ask questions about it. What are the key issues and themes that need to be explored? Is there a key hypothesis you can test?
· Divide the question into its component parts. When given a particular question to answer, think about different ways it might be interpreted. Can any key terms, such as “nationalism” or “heroism” be defined in different ways. Look them up in dictionaries. Example 1: “Why did World War One break out in 1914?” Questions such as this can be broken into more questions than a simple “why did war break out?”. For instance: Why in this year? Why this particular type of war and contestants? Example 2: “How good was Tunku Abdul Rahman’s leadership?”. The answer to this question might be broken down into different periods, say the 1946-57 search for independence, and post 1957 management of independence. His leadership effectiveness might vary across time. More generally, many questions will be best answered if you recognise the answer is different for different times, or if different criteria are applied. So do break the question into smaller questions if necessary, and be ready to change your understanding of it if your reading produces new angles.
· Design your layout for the project. This is not always possible, but where it is it will save time later. Set up your page and document layout as required by any rules.
· Set up a system for capturing the bibliographic details of all sources you use (see also page nine below on footnoting). This will save a lot of time later on. There are a number of ways of doing this
o When you take notes, always start them by recording the full bibliographic details of the work at the top, including author, title, publisher, and date and place of publication.
o You could set up the bibliography for your particular research topic on the computer early on, entering details of new books as you find them.
o You could set up one card file system, or word processing file, on which you list all History books you read at NIE alphabetically.
For full bibliographic and footnoting conventions, you should refer page nine below, on footnoting. Note one major difference, however, between a footnote and a bibliographic reference. Footnotes always give the personal name first, as in “Raymond Betts”. Bibliographies give the surname first, as in Betts, Raymond’. Thus:
Glover, Edwin Maurice . In 70 days: the story of the Japanese campaign in British Malaya (London: F. Muller, 1949 edition).
Gough, Richard . SOE Singapore, 1941-42. (London: W. Kimber, 1985).
Grenfell, Russell . Main Fleet to Singapore (London: Faber, 1951).
Now you have defined your project, considered the question, and set up a system for capturing bibliographic details, you are ready to begin research.
2:2 Research
· Establish a basic framework of events. This involves answering the questions who, what, when and where. Your lectures may have established some sort of overview. But if this is too threadbare, you will need a better overview of main events and patterns. If you try and get this from detailed set readings, you may waste time or get lost in a mass of information. So consider establishing an overview and main issues by starting with simpler readings, such as:
o Encyclopaedia entries,
o relevant chapters in text books or survey works
o O and A-Level or other study guides
o Historical Atlases
o Internet searches. For instance, Library of Congress country studies provide excellent potted histories, as well as basic economic and geographic information (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html)
· Establish the Historiography or main arguments. In putting together a framework, you will probably come across some interpretations about why, and how, things happened. Make sure you briefly summarise the main arguments as they appear, identifying their key assumptions and evidence. Brief summaries on book covers, and in introductions and conclusions are sometimes a good way of sourcing these.
· Test the Historiography. Now you have a framework, and some arguments, start to test the latter. Look for evidence which questions or confirms each argument as you continue reading.
· Problem-solve. Ask your own questions, and try and solve them by selective searches. For instance, if you are interested in the role of one decision-maker, use the index in additional books to look him or her up.
· Locate additional materials. Online and published guides to sources are ever-changing. In addition to your tutor’s suggestions, consider compiling your own list of finding aids over time. When you need more aids, don’t hesitate to ask at the library’s reference counter.
· Graduated Reading. Do not just start at item one on a reading list and work through it. Start with overviews and summaries for the big picture, read introductions and even covers to spot arguments. Then do core readings thoroughly. As time becomes shorter, be ruthless. Armed with key questions, skim additional works for further evidence, or use indexes.
· Taking Notes. No one strategy fits everyone, You may prefer index cards (write on one side, keep the other for later thoughts), a booklet for each topic (so nothing gets lost), or A4 sheets in folders. You may like narrative notes or analytical ones. But, at the end of the day, do find a way of focusing on the main arguments, and the evidence for and against them. Options include a chart of points for and against each argument, bubble or mind-maps, the argument in the bubble, evidence for and against around it like a spider’s legs. What matters is that arguments with evidence are easier to manipulate than a jumble of facts.
2:3 Planning and Writing
Planning. Having analysed the question, and completed the reading, next plan your answer very carefully. Choose which themes and arguments to emphasise, and how to structure the answer so each paragraph carefully unfolds a part of your argument. You will also need to check that the overall result will be balanced.