extension history for trials!!!!! (1 Viewer)

[blink rock]

please help!!!!
i all really stuck for extension history trials, i know there will be two components, our teacher has told us that the first section will be regarding the attitudes of history over time, ie herodotus' and thuycisdies views etc and our 2nd component is something on bush legends or some crap, im not sure we have a hopeless teacher!!!! could n e one help me out with this, like what i should encorporate, other than hisorians views in the first essay? (last time i encorporated information regarding historiography and i got marked down for it!!!)
please help!! thanks!!!

 

[TangleElfshimer]

you got marked down for using historiography?
i thought that was what the whole course was on
this makes me even more screwed than i originally thought

 

[Plebeian]

The whole course is historiography. blink rock's teacher is either unbelievably bad, and hasn't even read the syllabus, or blink rock didn't quite get what historiography is.

To answer the original question, the first question (if set by a competent teacher, that is ) should give you a source and ask you to explain some aspect of historiography, referring to the source and the views of other historians. So go through the source, see if you can find a few issues relating to how history is constructed (eg. the influence of perspective and bias, the role of evidence, whether historical fact exists, etc.) - say how the source deals with them, and then bring in a few related opinions from other historians. You can get these related opinions from the articles in the bound source booklet that contains articles from lots of historians. BTW, it's important not to restrict yourself to Herodotus and Thucydides - postmodernists (White, Jenkins) and relativists (Carr, Vincent [iirc]) are probably more useful.

As for the second question, the way you say "bush legends or some crap" implies that you haven't really done much (if any) work on a case study - you should have been doing this in class for a fair while and know exactly what it covers. Basically, you'll need to apply the concepts of historiography from the first question to a specific historical study. Focus on a couple of key areas of debate on the topic of bush legends, where historians disagree about conclusions - and then see if you can relate this in some way to what those historians thought, historiographically - ie. an empiricist who believes strongly in the use of evidence might regard a conclusion drawn by a postmodernist (with little evidence) to be sketchy. If this is sounding too complicated because you haven't been taught it, remember that everyone in your class is probably in the same boat and just try to pick out two or three areas where historians disagree, and then discuss them.

 

[blink rock]

re: Extension history trials

thanks for ur help!!!
just to clear up a few things so u dont think im an idiot, we have just started the bush legends in class, we have only done two lesons on it, i am really stuck!! i understand ur information, but maybe you have some more, because from the two documents our teacher has written us, i dont think i could write n essay!!!!
our teacher likes to listen to his own voice and tell us his own perceptions of history, rather than teach the class!!! it is terrible seeing i have trial exams for ext in a few days!!!!
please help!!!! thankyou!!!!

i thought thats what you had to do for historiography too, and last time i wrote a really structured essay, following the guidelines and only got 60%!!!!i asked where i had gone wrong and my teacher mentioned that i wasnt meant to focus on historiography but rather historians!!! i am so confused!!!