world war one historiography (1 Viewer)

[cem]

I beg to differ. Historiography is used in the first assessment task at my school QUITE heavily. We have to back up most of our source analysis with relevent quotes etc. So...yeah. Considering that majority of schools are saying you SHOULD have historiography, I'd say its quite important.

If your teacher has set that then that's what you have to do.

I have been marking the HSC for 16 years and for most of that time I have marked WWI and historiography isn't needed in the WWI section. In the Personalities this year I gave full marks to as many responses with historians as responses without (in fact this year's personality question was often badly done when students used historiography because they had lots of quotes and no engagement with the given quote) - prepared answers stood out a mile and did a bad job for the most part!

I will repeat that in the HSC exam WWI doesn't require additional historians. You can spend a lot of time learning them if you wish but the next school along could get full marks for all their students without them.

Unlike Ancient History where the syllabus specifies the use of both ancient and modern historians the Modern History syllabus doesn't specify the use of historians which is why students can, and many do, get very high marks without the naming of any historians at all.

 

[Kujah]

What do you mean by prepared answers? Answers that were written beforehand and don't answer the question?

It's sometimes hard for the WWI historiography, 'cause you don't really know what the extended response question in Section I is going to ask you. On the other hand, its good to have some AJP Taylor quotes ^^

 

[cem]

What do you mean by prepared answers? Answers that were written beforehand and don't answer the question?

It's sometimes hard for the WWI historiography, 'cause you don't really know what the extended response question in Section I is going to ask you. On the other hand, its good to have some AJP Taylor quotes ^^

Quite a few students enter the exam with a series of essay responses that they intend on changing to fit the question but many are extremely unsuccessful in doing so e.g. this year many students had a clearly prepared response on Speer on Good Nazi versus Bad Nazi but that wasn't relevant to a question about people shaping events or events shaping people and thus their prepared response didn't get the high marks they were hoping to get. From talking to other markers on other sections the same thing was happening there - some teachers tell students to learn a couple of very good essays and just to write them in the exam. That is fine IF the question in the exam suits the prepared response but increasingly the examiners are setting questions that don't allow for that e.g. the German society question that covered both Weimar and Nazi Germany again were often limited in response to either one period or the other but not to both.


With WWI it is virtually impossible to have a prepared answer but I have seen students who have a list of WWI quotes that they include which are irrelevant to the topic. World War One assesses how well you use the given sources and link them to own knowledge which doesn't have to be historiography at all. I tell my students not to worry about historiography in WWI and I always get good results. Having marked WWI for so many years I know that historiography isn't needed there (in fact from my experience many students do get full marks without naming any historians but they do need to show an understanding of different interpretations - this can be done without knowing the names of the precise historians e.g. saying some historians claim that Speer knew all about the holocaust because of the comments made naming him at the Posen Conference whereas others believe Speer when he says that he didnt' really know what happening to the Jews."

 

[allyio123]

My teacher has told me that generalising about historians is pretty much the worst thing you can do in an essay. She says that you have to be specific and name them...is this right or not?

 

[karinaffs]

Doesn't your teacher give you quotes?? In your text book that you should have e.g 'sarajevo to versailles they always havwe quoes in them.

 

[spyro14]

I find paraphrasing to be a handy alternative to memorising quotes. Putting a name to an idea really isn't that difficult.

 

[cem]

My teacher has told me that generalising about historians is pretty much the worst thing you can do in an essay. She says that you have to be specific and name them...is this right or not?

Learing a string of quotes shows you can learn a string of quotes.

Being able to use the general ideas of the historian shows that you understand their thesis and is far better.

If you get a mental block and say 'one historian says ..... but he is opposed by AJP Taylor who says....' you will be fine because the HSC markers (not necessarily the school markers at the time of the Trials by the way) aren't there to stop you getting marks but rather to give you marks if possible.

 

[JRO]

Waste of important exam time, especially when it comes to modern, just says Winter believes.... or Winter says"...."

Mhm, so long as you get the general jist of what the historians opinions are. You can paraphrase it to better suit your argument or complement the flow of your response. Examiners tend to like it because your using the historians name and concept, yet molding their opinion with yours.
Historiography, at least so far I've found- is crucial, seperates the good from fantastic. Chuck in a quote here or there [or paraphrase] supporiting your response and viola, good marks.

 

[nineteenninetynine]

Hi!

It is not necessary to use historiography for the source based study. Whilst you should be aware of some of the historiographical debates, particularly those concerning the reasons for Allied victory and the Treaty of Versailles, it is not necessary to explicitly mention historians in your answer. However, historiography is definitely useful for the other topics in Modern History, particularly the personality study.