AIH256 SPORT IN HISTORY Trimester 3, 2017 ASSESSMENT TASK 2 RESEARCH ESSAY INSTRUCTIONS 1800 words. Overall weighting: 40% Due Date: Wednesday 6 December 2017 For this major assessment task, you have been set the challenge of producing an 1800-word research essay based on a topic of your choosing. In other words, there is no list of set questions from which you select a topic. Instead, to accommodate for everyone’s personal interests you are being given considerable scope for developing your own tailored research question. But, of course, some parameters have been set to ensure that you develop an appropriate essay topic that is aligned to the unit and our intended learning outcomes. The most crucial point is that your essay MUST tackle a question based on the role/impact of sport in history. This means that you can focus on the political, economic, social, and/or cultural significance of sport in any historical setting. There are various approaches you can adopt. To cite a few options as examples: • you may choose to focus on a single sport in order to examine a certain issue (e.g. how jousting reinforced class hierarchy in medieval Britain, or surfing’s shift from being a sub-culture to becoming a mega-industry, or cycling and drugs etc.) • you may select an individual case study to investigate a particular issue (Jackie Robinson breaking the colour barrier in baseball, or Hitler and the Berlin Olympics, or Phar Lap giving the working classes hope during the Great Depression, or the “Miracle on Ice” hockey match at Lake Placid and its significance in Cold War antagonisms between the Soviet Union and the United States etc.) • you may decide to address several sports as a way of exploring a particular theme (such as gender, or race, or debates over amateurism versus professionalism, or the relationship between sport and mass media etc.) AIH256 SPORT IN HISTORY ASSESSMENT TASK 2: RESEARCH ESSAY DUE: 6 DEC. 2017 2 • or you can focus on sport’s place in society during a specific period of history (e.g. Ancient Greece, Puritan England, the onset of the Industrial Revolution, WWI, or a decade such as the 1930s or the 1960s etc.) The above dot points are merely illustrative, provided as examples to give you some sense of the diverse possibilities that can be pursued. But you are welcome — indeed, encouraged — to think well beyond the suggestions listed above when conceptualizing your research topic. Also, it is not compulsory to pick a “famous” or well-known case study: if you would prefer to tackle a locally based topic (e.g. the historical role a local sporting club has played in your home town) then you are most welcome to do so. Whatever the case, it must be a well-developed topic based on proper historical research. In any case, please be warned: irrespective of whatever approach you adopt, your essay MUST focus on the role of sport in history and NOT the history of a sport. Put another way, you CANNOT produce an essay that looks at, say, the history of your favourite football team in which you simply provide information such as when the club was established, how many premierships it has won, which player has kicked the most goals or won best-and-fairest awards etc. The same applies to a sport such as cricket. Whereas you could examine how the Bodyline Series worsened already seriously strained relations between Australia and England during the Great Depression, or how Kerry Packer revolutionized the sporting landscape through World Series Cricket in the 1970s, you CANNOT simply provide a narrative rich in statistics in order to argue that Bradman, Tendulkar, Sobers, Warne and co. are the greatest of all time. If you are unsure about the difference between “sport in history” and the “history of a sport” then please engage with the relevant discussion threads on our unit’s CloudDeakin site. Please think carefully about your research topic. Remember, because this assignment requires you to conduct extensive research it means that whatever theme you explore by extension will end up being the topic you learn most about during this unit. Also consider whether your idea is “doable.” That is, have you developed a question that you can actually answer? And is it based on a topic for which you can gain access to appropriate sources? If you have a rough idea of what you would like to examine but cannot quite formulate a satisfactory (or “doable”) question, then please do not hesitate to post a “HELP ME!” message on our discussion threads. Teaching staff will happily provide advice to anyone who requests assistance in developing a suitable research question — on the proviso that you have already put in some effort to devise a topic that you would like to examine. And such requests AIH256 SPORT IN HISTORY ASSESSMENT TASK 2: RESEARCH ESSAY DUE: 6 DEC. 2017 3 need to be posted within the first 2-3 weeks of trimester, in order to allow sufficient time for you to conduct your research and write your essay. Furthermore, the unit’s teaching staff are very strong advocates of student collegiality. Let us stress: you are NOT competing against one another in any way! On the contrary, by helping each other everyone can improve their work and then everyone benefits. We hope (and expect) to see plenty of help being offered over the coming weeks as you discuss your personal research interests and start formulating your essay questions. Most of you will have very little or perhaps even no previous experience in creating essay questions. It is invigorating, but can be surprisingly tricky to do well. So, please start the process immediately to allow yourself sufficient time to decide on your preferred topic, play around with some possible approaches, discuss options with teaching staff and your fellow students via the discussion threads, and eventually refine your question in such a way that enables you to produce a relevant response. UNIT LEARNING OUTCOMES (ULO’s) ASSESSED As part of the assessment process, these two ULO’s will be taken into consideration when your research essay is marked: ULO 1: interpret the social, cultural, political, and/or economic impact of sport in a broad range of historical settings ULO 2: synthesize core historiographical debates on the role of sport in history in multiple regions around the world N.B. If the nature of your essay question requires the response to be temporally and/or topographically narrow (i.e. a relatively short historical timespan, or limited to a specific location), then you will not be expected to cover “a broad range of historical settings” or “multiple regions around the world” within this particular assignment. Nonetheless, your essays will cover ULO’s 1 and 2 because: all essays must interpret sport’s social, cultural, political, and/or economic impact in a historical setting; and all essays will synthesize historiographical debates, because you will be drawing on the ideas and arguments of historians (and other scholars) whose work you read while conducting your research. If you happen to take a narrow focus, providing that your essay still addresses these two ULO’s appropriately then you will not be disadvantaged in any way when it comes to assessment. (For more detailed information about the marking criteria for this assignment, please see below.) AIH256 SPORT IN HISTORY ASSESSMENT TASK 2: RESEARCH ESSAY DUE: 6 DEC. 2017 4 DEAKIN GRADUATE LEARNING OUTCOMES (GLO’s) ASSESSED Creating a learning environment that not only enables but also inspires you to build historical knowledge and understanding of the unit’s content (i.e. sport in history) is our main focus in AIH256. But the unit’s teaching staff also aim to provide you with opportunities to further develop and apply the graduate attributes (or employability skills) that are central to your learning experience throughout your Deakin degree. Accordingly, four of the University’s 8 GLO’s will be taken into consideration when your research essay is assessed: GLO 1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities: appropriate to the level of study related to a discipline or profession GLO 2: Communication: using oral, written and interpersonal communication to inform, motivate and effect change GLO 4: Critical thinking: evaluating information using critical and analytical thinking and judgment GLO 8: Global citizenship: engaging ethically and productively in the professional context and with diverse communities and cultures in a global context N.B. Again, the degree to which you can engage with certain components of these GLO’s largely will depend on your research essay question. If, for instance, you construct a topic on the historical role of sport in Australian society then obviously your ability to cover GLO 8 (global citizenship) could be somewhat restricted. Your assessor will take all such circumstances into account, so no student will be disadvantaged. Also, given that this task involves an essay, when it comes to GLO 2 the emphasis will be on your written communication skills (whereas the specific reference to oral communication contained in GLO 2 is irrelevant on this occasion). Whatever topic your essay covers, you are expected to demonstrate discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities (GLO 1), effective communication skills (GLO 2), critical thinking (GLO 4), and finally global citizenship (GLO 8) to a degree made possible by the scope of your question. MARKING CRITERIA Please see overleaf a copy of the actual marking rubric that will be used when your essay is assessed. It is the best guide for you to follow if you want to ensure that your submitted essay addresses all 7 key marking criteria. Use this rubric as a way to self-assess your work and improve any perceived weaknesses prior to submission. MARKING RUBRIC AIH256 Sport in History Assessment Task 2: Research Essay EXCELLENT Meets this criterion to the highest expected level. An outstanding effort. VERY GOOD Meets this criterion to a high standard, but with some minor errors or problems. GOOD Meets this criterion, but with some significant errors or omissions. Please see assessor’s comments. NEEDS IMPROVEMENT The assessor has identified areas of concern that must be addressed. Please see comments for details. BELOW STANDARD Overall, the essay does not meet the standard expected for this criterion. Please see assessor’s comments for details. ANALYTIC SKILLS Ability to formulate an appropriate question and then remain focused on directly addressing your set question USE OF SOURCES Depth, breadth and relevance of your wider reading beyond the unit materials And ability to synthesize your reading into your own words HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE & UNDERSTANDING Demonstrated command of the chosen topic WRITING SKILLS Quality of expression (clarity, grammar, punctuation, style) STRUCTURE Ability to construct a response in proper essay form (purposeful introduction & conclusion, full paragraphing, & a flowing argument) OXFORD REFERENCING Proper footnoting and full bibliography set out according to the Oxford referencing system PRESENTATION Proof-reading and redrafting, page-numbering, suitable font, line-spacing & overall polish of submitted work