However, you still need to read around each topic or issue you raise. Most people believe that history is a "collection of facts about the past." Put your source in context. Their letters are no more than glimpses of Army and Navy life. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. That said, not every historian will use every kind of source. A campaign speech or the posthumously published diaries of the same politician, for example. Rather, it’s: In what ways is it useful? Analyzing an Historical Document . Would you say this is the same as what’s expected at A Level? By the way, I have a question for you, and for the forum. You should craft a clear and specific thesis statement about the novel, poem, or play you are evaluating. And if you’ve been set something to read for seminars that addresses this, don’t miss the chance to bring it in. History consists of making arguments about what happened in the past on the basis of what people recorded (in written documents, cultural artifacts, or oral traditions) at the time. It was produced in two sections and due to the shortage of lettering, the letter “e” had to be improvised, standing out for the rest of the text. To write a literary commentary, start by reading the text and creating an outline. Writing commentary is undoubtedly the most difficult part of writing any essay. You do need to establish what your source is, when and why it was produced, by whom, and what form it takes – as well as the basic content, the central message and perhaps the structure of the source – to give you a platform for the following commentary. History’s subject matter is immense, encompassing all of human affairs in the recorded past — up until the moment, that is, that you started reading this guide. Since I did not go to school in the UK, I just need to know, and many thanks in advance! Writing Samples and Commentaries Each sample of proficient student writing is accompanied by a completed rubric and a written commentary that provides a rationale for and specific examples used to determine proficiency. This post would have helped them immensely with the headnotes. For example, the introduction and conclusion might be far more brief than for a standard essay. Some general questions to ask as you read and examine any historical document in this course. But there’s no harm in letting them provide a definition as a quick group exercise, then you know you’re starting from where they are. How to write a Commentary Approaches to Literary Criticism IB A1 Paper 1 “Your task is not so much to discuss what is being said, rather it is to discuss how it is being said.” Theme (The) – also Topic & Subject • What is the subject and concern of the text? Yet students often complain of exactly that. Identify and summarise the source. Over the course of your source commentary, there are five things you need to make sure you do. It would be unrealistic to expect one source to provide the answer to every question. Labelling a source as biased may not be wrong but it is redundant, since every source is biased in some way. So it’s no surprise that a common assignment in a History degree is to write a source commentary or analysis. You don't need a question heading unless you would find it useful to give you an angle on the source(s). I like to think of this as: If this is the answer, what’s the question? ( Log Out /  What sort of historian, trying to understand what about the past, would find this source useful? That was very useful. Babylonian and Assyrian text commentaries represent the oldest well defined and cohesive group of text commentaries worldwide. Sounds like an interesting exercise. Summarise your findings, drawing together the different aspects of the text that you have discussed in your commentary. You can update your cookie preferences at any time. Usually you would be focusing on one source, perhaps two or three compared. If they’re paying enough attention to be suspicious then they’ll carry the idea with them into future classes and trips to the library when they’re handling primary/secondary sources after the class ends. Everything around us will be of interest, it’s just a matter of matching up the right source with the right historian, asking the right question. Usually commentaries will acknowledge pertinent cultural-historical context, but you may need to turn to Bible dictionaries and other resources for more information. You might answer these questions in a number of different ways or orders, but they will usually fall broadly into the structure of description then commentary. A document may be of various types: a written document, a painting, a monument, a map, a photograph, a statistical table, a film or video, etc. Do you think primary and secondary sources are defined differently for students in high school? Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. (a.k.a., Making) History At first glance, writing about history can seem like an overwhelming task. Assess briefly the achievements and significance of the passage, both in itself and in relation to the work from which it is taken. Better to identify the perspective from which events are described. Thanks. This means asking three questions, each of which will mean drawing upon your wider reading: 4. But when it comes … It is doubtful whether any of them were committed to writing before the Christian Era. Reference secondary material in the normal way. 5. Thank you. It’s starting to be a while now since I was taught in a UK school, and I’m sure things have changed a little, and of course not all UK uni students will have been to school in the UK. Alternative assignments of this sort can be worrying, since they’re self-evidently rather different from a standard essay. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Some of the differences are simply because this is typically a shorter assignment. The exact schema of your assignment will depend on the nature of the source. Don’t be fooled – there is a question and that question is always ultimately the same. Consider the historical, social, economic, political, and religious background of what is in the text and of the time when it was written (the two may not be the same – think about a novel that takes place in the Middle Ages but is written in the 20 th century). We’ll return to what exactly it is. We might often think of letters, official documents, photographs and maps – but it could literally be anything. So what does writing this sort of assignment entail? Great article! But how many sources is optimal to use? This is where questions of bias might be brought in. However, I would advise against using the term bias. ( Log Out /  Thank you a lot! (I’m sure you do something like that already.) Skipping this will leave you on shaky ground. It’s also worth keeping in mind that you still need to back up each point you make with evidence. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Rarely will the source be an outright forgery, but you should still question the validity, reliability and representativeness of the source. Now that you have a draft, it is time to contextualize the text in the author's work.. You should start your analytical essay by relating the text with a brief reference to the author, as well as the historical period and philosophical context in which he/she lived. I hope the term goes well for you, too! They usually devote themselves to analyzing for bias and discussing a text's prehistory and literary traditions, as well as seeking to place the text in a historical … Here is a suggested sample document analysis. The Bible, like any book, is a product of its time. Static text elements written in the formula should be enclosed in the quotation marks and terminated by semicolon sign as shown below: "This is sample static text … In fact, history is NOTa "collection of facts about the past." Working through the challenges and opportunities of each point I quickly made could have filled many more blog posts. ( Log Out /  What can’t it tell you? Each week we discuss pieces of primary text, so essentially this exercise replicates on paper the type of analysis you routinely conduct in class. You raise some interesting questions. Commentary on Quotations from Text in an Interpretive Response (English II Writing) | Texas Gateway You can also read the information as a txt file. Whether you’re new to commentaries or you’re looking for examples of thoughtful, biblical teaching, you can’t go wrong with a devotional commentary. In the future, this blog post will be of little use to the historian interested in explaining the outcome of the 2015 general election. Coronavirus (Covid-19): Latest updates and information, FAQs in response to the SSLC Term 2 Survey, Corruption in Britain and its Empire 1600-1850 (HI2D2), Guide to Writing a Commentary on Primary Source(s). If you’re asked to write under 1,000 words, you really don’t have room for standalone opening and closing paragraphs. The opening sentence needs to make it clear what source is under review. Instructions Listen to some further instructions about the analysis of historical documents as a mp3 file. However, whether a source analysis or a review assignment, there are some similarities with the usual essay. the text. It sounds like you have a great family collection. Cultural-historical context . To write a commentary, write about your observations and analysis of the text you read. Remember, the question is not: Is this source useful to historians? So, my lecture notes on conscientious objectors might be used as a secondary source for historians of the First World War, but as a primary source for historians of education. Consider the limitations of the source. The author's philosophy should be explained through the ideas found in the text under analysis. Good to hear. More than that and the danger is you end up just writing a standard essay that draws heavily on primary sources. The assignment will also help prepare you for both a second or third year dissertation, or a third year module, where close engagement with primary material is a basic requirement. Devotional commentaries, sometimes called “popular commentaries,” help readers explore two main tenets of Bible study—what the text means, and what it means for everyday life. Genre @gcgosling and read the source, of course. Commentary can be a hard concept to understand without examples to guide you. Commentaries are meant to be used alongside the Bible text to offer deeper insight, explanation, illustration, and historical background. The commentaries include the instructional context, student text, analysis, and instructional implications. Hello George, Great piece! How to write a commentary The commentary exercise For some of the assessments you are doing, you might be required to produce a commentary to accompany the translation you have produced. Although it might be implicit, this is always ultimately the question. I find they arrive at uni with similar ideas about primary sources. Without the secondary sources and other primary sources, we don’t know what they hold back. This chapter uses Frank Walbank’s Historical Commentary on Polybius as a palmary example of the sub-genre of ‘the historical commentary’, and notes that the sub-genre is largely ignored by the literature on ‘commentary theory’. I’ve recently had students use newspaper and periodical databases to select articles and write headnotes for a source book on a specific subject. The difference is merely that your supporting evidence will mostly be drawn from one place – the source you’re writing about. Writing static texts. Your thesis statement should explain your stance or argument about the text. A fourth kind of commentary is a technical or critical commentary which tends to be focused on detailed study of the Hebrew or Greek text, a detailed study of historical, cultural, social, religious background. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. They are important as indicating the character of the Hebrew text used. Therefore, your commentary should contain at least the following parts: IDENTIFICATION DISCUSSION OF THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE TEXT CONCLUSION 2.1. It is important to select the main points that you are going to be analyzing further in the text and make a summary; but refrain from adding some critical commentary … This is reinforced through the use of textbooks used in teaching history. As ever, the advice of the tutor setting and/or marking your work trumps all else, but here’s my checklist: 1. How to Write a Good Essay Part 1: Learn the Difference between Commentary and Summary You need to understand the difference between commentary and summary. We use cookies to give you the best online experience. If you can answer that, the rest is process. Historians often disagree over what "the facts" are as well as over how the… This system of analysis is called “versification” of the biblical text. Answer the question: How useful is this source to historians? Some questions you might want to ask (not all will be applicable to all sources, but many will be): The marking criteria are the same as for any other piece of work. While both writing styles can be used to discuss another piece of work (like a play, book, movie, or … Examples of Commentary. However, for the historian seeking to understand how university students were taught History in the early twenty-first century, it fits. Sometimes they will put Hebrew and Greek in the footnote, but not in the main body of the text. For one thing, you still need to put in the same amount of effort. An easy mistake would be to offer some general thoughts on the source, perhaps doing all of the above, but not to really answer this question. Some commentaries also feature detailed introductions to the books of the Bible. So it’s no surprise that a common assignment in a History degree is to write a source commentary or analysis. Consider the particular type of source. More than naming it, this means identifying the type of source it is. The following sections will guide you through the steps needed to write your very own commentary formulas. I too try to explain the difference between primary and secondary sources with examples, but try to link it to an overarching theme in my study skills teaching – that the trick in so many cases is matching your sources with the question they can answer, and that not all historians are asking the same questions. Guide to Writing a Commentary on Primary Source(s) Each week we discuss pieces of primary text, so essentially this exercise replicates on paper the type of analysis you routinely conduct in class. Critical commentaries usually reference relatively recent scholarly sources, focusing on small units of a text rather than the whole. o Within this there may be more than one theme. An increased consideration of material culture in recent years has made this more true than ever. These are not easy-option assignments and the most common reason for students being surprised by a low mark, especially early on in their studies, is simply not working as hard on this as they would for an equally-weighted essay. It’s a hard thing to learn in abstract. Every year, I open these modules (the ones I teach) with the question: “So, what is a primary source?” And every year, Year 1 students respond with conviction: “Primary sources are those sources that were produced at the time of the event, and secondary sources are those that were produced later, hence they are derivative, secondary, less important.” And then begins the process of explaining that while their definition of primary sources may be correct in some cases, being contemporary to the event is not a necessary quality of a primary source; also that secondary sources are not just post-dated and less important, they are professional analyses based on the data that primary sources provide. In the History programmes at Exeter Uni, we have several source-centred modules from year 1 onwards. Please let us know if you agree to functional, advertising and performance cookies. Examples from Straub's article Straub's example of Directive commentary IDENTIFICATION: Start by identifying and locating the text in its right literary and historical context. 3. It´s a historic – circumstantial text. There are particular challenges and opportunities offered by private or official writings, even when the author is the same. The closing sentence needs to wrap up the discussion by giving a clear answer to the question. To do so, you will need to specify the following: TITLE AUTHOR These are some nice examples of just why we need to read our sources critically and dig around them. Change ). They are written as though they are collections of information. If that was the case, historical research would be a lot quicker. I am going to use it in my teaching this year at the Univesity of Exeter. You can refer to the online versions of the sample documents (cite as 'Coursework document X, p.y) or go back to the originals. L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia . FREE 7+ Commentary Writing Samples and Templates in PDF How to write a commentary ib myp english 9 Lesson commentary for 'Write a conclusion to an informational text using the reserve funnel method' On the MA Specialised Translation module, the commentary will be used to compare and contrast the translation approaches taken to texts from two different domains. Some useful aids to commentary-writing The assignment will also help prepare you for both a second or third year dissertation, or a third year module, where close engagement with primary material is a basic requirement. Make sure you polish the literary commentary for style, grammar, and spelling before handing it in so it is at its best.
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