Economics and global history.
Economics & Global History 2023 – 2024 Assessment 2. B. Assessment 1. The Rules Your work on this module is assessed by three methods: Assessment type Notes Assessed Course Work (ACW) Essay MCQ Examination Tutorial Performance Total 2000 words . . % of formal assessment 80.00 10.00 10.00* 100.00 * Only included if this is to the candidate’s advantage. See below. Assessed Course Work This takes the form of an essay on one topic chosen from a list of twelve topics as given in Appendix I of this document. This will assess your ability to research a question using the concepts introduced in the module, to critically assess the literature and to draw conclusions. The deadline for submission is at the end of the module; see the Module Diary in Appendix V for the time and date. The Marking Criteria used for judging whether your ACW is a first, an upper second, etc. are given here in Appendix III. Assessed Course Work Essay Questions These are given in Appendix I of this document. The Word Limit for the ACW on this Module The word limit is 2,000 words. How words are counted and how tables and figures are treated, etc. is documented in Appendix IV which also defines the penalties that will be imposed on over-length essays. Please note that the word limit is strict. There is no allowance or waiver for essays which are ‘only a little’ over-length. A single word over 2,000 renders you liable to penalty. Submitting your ACW 1. This is done electronically via Minerva. 2 Economics & Global History 2023 – 2024 Assessment 3. For the practical details of how to do this, please go to Minerva pages for this module and look under ‘Submit My Work’. 3. The Assessed Course Work 1. The Assessed Course Work (ACW) for this module takes the form of a 2,000 word essay. 2. Purpose. The ACW is designed to assess your knowledge and understanding of the module by asking you to answer some questions on one broad topic out of 12, each corresponding to one or more of the lectures. The questions can be answered at a basic level simply by making an accurate précis of the relevant lecture or lectures but answers at this level will receive relatively low marks, i.e. a II.2 or below. For higher marks you will need to demonstrate that you have done some reading in addition to the lecture handouts and have thought critically about what you have read. 3. The Twelve Topics are given in Appendix I of this document. 4. The criteria by which we judge the quality of your work are given in Appendix III of this document. Broadly, the criteria are: knowledge, understanding, critical ability, organization, communication, and presentation. 5. Differences from the essays you wrote at school. (a) There is no right answer. You are assessed on the quality of your argument, not the conclusion you reach. (b) There are no marks for effort. If you are working more than a 35hour week and not through choice then you need to think about working more efficiently. Your first stop should be the ‘Study and Research Support’ tab on the University Library’s home page. (c) You need to use your initiative. Students who quickly get into the habit of finding things out for themselves by using electronic and hard copy books, articles, and other resources and by asking questions in class do well. Those who expect to be spoon-fed do badly. (d) If you’ve lost it, you need to get back into the habit of asking questions. Ask questions of yourself while listening to lectures, while 3 Economics & Global History 2023 – 2024 Assessment 4. you’re in class, while reading, and while writing. Why was that the case? How did that happen? Why didn’t that happen? What happened next? Who were they? Is this a good thing? Does it have to be this way? Could we do better? If you don’t ask questions you’ll be doomed to repeating other people’s answers. 3.1 How to do Your Assessed Essay: Reading 1. For reading lists, go to the Lecture Notes for your topic and find the section at the end headed ‘READING’. You may need to be selective in your reading among the items cited there and/or you may want to read more widely. Ignore the material under ‘References’; this material consists of the stuff I have used in writing the lecture; it is often specialized and is sometimes advanced. The References are put there as an example of academic good practice, only. 2. For further material, search the Library catalogue for books and articles. For other material, including websites, and for some excellent general advice, go to the Library homepage and click on ‘Study and Research Support’, then scroll down to find ‘Academic Skills’, and then: ‘Searching for Information’. 3. I am happy for you to use Wikipedia. However, the quality of its articles varies enormously and I expect you to use it critically. Some guidance on evaluating the quality of web material is available on the University Library website. Regrettably, many of my academic colleagues still regard Wikipedia as a repository of uniformly low-quality writing and view the citation of its articles by students as an indicator of poor intellectual capabilities. My advice, therefore, is to use Wikipedia (selectively) but to follow its articles back to their sources and to cite the sources, rather than the Wikipedia articles themselves. This will protect you from the prejudices of my colleagues. Remember that I am not the only examiner of this module. 4. There are other websites which I have found to offer information or explanations of inadequate quality at University level. They include: tutor2you, investopedia, and, I’m afraid, many BBC websites aimed at students (the BBC News website is normally, but not always, highly accurate despite the fact that it follows a tabloid agenda). Also, disturbingly, the CIA Factbook. If you have used these websites at school, it is now time to stop using them. 3.2 How to do Your Assessed Essay: Writing 4 Economics & Global History 2023 – 2024 Assessment 5. 1. Make sure you are familiar with all the rules and regulations concerning this piece of Assessed Course Work. These are all in this document or on Minerva. Make absolutely sure you are fully aware of the penalties for plagiarism, exceeding the word limit, and late submission. 2. For guidance about how to write English, specially adapted to students of economics, see my handout Writing for Economists, available on Minerva (Economics and Global History pages, Learning Resources). 3. There is also the commercially published: John Peck and Martin Coyle, The Student’s Guide to Writing: Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar, 3rd ed., Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012. and a quick look at the Amazon web-site will show you many more (other online book dealers are available and there is the University of Leeds Library as well.) 4. The University of Leeds Library web site has a wide range of good resources to help you with essay writing. Click on ‘Study and Research Support’ on the home page. 3.3 How to Submit Your Assessed Essay 1. I have only two pieces of advice on this: 1. Do not leave your submission to the last minute. Lots of people do; sometimes the system then crashes, your submission is late, and you lose 5 marks (that’s half a class). Penalties for lateness are imposed by the Administration and I have no influence on them at all. The Administration gives no allowance for mechanical or electronic failures occurring during or before submission when deciding on the penalty for late submission. II. Do not leave your submission to the last hour. Things sometimes go wrong and you may need some time to sort them out. Aim to make your submission, particularly the first time you use this system, at the latest, on the day before the deadline. 5 Economics & Global History 2023 – 2024 Assessment 6. APPENDIX I LUBS1295 Economics and Global History The Twelve Assessed Course Work Topics. Subject to the Approval of the External Examiner Choose One 1. Were the San rich or poor before their contact with Europeans? Were the San richer or poorer at this time than the native American members of the League of the Iroquois? 2. How did the Native North Americans lose their land? Do you think it likely that Native North American economies suffered from a ‘tragedy of the commons’? 3. Does the demographic history of Japan in the Tokugawa Period conform to the Malthusian model? Do you find evidence of environmental degradation in Japan during this period? 4. By whom and how were surpluses extracted in Anglo-Saxon and Norman England? To what uses were they put? 5. When do you think the first globalization began? Were Marx and Engels right to think that the first globalization was driven by the bourgeoisie? 6. What is de Vries’s ‘Industrious Revolution’ hypothesis? Do you think that working hours increased or decreased during the Industrial Revolution in England? 7. Was the factory introduced because of the economies of scale it offered in power production and transmission or because it enabled the close supervision of workers? How did nineteenth century factory managers obtain and maintain work discipline? 8. Must coins be issued by the state? Was the Sixteenth Century Price Revolution caused solely by the influx of silver to Europe from the New World? 6 Economics & Global History 2023 – 2024 Assessment 7. 9. Why was it economically advantageous to the European metropolitan powers to have colonies? Was it economically detrimental to the colonies? 10. Why are banks unusually subject to collapse? What role did the banking system play in the Wall Street Crash of 1929? 11. What role did European colonization play in the Second Globalization? Did the decolonization movements of the 1945-1990 period restrained the pace of globalization? 12. EITHER: What is Diamond’s explanation for Africa’s failure to develop? Is Robert C. Allen’s explanation better, worse, or the same as Diamond’s? OR: What is Pomeranz’s explanation for the Great Divergence after 1750 CE? Is Robert C. Allen’s explanation better, worse, or the same as that of Pomeranz? END 7 Economics & Global History 2023 – 2024 Assessment 8. APPENDIX II LUBS1295 Economics & Global History GENERAL FEEDBACK on the ACW 2021-22 General Comments The general standard was satisfactory with a mean mark of 60.3 per cent over the 391 scripts received. The marks awarded ranged from 30 to 85 per cent. There were 81 ‘firsts’ (21 per cent of candidates) of which 18 were starred. With another 128 candidates scoring an upper second, 209 candidates (53 per cent) scored a II.1 or above. At the other end of the distribution there were 11 fails (3 per cent). Candidates’ time management appeared to have been good with relatively few essays attracting a penalty for late submission or showing evidence of hurried preparation. Some essays were notably short (e.g. less than 1,900 words). Candidates should be aware that the word limit is designed to be tight. A first draft that is significantly shorter than the word limit indicates that something has gone wrong, possibly in the judgement of the level of ability and expertise expected, the judgement of the amount of research expected or in the understanding of what the question means. The word limit is enforced by imposing penalties on ACW essays that are over-length. These penalties are designed to be sufficiently harsh to render it never worthwhile to submit an over-length essay. Those who suffered penalties should note that in every case superfluous verbiage could have been cut easily to bring the essay in under the limit. Penalties are imposed for the smallest infraction of the limit; there is no ‘tolerance’, ‘allowance’, ‘latitude’, ‘leeway’, or ‘flexibility’. Most essays were reasonably well organized and achieved a smooth flow of argument starting with an introduction and finishing with a conclusion. Few candidates repeated themselves significantly and almost all managed to remain relevant to the question asked. A few however failed to keep closely to the question set and these candidates usually obtained low marks. Most candidates demonstrated adequate knowledge of the topic they had chosen to answer. Better answers were often distinguished by the greater knowledge they displayed and this was based on good to extensive research in 8 Economics & Global History 2023 – 2024 Assessment 9. high quality sources. Better answers gave numerical evidence displayed in well laid out tables and graphs. One of the most frequent reasons for the poor quality of essays scoring II.2s and below was a reliance on poor quality sources, e.g. daily journalism, and especially websites aimed at UK school children (tutor2you; BBC history websites), US high school children, or adult amateurs (investopedia). These candidates usually failed to use any material that was not available on the internet. These candidates need to up-grade the quality of their work and should be aware that the expected standards increase again at Level 2 and again at Level 3. These candidates need also to familiarize themselves with the resources available in the University Library. The tell-tale signs of poor quality resources are: (a) They are short. They are written for people who, the author or authors believe, have a short attention span and are incapable of reasserting their attention once they have been distracted. Such people are also believed to have generally poor cognitive skills. To be blunt: they are written for people the author or authors believe to be not very bright. (b) They are written by school teachers for school students. School teachers are admirable people and are often both bright and knowledgeable. But when writing for school children, school teachers will write to what they think is the capacity of their audience. They are rarely writing for university students. (c) They do not cite their sources. Notice that Wikipedia articles do cite their sources or bear a warning notice to the effect that they do not. Any web page that fails to cite its sources (or cites only other web pages that, in turn, fail to cite their sources) should be disregarded immediately. For university students they are only a waste of time. Conversely, a few candidates need to familiarize themselves with internet resources including Wikipedia. These candidates demonstrated an ignorance of easily ascertainable facts. The examiners typically describe essays based on inadequate research as ‘thin’; in this context this is not a compliment. The level of understanding demonstrated by candidates was generally high. Some, however, hoped to disguise poor understanding by making substantial 9 Economics & Global History 2023 – 2024 Assessment 10. quotations or making numerous citations of books and articles they had not understood or, sometimes, read. High levels of understanding were revealed by an ability to construct arguments making use of the historical evidence and the economic concepts introduced in the module using the candidate’s own words. Candidates who find themselves unable to do this need to return to the module texts. Critical abilities varied widely. Some students were able to perceive the differences between the authors they had read and differences in the implications of the evidence from different time periods, from different countries, or from different sources. Some were able to evaluate the quality of the literature they had read noting its limitations and the quality and extent of its evidential base. Others were frankly gullible and appeared to take the view that if something had appeared in print then it must be true, even if it was contradicted by something else that had also appeared in print. Some appeared to be attempting to please the examiners by promulgating the views they thought the examiners held; this did not please the examiners and these candidates obtained very low marks. Standards of presentation also varied widely. At the top end some demonstrated an ability to write prose which was clear, precise, correct and, because of these qualities, a pleasure to read. At the bottom end candidates presented essays which were none of these things. Judging by the types of errors perpetrated, the difficulties appear to have been greatest among those schooled in this country whose mother-tongue is English. These candidates need to make the up-grading of the quality of their written English a priority. Self-help books and websites are widely available. These candidates need to be aware that the quality of the English written by their colleagues schooled abroad and for whom English is a second or third language is frequently higher than that written by themselves. Many candidates, while writing prose which was clear and correct, wrote in a ‘register’ which was too informal for an academic context. These candidates typically overused adjectives such as ‘huge’, ‘vast’, ‘massive’, and ‘immense’. Many candidates failed to present data relevant to their argument in graphs and tables. This was one of the main reasons why some otherwise good essays failed to achieve a first-class mark. Where data was presented, standards of presentation were generally high. The author-date or ‘Harvard’ system of referencing sources was generally well used with many candidates demonstrating a familiarity with the different templates for laying out references to different types of material available on 10 Economics & Global History 2023 – 2024 Assessment 11. the University Library website. Some, however, had clearly not taken the trouble to access this information. The only widespread errors were: (a) the unnecessary provision of URLs and other information required to reference web pages for digital versions of printed books, journals, and chapters. (b) the inconsistent capitalization of titles of books, chapters and articles. There are three styles of capitalization: (i) Sentence style: only the first word of the title and the subtitle begins with a capital letter. E.g. Global economic history: A very short introduction; (ii) Title style, sometimes called headline style: the first word of the title and subtitle and all significant words are given an initial capital. E.g. Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction; e.g. Land and Society in the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia; (iii) All capitals or ‘all caps’. E.g. GLOBAL ECONOMIC HISTORY: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION. Do not use this in a list of references. It is really ugly in text (it can be beautiful in display typography and in inscriptions in stone or metal) and is of poor legibility. Decide what capitalization convention you are going to use and then follow it consistently. It is permissible to use one style for books and another for articles and book chapters. Follow your convention regardless of the style used in the book, article or chapter you are referencing. Errors of these sorts were not treated harshly by the examiners. Quentin Outram January 2024 11 Economics & Global History 2023 – 2024 Assessment 12. APPENDIX III: MARKING CRITERIA for ASSESSED ESSAYS Grade Criterion Fail III II.2 II.1 First and Starred First Structure & Organization: statement of aims, logical order of material, focus on question, conclusion Disorganized. No structure, aims or conclusion. Some attempt at structure or organization but poor or inappropriate Structure attempted. Evidence of organization. Aims and conclusion both present. A generally successful and appropriate structure. Aims and conclusion both present and clearly related. A wholly successful and appropriate structure. Aims and conclusion both present and closely related. Knowledge. comprehensiveness of coverage, evidence of research, reading; use of data sources Little or no coverage. Little or no use made of lecture notes or texts. Very thin. Lack of breadth in use of relevant source material or literature, although some evidence of an attempt to engage with the material presented in the module. Thin. Fairly comprehensive use of material but some notable omissions. Possibly some problems with the use of data or other empirical evidence. Fairly comprehensive coverage of material. Good use of data sources or other empirical evidence. Comprehensive coverage of material. Excellent use of data sources and empirical evidence. Grade 12 Economics & Global History 2023 – 2024 Assessment 13. Criterion Fail III II.2 II.1 First and Starred First Understanding of material; accuracy Fails to demonstrate understanding of the subject or fails to address the question posed. Partial, limited or inaccurate understanding of the subject, A good understanding of the subject but marred by some misunderstandings, inaccuracies or a failure to focus on the question. A good understanding of the subject in breadth and depth focused on the question. Marred by some minor flaws A thorough and accurate understanding of the topic in breadth and depth. Focused on the question throughout. Flawless. Critical ability Fails to notice contradictions in literature or data. Gullible. Some ability to discern agreement and disagreement in the literature and data; some ability to separate the significant and relevant from the trivial and irrelevant; but little ability to evaluate the quality of the data or literature; takes literature and data at face value. Some ability to discern agreement and disagreement in the literature and data; some ability to separate the significant and relevant from the trivial and irrelevant; and some ability to evaluate the quality of the data or literature, but sometimes takes literature or data at face value. Shows: an unfailing ability to discern agreement and disagreement in the literature and to separate the significant and relevant from the trivial and irrelevant; and an ability to evaluate the quality of the data and existing literature. Shows: an unfailing ability to discern agreement and disagreement in the literature and data and to separate the significant and relevant from the trivial and irrelevant; an ability to discern the significance of facts and data; and gives perceptive and well-reasoned evaluations of data and/or literature. Grade 13 Economics & Global History 2023 – 2024 Assessment 14. Criterion Fail III II.2 II.1 First and Starred First Presentation: legibility, grammar, spelling, clarity of expression Use of English so poor as to obscure the sense of what is written. Tables and figures without headings, definitions, sources and/or notes. Numerous faults in spelling and grammar. Use of English so poor as to obscure the sense of what is written in a few places. Tables and figures usually clearly set out.. Some faults in the use of English but not to the point of obscuring meaning. Tables and figures usually clearly set out:. Fluently written; correct in spelling and grammar. Use of English never so poor as to obscure the sense of what is written. Tables and figures clearly set out:. A delight to read. Fluently written; attains complete clarity of meaning; correct in spelling and grammar. Tables and figures clearly set out: Presentation: citations & references No consistent referencing system. References not cited; citations not referenced. And/or references give too few details to enable the location of the reference. Uses an inconsistent referencing system and some details may be missing. Some sources cited fail to appear in the List of References and/or some items in the List of References not cited in the essay. Uses an inconsistent referencing system but no details missing. Some sources cited fail to appear in the List of References and/or some items in the List of References not cited in the essay. Uses one of the standard referencing systems. All cited sources appear in the List of References; no item which is not cited appears in the List of References. Possibly a few minor errors, omissions or inconsistencies. Uses one of the standard referencing systems. All sources cited appear in the List of references; no item which is not cited appears in the List of References. Correct in every detail. 14 Economics & Global History: Session 2023-2024 Handbook APPENDIX IV The ACW WORD LIMIT The ACW word limit on this module is 2,000 words. COUNTING WORDS for the WORD LIMIT In this module, for the purposes of the word limit, the word count excludes: the cover, the title page, the abstract, the contents pages, all tables, all graphs, all maps, all diagrams, all substantive and source notes to tables, graphs, maps and diagrams, and lists of references but includes: all other text, including any footnotes and any endnotes to the main work, and appendices. 15 Economics & Global History: Session 2023-2024 Handbook PENALTIES for EXCEEDING the WORD LIMIT In this module the following penalties will be imposed for exceeding the word limit: Excess Penalty up to and including 2% (40 words) 1 mark over 2% and up to and including 4% (80 words) 2 marks over 4% and up to and including 6% (120 words) 3 marks and so on until: over 8% and up to and including 10% (200 words) 5 marks over 10% and up to and including 20% (400 words) 10 marks over 20% and up to and including 30% (600 words) 15 marks and so on until: over 40% and up to and including 50% (1000 words) 20 marks. Essays over 50% in excess of the limit receive a mark of 0%. This sliding-scale means that small numbers of excess words are penalized relatively lightly, while numbers in excess of 10% are penalized harshly. However, the penalties are designed to render it never worthwhile for you to exceed the word limit, even by a single word. Quentin Outram January 2024 16 Economics & Global History: Session 2023-2024 Handbook 17
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