History: Learning Methods for Historians

karkar

I just got my orientation pack and I'm choosing which pattern to take for History.
Is Learning Methods for Historians worth doing? Will I be at a disadvantage if I don't do it when it comes to writing essays?

Thanks

claire h

It used to be compulsory and was an extra class instead of replacing half of a year-long thing, so it was more of a hassle than anything else. Mind you, I took it in the days when they'd only just got rid of a 'how to use Microsoft Word and send an email' class, so, y'know.

I imagine it's probably handy enough if it's actually counting for something; all the stuff you cover will be stuff you'll need to figure out for yourself anyway along the way. At some point they do start assuming you know how to write an essay, give a presentation, research stuff, and you do pick up those skills as you go anyway, so I guess it depends on whether you want that extra nudge at the start or whether you'd rather take an extra half-year of medieval history. You do have tutorials in each of your courses and depending on the tutor, you'll probably get some guidelines on how to write an essay or what databases are useful for the period, but those 'how to do history'-type skills aren't the main focus.

So... yeah. Hope that's helpful-ish.

karkar

Thanks that is helpful!

It's pretty much what I thought myself but a second opinion never hurts!
I think I'll take it then

swimfan22

I did LFH this year, and it's a very so-so course. When we did it, it didn't start until week 3 of Michaelmas, and it was week 4 or 5 before we did "how to write an essay"- very useful, given that we had an essay due at the beginning of week 4!! :mad: Some of the websites and databases they showed us were very useful, but otherwise it was mainly computer skills that most people would know. I'm sure you will pick some useful things up, and it's only an hour a week. Plus I'm sure they will have remedied some of the problems that occured this year, like the bad essay-writing timing.

Oh and one last word of advice... If you do decide to take it, make sure you take the assignments seriously!! People didn't take it at all seriously this year (after all it's only a 5-credit course) and they were failed in their final assignment, and had to do it again! So do it properly when you have to and you can forget about it.

Karlusss

It's a bit rubbish if you already know how to Google, and how to type. They show you some good sites and kind of hand-hold you through stuff like jstor that could turn out useful I suppose. Apart from that... I suppose being shown how to do a college bibliography is a bit of a help. Plus you can sleep through it without feeling like you might have missed something you can't do without.