Major Work Due In 5 days - help! (1 Viewer)

[sharronx]

struggling with history ext gah!

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i have my major work due and i'm still struggling with what exactly is relevant and irrelevant in terms of historiography and just plain "telling the story". btw this is my 10th unit too *cries a river*

my major work is on "How the selectivity of history has been used to promote nationalism" - using the recent whitewashing of japanese history as a case study (i'm not so sure about how great my chosen topic is now either)
i was reading everyone elses' and it all seems to flow, their ideas are so original and the language is so sophisticated.
anyone have any pointers? research i should be incorporating? where to find particular sources?
anything? will be greatly appreciated.

btw this is what i have so far
- intro
- origins of nationalism
- japan & nationalism
- japan using symbols and myths to promote nationalism, ie yasukuni shrine, religion, customs
- perspectives of critics on the new textbooks (this is where i'm stuck, looking for sources that are not from the internet)
- perspectives of the japanese on why they had textbook reform

should i also be looking at different PERSPECTIVES in those perspective, ie. right wing, etc AND the development of the textbooks and how it's made progress in acknowledging war-crimes now unlike in the past?

whoever actually bothered to read this whole thread, God bless you!

thanks!

 

[M_R]

its kinda hard to help out here coz everyone does all sorts of different things for the major... (btw, 5 days is really early, we dont have to hand ours in til next term)

anyways, all i can say to help is.. try to go by the focus questions (aims, purposed, how is it achieved, methodolgy etc...) sorry, not much help on your specifics

 

[veridis]

also your topic seems very broad. if i was doing it i'd probably focus on jap and nationalism with the textbooks as a source on it or concentrate on the textbooks and critique of them. trying to do them both will make it difficult to keep everything substantial. also doing the origins seems a bit unnecessaryas it seem like just background info to your main argument. you could probably put a brief overview(say 100 words) in your synopsis as explaining how you formulated you question and thus keep it out of your essay, space is very valuable so keep it focussed.

 

[sharronx]

but i am [kind of] focusing on japan and nationalism with the textbooks, ive been revising it and i've cut down on the nationalism part, and emphasised more on the critique of the "new history textbooks" and then japan's defense (pushing to reform themselves, etc). and a conclusion and my own perspective of the two perspectives.
am i oversimplifying it now?
btw thanks for the help =]

 

[suger_plum]

your topic seems abit wide. maybe excluding areas will help to narrow down your problems. i handed mine in 3 weeks ago so consider yourself lucky.

 

[xeuyrawp]

your topic seems abit wide

I'll just add that I read her work, and it was really good. She narrowed down the question after talking with me and doing some research. That's the way it goes. You get something big - "the sun as a religious icon", in my case, then through research and feedback, you make a good mw.

 

[suger_plum]

the sun is a religious icon?
i thought that was only in ancient egypt

 

[xeuyrawp]

the sun is a religious icon?
i thought that was only in ancient egypt

ohhhhhhhh, don't get me started. I actually talked about it as a spiritual and magic icon as well, which the markers didn't like, but oh well. I did well in the exam, so it all balanced out.

 

[suger_plum]

dont worry i wont get you started, espiecially on something so silly. but what was it
amun or something

 

[xeuyrawp]

dont worry i wont get you started, espiecially on something so silly. but what was it
amun or something

What? No, it wasn't fragmentary. I didn't focus on various societies and then just link them with an into and conclusion.

I talked about philosophical and theological theory and how it's been applied to talk about ancient religious history. I don't think I even mentioned Amun, although Aten was mentioned a few times in relation to Jan Assman's theories.

 

[gordo]

you can have mine if u want

 

[xeuyrawp]

you can have mine if u want

Didn't we argue in another thread about pricing? I believe yours got one mark more than mine, so I made mine a dollar cheaper.

 

[gordo]

depends whose marking it doesn't it

mines free, i honestly don't giv a crap, i think i've attached it to a post ages ago anyways if u wanna go searching for it

 

[suger_plum]

lol, so who is smarter?

 

[gordo]

oh an sharron, the piece of advise i giv to the extn students i tutor is basically you want to demonstrate in your work an understanding of how history operates...if u can present a thesis on a particular aspect of the mechanics of history and then prove it with evidence from one or numerous historical events you are pretty much set to acheive well

 

[xeuyrawp]

lol, so who is smarter?

I'd say he is, although he's a part of mensa, which automatically makes him more aware of it. I know I'm smart, but I have the sexy smartness; he's got an "o" on the end of his name. Never a good sign. (And suddenly, it becomes "who is hotter")

depends whose marking it doesn't it

mines free, i honestly don't giv a crap, i think i've attached it to a post ages ago anyways if u wanna go searching for it

I wouldn't mind reading it

 

[gordo]

life of pi was a good book
i read it in couran cove on stradbroke island

and names u can;t pronounce arn;t very sexy

 

[xeuyrawp]

and names u can;t pronounce arn;t very sexy

Ah, but you'd do a Swede any day.

 

[suger_plum]

a swede? huh??

 

[gordo]

any day mate, any day