Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Thank you a lot! If that was the case, historical research would be a lot quicker. 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. Some general questions to ask as you read and examine any historical document in this course. What can’t it tell you? It’s a hard thing to learn in abstract. Eventually, students come around, but they are quite suspicious initially, which makes me think that I must be working against something they have been taught in high school. Anything from the past that helps us learn what happened, and why, is a document. Skipping this will leave you on shaky ground. Critical commentaries usually reference relatively recent scholarly sources, focusing on small units of a text rather than the whole. The next section of your paper should include a much more detailed exploration of the main ideas of the text. 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. 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' An excellent piece. They are written as though they are collections of information. To do so, you will need to specify the following: TITLE AUTHOR 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. It´s a historic – circumstantial text. Cultural-historical context . Examples from Straub's article Straub's example of Directive commentary This is where questions of bias might be brought in. So often, students jump straight over the basics to get to the important stuff. Some commentaries also feature detailed introductions to the books of the Bible. 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. If you can answer that, the rest is process. There are particular challenges and opportunities offered by private or official writings, even when the author is the same. 5. Don’t be fooled – there is a question and that question is always ultimately the same. But I think it’s ok for them to be suspicious. Writing static texts. 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 … The author's philosophy should be explained through the ideas found in the text under analysis. Remember, the question is not: Is this source useful to historians? You can also read the information as a txt file. More than naming it, this means identifying the type of source it is. Thanks a lot, George! To write a literary commentary, start by reading the text and creating an outline. 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. Yet students often complain of exactly that. (I’m sure you do something like that already.) Better to identify the perspective from which events are described. So what does writing this sort of assignment entail? Some useful aids to commentary-writing 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. It’s also worth keeping in mind that you still need to back up each point you make with evidence. Commentaries are meant to be used alongside the Bible text to offer deeper insight, explanation, illustration, and historical background. 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. 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. The point is, the difference is functional – not so much about what the source is, but how it’s used. Instructions Listen to some further instructions about the analysis of historical documents as a mp3 file. 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. 2. Reference secondary material in the normal way. 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. For this reason you might read less than usual, but that wider reading is still important. Would you say this is the same as what’s expected at A Level? In this article, we have discussed the steps in detail to learn and prepare for it, write it effectively and polish it to make it presentable. This post would have helped them immensely with the headnotes. IDENTIFICATION: Start by identifying and locating the text in its right literary and historical context. Commentary can be a hard concept to understand without examples to guide you. There are standard rules for how to write a thesis statement, a topic sentence, a blended quotation, etc. Thank you. However, for the historian seeking to understand how university students were taught History in the early twenty-first century, it fits. Your thesis statement should explain your stance or argument about the text. 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. Labelling a source as biased may not be wrong but it is redundant, since every source is biased in some way. Make sure you polish the literary commentary for style, grammar, and spelling before handing it in so it is at its best. Usually commentaries will acknowledge pertinent cultural-historical context, but you may need to turn to Bible dictionaries and other resources for more information. I find they arrive at uni with similar ideas about primary sources. You don't need a question heading unless you would find it useful to give you an angle on the source(s). Genre In the History programmes at Exeter Uni, we have several source-centred modules from year 1 onwards. That was very useful. 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. Rarely will the source be an outright forgery, but you should still question the validity, reliability and representativeness of the source. L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia . Sounds like an interesting exercise. Knowing the culture and history surrounding your passage is important for understanding it. Remember, there is no one form for a primary source. Payment & Philanthropy in British Healthcare, 1918-48, Understanding the Roots of Voluntary Action, Early-Career Life 2015: George Campbell Gosling | History Lab Plus. the text. Analyzing an Historical Document . Writing a Source Commentary The bread and butter of studying history is the use of primary sources. Put your source in context. Assess briefly the achievements and significance of the passage, both in itself and in relation to the work from which it is taken. Consider the limitations of the source. For example, the introduction and conclusion might be far more brief than for a standard essay. 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 … ( Log Out / These are some nice examples of just why we need to read our sources critically and dig around them. This means asking three questions, each of which will mean drawing upon your wider reading: 4. Hello George, Great piece! Over the course of your source commentary, there are five things you need to make sure you do. What I have found, working with the First World War letters of my grandfather and his brothers, was that they wrote very differently depending on who the letter was for (their mother, their sisters, each other) and there was a lot of self-censorship. Change ). Beside the wonderful examples and explanations presented in Richard Straub's and Summer Smith's articles, I have included links to some of my own commentary and the papers on which those comments were based.. 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). Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. A campaign speech or the posthumously published diaries of the same politician, for example. However, you still need to read around each topic or issue you raise. ( Log Out / The bread and butter of studying history is the use of primary sources. Usually you would be focusing on one source, perhaps two or three compared. The following sections will guide you through the steps needed to write your very own commentary formulas. To write a commentary, write about your observations and analysis of the text you read. 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. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. A commentary is one type of literary work that contains a detailed analysis of an article, story or a passage of text. Without the secondary sources and other primary sources, we don’t know what they hold back. Depending on the particular assignment, we might add: in relation to our particular issue. ( Log Out / We use cookies to give you the best online experience. In the future, this blog post will be of little use to the historian interested in explaining the outcome of the 2015 general election. Therefore, your commentary should contain at least the following parts: IDENTIFICATION DISCUSSION OF THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE TEXT CONCLUSION 2.1. I like to think of this as: If this is the answer, what’s the question? The exact schema of your assignment will depend on the nature of the source. This is reinforced through the use of textbooks used in teaching history. 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. Some of the differences are simply because this is typically a shorter assignment. 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). The opening sentence needs to make it clear what source is under review. I’ve recently had students use newspaper and periodical databases to select articles and write headnotes for a source book on a specific subject. There’s a wealth of methodological literature on many different source types, so make sure you’re aware of what the issues are with the source in front of you. So it’s no surprise that a common assignment in a History degree is to write a source commentary or analysis. I hope the term goes well for you, too! The difference is merely that your supporting evidence will mostly be drawn from one place – the source you’re writing about. How 'Writing Unseen Commentaries' will help you If you are an International Baccalaureate student following the Language A (English) Literature course, the Help Book will be invaluable to you as you prepare for the important Literary Analysis or Literary Commentary part of the final written exam. In order to maintain secrecy the Proclamation of the Irish Republic was printed out on a hand press a few hours before the Rising. 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. So it’s no surprise that a common assignment in a History degree is to write a source commentary or analysis. Commentary on Quotations from Text in an Interpretive Response (English II Writing) | Texas Gateway Please let us know if you agree to functional, advertising and performance cookies. 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. What sort of historian, trying to understand what about the past, would find this source useful? 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? Identify and summarise the source. 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. By the way, I have a question for you, and for the forum. Maybe next time. You will be able to write an essay that uses embedded quotations to provide evidence in your response to an expository or a literary text. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Thanks Nandini (and sorry for the delay in replying). Then, dive right into a detailed discussion of the text. (a.k.a., Making) History At first glance, writing about history can seem like an overwhelming task. Writing commentary is undoubtedly the most difficult part of writing any essay. It sounds like you have a great family collection. Rather, it’s: In what ways is it useful? Saying so can often mask the need to ask how. However, whether a source analysis or a review assignment, there are some similarities with the usual essay. In fact, history is NOTa "collection of facts about the past." 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’. Working through the challenges and opportunities of each point I quickly made could have filled many more blog posts. If you’re asked to write under 1,000 words, you really don’t have room for standalone opening and closing paragraphs. Babylonian and Assyrian text commentaries represent the oldest well defined and cohesive group of text commentaries worldwide. Sometimes they will put Hebrew and Greek in the footnote, but not in the main body of the text. The Bible, like any book, is a product of its time. 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. It would be unrealistic to expect one source to provide the answer to every question. And if you’ve been set something to read for seminars that addresses this, don’t miss the chance to bring it in. We might often think of letters, official documents, photographs and maps – but it could literally be anything. However, I would advise against using the term bias. You can update your cookie preferences at any time. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. For one thing, you still need to put in the same amount of effort. 3. Do you think primary and secondary sources are defined differently for students in high school? All other parts of the essay are more formulaic in nature. ( Log Out / But when it comes … Consider the particular type of source. This system of analysis is called “versification” of the biblical text. You raise some interesting questions. I have needed other sources to discover that their shipmates were burned beyond recognition at Jutland (“of course I’ve lost heaps of pals”) or where they were marching from and to (“I got interrupted by a job of work”) or that they were sitting next to a man killed by a shell (“I had the narrowest of close shaves”). Likewise, quantitative or visual sources need to be handled appropriately.