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A Student’s Guide to Research Skills

A Student’s Guide to Research Skills. Clemency Cooper. www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk. Overview. • Preparing for Research. • Accessing Resources. • Processing Information. What is research?. “The systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish

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A Student’s Guide to Research Skills

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  1. A Student’s Guide to Research Skills Clemency Cooper www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk

  2. Overview • Preparing for Research • Accessing Resources • Processing Information

  3. What is research? “The systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions.” Oxford Dictionaries - http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/research (accessed 04/02/14)

  4. Why conduct research? • Acquire new knowledge • Evaluate new knowledge • Think independently • Think critically • Prepare for independent assessment in Further & Higher Education • Develop analytical writing skills for the world of work

  5. Preparing a Plan Start with the mark scheme. For each section: • What information do you need? • How do you find and include the information? • Identify important concepts Break down each criterion into a set of questions, actions and key words. Focus on the high range descriptor.

  6. Introduction & Background J1: In order to provide a context for your investigation, begin your report by summarising the previous state of knowledge of: (1) medieval rural settlement studies in general (2) the individual settlement where your excavation took place. QUESTION: What is known about these topics before your investigation? ACTION: A brief statement of the main points Medieval: What time frame? What was happening? Rural: Why focus on the countryside? Settlement: Variation between hamlets, villages and small towns? KEY WORDS:

  7. (1) medieval rural settlement studies in general J1 (HIGH): The present state of knowledge of the development of rural settlement studies in the medieval period including an explanation why there is a need for archaeological excavations to be carried out within currently occupied rural settlements. • How have people studied medieval rural settlements in the past? • Why do archaeologists excavate in currently occupied rural settlements today? • Development: what is the chronological sequence of research undertaken? • Explanation: why have approaches differed over time? • Currently Occupied Rural Settlements (CORS)

  8. Resources – Day 3 Lecture HEFA Written Assignment - http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/schools/hefa/report/ (accessed 04/02/14)

  9. Resources – The Internet Search terms: • Wharram Percy: Maurice Beresford and John Hurst • Deserted Medieval Villages • Currently Occupied Rural Settlements

  10. Wharram Percy DMV, North Yorkshire

  11. Reference Author: English Heritage URL: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/wharram- percy-deserted-medieval-village/history-and-research/ Accessed: 04/02/14 Search: ‘wharram percy’ using Google’s search engine

  12. Reliability of Internet Sources • Who is the author? • What is the purpose of the site? • Is there any obvious reason for bias? • Is contact information provided? • Can you verify the information? • Is the information current?

  13. Website Information • Right-click on a webpage/image. Left-click on ‘View Page/Image Info’.

  14. Taking Note 1 SUMMARISE “Give a brief statement of the main points.” PARAPHRASE “Express the meaning of (something written or spoken) using different words.” QUOTE “Repeat or copy out (words from a text or speech written or spoken by another person).” Oxford Dictionaries - http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/ (accessed 04/02/14)

  15. Taking Note 2 What different techniques can be used to make notes? Reed Learning - http://www.reedlearning.com/about-us/blog/2013/april/how-to- take-great-minutes (accessed 04/02/14)

  16. Plagiarism “The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.” Oxford Dictionaries - http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/plagiarism?q=plagiarism (accessed 04/02/14)

  17. Referencing • Avoids plagiarism • Demonstrates the range of sources consulted in your research • Allows you to re-find the source of your information • Allows someone else to also find the source of your information.

  18. The Harvard Referencing System - Books • In your text, you should include the author’s last name and the year of publication, with page numbers if including a direct quote. Very few currently occupied settlements have been targeted for archaeological investigation compared to deserted and contracted villages (Lewis 2005, p9). “Many more deserted and shrunken medieval settlements have benefited from proactive archaeological excavation than is the case for currently inhabited sites.” (Lewis 2005, p9) . • At the end of your report, you need to include all of the following details for books cited: author(s), date published, title, publisher and place published, or journal title volume number and pages. Lewis, C. 2005 ‘Test pit excavation within occupied settlement in East Anglia in 2005’, Medieval Settlement Research Group Annual Report 20 pages 9-16

  19. The Harvard Referencing System - Websites • For a website, you should include: author or source, date published, title of web document or webpage, website address/URL, date accessed. Salzman, L.F. (1948) A History of the County of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely: Volume 2 Available at British History Online: http://www.british- history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=254 (accessed 04/02/14) • For images found on the internet, you should reference: author, year (image created), title of work, website address/URL, date accessed. Where the author is not known, begin with the title of work. Access Cambridge Archaeology (2012) Peakirk HEFA 2012 Test Pit Locations. Available at Access Cambridge Archaeology: http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/reports/cambridgeshire/peakirk/2012/Peakirk12 2.pdf (accessed 04/02/14)

  20. Activities 1 1. Working in groups with the day 3 lecture hand-out, use three different note- taking techniques to re-write the information about Deserted Medieval Villages (DMVs). 2. Using information from the English Heritage website on Wharram Percy, each write a paragraph about the history of research at the site which includes: summarising, paraphrasing and quoting information. 3. Search for further information about DMVs and Wharram Percy using an internet search engine. Find a website which you think is unreliable and write three reasons why you think it is. Find another website which you think is more reliable and write down three reasons why you think it is. Reference where you found the two websites. 4. Find a photograph of Wharram Percy and reference where you found it.

  21. Activities 2 One of nearly three thousand Deserted Medieval Villages (DMVs) in the UK, Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire is one of the “most famous and intensively studied” (English Heritage 2014 - http://www.english- heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/wharram-percy-deserted-medieval-village/) case studies of the origins and development of rural medieval settlement. Following forty years of research conducted by John Hurst and Maurice Beresford, they found that the village was likely to have been deserted by the late fifteenth century when residents were displaced to free land for pasturing sheep. Wharram Percy, an aerial view, looking south. Available at Abandoned Communities (2011) - http://www.abandonedcommunities.co.uk/_wp_generat ed/wp82096343.jpg (accessed 04/02/14)

  22. Activities 3 1. Working in groups with the day 3 lecture hand-out, use three different note- taking techniques to re-write the information about Currently Occupied Rural Settlements (CORs). 2. Using information from the ACA website on CORS and the articles there, each write a paragraph about why archaeologists excavate them which includes: summarising, paraphrasing and quoting information. Reference your sources. http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/reports/cors/MSRGreport2005.pdf (accessed 06/02/14)

  23. (2) the individual settlement where your excavation took place J1: The extent of previous archaeological and historical research into the individual settlement where the excavation being reported on took place. K2: This is presented in an order that enables its relevance to be understood. The information presented has been cogently discussed to draw out the most important discoveries/observations/inferences. All sources have been fully referenced in order to avoid plagiarism. • What archaeological discoveries have been made in the settlement before? • What is already known about the settlement from documentary records? • Extent: how much prior knowledge do we have? • Order: what is the chronological sequence? • Discussed: how do different lines of evidence compare? • Referenced

  24. Resources – ACA Website 1 Chediston, Suffolk - http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/reports/suffolk/chediston (accessed 04/02/14)

  25. Resources – ACA Website 2 Dispersion Hamlet Score Maps - http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/schools/hefa/report/DispersionHamletScoreMap s.pdf (accessed 06/02/14)

  26. Resources – ACA Website 3 http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/schools/hefa/report/ (accessed 06/02/14)

  27. Contextual Resources The village of Chediston is situated 2km east of the town of Halesworth on the B1123 in the county of Suffolk in the east of England. Chediston is a nucleated village clustered around the church of St Mary’s on the north valley-side of a small tributary to the River Blyth. There is a second village focus 600m to the north-west at Chediston Green, located on higher ground away from the valley, which consists of a green-edge row of properties. The underlying geology is clay and alluvium, and the gentle gradient of the valley rises from 19m Ordnance Datum (OD) at Chediston to 46m OD at Chediston Green. There are also several outlying farmsteads (e.g. Mountpleasant Farm, Paradise Farm) dispersed across the landscape. Access Cambridge Archaeology (ACA) has excavated 47 archaeological test pits in Chediston as part of the Higher Education Field Academy (HEFA) in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011 (ACA 2014 - http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/reports/suffolk/chediston accessed 06/02/14). In June 2014, another 10 test pits were dug during a HEFA, and the results of the excavation at test pit site 1 will be discussed in this report.

  28. Resources – Village Website http://www.chedistonandlinstead.onesuffolk.net/home/history-of-chediston-and- linstead/ (accessed 04/02/14)

  29. Resources – British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/ (accessed 04/02/14)

  30. Resources – Key to English Place Names http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/ (accessed 06/02/14)

  31. Resources – Domesday Map http://domesdaymap.co.uk/ (accessed 05/02/14)

  32. Resources – Heritage Gateway http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/gateway/ (accessed 04/02/14)

  33. Historical Resources Chediston means ‘Cedd’s stone’ in Old English, thought to refer to a glacial erratic boulder to the north of Chediston Hall (The Stone, Blything 2008 - http://blything.wikispaces.com/(che)+The+stone accessed 06/02/14). The name ‘Cidestan’ is first referenced in Domesday Book (1086) as one of 56 places in the hundred of Blything. Chediston is noted as having 34 households which is “quite large” when compared to entries for other villages in England (Chediston, Domesday Map 2014 - http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TM3577/chediston/ accessed 06/02/14). Domesday Book was not however a census of the total population and resources, but a survey for tax assessment using standardised units to calculate revenue. A church (0.8 units) is mentioned in Domesday at Chediston. The nave walls and chancel windows in the current parish church are Norman but the main structure dates to the 13th-15thcenturies and underwent restorative work in the 19thcentury (Suffolk Historic Environment Record (HER) CHD 060). The lord of the Chediston estate resided at Chediston Hall, 1km to the east of the village, but the lands were sold in 1917 and a new house occupies the site today following a fire during the Second World War (Provisional social history, Blything 2008 - http://blything.wikispaces.com/(che)+Provisional+social+history accessed 06/02/14). Chediston Grange, 1km to the south of the village, is a medieval moated site where 16thcentury pottery has been found (Suffolk HER CHD 024). Most of the listed buildings in Chediston (e.g. Willow Farmhouse - 1030487, Brook Farmhouse – 1030489, Herne Hill Farmhouse - 1182792) are farmhouses dating to the 16thcentury (The National Heritage List for England - http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Application.aspx?resourceID=5&index=1 accessed 06/02/14). The earliest map of Chediston dates to 1783 (J. Hodgkinson’s map of Suffolk) which shows Chediston Green as an open space, as does the first edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1837, but it disappears by the end of the 19thcentury (The Green, Blything 2012 - http://blything.wikispaces.com/(che)+The+Green accessed 06/02/14).

  34. Archaeological Resources Fieldwalking and metal-detecting in the parish has revealed numerous artefacts which together span the prehistoric era. These include a Palaeolithic flint scraper (Suffolk HER No. CHD 039), Mesolithic flint axes (CHD 054 and CHD 016), a part-polished Neolithic flint axe, a Bronze Age bronze palstave (CHD 056) and Iron Age pottery (CHD 032). There has been little formal investigation of the archaeology of Chediston prior to the HEFA test-pitting project but one notable excavation took place at Hernehill Farm, to the east of Chediston, which found evidence of a Roman villa dating to 2ndCentury AD including flue tiles, Samian ware pottery, tweezers and a brooch (Suffolk HER No. CHD 017). There is also evidence of Roman occupation in the vicinity of Chediston Grange, 1km to the south of the village, with findspots of Samian pottery (Monument No. 391515) and a quernstone fragment (Monument No. 391514) as well as a ditch containing Romano-British pottery (Monument No. 391550). The first Anglo-Saxon artefacts to be found near Chediston were a silver cruciform brooch and bronze strap-end, discovered during metal-detecting in 1995, but a later investigation of the area also revealed a ditch with late Saxon Thetford pottery (Suffolk HER No. CHD 014). Another excavation at Duke Farm in Chediston Green, formerly the Duke of Wellington public house, found large quantities of waste material from a late fifteenth century pottery kiln (Suffolk HER No. CHD 052).

  35. High Range Descriptor J1: Information gleaned from secondary sources has been précised effectively and clearly. Sources used are completely and correctly referenced. Some original observations have been made and/or there is evidence of original thinking. • Come up with your own explanations for what has been observed • Come up with your own explanations for what has NOT been observed • Apply logic, knowledge and imagination in coming up with ideas.

  36. Assessment – J1 (2.) • J1 (Point 2)- providing that some similar information was produced on CORS/DMVs (as I tend to give equal weight to each), I would give this the full 9 marks. It covers both historical (texts, maps) and archaeological evidence (including previous HEFAs), provides full references for this and shows some original thinking (i.e. the comment about the Domesday book).

  37. Assessment – K1 & K2 • K1 - this would definitely be in the top mark bracket. If you also intended to include a bibliography I would give it full marks (9), but if not, I would dock one or two. I normally like to see a book thrown in for good measure to get full marks here, but the range of websites is pretty comprehensive, and the references to the Suffolk HER show some real mining of the resources so I would probably waiver that in this instance. • K2 - Full marks (9). Lots of information has been included, including some really specific data on certain finds from the region. The order in which the information has been presented shows a logical progression, and there's a clear sense of discussion and engaging with the evidence.

  38. Overview • Preparing for Research • Accessing Resources • Processing Information

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