History 355H Assignments
All the assignments for this course are built around the theme the individual soldier in the Great War. There are two overall objectives. One is to build a biography of an individual soldier, based on both government service records and on the personal materials of the soldier himself. The other objective is to explore the range of research options available to achieve this end.
Assignment 1 (5 marks)
For this assignment you will be identifying entry points for further research in the service file of John Henry Anderson. The file is in a pdf format linked below. For this assignment you are to identify five (5) entry points from the service file. In doing so, rank those five in what you consider to be the order of importance. For each entry point identified, you need to briefly explain (2-3 sentences) why you have chosen that entry point. That is, why is it significant and what further research could it be used for or might lead to?
John Henry Anderson Service File
John Henry Anderson Service File (annotated)
For this assignment and subsequent assignments, you should be consulting the Lest We Forget information package and Researching Canadian Soldiers of the First World War, both of which are linked on the Resources page. These will be invaluable in deciphering the details found in the service records.
Due January 15, 2020.
Assignment 2 (15 marks)
You have each been assigned an individual soldier for your research for the term. The soldier collection can be found in The Canadian Letters and Images Project website, and the service file can be found through the Library and Archives link on the resources page. For this second assignment there are three (3) tasks which must be completed concerning your soldier, based on that soldier’s service file.
- Isolate what you think are the five (5) key entry points for your individual. In doing so, rank them in order of importance. For each entry point identified, you need to briefly explain (3-4 sentences) why you have chosen that entry point. That is, why is it significant and what further research could it be used for or might lead to?
- Write a brief biographical overview of your soldier’s life based on the information found in is service file. You must reference the specific documents used from the file to create that biography. This overview is to be approximately 700-800 words.
- Locate the war diary for the day he was killed. Where was his battalion? What were they doing? A link to this source is found on the Resources page.
Due February 5, 2020.
Assignment 3 (10 marks)
You are to write a biography of your assigned soldier based on the range of personal items found in his collection (ie letters, postcards, photographs, etc.) in The Canadian Letters and Images Project (canadianletters.ca) . No other materials are to be used. The personal materials include letters, and depending on the particular collection, can also include a range of other materials such as photographs, telegrams, postcards, etc. In doing so you are to create a biography of this person as an individual, not the soldier or the statistic. What you are trying to do is to find out who he was as a person. For example, did he have family? If so, who? What were his likes? Dislikes? Hopes? Ambitions? Relationships? Etc. Every soldier has a story – what was his?
References are required for the materials that you use to create your biography. Your biography should be approximately 700-800 words.
Due February 19, 2020
Assignment 4 (30 marks)
Your final assignment is a full research essay to create a comprehensive biography of the individual you have been assigned. It is to be built on materials found (1) in his personal materials, (2) in his service file, and (3) on the potential external research you have identified with your entry points, both primary and secondary. The research beyond the service files or personal materials is a very important component of the final essay, and the essay will be judged on the range and creativity of that research. The final essay is to be 3,000 words in length.
Due April 8, 2020