You are expected to adhere to specific academic conventions when presenting the results of your research. For students, this applies in particular for (Pro)Seminar papers and presentations, but also for handouts, position papers and protocols. Furthermore, you are also expected to observe general good practice in all your work, such as ensuring that your writing is neatly presented and correctly spelt.
How to structure and write a text has already been discussed in the section on “Writing Academic Texts”.
A (Pro)Seminararbeit should adhere to the following instructions, although your lecturer may add to or adapt them accordingly.
The History Department recommends that you use this document as a template for your title page.
The critique and evaluation of a written assignment is based on the following criteria:
Presentations are formal oral-visual contributions to a (Pro)Seminar. They often form part of your final course mark. Presentations give you the opportunity to convey your in-depth knowledge of a topic and to surprise your fellow seminar participants with interesting and unusual insights. As the presenter, you are expected to confront a historical research question by condensing your topic into a few key points which will remain in the memory of your audience and stimulate ideas and discussion amongst them. Preparation
During your presentation, you may refer to a number of important concepts, terms, names, events, facts and figures as well as key source and literature references. However, as there is seldom enough time to go through such information in detail during your presentation, it is helpful for your audience if you compile a written handout providing a clear and succinct overview of all this information.
A position paper lists the points or arguments which a presenter or presentation group would like to raise for discussion with the rest of the class. A position paper usually focuses on current and/or controversial debates relating to the presentation topic. A position paper is especially well-suited for kickstarting a class discussion or groupwork project.
Minutes, also known as protocols, are chronological accounts of a seminar session and its most important discussion points and conclusions. They are a useful exercise if you are the author, because writing minutes helps you to internalise what you have learnt during the course of the session. For the rest of the class, especially for any absentees, minutes serve as a valuable record of what was discussed. As such, minutes are also very useful for revision purposes, helping students to connect the dots between the different topics discussed over the length of a semester or whole course. Furthermore, they also provide lecturers with valuable feedback on each session.
Detailed minutes provide a blow-by-blow account of a seminar session, sometimes even reporting all the views expressed by individual participants. A results protocol, on the other hand, provides a more concise summary of a session and is often arranged by topic rather than chronology. In practice, however, seminar minutes usually combine elements of both formats.