Greetings readers! The summer semester is nearly at an end, bringing with it the final hurdles to overcome before the finish line. The students of History and Historiography are preparing for their upcoming research paper while my fellow intern partner and I simultaneously prepare for our end-of-semester internship project showcase coming next Friday. This week I'll share what the students are up to, some content I created for them, and our preparation for the showcase next week.
First, this week was an important one on the road to the research paper. Students turned in their first draft Monday. Creating the first draft is as straightforward as a HIS-4150 assignment can be: basic structure, tentative thesis, and just four pages. However, peer reviews are slightly more complicated - feedback is crucial to producing a good research paper. If students give each other weak feedback (being "too soft" or "too hard") their research papers will suffer. To help the students give constructive criticism and helpful, substantial feedback I created a little infographic:
The students already have a set of guidelines to follow for their peer reviews, but this infographic provides some additional supplementary tips and examples. The goal is to get students to understand what a peer review asks of them and not to be afraid to give constructive feedback. I also included a section on receiving feedback - students who are not used to peer reviewing may take comments as an attack on their writing. Learning to accept criticism is essential in academia - nobody gets their paper right the first time, and writers often include quirks or flaws in their writing that they may not be privy to (especially in a first draft). The peer review was due Wednesday, hopefully this infographic assisted students and improved the quality of their feedback!
Regarding the internship showcase, my intern partner and I continue to make progress on our presentation. We're currently figuring out the style and structure of our powerpoint and how to present it. The style of the presentation largely depends on the template used. We're exploring our options on google slides and Microsoft Powerpoint. Ideally, we can find a template that gives off a professional and historical vibe, though we're still searching. We're meeting again early next week to iron out the details of our presentation and put the powerpoint together. We may also practice presenting our showcase to prepare for the presentation on Friday.
That's all for this week! Both the students and I are preparing for the big week that's just a few days away. I hope the students learned some useful skills and techniques from the content I've created; it's time to apply whatever they may have learned to writing their final drafts and producing some great research papers!