Assessment Three: Report Card
Aims/Objectives
For this assessment item, you will prepare a report card. The report card is designed to help you see war for what it is, namely, an intensely human activity.
It will also be a good test of
(i) Your fact-finding skills,
(ii) Your faculty for critical thinking, and
(3) Your ability to write well.
Assessment Description
- You will choose a person who has contributed in some way or form to war – perhaps your subject fought in war (e.g., Julius Caesar); perhaps your subject led an entire nation to war (e.g. Tojo Hideki); perhaps your subject was a fictional character designed to bolster the home front during war (e.g. Rosie the Riveter); perhaps your subject contributed to tactical, technological, and/or strategic innovation (e.g. Sir John “Jackie” Fisher). You might even find yourself choosing your grandfather or perhaps your brother (this would be a great choice; however, we suggestion one point of caution, namely, maintaining your objectivity might be difficult if your subject is indeed a family member). Whatever the case, the limits as to your choice are exceedingly few – indeed, the only figures you cannot choose are those covered in class. These include:
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- Otto von Bismarck
- Helmut von Moltke
- Montezuma
- Napoleon
- Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson
- The first section of your report card (Part A) should be no fewer than 300 words and no more than 500 words. This first section should provide as much factual information as possible. Any fact you turn up in the course of your research belongs here. The trick is for you to decide where and how to squeeze all the facts in! And also be certain to let us know where you got each fact from – we will want to see a whole lot of citations on this page.
- The second section of your report card (Part B) will assess your subject’s contribution to war. This page should be no fewer than 400 words and no more than 500 words. As with the report cards you received at school, your report card should include items which receive an “A,” “B,” or “C” grade.
It is for you to decide what those items ought to be – we suggest the items should reflect the person you’ve chosen to assess – it is also for you to decide on the grade. If your subject was Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richtofen (the “Red Baron”) you’d probably give him an “A” grade for the skill with which he maneuvered his aircraft; you’d also give him high marks for the number of enemy planes he shot out of the sky. Don’t “fall in love” with your subject (whoever he or she may be) and give them straight A’s. Try to find something at which he/she did not excel during wartime, and mark him/her down accordingly. Part B of your report card should comprise four separate areas on which you assess your subject.
- The third section of your report card (Part C) will be devoted to your “Comments.” It should be no fewer than 800 words long and no more than 1,100 words long. This section should provide your critical overall assessment of your subject’s contribution to war. This section will look more like a traditional essay than either Parts A or B.
Possible Subjects
Adolf Hitler
Mao Zedong
Chiang Kai-shek
Benito Mussolini
Togo Heihachiro
Montezuma
Josef Stalin
Vladimir Lenin
Erwin Rommel
Joseph Stilwell
Winston Churchill
Tojo Hideki
Spike Milligan
Florence Nightingale
Rosie the Riveter
Lysistrata
Joan of Arc
Che Guevara
Yamamoto Isoroku
Douglas MacArthur
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richtofen
Marking
Part A: 20 marks
Part B: 40 marks
Part C: 40 marks
Referencing Requirements: You may use Chicago, Footnotes, or APA referencing systems.
Textbook:
Geoffrey Parker, ed., Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare, (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995).
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