Course Handbook - Faculty of History

efore this deadline, you should send in your title as soon as you and your overall supervisor
have decided on it. Once your choice has been notified you will be assigned a supervisor for
the essay as soon as possible, should that be necessary, and you should contact this supervisor
as soon as his/her name has been given to you. Any subsequent changes in your essay title
must be approved by the MPhil in Medieval History Sub-Committee. If you have any
difficulty in making the initial contact, you should take the steps indicated in the section of the
covering letter on obtaining help and advice. It is recommended that you begin work on the
essay in the Michaelmas term and concentrate on producing a first draft during the Christmas
vacation. Although much of the Lent Term has been left almost entirely free for the
completion of this work, it tends to take longer than expected. It is for this reason that the date
for the choice of topic and essay title is set quite early in the term.
6.3 Format for Submitted Essays and Dissertations
i) Each essay should not exceed 5,000 words in length, excluding the notes and
bibliography, or, for those doing two essays for Option 1, 3,000 words for each essay
excluding the notes and bibliography. The Subject Essay must also include a select
bibliography. (see below section 7 for details on the dissertations). No penalty will be
imposed for an excess of 50 words over the maximum word limit, but this allowance
should not be abused. The MPhil sub-committee acting as a Board of Examiners has the
discretion to penalize essays which exceed the word limit. The word limit (within the
50 words grace allowance) must therefore be strictly observed. Students can expect
to be severely penalized for exceeding the word limit. Normally the penalty will be the
deduction of up to 5 marks from the essay, but in severe cases the essay may be marked
as failed.
ii) The essay should be typed in one-and-a-half spacing on one side of the paper only. The
notes may, however, be single-spaced.
iii) Notes should be positioned at the foot of the page.
iv) The purpose of the notes is primarily to refer the reader to the sources used. Secondary
works are to be cited where they are the object of substantive discussion in the main text,
but not otherwise. The bibliography should be selective, listing sources and those
secondary works which the candidate has found to be of importance in the writing of the
essay.
v) In the Bibliographical and Historiographical Essay, page references need not be given
unless specific quotations are included. Only clear identification of the work is necessary,
given that full details are provided in the Bibliography.
vi) Please see Appendix C ‘Notes on the preparation of dissertations in the History Faculty,
Cambridge’, and Appendix B for the marking scheme and guidelines for examiners for
Part I.
vii) TWO COPIES of the Subject Essay(s), the Bibliographical and Historiographical Essay
and Bibliography, and the dissertation must be submitted. A labelled CD containing an
electronic version of the dissertation is also required.
6.4 Producing a Bibliography
Guidance will be given within the classes on Sources, Methods and Bibliography (see Section
5.1). With the aid of a few published examples, advice will be given on such issues as the
correct ways of entering various types of book and article in the bibliography as well as the
proper methods for distinguishing between primary sources and secondary authorities.
Producing a bibliography usually raises more problems than one might anticipate, but few of
these are insoluble.
The following notes are also intended to be of assistance when you come to preparing your
bibliographies for submission in Part I, and for the essay and dissertation.
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