In your essay you are required to discuss at least three primary sources (comprising two textual and one visual or material) and two secondary sources. Make sure you engage with material from across the module.
FOLLOWING IS COPIED FROM ESSAY GUIDE FOR THIS ESSAY
‘Information’ is a broad term, and you will first need to consider what it may encompass. The module discusses a wide range of information and the ways it circulated in early modern society, from ordinances to guidance on conduct and from religious instructions and advice on health or investment, to news, gossip in neighbourhoods and learned debates. You may think of other kinds. Use your introduction to show that you understand the breadth of the term ‘information’, but your answer cannot cover everything and will need to be selective. Set out clearly your parameters and how you intend to approach the question.
The other key term in the question is ‘people’. Again, this is a very broad term, and you will need to think how you want to define it – for example, identifying categories of people by rank, occupation, gender, age, geographical location or the time they lived in.
To analyse how people gained information, you will need to think about the media in which information circulated. Literacy and print may loom large in your account, but you may want to consider if other channels existed through which different people gained information: for example, oral, visual and material.
You may tackle the question in different ways. You may start with the kinds of information that you find more interesting, and this will determine which areas of the module you re-examine more closely. Or you may start with chapters that have interested you and identify how information is discussed there. Or you may rather foreground sets of people (e.g., women, the literate, artisans, urban dwellers, noblemen, Protestant or Catholic devout, the poor, but you may think of other groups) and follow how they obtained information as discussed across various chapters.
What follows only lists the most obvious chapters that you may find useful: religious doctrine and beliefs are examined in Chapters 2, 13 and 19; information about the body, health and nature in Chapters 4, 11 and 22; political ideas in Chapters 18 and 23; news on protest in Chapter 16; financial advice in Chapter 21; advice about conduct in Chapters 7, 14 and 20; information about other countries in Chapter 17. Chapter 12 on print, literacy and education will probably help you frame your answer, but you may consider more broadly working, educational or professional settings where people obtained information, for example guilds in Chapter 5. You may refer to physical sites where information was obtained like churches, homes, libraries and coffee houses, or considering travelling as a source of information as discussed in Chapter 17. You are encouraged to develop your own approach to the question and follow your interest, and you may find good evidence for your argument in less obvious material. – will attached all relevant materials.
‘Information’ includes more than ‘knowledge’ and while the theme ‘knowledge and ideas’ is relevant to the question, other themes you have encountered in the module are relevant too: advice about gender or political news relate to the theme society and social order; instructions on devotion relate to the theme religion. You should apply your thematic thinking without being tied down to one specific theme. In considering how people obtained information you may find fresh ways of bringing together parts of the module.
Your marker will not be seeking a comprehensive discussion, but a focused and well-supported essay that shows your knowledge of the material and that you have identified a clear pathway through it in response to the question. It is better to discuss a few points and examples in depth rather than move superficially through many.
