Planning the Assessment/Proposal

Now that I have completely decided on my personality to study, Emmeline Pankhurst, my next task is to put together a sophisticated reading/source list for research purposes. So far I have:

1. The most important- 'My Own Story', a biography written by Emmeline Pankhurst herself, published in 1914.

2. 'Emmeline Pankhurst, a biography', written by J. Purvis and published in 2002.
3. A movie which I am very excited about! It's called 'Suffragette' , directed by S. Gavron, and comes out later this month.

4. I also noticed that my, 'Turning Points, Modern History Depth Studies Textbook', has a whole chapter devoted to the suffragette movement, featuring Emmeline Pankhurst so that will be good to look at also.

I also have a few websites and journal snippets which I will add to my final bibliography.

This week has got me thinking about how I will approach the assessment as I am completing the proposal aspect. I am thinking that I will stick with the set essay question as it is fitting for my personality- positive impact: women's rights. Although I'm open to flexibility if I want to incorporate other aspects of Pankhurst's life into my essay.

I've been coming up with a few minor questions as well to get me thinking:

• What was the context of her time?
• What prompted her to become a suffragette?
• Why couldn't women vote in the first place? Female voting rights is something I've grown up with so it's normal to me
• Were there any negative impacts?
• Why was she so militant? did it borderline terrorism? How did she justify her actions?
• How did it compare with other radical movements of the time?

And the list goes on...

I'm getting excited to learn more about her and hope to have some things I've learned to share next week.

What to do...?

A few days ago, our Modern History class was only three days into the preliminary course when we received our very first assessment task, on Wednesday the 18th of November, 2015 to be exact. It isn't due until Thursday the 22nd of March next year, but it's a big one, worth 30%, so procrastinating probably isn't the best action plan in this case!

Essentially, the task is an independent, in depth historical investigation on a topic/personality of our own choosing. It involves a lot of research and scattered due dates leading up to the final assessment submission of a mini essay 'outlining four key events in the life of the personality you have investigated that proved their making as a leader' which only has to be 300-400 words. However, there is also an 800-1000 word essay due at the same time asking, 'to what extent did the personality you have studied have a positive impact on his or her times?' We do have the option of creating our own focus question which I am contemplating, but I won't really know whether I will do that for a while yet- I want to keep my options open.

At the moment I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed with the task, however, I think once I get my head around it and actually start, I will really enjoy it- call me crazy but it does kind of help that I like writing essays! I want to choose a research option that I will find really interesting since I have to think about it for the next four months...which is a really, really long time for one topic. I also want to choose a personality that I don't know a lot about to "broaden my horizons", as my mother might say. Anyone that knows me, knows I'm a bit (or a lot) of a girly-girl so I really want to do an influential female as I think I'd enjoy studying a woman more and may possibly even grow to admire her as I learn more and more. It is also very important to me that I choose a topic that will make me think a bit differently about the world- as a 17 year old teenager, I feel quite naïve, and love ideas or concepts that really challenge me in myself and my views.

So, in saying all of that, I am 80% sure I will do Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) focussing on the Suffragette Movement. At the moment I have only a basic understanding of her significance, but that leaves a lot of room for research and that way I know I won't get bored, which is a good thing! I think studying her would be interesting, especially considering the lengths that she went to, to stand up for a cause she believed in- even though feminism is becoming increasingly popular, women's right's are something we still take for granted and I would love to learn more about how the body of women we know today came to be.

Overall I am looking forward to this assessment and to learning more about the history of this amazing world we live in! Now to make a reading list...