{"id":731,"date":"2013-09-27T09:40:18","date_gmt":"2013-09-27T09:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/?p=518"},"modified":"2024-11-05T14:12:18","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T14:12:18","slug":"the-disadvantages-of-short-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/2013\/09\/27\/the-disadvantages-of-short-work\/","title":{"rendered":"The Disadvantages of ‘Short Work’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"shakespeareinstitutefind\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Shakespeare Institute<\/a> in Stratford-Upon-Avon is a little oasis for researchers and postgraduate students: though it’s affiliated with the University of Birmingham, it’s a long way from the main campus – and that makes it a quiet place to sit, read and research. Without a direct train from Cheltenham<\/a>, it can be difficult to get to – but Stratford is well worth a day-trip anyway, so make a visit of it!<\/p>\n

I’m an Honorary Research Fellow with the University of Birmingham, so spend what time I can at the Institute, which is home to a really excellent collection of early modern texts. I’ve recently been going through the volumes of the Parker Society – an editorial association of the 1840s which collected the works of the early English Reformation Protestant writers. I won’t write here about the intricacies of Edwardian liturgy – but I did find something of more general interest!<\/p>\n

Tucked between the yellowed pages of one of the volumes was a letter dated 1971. I’ve obscured the names involved to protect the identities of the individual who once used this letter as a bookmark – and the student to which it refers. Here was a document, you see, evidencing that researchers have long also been teachers: the letter’s recipient is being asked to talk to a student about her poor exam results!<\/p>\n

Headed “First Year Examinations”, the brief note states: “The examination scripts of XXX showed ‘short work’. Would you kindly advise her of the disadvantages of this.” Ominous stuff.<\/p>\n

It was a fun moment, uncovering this primary source from our recent Higher Education past. Briefly distracting me from the theological wrangling of the English Reformation, it reminded me, too, that – despite the best efforts of staff and students to make sure exams are as plain-sailing as possible – it’s always worth learning from the examples of our forebears!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-Upon-Avon is a little oasis for researchers and postgraduate students: though it’s affiliated with the University of Birmingham, it’s a long way from the main campus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[776,383,376,775,109],"class_list":["post-731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-anna-french","tag-early-modern-2","tag-higher-education-2","tag-publications","tag-university-of-birmingham"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3443,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions\/3443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}