Assessment Task 3: Research and analysis of the Live Performance of your choice. 1,500-2,000 words, 30% due April 17 (beginning of Week 7)
Question: Choose a live performance that you consider to be of heightened style (i.e. that is, not naturalism/realism). What style of theatre is this and how does the performance you are viewing shape the experience of an audience member?
N.B. Make sure you include reference material from your unit on moodle.
| Assessment criteria Marking Guide | |
|
How clearly you have addressed the question |
20% |
|
How your analysis of the work reveals your wider research into and understanding of the history of style in theatre. |
20% |
|
The clarity of your written expression and your ability to structure a logical and clear argument |
20% |
|
Your ability to provide significant examples from the performance, you are reviewing |
25% |
|
Your ability to clearly reference and provide an adequate bibliography following Chicago Style |
10% |
Tips!
Check out live performances at the following theatres:
Planning your search is critical to obtaining the most relevant and appropriate sources of scholarly information for your assessment.
Start planning your search by:
You may need to alter your search terms if you don't find what you need.
| Keywords | Alternative terms |
| theatre | play, theater, performance |
| heightened | "heightened performance" |
| "greek theatre" | "greek theater", Greek tragedy", "Greek comedy" |
Now use Boolean operators to connect your search terms.
Use OR to combine all the terms for the same concept: theatre OR theater
Use AND to combine terms from different concepts: "heightened performance" AND wicked
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase: "heightened performance"
Use an asterisk to retrieve variations on a word: theat* finds theatre, theatres, theater, theaters
Use brackets to group all terms from the same concept together
Watch the following video to learn more about Boolean operators
When you put it together:
(heightened OR "heightened performance") AND "greek tragedy"
(theatre OR theater OR play*) AND heightened
Please note, these are examples intended only to demonstrate a search strategy. It does not include all possible variations. You will probably need to alter your search terms as you go.
Suggested databases for this assessment are:
Search newspaper databases to locate many newspaper titles from Australia and around the world.
Major newspapers often have their own websites, for example:
I know, I know, we told you not to use Google for your assignments
However, Google has some great features for searching for organisations, government reports, policies, statistics and other useful documents. (But please do not rely on using Google for all your references.)
You can also:
"performance art" site:vic.org.au daterange:2014-2016 filetype:PDF
You can also use parentheses (round brackets) and OR for alternative terms (works best at the end of the search line):
"performance art" site:vic.gov.au daterange:2014-2016 filetype:PDF ("performance art" OR dance)
site:vic.gov.au daterange:2014-2016 filetype:PDF "performance art"
We can also exclude a search term from our results (similar to using NOT in a database) by putting a hyphen or minus sign in front of the word (or phrase in quotes). For example, to exclude results that include the word Melbourne, we can use -Melbourne
site:vic.gov.au daterange:2014-2016 filetype:PDF "performance art" -Melbourne
Warning: excluding results that have the word Melbourne will also exclude results that have Melbourne and rural details, or Melbourne and your area of interest.
This might not be what you want.
Click the Settings option (may be showing on its own but more likely to be under the three-line menu icon)
Click on the Library links option, and search for federation
Tick the checkbox for Federation University Australia, and (important!) click the Save button.
If you are logged into a Google account (GMail, etc), this setting will be saved permanently.
Otherwise, you might have to redo this setup every time you restart your web browser to use Google Scholar.
Depending on your topic, this might make many more full-text resources available in your Google Scholar results, resources that the Library has paid for.
Start in Google Scholar. Search for a topic. Here we have searched for:
("climate change" OR "global warming") AND coffee AND agricultural
Use the links on the left to limit results to the last 5 years.
When using Google Scholar, see the CRAAP test (below) to evaluate each article before relying it as a reference.
To read results from Google Scholar, look for either an open access link on the right-hand side, or (if you have added Federation University as instructed above) use the Find it @Federationlink to connect to material provided via the Library.
After clicking the buttons and reading the sections above, try searching Google Scholar yourself:
Google Scholar - journal articles and other material (as detailed above, you can link Google Scholar to the Library's paid full-text subscriptions)
Google Scholar has a citation feature, but always check the citation it supplies. It may be incorrect (no upper case letter to start a subtitle, for example) or incomplete (missing the DOI, for example).
Click the quotation mark icon to pop up a window (unless blocked by pop-up settings in your web browser) containing a reference list entry several referencing styles and links to export formats for bibliographic management software (e.g. EndNote).
Underneath many articles in your Google Scholar results will be a Cited by link - this points to newer articles that have used the article in their reference list. Some of these (but not all) may be on the same topic, so it can be another way of finding newer relevant articles.
This can also be a rough guide to how much impact an article has had - articles with more impact tend to be cited more.
When was this source published?
How old are the references and data used?
Has this source, or its data, been updated?
Does this type of information get updated?
Is there likely to be more recent information available elsewhere?
Is this information relevant to your assignment? Is there likely to be better information?
Is this aimed at the correct audience?
Who wrote it? What are their qualifications?
Where do they work? Who do they work for?
Are they likely to have a good understanding of this field?
Is the information reliable?
Can you find the original source?
What is the quality of the presentation? Are there significant errors?
Do the conclusions match the data?
Have all sides been considered?
Why has the article been written?
Is there any obvious bias? Is the author or their employer likely to get a benefit out of the recommendations?
Is it recommending a particular course of action or therapy? Does the data support this? Are any alternatives considered?
The following PDFs are helpful for creating your assignment.
FedCite is the one-stop shop for all your referencing needs. In Performing Arts you need to use Chicago Note 17th ed.