Prison Voices: The Evaluation

This module has helped me come out of my comfort zone in terms of my writing style. I have never written for a blog before and I am used to writing in an academic style, knowing that it will only be my tutors reading my work. However, the blog brought in a public element to my work and meant I had to write to a more open audience who may not necessarily have an academic background. This meant I had to make sure I was writing in a more casual style but also ensure I was using reliable, accessible sources in order to appeal to the wide digital audience and make my work reachable for them.

This digital way of publishing work and sharing it with my peers introduced me to new ways of referencing for example implementing hyperlinks throughout my blog posts. I felt this was a useful way of learning to write as it is more practical in terms of jobs in the current digital climate where almost everything is published online. This also helped me with my media modules as we are sometimes encouraged to write for websites or social media campaigns.

This module has encouraged me to embrace online archives as I used to be sceptical their reliability. Learning about the resources available on the Old Bailey Online shocked me at how much historical information is compiled into one website. I learnt how to navigate the website using the search engine and filter my research to fit specific blog posts e.g. by putting a specific time period and offence. This was a quick way of researching specific areas of inquiry.

The Old Bailey Search Engine and the way it can be used to find specific results using keywords, offence, verdict and time period.

The search engine used the specificity of my search to compile results of pocketpicking between 1830 and 1850 which was a great way of backing up my points with statistics for my research blog, as shown below.

Old Bailey results showing the calculated total of offences for pocketpicking between 1830 and 1850.

It was refreshing to be able to share my work with my peers and gain their feedback through social media by sharing my blog posts online. It made me feel like I was contributing to the ever-expanding research of 19^th century crime as many historians and academics engaged with my work through comments and likes. I felt like my opinion was valuable as my blog posts included my personal take on certain elements of research. Social media is something I use daily, so it was challenging at first to shift from my personal use of social media to a professional one and try and incorporate this into my studies and make my social media platform a place to share academic work. Twitter was an extremely useful platform to use as it allowed me to gain instant feedback and replies. It was also a good way to help support fellow students.

 

Examples of how I shared my blog posts on Twitter and the types of responses I got.

This is definitely a skill that I will take with me to jobs in the future as working as a team and gaining people’s feedback and giving constructive criticism is something that is valuable in a work environment. I used Canvas to give constructive comments to my course mates through a group chat, as shown below.

What I found most challenging about the blog posts was their size. I am used to writing longer essays and found that I often went over the word count. This short style of writing taught me a more effective way of editing as it meant I had to be more concise and with what I put in and kept out. This will carry through to my other University studies as editing is a crucial part of the development of any piece of work and sticking to the brief.