Term paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Term paper - Essay Example ein and Victor, for Victor knowledge was the surge beyond the acceptance of human limits and the access to the secret of life while for Frankenstein knowledge was viewed in a manner that would make humans accept him as he was. The monster due to his grotesque appearance is rejected by society and therefore becomes an integral part of the action. Why grotesque? Victor creates this monster from his unnatural manner of his creation which entails the mystifying animation which is a combination of embezzled parts of a body with bizarre chemicals. Therefore one can state that the monster is a combination of scientific work which enfolds the dark and the supernatural. Does not this description fit Victor too? Victor the creator also exhibits monster qualities. His aspiration, mystery and egocentricity kind of estrange him from society and his family. His creation of the monster also creates a monster within himself for eventually Victor is consumed by hatred for his creation. Abortion an ever prevalent occurrence wherein the innocent is mercilessly killed is still found in today’s world. This abortion can also be witnessed in Victor as well as the monster who express the monster’s gruesomeness. Victor looks at his creation he states â€Å"When I thought of him, I gnashed my teeth, my eyes became inflamed, and I ardently wished to extinguish that life which I had so thoughtlessly made†. The monster who hates himself cries out â€Å"I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.† This idea of abortion can also be traced to Victor’s destruction of the female monster wherein Victor aborts the act of creating the female counterpart of the monster. An explanation can be found in Victor’s description of philosophy â€Å"I at once gave up my former occupations; set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation; and entertained the greates t disdain for a would-be science, which could never even

Victors beard Essay Example for Free

Victors beard Essay One point to make about the birth process before it has even begun is the location. The room that the creation takes place in is a hidden laboratory inside the university that Victor is working at, and the room for the birth process is hidden behind a curtain so its hidden from people if they were to come into the laboratory. The wall is stone and the insides have beams on the roof, which remind you of a cold room. The use of stone is used because stone is generally cold and old beams, which remind you of old, haunted houses. Also the room is dark and scary which may create suspense for the audience who dont know what may be round any of these dark corners. This is a place you wouldnt want to be in, this may also create sympathy for the creature as he is not looked after and has been shoved away in an old room. In the Whale version the birth scene is set in an old disused mill in the country. Inside the mill the walls are again stone which gives the cold feeling. It is dark and dingy and relies on torches for light, which adds to the gothic medieval feel of the film. In Mary Shellys adaptation the birth scene begins just after Victors wife to be Elizabeth falls out with him because she asks him to come back with her and to stop stressing himself out with his work. We then see him pull back a curtain and we see in the mis-en-scene the huge laboratory that has been set up by Victor. He then walks into the laboratory and we see a low angle tracking shot of him running though the laboratory, the use of the low angle shot gives us the impression that Victor is a big powerful man. As he is running through the laboratory we see him wearing a cloak, which suggests to the audience the idea that he has power like a scientist or magician, sorcerer. As he gets to the creature, his cloak is casually thrown onto the clothes hook, and we can see by this point Victor no longer cares. Now we can see that he has been working so hard on the birth of the creature that his shirt is now ragged, dirty and the top buttons on his shirt are un-done and his shirt is hanging off his skin more now. This may mean now that if the creature doesnt live he doesnt necessarily care about the creature surviving, or it could mean he has been working so hard he hasnt had time to change and this shows his determination to his work. Also Victor wears his shirt with the sleeves rolled up; this is another way of saying he is again determined to his work. Also Victors beard is unshaven which is a certain way to tell that he has been persisting in this experiment for quite a while without sleep. We then see Victor pulling down several handles and we then see a tracking shot of the creatures body which is being transported around by pulleys on the roof, and we see the creature is being banged around up on the pulleys. Still, at this time, we havent seen the creature; this creates suspense and is a clever idea by Branagh, as this keeps the audience wanting to know, as they dont even know if they are going to see the creature because if the creature doesnt live they might not see it.

Ameloblastoma Case Study

Ameloblastoma Case Study Introduction: Ameloblastoma is the most common odontogenic epithelial tumor of the jaw bones. [REF] It was first described by Churchill in 1881 and defined by Robinson as a tumor that is usually â€Å"unicentric, nonfunctional, intermittent in growth, anatomically benign, and clinically persistent†.[M] Although most ameloblastomas are histologically benign and lack cytological atypia, they are generally considered to be locally aggressive and destructive, exhibiting various rates of recurrence. [K] WHO describes four variants of ameloblastoma, i.e. solid multicystic- follicular, plexiform, desmoplastic and unicystic. [Ref] However, many unusual histological variants have been reported in the past that mimic the conventional ameloblastomas but present with a widely variable histological presentation. Only few cases of such histological variants though have been reported in the literature which has made it difficult to predict the clinical course and biological behaviour of these variants. He re, we report a case of verrucopapillary ameloblastoma which is a very uncommon histopathological variant of ameloblastoma. Case report: An 18 year old male patient reported with a chief complaint of swelling in the right side of the lower jaw near the body of the mandible since 3 months which was visible on extraorally. The swelling was hard in consistency and was not associated with pain, paresthesia or discharge. The loco-regional lymph nodes were not palpable. On intraoral examination, the overlying mucosa showed swelling in the right buccal vestibular region without any signs of ulceration or paresthesia. The teeth in the region showed positive response to stimulus on vitality testing. The panoramic radiograph showed a lytic lesion with well defined margins in the premolar–molar region extending distal to the mandibular right second molar. The orthopantomograph of the patient showed a radiolucent multilocular osteolytic lesion extending from the distal periradicular area of 43 till right posterior body angle region corresponding to mesial crown outline of 48 antero-posteriorly and from the alveolar crest t ill the inferior mandibular cortex supero-inferiorly. The 3D cone beam computed tomography reconstruction showed a lesion measuring 5.9cm x 3.2cm x 2.7cm in size with fine curved and linear bony septae in the centre of the osteolytic area. The lesion was expansile with perforation of the buccal and lingual cortical plates and thinning of the inferior border of the mandible. The histopathological examination of the submitted specimen showed an unencapsulated lesion with mature fibrocellular stroma with proliferating odontogenic islands. The periphery of the tumour showed cystic cavity lined by hyperkeratinizing stratified squamous epithelium of varying thickeness. The lining epithelium was thrown into multiple sharp or blunt and rounded verrucopapillary projections into the cystic lumen plugged by keratin. These projections were supported by thin connective tissue cores. Keratin was seen deposited on the surface in the form of parallel lamella and keratin flakes were also present. An unusual finding seen in our case was the presence of acantholytic cells with areas of focal necrosis on the surfa. The lining epithelium shows basal layer with columnar cells with hyperchromatic nuclei and peripheral palisading with surface keratinization and cellular vacuolization indicative of KCOT like areas. Multiple odontogenic islands with peripheral columnar odontogenic cells with hyperchromatic nuclei were present in the connectice tissue stroma. The suppoting connective tissue stroma showed epithelial islands with acanthomatous changes and microcystic degeneration. Interconnecting strands of odontogenic epithelium resembling the plexiform variant were also present. The connective tissue was densely fibrocellular with numerous dilated and engorged blood vessels. Immunohistochemical staining with Ki-67 antibody showed intense positivity in the basal and supra-basal cells with infrequent positivity in the superficial cells indicative of high proliferative potential of the les ion. Immunohistichemical staining with anti-p53 antibody showed basal and suprabasal positivity of the lining epithelium suggestive of mutation in the tumour suppressor gene. Based on the histopathologic evaluation, a diagnosis of papilliferous keratoameloblastoma was given. The lesion was removed completely with wide excision and the patient has not reported back with any recurrence two after the surgery. Discussion: Ameloblastomas are common odontogenic tumour that show diverse, yet pathognomic histopathological features. However, wide variation has been reported in the past regarding the histopathological presentation of ameloblastoma. Squamous metaplasia has been reported commonly in the acanthomatous variant of ameloblastoma where the central stellate reticulum like areas are replaced by squamoid cells. This keratinization is well documented in some lesions such as odontogenic keratocyst, acanthomatous ameloblastoma, calcifying odontogenic cyst, squamous odontogenic tumor, and squamous odontogenic carcinoma. [G] Keratin formation has also been reported in another variant of ameloblastoma termed keratoameloblastoma, which was first described by Pindborg in 1970. Another variant of keratoameloblastoma, with verrucopapillary projections into the lumen has been reported under the name papilliferous ameloblastoma. Till date, 15 cases have reported in English literature with papilliferous histologi c components in ameloblastoma. [F] The distinction between acanthomatous ameloblastoma with keratin production and keratoameloblastoma is not clear. WHO in 2005 described keratin with pearl formation in ameloblastoma under the histologic variant of acanthomatous ameloblastoma. In 1992 classification of odontogenic tumours by WHO, it was defined as ameloblastoma with extensive keratinization. [G] However, Morgan et al have described ameloblastoma with unequivocal keratinization occurring in the centre of the epithelial follicles at the expense of the stellate reticulum-like areas as a keratoameloblastoma. Norval et al suggested that keratoameloblastoma should be considered a variant of acanthomatous ameloblastoma.[F] However, one criteria to distinguish acanthomatous ameloblastoma form keratoameloblastoma is the presence of keratin in the connective tissue stroma as compared to acanthomatous ameloblastoma which has keratin only in the areas showing sqauamous metaplasia in the centre of odontogenic islands and follicle. [H, cross ref 7] The present case in a male patient in the right mandibular body region is similar in presentation as compared to previously reported cases except the age of the patient which is comparatively younger (second decade) as compared to mean age of presentation of KA with papilliferous proliferation which occur at a relatively older age (mean age of occurrence in sixth decade). The right side of the mandible is commonly involved as compared to the left (2:1) with most cases reported in the posterior body-ramus region. [H] Our case differs from the previous cases in showing multiple papilliferous projections with acantholytic cells with necrotic and hemorrhagic material in the lumen and dilated, congested blood vessels. The lesion also showed multiple solid islands of odontogenic epithelium with hyperchromatic nuclei in the connective tissue stroma.[H] Whitt et al have described 4 variants of ameloblastoma showing keratin formation (Table 1). Corio et al.20 have described a keratinizing ameloblastic carcinoma showing the typical histologic features of malignancy in their series of ameloblastic carcinomas, which included pleomorphism, increased nuclear/cytoplastic ratio, nuclear hyperchromatism, increased numbers of mitotic figures, abnormal mitotic figures, and necrosis. Our case fulfils the criteria of papilliferous type of KA. The present case exhibited an elevated level of mitotic activity, altered p53 profile and proliferation index (Ki-67). It can be inferred that the lesion is comparatively more aggressive locally as compared to conventional ameloblastoma, and should be excised extensively to avoid local recurrence. [F] However, it is still unclear how the production of keratin in histopathologic variants of ameloblastoma affects the biological behaviour and prognosis of such lesions. The probable reason could be attributed to less number of reported cases with follow up of such variant to comment definitively on its behaviour. [G] Conclusion: Papilliferous keratoameloblastomas refers to a variant of ameloblastoma that is rarely reported and its biological behaviour is poorly understood. The present case shows higher proliferative activity in the basal and suprabasal cells of the tumour providing an indication of its local aggressiveness as compared to the conventional ameloblastomas. Presently, such lesions are treated in a manner similar to conventional ameloblastomas, though it lacks any authoritative evidence. Report of more such cases with longer follow up duration and molecular profiling is required in the future to completely understand the spectrum of clinical and histological features, biological behaviour and prognosis of such cases. Table 1 : Types Of Keratoameloblastoma Based On Histopathological Features(Whitt et al) Histological type Features Papilliferous histology Odontogenic epithelium is in papillary projections into the cystic spaces Simple histology Epithelial follicles filled with parakeratin or orthokeratin and lined by ameloblast like cells with reversal of polarity Simple histology with odontogenic keratocyst (OKC)-like features Features of conventional odontogenic keratocyst in addition to simple type Complex histology Epithelial follicles packed with parakeratin or orthokeratin, extrusion of keratin masses into connective tissue stroma in the form of pacinian like stacks with or without foreign body reaction; also there may be hard tissue formation resembling cementum and woven bone

An Insightful Analysis of A Disgraceful Affair Essays -- Short Stories

Periodically, a relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat can be a clouded perception, only due to the fact the proletariat will not be given the chance to speak from their point of view. This such thing is not true when it comes to the short story, â€Å"A Disgraceful Affair.† The story is based around the Russian interpretation of Marxism, shown in the forethought to the opening paragraph, in which it speaks â€Å"Our beloved motherland was experiencing a renaissance; her brave sons, fired with impulses at once touching and naà ¯ve, were seeking with an uncontrollable yearning for new destinies and hopes.† The thing that determines what they do is their social class and economic position, which in turn, affects what happens to them. The two men used to elaborate the idea are the bourgeoisie Mr. Ivan Ilyitch Pralinski, and proletariat Mr. Porfiry Petrov Pseldonymov. â€Å"Your Excellency,† Ivan Ilyitch had only been known as such for a few short weeks, but with his statue of mind and manner, it seemed like years. He was, in his own mind, always right and if someone did not understand what he was doing or saying, they were idiotic. â€Å"And how could he fail to understand? It was more difficult not to understand than understand,† is not even a statement against a drone, but rather against another even more credible bourgeoisie than himself. To his due, he is a very brilliant man, but he lacks common respect and tries to use his position in authority to gain popularity amongst the proletariat culture. Due to his economic stature, and his social class, he believed he could do anything he pleased; which he showed by walking in on a fellow colleague’s wedding party. Under no circumstance did he know or relate to Mr. Pseldonymov, but only ... ...e with humour, and with shortcomings, the idea of Marxism. Not only did he show two separate and very different views, but he also showed how the Marxist idea is too readily evident in everyday life. Ivan Ilyitch is not a typical bourgeoisie, but none the less he is one, so he fails to comprehend the proletariats correctly. He tries, and wants to because of his idealism, but his view of the events at the wedding party are completely opposite to those of Pseldonymov. What Ilyitch thought was not at all what Pseldymov went through, because he has never experienced it. Through the authentic proletariat voice, we can conclude that what happens to a bourgeoisie differs greatly in comparison to what happens to a proletariat. Even as much as one wants to understand the other, or be the other, society holds the barrier and even the smart well-hearted can not break through.

Bette Howlands Criticism of Henry Jamess Washington Square :: Henry James Washington Square

Bette Howland's Criticism of Henry James's Washington Square Bette Howland, in her criticism of Henry James's Washington Square, focuses on two different aspects of the story's development. She begins by impressing on the reader how Henry James himself viewed his creation and then plunges into the history behind the plot. In doing this, she describes how Henry James has used irony to make this story his own creation. Half way through the article she changes directions and shows how Washington Square is the forerunner of his other novels. She describes how they all have the same basic plot. According to Bette Howland, Henry James never cared for his novel Washington Square. He refers to it as "A poorish thing" and "a tale purely American" (1). In fact, when he compiled his stories in his New York Edition he omitted this story from its pages. He claimed that, "I've tried to read over Washington Square and I can't and I fear it must go" (1). Ms. Howland claims that it is "a fitting irony. You might say that like Dr. Sloper in the novel, James disinherited his heroine, he cut her out of his will" (1). The author of the criticism then focuses on how Henry James received the anecdote that he would transform into his novel. Henry James twists the basic story into his own work by way of irony. Dr. Sloper is at the center of James's irony. While Dr. Sloper criticizes Catherine as a simpleton who is "ugly and overdressed" (3) he states, "I expect nothing . . . so that if she gives me a surprise, it will be all clear gain. If she doesn't, it will be no loss" (3). This is ironical because he himself played a part in her creation. Bette Howland states that while Washington Square may lack the 'supersubtle' nuances of Henry James' future novels, it "offers his irony at its most efficient. The novel is a system of ironies a closed system. . . James is always doing two things at once. Except for Catherine, the characters are always describing themselves and each other . . . and everything they say cuts both ways" (5). Bette Howland also examines the similarities present between Washington Square and The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl. In the four novels, Henry James uses his favorite configuration of a triangle.

Essay --

Simon Bolivar is one of the most powerful and influential figures in the history of Latin America, a hero who led the movement for independence for several Latin American nations, a military and political leader with his own personal story full of tragic and dramatic moments. During his lifetime he helped to liberate people of Venezuela, Colombia, Perà º, Ecuador and Bolivia from Spanish domination, played a big role in foundation of Gran Colombia and setting the principles of democracy. Even though Bolivar was not very well-known around the world, he was always held in respect among people in Latin America and remembered as a man who had an authority and power. Bolivar’s integrity, high moral standards, and perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds made him a role model to many people. Simon Bolivar is a brave character whose leadership and risks turn against him when he least expects it. Bolà ­var's dream had always been to cause an American Revolution-style federation among all the newly independent republics in Latin America, where with a new government set up solely to recognize and support the rights of the individual. Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his book â€Å"The General in His Labyrinth† changes or â€Å"twists† a little the representation of the Latin American hero. First of all, Marquez never really references Simon Bolivar by his name, but only as â€Å"The Liberator†. His idea behind the book was to change the traditional heroic portrayal of Simon Bolivar and show an old man who is suffering through his illness and mental exhaustion. This dark brooding story covers the last 7 month of Simon Bolivar’s life. South American Liberator has spent many years in opposition to Spanish presence, he swept the Spaniards from their former colonie... ...the nations, commits actions that he regrets about later in his life. His whole life he is haunted by the guilt of ordering summary executions of former comrades, his fall from power, and the depression of perceived failure. And in the final and most significant scene of the story, just before he dies, Bolivar finally sees the truth: â€Å"The headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness.† It’s a book that lends itself to a lot of contemplation – about history and the men who make it and what happens to every man when their glory is past. This story about Bolivar is about one way in which such men live the last days – things which are not easily recorded in history since we like to remember our heroes unblemished and perfect. This story is about when each one of us becomes human and all too mortal.

Historical Research Essay

Historical research has been defined as the systematic and objective location, evaluation and synthesis of evidence in order to establish facts and draw conclusions about past events. It is an act of reconstruction undertaken in a spirit of critical inquiry designed to achieve a faithful representation of a previous age. In seeking data from the personal experiences and observations of others, from documents and records, researchers often have to contend with inadequate information so that their reconstructions tend to be sketches rather than portraits. Indeed, the difficulty of obtaining adequate data makes historical research one of the most taxing kinds of inquiry to conduct satisfactorily (William 1949). Reconstruction implies a holistic perspective in that the method of inquiry characterizing historical research attempts to ‘encompass and then explain the whole realm of man’s past in a perspective that greatly accents his social, cultural, economic, and intellectual development’ (Billington 1995). Ultimately, historical research is concerned with a broad view of the conditions and not necessarily the specifics which bring them about, although such a synthesis is rarely achieved without intense debate or controversy, especially on matters of detail. The act of historical research involves the identification and limitation of a problem or an area of study; sometimes the formulation of a hypothesis (or set of questions); the collection, organization, verification, validation, analysis and selection of data; testing the hypothesis (or answering the questions) where appropriate; and writing a research report. This sequence leads to a new understanding of the past and its relevance to the present and future. Historical research in education can also show how and why educational theories and practices developed. It enables educationalists to use former practices to evaluate newer, emerging ones. Recurrent trends can be more easily identified and assessed from a historical standpoint—witness, for example, the various guises in which progressivism in education have appeared. And it can contribute to a fuller understanding of the relationship between politics and education, between school and society, between local and central government, and between teacher and pupil. Historical research may be structured by a flexible sequence of stages, beginning with the selection and evaluation of a problem or area of study. Then follows the definition of the problem in more precise terms, the selection of suitable sources of data, collection, classification and processing of the data, and finally, the evaluation and synthesis of the data into a balanced and objective account of the subject under investigation. In historical research, it is especially important that the student carefully defines his problem and appraises its appropriateness before committing himself too fully. Many problems are not adaptable to historical research methods and cannot be adequately treated using this approach. Other problems have little or no chance of producing significant results either because of the lack of pertinent data or because the problem is a trivial one. Research, if it is to be fresh and thereby justify itself, ought to start, at least in a general way, where previous research left off. Thus, it is necessary to find out the present status of scholarly investigation on the subject in hand. This can be ascertained from reliable, up-to-date bibliographical surveys, such as are sometimes found in the more scholarly type of history books now appearing, and from standard bibliographies, general or special, supplemented by notices of new publications in the current historical reviews. The hypothesis provides a framework for stating the conclusions of the study in a meaningful manner. It enables the historian to determine what is relevant to a study and to screen out irrelevant materials. Within the framework of the hypothesis, of course, the historian will pattern his material in some systematic order, such as chronological, geographical, topical, or a combination of these. He will also make judgments concerning the amount of emphasis or space to give to various evidence. Considerable information may be collected on relatively minor points in a study and little evidence on more significant events. Obviously, reporting everything would produce a distorted picture of the past. Determining which data are packed with the greatest significance and how many of them to include requires a continuous reevaluation of the hypothesis and the study as a whole. Weaving raw data into a cohesive, well-proportioned, colorful exposition requires painstaking labor. To achieve the twin objectives of maintaining accuracy and interest, a historian refrains from embellishing narratives with dramatic flourishes that distort the truth, but strives for literary excellence. Stretching or supplementing the existing evidence to create a more spirited narrative is not permissible. Artfully fitting the pieces of established evidence into a simple, vivid mosaic that dramatically delineates past events is the difficult but desired ideal to attain. History is life – and it deserves better than a drab description. The historian cannot sacrifice accuracy for eloquence; but by developing his creative and critical skills he can learn to write lucid, lively, logical accounts without violating the rigorous rules of historical scholarship. Since historians cannot personally view the educational practices of hundreds of years ago, they must rely on observations made by others in bygone days and on the examination of relics. If investigators are fully aware of the fallibility of human observation, they can check the authenticity and credibility of testimony by subjecting it to intensive external and internal criticism. Ascertaining whether every fact is absolutely true is not possible, for the most reliable witness to an event may have erred in perception or memory. But a research worker can determine the credibility of testimony in degrees of confidence – from confidence that is approximately certain at one end of the scale to confidence that is mingled with considerable doubt on the other end. Historians can ascertain with a high degree of probability that some data are true facts. But, because the reliability of data is dependent on the character, circumstances, and competence of the creators and interpreters, they are extremely cautious about accepting any historical artifact or report. The reliability of a historical research report is determined not only by how critically the investigator examined witnesses’ observations of past events, but also by the depth and breath of his knowledge about the past and present. Historical research involves the researcher both in selecting an appropriate problem and devising relevant research techniques. Questions to be asked at this stage are first, ‘Who is to be the object of the study? ’—the great person, the common person, the volunteer, the selected, the coerced? Second, ‘What makes a good informant? ’ Plummer draws attention to key factors such as accessibility of place and availability of time, and the awareness of the potential informant of his/her particular cultural milieu. Third, ‘What needs clarifying in the early stages of the research? The motivations of the researcher need to be made explicit to the intended subject. Sources of data in historical research may be classified into two main groups: primary sources, which are the life blood of historical research; and secondary sources, which may be used in the absence of, or to supplement, primary data. Primary sources of data have been described as those items that are original to the problem under study. Secondary sources are those that do not bear a direct physical relationship to the event being studied. They are made up of data that cannot be described as original. A secondary source would thus be one in which the person describing the event was not actually present but who obtained descriptions from another person or source (Atkinson 1998). Various commentators stress the importance of using primary sources of data where possible. The value, too, of secondary sources should not be minimized. There are numerous occasions where a secondary source can contribute significantly to more valid and reliable historical research than would otherwise be the case. In his preliminary search for historical data, a researcher will find that the card catalog, periodical indexes, bibliographies, historical reviews, dissertations, and research journals provide helpful leads. Although he may locate useful materials in his local library, his search probably will extend to other institutions and to specialized depositories that have business, government, legal, or private papers relating to his problem. Some individuals and agencies have exerted considerable effort to collect educational records and remains and have established a number of historical depositories to preserve them. The types of resources and completeness of the accumulations in the various depositories vary greatly: some contain extensive collections of a particular kind of materials and others have fragmentary collections of items from different fields. Owing to the wide expanse of time and the broad scope of educational endeavors, no one depository, however excellent, can possibly house all the available materials. One further point: the review of the literature is regarded as a preparatory stage to gathering data and serves to acquaint researchers with previous research on the topics they are studying (Marwick 1989). It thus enables them to continue in a tradition, to place their work in context, and to learn from earlier endeavors. The function of the review of the literature in historical research, however, is different in that it provides the data for research; the researchers’ acceptance or otherwise of their hypotheses will depend on their selection of information from the review and the interpretation they put on it. Further, documents required in historical research often date back much further than those in empirical research. And one final point: documents in education often consist of unpublished material and are therefore less accessible than reports of empirical studies in professional journals. Because workers in the field of historical research gather much of their data and information from records and documents, these must be carefully evaluated so as to attest their worth for the purposes of the particular study. Evaluation of historical data and information is often referred to as historical criticism and the reliable data yielded by the process are known as historical evidence. Historical criticism is usually undertaken in two stages: first, the authenticity of the source is appraised; and second, the accuracy or worth of the data is evaluated. External criticism is concerned with establishing the authenticity or genuineness of data. It is therefore aimed at the document (or other source) itself rather than the statements it contains; with analytic forms of the data rather than the interpretation or meaning of them in relation to the study. It therefore sets out to uncover frauds, forgeries, hoaxes, inventions or distortions. To this end, the tasks of establishing the age or authorship of a document may involve tests of factors such as signatures, handwriting, script, type, style, spelling and place-names. Further, was the knowledge it purports to transmit available at the time and is it consistent with what is known about the author or period from another source? Increasingly sophisticated analyses of physical factors can also yield clues establishing authenticity or otherwise: physical and chemical tests of ink, paper, parchment, cloth and other materials, for example. Investigations in the field of educational history are less likely to encounter deliberate forgeries than in, say, political or social history, though it is possible to find that official documents, correspondence and autobiographies have been ‘ghosted’, that is, prepared by a person other than the alleged author or signer. Having established the authenticity of the document, the researcher’s next task is to evaluate the accuracy and worth of the data contained therein. While they may be genuine, they may not necessarily disclose the most faithful picture. In their concern to establish the meaning and reliability of data, investigators are confronted with a more difficult problem than external criticism because they have to establish the credibility of the author of the documents. Many documents in the history of education tend to be neutral in character, though it is possible that some may be in error because of these kinds of observer characteristics. Once the data have been gathered and subjected to external criticism for authenticity and to internal criticism for accuracy, the researcher is next confronted with the task of piecing together an account of the events embraced by the research problem. This stage is known as the process of synthesis. It is probably the most difficult phase in the project and calls for considerable imagination and resourcefulness. The resulting pattern is then applied to the testing of the hypothesis. The writing of the final report is equally demanding and calls for creativity and high standards of objective and systematic analysis. By far the greater part of research in historical studies is qualitative in nature. This is so because the proper subject-matter of historical research consists to a great extent of verbal and other symbolic material emanating from a society’s or a culture’s past. The basic skills required of the researcher to analyze this kind of qualitative or symbolic material involve collecting, classifying, ordering, synthesizing, evaluating and interpreting. At the basis of all these acts lies sound personal judgement. In the comparatively recent past, however, attempts have been made to apply the quantitative methods of the scientist to the solution of historical problems (Boyd-Barrett & Scanlon 1991). Of these methods, the one having greatest relevance to historical research is that of content analysis, the basic goal of which is to take a verbal, non-quantitative document and transform it into quantitative data (Allen 2001). Content analysis itself has been defined as ‘a multipurpose research method developed specifically for investigating a broad spectrum of problems in which the content of communication serves as a basis of inference’, from word counts (Allen 2001) to categorization. Approaches to content analysis are careful to identify appropriate categories and units of analysis, both of which will reflect the nature of the document being analyzed and the purpose of the research. Categories are normally determined after initial inspection of the document and will cover the main areas of content.