1.

Research Question​: How different was the war in reality versus how it was shown in government propaganda

1. What was life like in the trenches based on people’s experience?

2. How did the propaganda show what the trenches were like?
3. Why did the government choose to show the life in trenches as they did?

Why did you choose this research question?

Because a lot of the concepts for this unit such as perspective and conflict can be found in this question. The different
perspective would between the people on the front lines (trenches) and the government that is creating the propaganda.
There is a conflict between those who are in different places about what “life in the trenches” was like.

2. Action Plan
Create a plan for how you will complete your research.

Date Goal (what do you want to complete) Did I finish this part by the date in the action plan?
(finish by) If not, what was the reason?

11/15/201 Finish researching what life in the trenches was I finish this part by the date in the action plan.
9 like for soldiers in real life.

11/18/201 How did the propaganda show what the trenches I finish this part by the date in the action plan.
9 were like? (2 primary sources)

11/20/201 Finish the third research question. (2 sources) I finish this part by the date in the action plan.
9

Sub-research Source Purpose Value (how does Limitations

questions (Origin) (what is this site this answer your (based on the
Cite in APA used for?) sub-research purpose of the
question?) What website, are there
are the important any bias? What are
information you some questions you
can use? have after reading
this site?)
What was life like in BBC
the Trenches
What was life like in a
World War One trench?
(2019, October 18).
Retrieved from
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bites
ize/topics/zqhyb9q/articles/
z8sssbk
What was life like in History
the Trenches
Dunleavy, B. (2018, April
23). Life in the Trenches of
World War I. Retrieved
from
https://www.history.com/ne
ws/life-in-the-trenches-of-w
orld-war-i
What was life like in The biomedical scientist
the Trenches
Rish. (2018, April 03).
Disease in the trenches.
Retrieved from
https://thebiomedicalscienti
st.net/science/disease-tren
ches
How did the Primary source.British
propaganda show Government photo of life in
what the trenches the trenches
were like?
Anon29302309745670656.
(n.d.). Trench life WW1.
Retrieved from
https://www.tes.com/teachi
ng-resource/trench-life-ww
1-11281338
To educate 7-11 Dirty: Lots of Rats A lot of the
years old about WWI running around information is very
and stealing food. general and
They are also simplified. For
spreading disease. example, we don’t
know what kind of
diseases are spread
by the rats.
The BBC did not
differentiate between
German and British
Trenches.
To educate what Dangerous: Most of the
kinds of diseases Disease spread information include
were in the Trench quickly such as details of the problem
WWI. dysentery, cholera, only. For example,
typhoid fever, and we don’t know how
trench fever. did they cure people
For example, the that has disease.
symptoms of
trench fever was
debilitating effect
to people.
To educate treatment Treatment: They All the information
for disease in Trench couldn’t find includes solution and
WWI. treatment for some reason, but
“Trench fever”, so there are not much
they focussed on details.
using insecticides
to delouse
clothing.
Telling/teaching Soldiers to be Bias: Government is
people what life in the happy, trying to show the
trenches are like. best possible side of
Government is trying -Looked very clean trench warfare.
to get people to join
the military and fight -The soldiers are What is not
the Germans. talking and addressed on
laughing. It shows purpose? The normal
that they have conditions of the
camaraderie / trenches. The
brotherhood boredom or what it is
like to “go over the
 top”

How did the Primary source. Showing how the Brave soldiers Government is trying
propaganda show (n.d.). Retrieved from posters were looks to show brave and
what the trenches https://amhistory.si.edu/mili like during the war. -Trying to attack scary things of the
taryhistory/collection/object.
were like? Make people to think the enemy with big war.
asp?ID=552
of their patriotism and guns.
confident and join the What is not
military. -Slogan with addressed on
“Attack” and “Buy purpose? Soldiers
war bonds” makes getting attack from
people to be more the enemies. The
confident of their way they attack their
country. enemies.

Why did the This is a secondary This report was done We see a general It does not tell us why
government choose source where the to see how many decline in the the number of
to show the life in government reviews the soldiers was sent to number of volunteers are going
trenches as they did? numbers of volunteers the war between 1914 volunteers. From down.
and conscripts - 1918 the peak number
of volunteers in
Monthly recruiting figures september in 1914
for the British Army in to the lowest
the First World War. number in January
Monthly recruiting figures 1916, we see a
for the British Army in the decline of 90%
First World War. (2017,
November 07). Retrieved
from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/Monthly_recruiting_figures
_fo

Why were numbers of This is a secondary source. This is used for The first 8500 It does not tell us
volunteers for the war teaching people about strong groups of what happened after
dropping in 1915? Recruiting and volunteers, Falling NZEF soldiers left the number of
conscription. (n.d.).
short, Medical New Zealand in volunteers going
Retrieved from
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/wa
examination, and etc. 1914. down.
r/recruiting-and-conscriptio The 6th
n Reinforcements
sailing in August
1915 and the 28th
Reinforcements in
July 1917. Each
new draft began
training as the
previous draft
prepared to
 embark for the
front.

E. Reflection:
What was easy about doing the research?
- Finding a good website and finding information to answer the sub-research question in an article was
easy during the research.

What was difficult about doing the research?

- Changing the information into my own words was difficult during the research, because there was some
hard vocabulary that I don’t know the meaning.

What did you learn from your research?

- I learned how to find some information that I can use to answer the sub-research questions. I can write
some key words of my sub-research question first, and find some trustworthy websites that has the
right information. While I was researching, I needed to make sure that it’s primary sources or secondary
sources.
- During this research, I realized that sometimes, people shouldn’t trust the government.

Definition:
Qualitative sources: Sources of information that are presented in pictures or texts. Qualitative
sources contain mostly descriptive information. They generally include specific details and are
very open to interpretation. It can provide richer and deeper information based on study of a few
people or individuals. It can often answer “why” and “how” questions.
Example: Posters, diaries, biographies, letters, photos, graffiti, etc

Quantitative sources: Sources of information that is often presented in numbers and statistics.
Quantitative sources can provide a good overall picture of a population. People can generally
figure out patterns and trends from how the number changes. This type of information is
extremely important for describing “who”, “what”, “where”, and “when”.
Examples: government census and records. Surveys