DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - TMA04 - The final straight.

I'm running out of time now. With the previous TMA's I would have had this this written, re-read, re-written and submitted well before now. I currently have a book of notes, a pretty good start, an idea of a conclusion, so I just have to bulk the middle out and tidy it up.

Sounds easy, but I think this is going to go right to the wire. I hope I find the next TMA more interesting.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - Week 15

The suggested time table for Week 15

   
     ‘Conclusion’ to the ‘Ordered lives’ strand (30 minutes)
     Online Reflective Quiz: Making Social Lives, ‘Ordered lives’ (10–15 minutes)
     ‘Reflections on “Ordered lives”’ (Audio CD 3) (30 minutes).    
     Most of your time this week will be spent on Assignment 04.

To be completed by 27th May.


"Most of your time this week will be spent on Assignment 04." should have read "Most of your time this week will be spent avoiding Assignment 04."

Not much of help in this last bit of this section towards the TMA, not that I thought there would be, but as per the old addage 'better safe than sorry' I thought it best to get this out the way just in case there was anything earth shattering in it.

So a couple of days and the bank holiday to get this pesky TMA sorted.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - Week 14

The suggested time table for Week 14

   
     Online Activity 27 (1 hour)
     Chapter 9 of Making Social Lives ( 7 hours)
     Online Activities 28–29 (2 hours)
     ‘Making connections: sociology and social policy’ (Making connections Audio CD) (45 minutes)
     Online Quiz: Making Social Lives, Chapter 9 (10–15 minutes)

To be completed by 20th May.

This week has just been a real struggle, reading the chapter was a struggle, not that interesting and finding the motivation to write this TMA is an even bigger struggle.

I guess it is partly 'cos I have so much else going on and working away from home doesn't help. I have picked out most of the points I want to include in the essay, so it is really a matter of stitching them all together into a sensible order and then an iterative process of refining the points, word count and such like.

So I guess it's time to stop avoiding it and crack on.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - TMA04 - Struggling to get going

It has been really easy to find other things to do instead if this TMA, indeed doing nothing has been preferable to doing this TMA. It just seems to be a case of regurgitating the information presented in Chapter 7 in another way, and it is not as though we have the challenge of interpreting data or drawing our own conclusions or ideas.

Added to this, I've given up on Chapter 9 after a good go at it. I struggled through the introduction and then gave up. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the TMA and once I have the assignment written I may give it a second go.

So now I'm basically deep in to a mid-course malaise. I have the books out and it would appear most of what I need is in the conclusion to Chapter 7, so I better get regurgitating........

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - TMA03 Marked and Returned

After another wait, it seemed ages but it was really only about 10 days which is not bad, I got the TMA03 marks back. I picked up a couple of points on the last two TMAs which is good, so another solid Pass 1.

Both parts received the same mark and there were no adverse comments from my tutor so I guess it was a competent essay, just not a brilliant one, and I can live with that.

So, on to the next TMA, and I think this one is going to be a bit more difficult.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - TMA04 - Lack of motivation

I've been struggling to make any headway on either the last chapter in this section or the TMA. The last chapter on Census & Population has nothing to do with the TMA and I've had a go at readingt it but I have little interest in the content.

Likewise, with the deadline seemingly so far away and still no result from the last assignment, it is hard to really knuckle down to writing this one.

Hopefully, I will have started in some meaningful way by this Sunday.........

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - TMA04 - What to write about - what NOT to write about.

Although I think that Chapter 8 is a lot more interesting than Chapter 7, and I could write a lot  about Cohen, Hall & Huesman and their 'moral panic' and 'policing the crisis', having started to plan the essay I think that the question "Compare and contrast two views of how social order is produced in public spaces." makes it pretty clear really that this is about the creation of social order on the roads in Chapter 7, and not about 'Disorder' in Chapter 8.

Oh well, it may be less interesting, but this essay is about grinding out the relevant facts, concepts and theorems in a form that the OU want - its not meant to be fun :-)

Chapter 7 it is then.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - Week 13

The suggested time table for Week 13

 
     Chapter 8 of Making Social Lives (7 hours)
     Online Activities 24–26 (2 hours 30 minutes)
     ‘The making of order and disorder’ (Audio CD 3) (45 minutes)
     Online Quiz: Making Social Lives, Chapter 8 (10–15 minutes)

To be completed by 13th May.

Well... this chapter has put the cat amongst the pigeons. I thought I was petty sure that Chapter 7 was key for the TMA, but Chapter 8 has 3 views from which to chose two to compare and contrast, with views from Cohen, Hall & Huesman. Additionally, social order and disorder and the media's involvement  is probably more interesting than traffic measures, but there was just so much supporting information in the Online Activities.

As if it wasn't hard enough, I am now going to worry continually that I have made the wrong choice whatever choice I happen to make. I will see if I can re-scan the two chapters again and make a decision before Monday and start getting some words down next week.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - Week 12

The suggested time table for Week 12

    
     ‘Introduction’ to the ‘Ordered lives’ strand (45 minutes)
     Chapter 7 of Making Social Lives (7 hours)
     Online Activities 22 and 23 (2 hours)
     ‘Making and comparing arguments’ (Developing skills Audio CD) (45 minutes)
     Online Quiz: Making Social Lives, Chapter 7 (10–15 minutes)

To be completed by 6th May.

"Making Social Order", Chapter 7, was an interesting read, and with Online Activities 22 & 23 all about the ideas of Goffman and Foucault, and the papers from Buchanan and Monderman, it looks like this chapter pretty much sets itself up as containing the answer to TMA04, a 1500 word essay on "Compare and contrast two views of how social order is produced in public spaces."

Having scanned the next two chapters I can't see an alternative set of views that are as rich in information, and Chapter 9 about the census seems out of order, as that would have been better read before TMA03.

So I guess the hard part of this essay is, a good and thorough introduction, properly planned and written answer that addresses the question to 'compare and contrast', a suitable conclusion and everything well referenced.

So I need to re-read the chapter making notes specifically for the TMA, re-read the section on answering questions and check I know what they want from compare and contrast, and then I can start on the essay while working through the other two weeks work

There is now only about 3 weeks until it has to be submitted, seems a quick turn around on this one.