DD101 Introducing The Social Sciences - TMA 07, on hold due to holiday

Now 'officially' on holiday until mid-September and I can't see me getting much done between now and then, so TMA 07 will be a bit of a rush on my return.....

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - TMA 06 Marked & Returned

Well a bit disappointed, lowest mark yet just managing a Pass 1, however very useful and sensible comments from my tutor.

The problem with my TMA was that I had sort of re-interpreted the question. I thought that the claim we were to evaluate has been made by Hollway in her research, she certainly supported it, but this was a more general claim and I should have looked and discussed further than just Hollways research.

On the positive side the criticism of Hollways methods and conclusions were well received.

So the main thing is with the next TMA is not to make the same mistake and to be absolutely clear who has made the claim and from what body of work or research we need to be drawing from.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - TMA 06 Submitted

Well that was a lot tighter than it should have been. Less than one hour to go before the deadline. I think it was always pretty much under control, but competing priorities meant I had to finish it off this morning. My previous Internet provider did not help, I could never recommend TalkTalk going by my experience of the last 3 months. As of 1030 this morning I am a BT Infinity customer and the download speeds are staggeringly good, however as I was disconnected from my previous supplier earlier than expected, I was a bit unsure if I could submit from home or would have to go out and find a hotspot - but it all came good in the end.

The TMA actually, I hope, turned out pretty well. Seemed to get lots of arguments to question the validity of the claim and the methods used, so we will see when the mark comes through.

Oh well, better get reading for the final TMA, not long to go and I have about 3 weeks of holiday in the middle in which I intend to do no study at all !!!

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - TMA 06, not sure what happened there ?

40 minutes of judicious editing and the word count went up !!!

I'm going to have to get a bit more radical with cutting bits out, but I think that's enough for today.....

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - TMA 06, coming together but too many words.

The suggested time table for Week 26

         ‘Reflections on “Connected lives”’ (Audio CD 3) (30 minutes) .
         Online Reflective Quiz: Exploring Social Lives, ‘Connected lives’ (10–15 minutes)
         Most of your time this week will be spent on completing Assignment 06.

To be completed by 12th August.

Most of your time will be spent on TMA 06 - well your not wrong there !!!

Too many words, currently at over 1750 and need to trim back to below the 1650 target of 1500 plus 10%.

This TMA has been different from the others as it is easy to get the argument for the claim down on the paper, but the evaluation part, where I am criticising the research methods, outcomes and limited use of appropriate theories has too much information.

The audio CD on evaluating arguments says to use three tests,

1. The validity of the research - small cohort, few examples, motivations to 'find' the answer.
2. The logic behind the research findings, do they stand up to questioning.
3. Comprehensiveness, could better theories have been used to analyse the 'evidence'.

It has also been useful to look back at other TMAs mentioning identity and I have lifted references and quotes from those to use again in this TMA - the references used are as valid of this TMA as they were for the previous ones.

So it is nearly done, some trimming required and a bit of a re-read to check all points are covered, but to be honest if I am already over the word count and have missed a point it may have to stay missed :-)

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - Week 25

The suggested time table for Week 25

      Conclusion’ to the ‘Connected lives’ strand of Exploring Social Lives (30 mins)

      ‘Making connections: psychology and sociology’ ( Audio CD) (45 mins)

To be completed by 5th August.

I'm not sure what to make of the Audio CD, that's 45 minutes of life I'm never going to get back.

However on a brighter note, TMA 06 is coming together, and after leaving the last one until pretty much last minute at present I feel this one is under control. There is more work to be done, but it is really a matter of reading and re-reading the material in Chapter 6 and getting every point possible identified in regard to supporting, or not, this claim.

The problem really, and this may be mentioned in my conclusion, is that the question itself is far from ideal. It would have been far better had it been "Evaluate the claim that conflict is the main (or the only) catalyst for identity change."

The question as it stands is "Evaluate the claim that conflict is a catalyst for identity change.", the answer  is obviously Yes it is, but how important is it and of what value is the evidence that has led to this claim is what I believe this TMA is about.

Anyway, over a week to go, plenty of time :-)

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - Week 24

The suggested time table for Week 24

      Chapter 6 of Exploring Social Lives (7 hours) . 

      ‘Changing identities’ (Audio CD 2) (1 hour) .

      Online Activity 40 (1 hour) . 

      Online Quiz: Exploring Social Lives, Chapter 6 (10–15 minutes

To be completed by 29th July.

Finished the reading and rest of the work after the motivation of the phone tutorial. So pretty much back on track and the TMA is coming together, still some way short of finished but the frame work and arguments are taking shape.

After the tutorial I re-read the chapter and information I had previously dismissed as irrelevant is now very much part of the evaluation argument.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - TMA 06 Phone Tutorial

I took part in a telephone tutorial this evening. I wasn't sure how useful this would be as telephone conferences can be difficult without the visual clues and etiquette that dictate who should speak next, there was the odd incident of people talking over each other, but all-in-all it worked very well.

But best of all it was a really useful tutorial. The concerns I had about the TMA question have pretty much been answered and I now fully understand (or I think I do) the 'evaluate' part of the question - so this will be a really good practice for the TMA 07, which is another evaluate question.

I am off work tomorrow, the plumber is coming, so I am pretty enthusiastic about getting some of the ideas down on a document and from there start working these ideas etc. in to the final answer. As I said before this was a really good tutorial for me, partly because I had done a lot of pre-reading and had some ideas and questions, the other members of the group appeared to be equally prepared so there were no problems with people going off on a tangent or 'not getting it'.

So the basic plan is, explain the claim, back it up with evidence, explain the method of collecting the evidence, question the validity of the evidence and the motivations that could alter their findings, question if other theorists could explain the claim better, then a sensible conclusion. Admittedly, this is a bit sketchy, but with a bit more thought it should work - it's a mile away from where I was before the tutorial.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - Week 23

The suggested time table for Week 23

     Chapter 5 of Exploring Social Lives (7 hours) . 

     ‘Evaluating arguments’ (Developing skills Audio CD) (1 hour) .

      Online Activity 39 (1 hour) .

      Online Quiz: Exploring Social Lives, Chapter 5 (10–15 minutes)

To be completed by 22nd July.

As I'm a bit behind just skim read this,  interesting but not relevant for the TMA. Just as well there is a weeks break factored in to the schedule in August as I feel the timetable is getting away from me a bit.

Still I've started the reading for Chapter 6, so not too far behind.