Posts Tagged ‘Week 8’

  • Results

    Date: 2009.10.26 | Category: Study Reflections, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

    Reflection
    Unit: SSK12
    Week: 9
    Date: 26 October 2009

    I have finally got my results back for my first two university assignments. It is difficult to hide my disappointment. I know I shouldn’t be disappointed with my results because they are my first ones and they are good ones, but that doesn’t change the fact that I am disappointed, no matter how irrational.

    I got a Distinction for my Learning Log, which I of course is an excellent result, especially for my first submission, and I am very happy with that result, but I made a silly mistake. My mistake was that I had listed the main points of my reading reviews. Koral had stated that she did not want to see lists (admittedly I thought that was in reference to the essays, but to be truthful I don’t believe I was thinking at all). The fact of the matter is I didn’t do what I was told and it is irritating when you know you could have done better. On the bright side, I’ll be sure to present the main points in prose for the next one.

    My other result was my essay. This one was really disappointing for me. I got a Credit, and again, I shouldn’t be disappointed with that result, especially as it was my first essay at university level, because I think Koral was kind to me, and it is as good result. I am learning after all. I guess I’m not disappointed at the result. My real disappointment lay in the actual output that I delivered. While I was waiting for the essay to get marked, I pored over it several times. I knew in myself that it wasn’t a good one. I felt the argument was weak, I wasn’t sure I’d even answered the question and the conclusion was too short and awkward. I found Koral’s comments helpful, but they demonstrated the gap I need to bridge in order to produce an acceptable essay. I believe my thesis needs to be clearer, I have to work on my structure (including my paragraph lengths) and Koral confirmed my atrocious conclusion. That’s not mentioning the silly faux pas I made. :-S

    This entry is seeming a little negative, but as I reflect on the last week it is not surprising. Week 8 has been a particularly low week for me. Besides my irrational reaction to my results, I’ve also been contemplating my participation in the online tutorials. I believe my posting in the tutorials has become a tool for procrastination preventing me from completing my Learning Skills exercises. Also, this might be an overactive self-analysis, but I have read over my posts and I’m afraid that I might be more of a hindrance than a help. I’m beginning to wonder if my posts might be prohibitive to other students making their own contributions. What is more disturbing is that I feel that the posts might come across as authoritative and condescending. I especially got this sense after reading my post on the Grant reading. For now I think I should just dial it back a bit.

    Finally, I find myself in a quandary over my future studies. I had come into this unit with the intention of doing a Bachelor of Business Studies, mainly for vocational reasons, but that isn’t what I really want to be doing. I’m two thirds of the way through this unit and I’m really starting to believe I should be doing something else. For many years now, in my spare time I have studied the sort of content that we have been studying for SSK12. Philosophy has been a considerable part of my life for at least the last five years and now I’m wondering if I should be studying this in a formal capacity. I have spoken to a few people about this dilemma I find myself in, probably too many people, and consequently I feel like I am being pull from pillar to post. Everyone has an opinion, and of course that’s the reason I ask them in the first place. This is already sounding silly. My sister is trying to convince me I should be doing something I am interested in, while my colleagues are telling me I should consider carefully what is beneficial to my career. To be truthful, neither of those responses surprise me. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that I have so many interests. So there’s philosophy, psychology, linguistics and language (particularly semitic languages, but French and Hindi make an appearance too), and of course Israel and all things Hebrew. I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point. With so many interests where do I go?

  • Directive verbs and their associated structure

    Date: 2009.10.21 | Category: Study Reflections, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

    Reflection
    Unit: SSK12
    Week: 8
    Date: 21 October 2009

    Koral provides some explanation regarding essay structure according to the directive verbs found in the topic question:

    Ok thanks for the reminder, at this point in the edsay process I like to post some stuff from a colleague at Murdoch, Ian Cook:

    Ian Cook tells us that there are four basic types of directive words to be found in essay questions and, therefore, four basic essay structures. Each structure then will have a slightly different plan style. (Essay questions will also contain ‘content words’, i.e. what concepts or ideas the essay is about.)

    Sometimes there will be more than one directive word in a question however.
    In this case, the essay will need to be organised into section in which each of the directive words is used as the basis for the structure of that section.

    The types of question are as follows:
    1) ‘is/can/does’ type of questions
    2) ‘explain/outline/why/account for’
    3) ‘discuss/critically assess/critically evaluate’
    4) ‘to what extent’ type of questions..

    (“How” is a difficult one as it could be “How does X relate to Y?” or it could be “How important is X?”)

    These do not exhaust the possibilities with respect to directive words and are intended to illustrate the general principle.
    Answering a question or responding to a topic with one type of directive word is entirely different from answering a question or responding to a topic with another type of directive word.
    Identifying the directive word that governs a question or topic means that we can identify the basic structure (what I refer to as a “block plan”) of the essay that would answer the question or respond effectively to the topic. The basic structures that match the types of directive words are indicated by the following:

    1) yes case-no case-my case or no case-yes case-my case
    2) list
    3) model & analysis
    4) continuum

    OK. I will post further on these structure soon.
    What have you got there in relation to these models?
    K.