Entry Room Tutorial Notes
We started out by discussing the different ways that ideas can be political – making use of the “What Makes ideas political?” audio. This was a way into thinking about the role of political ideas in the Cold War. As I’m afraid I said rather more times than was strictly necessary – in this Room, the Cold War offers us a way into thinking about political ideas. The room, therefore, is not strictly speaking about the Cold War – it’s about using the Cold War as a case study for thinking about political ideas.
This is what we then went on to do by discussing the range of political ideas present in the work of Stimson, Gaddis and Keylor. One of the broad conclusions of this was that - using the definition laid out in “What Makes Ideas Political?” - political ideas are a feature of all the three interpretations of the Cold War, not simply the one that emphasizes ideology. We picked out several examples of political ideas in each text.
We then went on to look at Fukuyama – focusing first on what Fukuyama takes the end of the cold war to mean for political ideas. Towards the end of the session we broadened the discussion to an assessment of whether Fukuyama is correct about his end of ideology claim.
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
More Advice on Writing - from Tom
Advice on writing the TMAs for this course
Importance of writing argumentative essays
1. Make use of the activities on the dvd-rom. These are designed to help you think critically about the material and to develop your own perspectives on it
2. Your aim is to produce essays that provide your own answer to the question, by deploying arguments and evidence designed to convince the reader of the strength of your position. Following on from this a couple of health warnings
a. Beware anecdotes: it can be very tempting to back up arguments you are making by giving direct examples from your experience. But bear in mind that while an experience you’ve had may give you a compelling reason to feel a certain way about something, if your reader hasn’t experienced it, it does not give them a compelling reason. Only use evidence that you can reasonably expect your reader to accept. For example:
“In the last 30 years the average intelligence of OU tutors has been steadily declining, according to a study conducted by Sheffield University” is much more plausible to write in an essay than “ I’ve been doing OU courses since the 1970s, and I’m sure the tutors are getting worse.” This latter argument is not very good because it may not be at all representative of what’s going on in the OU. It may simply reflect the fact that you’ve been progressively less lucky with your allocation of tutors over the years, or that as you do more courses and learn more, tutors become less and less impressive to you.
The exception to this rule is if you do have specialist knowledge, for example you might have worked for Open University recruitment for 30 years and checked the CVs of thousands of applications. You might then be able to say with considerable authority that (say) the average educational achievement of OU tutors has declined over a period.
b. The opposite extreme (and more common) problem is that you simply write essays which describe the course content. “According to Fred, x is the case, according to Jane, y is the case. To conclude: there is a disagreement amongst academics as to whether x or y is the case”. This is to be avoided! It is your job to take a view on the question you have been asked, and to defend that view, making use of the course materials in so doing. You need to do more than simply summarize the various views on the matter. Note too that this means that the view you wish to defend should appear early in the argument. Ideally, you ought to give an indication of your response to the question in the introduction – so your reader knows the position you’ll be defending, and how you plan to go about it. A common problem with essays is that people think that they should describe a lot of course content first, and assess it afterwards. This almost invariably results in your assessment of the material being crowded in to a paragraph at the end. This of course makes your arguments incomplete and ineffectual. Your thoughts should be structuring features of the TMA, not tacked on in the conclusion!
3. Please make sure that you complete Part 2 of the TMA – which asks you to reflect on an aspect of your study habits and approach. This is helpful to you in thinking about how you study, it gives your marker something to respond to and you get penalized if you don’t write something for it…
4. Please make sure you have read the information on referencing and follow it carefully in the essays. In third level courses, adequate referencing is not a ‘would be nice to have’ it’s essential. As a reminder: you need to reference all influence not just direct quotations. If you paraphrase someone’s argument, this needs a reference, if you are drawing facts from someone’s work, this needs a reference. And this is equally true of A/V materials as it is of texts!
a. Referencing A/V items
When referencing A/V items, you should be prepared to give a time in all situations where you would normally give a page number. So you’ll need to jot down the timing of particularly relevant moments in the A/Vs so you can cite them in your essays.
I promised an example of how you can contract references to Audio Visual sources for your in-text citations in the TMA – so they take up less space.
Your first reference to an A/V item should take this form
Author, date, publication title, timing
For example:
(The Open University, 2008a, 'Welcome to the course', 02:38)
Thereafter, any subsequent reference to the ‘Welcome to the course’ video can be shortened to (OU 2008a, then give the relevant timing)
Let’s say the next A/V source you cite is “What Makes Ideas Political”. Again the first reference to it will be in the longer form:
(The Open University, 2008b, “What Makes Ideas Political”, 1.45)
Subsequent references to this source become (OU 2008b timing)
And so on, the next A/V reference becomes 2008c…
Remember, the timings function like page numbers. The timing you give should refer to the part of the audio you are drawing the information from. Just as for references to texts, the page number should point to the precise location of the material you are using.
Enjoy!
Importance of writing argumentative essays
1. Make use of the activities on the dvd-rom. These are designed to help you think critically about the material and to develop your own perspectives on it
2. Your aim is to produce essays that provide your own answer to the question, by deploying arguments and evidence designed to convince the reader of the strength of your position. Following on from this a couple of health warnings
a. Beware anecdotes: it can be very tempting to back up arguments you are making by giving direct examples from your experience. But bear in mind that while an experience you’ve had may give you a compelling reason to feel a certain way about something, if your reader hasn’t experienced it, it does not give them a compelling reason. Only use evidence that you can reasonably expect your reader to accept. For example:
“In the last 30 years the average intelligence of OU tutors has been steadily declining, according to a study conducted by Sheffield University” is much more plausible to write in an essay than “ I’ve been doing OU courses since the 1970s, and I’m sure the tutors are getting worse.” This latter argument is not very good because it may not be at all representative of what’s going on in the OU. It may simply reflect the fact that you’ve been progressively less lucky with your allocation of tutors over the years, or that as you do more courses and learn more, tutors become less and less impressive to you.
The exception to this rule is if you do have specialist knowledge, for example you might have worked for Open University recruitment for 30 years and checked the CVs of thousands of applications. You might then be able to say with considerable authority that (say) the average educational achievement of OU tutors has declined over a period.
b. The opposite extreme (and more common) problem is that you simply write essays which describe the course content. “According to Fred, x is the case, according to Jane, y is the case. To conclude: there is a disagreement amongst academics as to whether x or y is the case”. This is to be avoided! It is your job to take a view on the question you have been asked, and to defend that view, making use of the course materials in so doing. You need to do more than simply summarize the various views on the matter. Note too that this means that the view you wish to defend should appear early in the argument. Ideally, you ought to give an indication of your response to the question in the introduction – so your reader knows the position you’ll be defending, and how you plan to go about it. A common problem with essays is that people think that they should describe a lot of course content first, and assess it afterwards. This almost invariably results in your assessment of the material being crowded in to a paragraph at the end. This of course makes your arguments incomplete and ineffectual. Your thoughts should be structuring features of the TMA, not tacked on in the conclusion!
3. Please make sure that you complete Part 2 of the TMA – which asks you to reflect on an aspect of your study habits and approach. This is helpful to you in thinking about how you study, it gives your marker something to respond to and you get penalized if you don’t write something for it…
4. Please make sure you have read the information on referencing and follow it carefully in the essays. In third level courses, adequate referencing is not a ‘would be nice to have’ it’s essential. As a reminder: you need to reference all influence not just direct quotations. If you paraphrase someone’s argument, this needs a reference, if you are drawing facts from someone’s work, this needs a reference. And this is equally true of A/V materials as it is of texts!
a. Referencing A/V items
When referencing A/V items, you should be prepared to give a time in all situations where you would normally give a page number. So you’ll need to jot down the timing of particularly relevant moments in the A/Vs so you can cite them in your essays.
I promised an example of how you can contract references to Audio Visual sources for your in-text citations in the TMA – so they take up less space.
Your first reference to an A/V item should take this form
Author, date, publication title, timing
For example:
(The Open University, 2008a, 'Welcome to the course', 02:38)
Thereafter, any subsequent reference to the ‘Welcome to the course’ video can be shortened to (OU 2008a, then give the relevant timing)
Let’s say the next A/V source you cite is “What Makes Ideas Political”. Again the first reference to it will be in the longer form:
(The Open University, 2008b, “What Makes Ideas Political”, 1.45)
Subsequent references to this source become (OU 2008b timing)
And so on, the next A/V reference becomes 2008c…
Remember, the timings function like page numbers. The timing you give should refer to the part of the audio you are drawing the information from. Just as for references to texts, the page number should point to the precise location of the material you are using.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
1st Tutorial - Teresa and Karem
Tutorial 1: 13th October 2010
19:00 Introductions: Tutors/Students
Tutors:
Karem Roitman-
Hi, I am Karem Roitman. I completed my DPhil and MPhil in Development Studies at the University of Oxford. My background political sociology, economics and a bit of anthropology. I am interested in processes of social exclusion and political ideas and I absolutely love this course, love teaching it, and really enjoy OU students - a really bright, really engaged group :)
I am a full time lecturer at Regent's College at the moment, so I find it difficult to reply to e-mails as quickly as I wish I could, but I always do reply so please feel free to be in touch (kroitman@gmail.com), and let me know if you want to chat so we can arrange a mutually convenient time.
Teresa Ashe-
Hi, I’m Teresa Ashe. I’m studying for a PhD in the Politics of Climate Change and my background is in philosophy, economics and global politics. I currently teach DU311: Earth in Crisis, an international environmental politics course at the OU, but this is my first year teaching DD306.
I work from home so I will usually reply to e-mail t.ashe@open.ac.uk or text 07772857928 fairly quickly. Please let me know in advance if you want to discuss extension of TMA deadlines and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Students: Name/background/why you are doing this course/something memorable about you
19:15 Review of course structure
a) 6 room, each with a topic
b) over-arching theme and educational goals
i. living ideas
ii. creating and supporting your own response to TMA questions.
c) Substitutions - not allowed for No. 3 and 6
d) Grading –
i.50% TMAs, 50% ECA
ii. Monitoring, appeals - you are free to appeal grades you think are unfair or to ask for greater clarification on any mark comment. Please also note that all of our marking is monitored to ensure we are marking fairly and at the OU standard.
iii. Hard copies - please ask tutor before submitting a hard copy of a TMA.
iv. Extension policies- Extensions will be allowed as needed by students, to a maximum of a possible 21 total days across the course. (If you obtain a one week extension for TMA 01 then you have 14 days of extension left that you can use later in the course if you need them.)You must contact the tutor and inform them you will need an extension beforehand, though and assignments turned in late will be graded with the following assignment.
e) Good TMAs
i. Structure – depth vs. breadth - TMAs are about your ideas. They are not meant to be simply a summary of all you have read.
ii. Plagiarism - don't do it!
iii. Length - 10% over or under will be penalized. Tutor might stop reading essays once they reach word limit.
iv. Citations - make sure you follow the guidance in the Entry Room
v. Editing, and editing, and re-editing - this is the only way to ensure your TMAs make sense and get your points across.
vi. Please do not e-mail TMAs to tutors
f) Purpose of tutorials
i. provide a space for you to discuss ideas in a different way
ii. not a place for lectures
iii. questions discussed in tutorials and any other information will be posted in course blog www.DD306.blogspot.com
iv. structure of tutorials:
Open questions, discussion, last 30minutes to be used by students to discuss TMA question among themselves.
19:30 Entry room discussion
Group questions (1): How is the idea of 'healthy living'/'fertility'/'art' political? What ideas are not political?
Share answers with whole group
Question for whole group:
Do most people perceive these ideas as political?
Why/why not?
What is it that makes these ideas political?
Group questions (2): What were the main political ideas affecting how we understood the war in Iraq when it started?
Why do these matter?
Group questions (3): What are the main political ideas affecting society now? Why do these matter?
Group questions (4): What is the difference between political ideas in the broad and narrow sense?
20:30 Discussion of TMA
21:00 Finish
19:00 Introductions: Tutors/Students
Tutors:
Karem Roitman-
Hi, I am Karem Roitman. I completed my DPhil and MPhil in Development Studies at the University of Oxford. My background political sociology, economics and a bit of anthropology. I am interested in processes of social exclusion and political ideas and I absolutely love this course, love teaching it, and really enjoy OU students - a really bright, really engaged group :)
I am a full time lecturer at Regent's College at the moment, so I find it difficult to reply to e-mails as quickly as I wish I could, but I always do reply so please feel free to be in touch (kroitman@gmail.com), and let me know if you want to chat so we can arrange a mutually convenient time.
Teresa Ashe-
Hi, I’m Teresa Ashe. I’m studying for a PhD in the Politics of Climate Change and my background is in philosophy, economics and global politics. I currently teach DU311: Earth in Crisis, an international environmental politics course at the OU, but this is my first year teaching DD306.
I work from home so I will usually reply to e-mail t.ashe@open.ac.uk or text 07772857928 fairly quickly. Please let me know in advance if you want to discuss extension of TMA deadlines and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Students: Name/background/why you are doing this course/something memorable about you
19:15 Review of course structure
a) 6 room, each with a topic
b) over-arching theme and educational goals
i. living ideas
ii. creating and supporting your own response to TMA questions.
c) Substitutions - not allowed for No. 3 and 6
d) Grading –
i.50% TMAs, 50% ECA
ii. Monitoring, appeals - you are free to appeal grades you think are unfair or to ask for greater clarification on any mark comment. Please also note that all of our marking is monitored to ensure we are marking fairly and at the OU standard.
iii. Hard copies - please ask tutor before submitting a hard copy of a TMA.
iv. Extension policies- Extensions will be allowed as needed by students, to a maximum of a possible 21 total days across the course. (If you obtain a one week extension for TMA 01 then you have 14 days of extension left that you can use later in the course if you need them.)You must contact the tutor and inform them you will need an extension beforehand, though and assignments turned in late will be graded with the following assignment.
e) Good TMAs
i. Structure – depth vs. breadth - TMAs are about your ideas. They are not meant to be simply a summary of all you have read.
ii. Plagiarism - don't do it!
iii. Length - 10% over or under will be penalized. Tutor might stop reading essays once they reach word limit.
iv. Citations - make sure you follow the guidance in the Entry Room
v. Editing, and editing, and re-editing - this is the only way to ensure your TMAs make sense and get your points across.
vi. Please do not e-mail TMAs to tutors
f) Purpose of tutorials
i. provide a space for you to discuss ideas in a different way
ii. not a place for lectures
iii. questions discussed in tutorials and any other information will be posted in course blog www.DD306.blogspot.com
iv. structure of tutorials:
Open questions, discussion, last 30minutes to be used by students to discuss TMA question among themselves.
19:30 Entry room discussion
Group questions (1): How is the idea of 'healthy living'/'fertility'/'art' political? What ideas are not political?
Share answers with whole group
Question for whole group:
Do most people perceive these ideas as political?
Why/why not?
What is it that makes these ideas political?
Group questions (2): What were the main political ideas affecting how we understood the war in Iraq when it started?
Why do these matter?
Group questions (3): What are the main political ideas affecting society now? Why do these matter?
Group questions (4): What is the difference between political ideas in the broad and narrow sense?
20:30 Discussion of TMA
21:00 Finish
Clarification
Dear all,
Just to note that the post on what tutors expect from DD306 is in response to a student's request for specific pointers. This is not meant to be an intimidating list, but rather a helpful discussion for you.
Just to note that the post on what tutors expect from DD306 is in response to a student's request for specific pointers. This is not meant to be an intimidating list, but rather a helpful discussion for you.
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