Tutorial attendance and participation. The tutorial session provides the opportunity for students to engage in active peer discussion and participatory learning. The tutorial depends for its success upon your participation. The guiding philosophy of each group needs to be: ‘How can we get the most out of the space, time and resources available to us for open discussion?’Tutorials are not mini-lectures. They are an opportunity for you to express your ideas and raise questions about the material you are encountering in lectures and in the readings. Tutorial sessions also provide students with a supportive environment in which to learn how to raise questions and articulate ideas. On occasions you may be asked to do other kinds of preparations, such as look up websites, read charts, analyse images etc. There will also be group work in class. You are expected to have read the set material before class and come ready and willing to both actively listen and participate in discussions of both lecture material and the set readings, as well as engage in group work in the class. Contribution may involve asking and answering questions, group work and general discussion. You are expected to attend at least 80% of tutorials.  Relevant documentation must be provided if you miss any tutorials.

External Students: Instead of tutorial attendance worth 15%, external students will be expected to participate in a weekly online discussion forum via Ilearn. Please contact your external tutor Sheree.Klein@mq.edu.au if you have any problems enrolling in these online discussions.

External students are expected to enter a minimum of one posting per week on the online discussions via ilearn. The entry should contain either reflections on the readings, a summary of the key points or concepts in the readings, and/or should attempt to answer at elast one of the questions/projects assigned for each week. You may also respond to comments posted by fellow students on the discussion board. This exercise will be graded according to the number of responses, as well as the quality of the reflections that you are able to make on the readings in the course outline. You are expected to respond to at least 80% of the course materials.

 Goffman and ‘The Presentation of Self’ : Critical Review 

**Erving, Goffman. 1959.The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, New York: Anchor Books. pp 1-16 (In course reader and on E-Reserve)

The task is to write a 750-850 word review in which you outline the main ideas and argument proposed by the author. Your review should, however, go beyond a summary of the key points. It should try to highlight the key terms and how these relate to the study of everyday life. In other words, the review should include your own evaluation of the author’s intent and the success of the argument/and or theme discussed. It is also a writing exercise and you should try not to exceed the 750-850 word limit. No additional references are required for this exercise.

In your review you should focus on the following questions:

1. What does Goffman mean by the ‘presentation of the self’ in everyday life’?

2. How does the social context in which social interactions occur affect Goffman’s idea of ‘impression management?” Provide two examples, one from the text and one of your own. (Here you might think about the difference between formal settings, for example, school, work, the lecture etc, and informal settings, for example home; parties with friends).

3. Finally, Goffman defines social interaction as “the reciprocal influence of individuals upon one another’s actions when in one another’s immediate physical presence”(1959:15). Can Goffman’s ideas of impression management be applied to the on-line social environment? Illustrate your answer with at least one example.

Your review should be written in essay format, with clear introduction, conclusion and paragraphs using the sociology referencing style. See the soc 180 web site for guides to writing and referencing.

Choose ONE of the following TWO options a) Visual Analysis b) Essay.

a) Visual Analysis.

Select an advertisement from a recent newspaper or magazine (print advertisements only). Utilizing a semiotic analysis try to decode the meaning of the image. How does the image generate meaning? How does it connote /denote meaning? Is it polysemic? Does it play with social convention? Does it work? Secondly, what does the image/advertisement say about contemporary everyday life and the people who consume and participate in it? You must also use in your analysis at least one of the concepts and theories studied in the unit (For example, gender, class, the body, modernity, postmodernity, consumption, commodification, individualization, identity, taste etc), as well as cite scholarly references in support of your interpretation. Please attach a copy of the advertisement with the hard copy of your essay that you submit. Lectures in Week 4: ‘Semiotics and Visual Social Research’ will provide useful hints on how you go about writing and researching this essay.

 OR

 b) Essay

‘What we all do everyday, what we take for granted and can rarely explain. . . [may] reveal a great deal about ourselves and modern life" (Finkelstein 1994: xiii).

Choose a topic or aspect of everyday life and explain what it tells us about the people who consume/participate in it, as well as what it says about modern life. Your analysis should focus on a single activity, product or space in everyday life. You may want to use Finkelstein’s entries in her A-Z of Consumer Pleasures as a template. (The book is on reserve in the library and there are chapters of the book on SOC 180 E-reserve). You may focus on any of the themes/topics discussed in the unit, or you may select any other topic that interests you. However, in your essay you need to employ at least one of the concepts and/or theories studied in the unit (for example,  gender, class, taste, presentation of the self, rationalization, consumption, commodification, ritual, modernity, postmodernity), as well as cite scholarly references in support of your interpretation.

Begin your essay by describing your observation, activity or product in everyday life; then apply the relevant sociological theories/concepts in your analysis and demonstrate what it reveals about ourselves and the social forces that shape our everyday lives. We encourage you to ask your tutor to discuss some of the techniques for putting an essay together. Lecture 5 in this course will also provide you with research strategies and information about data bases in the library to research your topic. This lecture will also be useful for all your future essay writing in sociology, as well as other disciplines.

Word Limit for both Visual Analysis and Essay is 1,200 -1,500 words.

Final Take Home Exam

The take-home exam will be based on all the readings and the lecture content covered in SOC 180 over the semester. The exam will be designed to test your understanding of key concepts and ideas covered in the course,  as well as your understanding of the required course readings for each week's lecture and tutorial discussion.  Further instructions for the exam will be announced in the final lecture of week 12 of the course and posted on the ilearn SOC 180 website.

YOU MUST SUBMIT ALL YOUR ESSAYS AND THE TAKE-HOME EXAM THROUGH TURNITIN.  

YOU MUST ALSO PROVIDE A HARDCOPY OF ALL YOUR ASSIGNMENTS TO BE HANDED IN BY THE DUE DATES ABOVE TO THE SOCIOLOGY ASSIGNMENT BOX IN W6A (GROUND FLOOR)

Please attach a cover sheet to all your hard copy assignments and make sure you fill out  all the details,  including, please,  your tutor's name. Internal students can generate their own cover sheet from the i learn website. External students must attach the COE cover sheet which is available from the ilearn SOC180 web site.