Social Postures

As mentioned in a previous blog, my first assignment was a 1200 word critical analysis of an article by Felicity Lawrence about the link between class and diet in Britain.

Working on it was an interesting experience as what seemed to be an easy exercise took me a lot of effort – not so much in the critical analysis (ie the content), but more the editing thereof, the getting it down in a coherent way. The breakthrough was as simple as focussing my mind, doing a little essay plan and then filling in the blanks with content. Elementary, but in a world of distractions (mmm,the shiny internet) it was surprisingly difficult to completely put everything else aside and spend whole single hours together focussed on the assignment.

I was quite happy with the end result, though it felt quite light – 1200 words isn’t very much once you get 200 – 400 words out of the way for the introduction and conclusion. I had to leave so much out and I was worried that I’d chosen to include the less important aspects of the article. You can read it here if you like.

Anyway I got 72% and nice comments. It was weird – I wasn’t sure how to react. To me, an Australian who hasn’t studied at uni in the UK before, 72% sounds like a very average mark*. I couldn’t make sense of it, I wanted to know what my classmates had got. I wanted to know where I ranked, how I was doing compared to them. And then I reminded myself that It’s Not A Competition. I still feel like I want to know. Must. Get. Over. It.

I start serious work on assignment numbers 2 and 3 tomorrow – two essays, one for each of my modules (Foundations of Politics and Understanding the Social World). I’m hoping they’ll dovetail nicely together as I’m allowed to choose my FoP essay from a list of 15 suggested topics, and to make up my own essay title for USW. Currently winning at the moment is the ‘What is Freedom?’ essay from the FoP pool, with an USW offshoot of ‘Are the British people free?’ Time to start that reading…

* It wasn’t till I got home that my flatmate tells me it’s equivalent to a First, which I understood a lot more clearly. Damn Oxbridge.