Monday, March 3, 2008

The Diary Project

Hi everyone

Thursdays assignment was a huge success in my opinion. On the one hand, it highlighted the concerns and issues mulling about in everyones minds, made you think about the project in that defined space of time, and allowed me insight into the next phase of the data collection process. The reason taht I provided a platform for pooling data is, as we discussed, about using local resource in order to make sense of contemporary theory available to us, and create our own ideological stances.

We have only two weeks to the Monday 17 March 2008 when I will take in your draft essays for reviewing. Remember what I said: carry out interviews, transcribe them, go throught the material with colour pens to highlight themes of relevance, look at your choice of essay questions, find readings around these themes (reading pack, articles, journals, media, extra readings in the library/online) and start to put this recipe together.

Cakes are DUE:
Please note that I will only accept essays handed in to me during class, and will return these to you on Thursday 20 March during the last lecture. (For those still not sure of the structure, we have lectures on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday) The final essay should be reworked over the study break and handed in on Wednesday 2 April 2008 by 12 noon.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

today's lecture was a great help as it cleared up a lot of things regarding the diary project.

i think thursday's reflective essay was a success... well for me, because it made me sit down and actually think about what i am doing ...regarding the diary project and sociology as a whole and it really put things into perspective for me.

however i think that it would have been better if you told us from the beginning what the diary project is about and all the steps required. i think that revealing things one step at a time is not that effective because (well for me) it is easier to work or begin a project if you know what is expected of you throughout the assignment and you have a vague idea of what the end result should be.
on the other hand im sure there was a reason you introduced us to the diary project the way you did. - it would have skewed the research.
thats my opinion.hope it is fine that i aired it as a public transcript.or would it have been better as a hidden transcript?
hope you do not mind me making my opinion be known. everything i said was said with the utmost respect for you as a lecturer.
thank you

Reesha Kara
206506958

Shafinaaz Hassim said...

Hi there Reesha

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and reflections; I kind of planned the step-by-step revelations for as we went along, and it would make very little sense (and be totally overwhelming) if I had told all at once. Also, there is this idea of taking things for granted when we have the whole picture in front of us. So, in my experience, the creative process needs some amount of uncertainty and jsut enough of guidance in order to reveal a holistic creative product :)

See yourself as part of the bigger project of creativity. Have you ever watched any of the Karate Kid movies? It all follows eventually. But it takes some time and commitment to break our old habits of being used to spoonfeeding..
I am an artist and a writer, and so my point of reference differs somewhat. Well, maybe not 'differs' as such, but everything I do is a reflection of my own creative processes.

Anonymous said...

yesterdays lecture was very informative with regard to the diary project. I now know what expected of me and i think this project is going to benefit us as it makes me feel like I am designing my own 'theory' or book.
Thanks
Perfect

Anonymous said...

hi there

i think that thursdays reflective work was very helpful, it cleared up alot of stuff, and looking back at the interviews made me realise just how many different opinions people have about different ideas.

it is quite interesting to talk to other people and ask them questions about their beliefs.

Anonymous said...

This diary project has got me scared seriously. Just thinking about the fact that I have to do it gives me a splitting headache! At this moment a part of me wishes that I never chose sociology as a major (actually I feel worse than this) am stuck there is no way out.

Another part of me is actually excited to be part of the diary project. Deep down I would love to learn and do it as best as I can. I know I can do it & I have attempted some interviews, 2 to be precise, but I just ended up feeling as though I was bothering the person (Am I asking more than they are willing to share?) The truth is I was intimidated.

My dear lecturer I need your guidance!!! ( the problem is even if I were to come to your office, I don't know what exactly to ask you regarding the diary project.)

Precious Majola
206508899

Anonymous said...

i was thinking about why i felt the way i did about the way you revealed the diary project to us.

i think it is beacuse i forgot to get out of industrial psychology and get into sociology. in idustrial psychology the end picture(vision) is really important in having a successful organisation ... so yea ..sorrry
but thanks again.

you rock as a lecturer. i am glad i kept sociology as one of my majors. this has been the best and most interesting course out of the whole sociology program by far(from 1st year). thank you again for an enjoyable course.

Reesha Kara
206506958

Anonymous said...

hi there

i think that thursdays reflective work was very helpful, it cleared up alot of stuff, and looking back at the interviews made me realise just how many different opinions people have about different ideas.

it is quite interesting to talk to other people and ask them questions about their beliefs.

L Chetty

Anonymous said...

Hi everyone.

I also found the thursday task quite ussefull. And i agree with Reesha, it would have been even better if the proccedure was disclosed to it at the beginning.
Otherwise all the sessions we have had have proven productive to because each day i see light.

Anonymous said...

your review of the diary project was of sincere help you know i've been attending lectures from the first day but still i had no idea what was expected of me about the diary project. the review brought some sort of insight to me thanx a lot for ur effort to make us understand. you are so caring you know that! thanx for even giving us a chance to submitt a draft first because ul help those who are going the wrong direction. ur a star!!!!!!

lorraine 206509537

Anonymous said...

I am getting EXTREMELY frustrated!I have been writing comments but they havent been put on the blog!Am I doing it wrong?I don't want to loose marks over this!!!!

Kimberly Harslief 206505971

Shafinaaz Hassim said...

hey guys: if you're having concerns about the diary project, come see me, and please feel free to put up questions here at the blog or ask them in class! that way, we can all learn from the process, the concerns, the problems faced and we can inform each other. precious: you dont have to have a question, just come in and chat about what you've done and lets see where you're going with the interviews,etc.

Shafinaaz Hassim said...

thanks for the shared reflections as usual.. the reason for the draft hand-in is that it gets you to focus the research in the next two weeks and gives me time to help you to iron out the problems, so that by the time you're graded, you have a chance of passing. how well your grade turns out is entirely up to you and depends on how much effort is made in tying together the readings, theory, class discussion examples and of course, your interview data. Try as best you can to analyse your data looking constantly back to notes and readings (course pack as well as at least five additional readings!!!)

Come in and chat to me!
My Consultation times are:
Monday 9:30-11
Tuesday 12-2
Wednesday 10-11
Thursday 9:30-11

Anonymous said...

hey

I was not sure of what is expected of me in terms of the diary project, but the lecture we had about the diary project was a bit helpful and now i think i have a better understanding in terms of the diary project,and through interviewing some people, i have realised how amazing other people's life stories can be.

Anonymous said...

Im truly overwhelmed by this assignment.The fact that u continously talk us through the exercise helps but also adds on the pressure.

206516506

Anonymous said...

hey i was wondering if i could ask exactly what do you require of us to do in tis dairy project, so far i have done my interviews and thats it, i dont know where to go from there, 206503196

Anonymous said...

hi there
I just wanted to know how do you incorporate your own reflecting into the essay, the assumptions that you had or even your own identity if there are same to the people that you interview?

Nmpe Ntombela 206506799

Anonymous said...

Hi Guys
I have recently done this interview with a guy from Belgium.He i s originaly from Africa. This interview turned out to be very emotional to me as this guy said that he doesnt know what his identity is beacuase he have been travelling all over the world with his family. He is not sure if he should construct his identity by the place where he was born...the problem with this construction is that the rest of the siblings in his family were not born in the same place...this means that each individual person in the family will have different identities then,....i could'nt help myself but feel sory fr the guy

Anonymous said...

Good afternoon,anonymous i do not think you should use that data for your final essay as the person you interviewed did not give the information you needed and is very concious about his identity and therefore his data will not be realiable.

Anonymous said...

i think that this diary project will give us some experience as to how to conduct research in the real world, we have been doing theories since first year and it is really starting to get boring. thanks. their are things that i stil dont understand about culture and identity but i am certain as time goes on it will get better. thanks

Anonymous said...

i think the double lecture on tuesday was a success for me because i finally understood how i can go about deconstructing peoples life experiences in a sociological manner, that part of the diary project was a bit unclear to me
i also agree with the the persons statement who said that this project will help us learn how to conduct research for many of us that want to do postgrad studies it will help us a lot

Shafinaaz Hassim said...

note: anon comments no. 3 and no. 17 identified by student author Perfect Ngcobo.