Taken in AY16/17 Sem 2
Lecturer: No lectures
Tutor: Professor Natalie Hudson
Workload: 1h Tutorial per week, Introductory Email, Blog Post, Oral Presentation, Film Review, Reflection Letter. No Finals No Midterms.
This module is compulsory for all FASS students. So you gotta take it no matter what. They will allocate this module to you in either semester 1 or 2.
Tutorial: Prof Natalie is very friendly and engages everyone in her lesson. The lesson notes that are uploaded on IVLE are very longgg and you’ll just lose track of what you’re reading after some time. Prof Natalie didn’t stick to the notes exactly, but she picked out important areas and went through them in class. She also introduces several mini in-class activities for us to keep the lesson engaging. Otherwise, we’ll probably just doze off or something.
Graded Assignments: Similar to FAS1101, there are no mid-terms or finals, but there are several graded assignments that you need to submit as the semester goes by.
Introductory Email: I’s just a short email, 300 words, telling the tutor about yourself. They’ll teach you how to write a proper email, what fonts to use, how short and sweet you must keep it. It isn’t even graded, but it’s just like a mock test assignment to warm you up for the semester. And at least it’s more fun that writing essays I feel. (like those in FAS1101)
Blog Post: Next up, in groups of 3, you will have to choose a social issue in Singapore. You can choose Poverty, Obesity, Education or up to you but must be related to Singapore. Then you have to write a blog post about it. About 700 words. It’s really not a lot of words to spare; I always have too much to write about. There are also peer reviews that you must do. Meaning you review and give suggestions for your friends to improve. This counts towards your class participation marks. And you have to constantly submit your peer reviews and assignments on IVLE before the deadline!
Oral Presentation: Next, you have to give an oral presentation about the social issue that your group have chosen. Each group has about 10-12minutes. You’ll be graded on your content and how well you deliver it. Of course there are notes and lessons that the tutor will go through with you to prepare you! Ted-ed videos are generally great examples of how to present well. You can also use props to get more marks, if it is used appropriately. This is around the Mid-Terms period.
Film Review: Next, you have to choose a film of your choice. It can be a movie, documentary, k-drama episode, or even a 1-min long video clip also can, as long as it shows the social issue you wrote about in your blog post. From there, you have to review this video using film review techniques which you’ll learn too. I always thought that film reviews are OTOT just write, but seems like there’s a format to follow. So I guess Module Reviews like the ones I write should have a format too but please let’s not go there. I know I tend to write too much. Anw, this film review is maximum 600 words which is not a lot. Especially coz mine was a 1hr long documentary so there was a lot to talk about. There’s peer reviews to be done for this assignment too!
Reflection Letter: This is the final assignment due in like Week 12. It’s just your reflection about this module in general, what you have learnt, and how you plan to apply the skills that you have gained in the future. It’s just a short 500-word reflection letter which is too short as usual. But it’s easy to score!
On overall, this mod helped me a bit in my writing skills especially for emails, as well as oral presentation skills. Blog post and film reviews, I’m not sure when I’ll really need to use them but I guess it’s a nice secondary skill to learn. Can get a little boring but like I said, Prof Natalie made it so much more interesting and interactive so I enjoyed her lessons a lot! Anyway, at least it had more variety than just essays essays essays in FAS1101. Got an A- for this module :’)
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