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Originally Posted by AelyaS
Does anybody have a straightforward answer as to what exactly is covered in this course? The course description is very flowery and vague.
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I took Inquiry, but the soc sci one. They are essentially the same, except each course offers a different topic.
Basically, this course is designed to teach you how to properly write a university essay. Every assignment you do, in some way shape or form contributes towards your exam, which is an essay you will be writing over the course of the semester.
The course provides you with a general theme, when I took the course it was economic globalization in 3rd world countries. From this general theme you are expected to narrow it down to your own original thesis. I narrowed mine down to Coca Colonization being bad because of neoliberal econ policies - I forget what it was exactly.
Anyways, you'll have two assignments, two tests, a presentation and your final essay to write.
The two assignments are designed to help your build your essay. The first one is about trying to find a good thesis and the second one gets you used to using academic articles, something you be expected to use for the majority of your essay's information.
The two tests are a Library Test and an Academic Integrity test. The library test is a complete joke. It asks you questions like, how do you find a book in the library, scholarly article, how to use the internet, etc. Things you should already know. You'll learn all the information in the two library sessions. Its also worth 15% of your grade, so it boosts your mark up a lot.
The second test is essentially about plagiarism, what is is, how to avoid it, and McMasters policy towards it. Again, for the most part you should already know this, its common sense. It will also be repeated in class.
These two tests are really easy. I didn't study for either and got 100% on both.
You'll also have an in class presentation, which is essentially you telling the class about your topic, why its important etc. Your expected to talk for 30 minutes.
Finally there is the final essay. The length of it depends on your teacher.
Looking at my final word count, my final essay was 5,500 words but that includes an abstract, annotated bib, etc.
Attending class was for me a complete waste of time. It was the worst 3 hours of my life, and unfortunately because these classes are fairly small and seeing how you are marked for attendance and for paying attention (i.e. not using cellphone/iPod) it gets really dry. The prof will mainly talk about the general theme of the course, show some videos and talk about the assignment and related topics. Again it is really boring, but participation marks play a huge role in the class so if you don't attend your mark will drop drastically - which sucks.
Overall it is a fairly easy class.
My advice to you is to do EXACTLY what is stated on the assignment outline, and constantly keep in touch with your prof about the assignments. For my first assignment I only followed the a basic outline but apparently mt prof wanted waaaay more.
Afterwards, before assignments I always sent an email for clarification and it helped a lot.
Try and do well on all the assignments. As I said before, I did bad on my first one, and it was lame because I had to work a bit harder to improve my grade. Luckily for me my final essay and presentation were amazing and I got a 12 in the course, but you don't want to necessarily be in the position to have your final essay raise or drop your mark so much.
As a finale note, your grades throughout your university career are monitored by the prof's of these classes. They use it in studies to show that people who take these courses do better overall than people who don't.
I found the class to be a huge waste of time, mainly because I knew everything before taking this course. I took it in second semester so I had already written uni essays and my high school did a good job preparing me for uni.
But its a good course to raise your average, but be warned. Its super ****ing boring.
