Hey,

Did anyone recently take LABR ST 1A03? If so, can you please let me and everyone else who is potentially reading this thread for information on what the course is about? Do you have to be a strong essay writer in this course? What to expect, what not to expect, etc? Thank you very much,

herBs

Anyone?
/12chars

I had it last year with Dr. Goutor. He's not the best lecturer I've ever heard but he's thorough, knows his subjects well, is willing to help with any problem you put in front of him and his expectations are clear for his assignments. Once you pick your essay topic, make a well formed argument and you'll easily get an A. That said, I wouldn't pick this class if you're planning on skipping, the details that get the A's on his exams are from the lectures. His exams are part Identify and Explain the significance of (5 topics), 1 or 2 short answers and an essay. Truthfully, he's one of the reasons I switched from Sociology to Labour Studies.

Hope that helps.

Originally Posted by jackiemac

I had it last year with Dr. Goutor. He's not the best lecturer I've ever heard but he's thorough, knows his subjects well, is willing to help with any problem you put in front of him and his expectations are clear for his assignments. Once you pick your essay topic, make a well formed argument and you'll easily get an A. That said, I wouldn't pick this class if you're planning on skipping, the details that get the A's on his exams are from the lectures. His exams are part Identify and Explain the significance of (5 topics), 1 or 2 short answers and an essay. Truthfully, he's one of the reasons I switched from Sociology to Labour Studies.

Hope that helps.

That sounds easy enough, thank you! How strong of an essay writer does one have to be to succeed in this course?

He seems much more concerned about how well you can argue your point over how eloquent you can be about it. Does that make sense?

Sort of, I had to Google define eloquent. So he cares more about how well you can argue your point compared to how you actually write the essay (like bad grammar, or something?). Could you give me an example to better explain what he wants? Also, how bad are the readings? Is there a lot of readings/weekly or is it really easily manageable? Is the textbook required for the course?

You've got it right. State your argument and then support it strongly. He does not care about big words or complex paragraphs as much as he cares about making sure you understand the concepts presented in class and how well you can relate to what you've learned.

There are not a lot of readings, I skipped a few readings in favour of making it to the lectures. If you take a picture of the table of contents for the courseware, I'll check and see how similar it is and sell you my copy if you want. They typically don't vary much year to year.

What do you do in the tutorials for this class and what was the mark breakdown of the course when you took it?

Originally Posted by herBs

What do you do in the tutorials for this class and what was the mark breakdown of the course when you took it?

Tutorials would just be discussion of the readings for the week, assignments, etc. Breakdown for the course was something like 20% midterm, 20% tutorial (10 tutorials, 1 mark for showing up, 1 mark for particpation), 30% essay (I'm including the two assignments, the proposal and the actual essay), 30% final.