Introduction
SOCIOLOGY HONOURS HANDBOOK
Including Sociology 3 Handbook
2013/2014
Welcome to Sociology Honours or Sociology 3
This Handbook is intended to help you organise your work during your third year or your Honours years. Although a lot of it focuses, of necessity, on timetables, rules and regulations, we hope that these are a minor feature of your experience of sociology, and that you enjoy the next year or two years. Remember that if anything is unclear or goes wrong, there are a lot of people who can help: your course teachers, your Personal Tutor, the Honours and Sociology 3 Convenor (Stephen Kemp 1st Semester and Mary Holmes 2nd Semester), and the Head of Sociology (Nick Prior). We all keep office hours in which we see students individually (see the times on our doors and on staff web pages), and our room and telephone numbers and electronic mail addresses can be found in the section of this Handbook on Members of Teaching Staff. You will also find it helpful to use the University website to access the Sociology pages. You can go directly to the Sociology home page at www.sociology.ed.ac.uk, or reach it by following the Schools and Departments link on the University home page. Sociology is located within the School of Social and Political Science.
The School web pages for Honours students are another important resource (www.sps.ed.ac.uk/undergrad/honours/index).
Finally, although we make every effort to ensure that the information in the Handbook is accurate and up to date, we can’t always foresee changes and new developments that may take place over a two year period. We will make sure you are kept informed of any changes that affect you, via your University (i.e. sms) email account.
Stephen Kemp
Handbook Editor
All dates in this Handbook are given with respect to semesters. Dates of semesters are as follows:
2013/2014Semester 1 / 16 September 2013 - 29 November 2013 (end of teaching)
20th December 2013 (end of semester)
Semester 2 / 13th January 2014 - 4th April 2014 (end of teaching)
23rd May 2014 (end of semester)
Disabled students
The School of Social and Political Science welcomes students with disabilities (including those with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia) and is working to make all its courses accessible. If you have special needs which may require adjustments to be made to ensure access to such settings as lectures, tutorials or exams, you should discuss these with your Personal Tutor who will advise on the appropriate procedures.
You can also contact the Disability Office, Third Floor, Main Library Building, (telephone 650 6828) and an Advisor will be happy to meet with you. The Advisor can discuss possible adjustments and specific examination arrangements with you, assist you with an application for Disabled Students' Allowance, give you information about available technology and personal assistance such as note takers, proof readers or dyslexia tutors, and prepare a Learning Profile for your School which outlines recommended adjustments. You will be expected to provide the Disability Office with evidence of disability - either a letter from your GP or specialist, or evidence of specific learning difficulty. For dyslexia or dyspraxia this evidence must be a recent Chartered Educational Psychologist's assessment. If you do not have this, the Disability Office can put you in touch with an independent Educational Psychologist.
Large print versions of this Handbook and all other course materials are available, free of charge, from Karen Dargo, Room 1.03, 1st Floor, Chrystal Macmillan Building.
T A B L E OF C O N T E N T S
Page Nos.
INTRODUCTION 1-7
SOCIOLOGY SOCIETY 8
STUDENT FEEDBACK AND INPUT 9
PROGRAMME SPECIFICATION 10
HONOURS DEGREE CURRICULA 12-13
SOCIOLOGY 3 14
JUNIOR YEAR ABROAD 15
COMPULSORY AND OPTIONAL COURSES 16-17
HONOURS TIMETABLE 18
REGISTRATION 19
THE LONG-ESSAY 20-21
THE PROJECT AND DIARY 22-36
THE PROJECT PRESENTATION 37
WRITING ESSAYS AND THE PROJECT REPORT 38-44
INSTITUTE FOR ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT 45
AVOIDING PLAGIARISM 46-49
ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES 50-53
CLASSIFICATION OF DEGREES 53
SUBMISSION PROCEDURES 54-57
MEMBERS OF TEACHING STAFF 58-76
CAREER OPTIONS – WHAT NEXT AFTER GRADUATION 77
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO BY WHEN 78
INTRODUCTION
A BIT OF PAST AND PRESENT
The Department of Sociology began in 1964 when Tom Burns (1913-2001) was appointed the first Professor. Sociological research and some teaching had taken place here for several years before that - perhaps represented most notably by two famous monographs, Burns's own The Management of Innovation (written with G. Stalker) published in 1961 and Erving Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life which was originally published in Edinburgh in 1956. Burns published his acclaimed Erving Goffman in 1992.
In the Research Assessment Exercises by the Higher Education Funding Councils in 1992, 1996 and 2001, the Department got a '5', defined as having "research quality that equates to attainable levels of international excellence in some sub-areas of activity and to attainable levels of national excellence in virtually all others". In the rather more complicated exercise in 2008, Edinburgh Sociology was ranked sixth equal in the UK. In 2012 the Subject Area underwent a Teaching Programme Review as part of the University’s quality assurance procedures. This was conducted by a team comprising both internal reviewers from other Schools in the University and external reviewers from other universities. The review team commended several aspects of teaching in Sociology. In summary, they concluded that:
"The reviewers have confidence that teaching, learning and assessment in Sociology are soundly based, that the academic standards are comparable to those of the University of Edinburgh's peer institutions, and that procedures for quality assurance and enhancement adhere to accepted Scottish and UK good practice. The review area maintains an excellent quality of teaching in the context of a thriving research environment, and regularly looks to find ways in which its teaching provision can be enhanced. Academic staff are enthusiastic and well regarded by students, and students appreciate learning within the research-led environment."
The Subject Area is 'recognised' by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for postgraduate training purposes - meaning that we are eligible to hold its studentships and to have Masters and Doctoral students. If you wish to go on to postgraduate work here, please contact the postgraduate advisor at .
In the summer of 2001, the Department became a subject area of the School of Social and Political Studies, which also includes the Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS), (members of which teach several of our courses), Politics, Social Policy, Social Anthropology and Social Work.
Central, in our view, to the project of sociology is the idea that individual lives and public issues can be understood fully only by placing them in their social context. So we seek:
· to promote learning and scholarship of the highest quality, with research and teaching mutually supportive, encompassing a wide variety of topics and perspectives, relevant both to Scotland and to the wider international world;
· to contribute to critical public debate about social institutions, and to equip our students with the necessary skills to engage in and evaluate contributions to that debate;
· to foster a culture of participation, collegiality and free and rigorous inquiry.
We seek to make access as equitable as possible, for example, for those of different genders, ages, cultures, nationalities, and social classes. Our new home in the Chrystal Macmillan Building has full disabled access.
WHERE WE ARE
Sociology staff are mostly housed in the newly refurbished Chrystal Macmillan Building, 15A George Square. Staff post notice of their office hours on their doors and web pages. These are times during which they will be available to see students individually. If you cannot come during office hours, please make an appointment to see the member of staff concerned, by contacting them directly. Leave a message, telephone, or, best of all, send an email (for email addresses, see the section on Members of Teaching Staff). Karen Dargo, Sociology Subject Secretary and Student Support Officer, has an office on the first floor of Chrystal Macmillan Building, Room 1.03.
ELECTRONIC MAIL
We use University email addresses to communicate with students. We shall be advertising social events and seminars by e-mail, and individual lecturers may make use of e-mail to provide information. Check your University (i.e. sms) e-mail account regularly (several times a week), or you may miss important information relevant to courses and assessment. Do not expect us magically to discover other email addresses (e.g. on hotmail)! sms is a web-based email server which you can access from home or even from an internet cafe in Thailand. Use it! Please ensure that your sms university mail is forwarded to your other accounts, otherwise you will miss important announcements.
COMPUTING
At honours level you will do a substantial amount of work which requires you to use a computer, from word processing essays and project work, to using terminals to search for references in the library, or searching databases for references or other information. Remember that computer systems fail: save your work regularly and keep a separate, up-to-date copy of it on a separate memory stick.
You have full access to the Undergraduate Microlab (see below). The lab computing staff will offer lab familiarisation sessions and details of these will be advertised.
UNDERGRADUATE MICROLAB
Undergraduate students in the School have full 24 hour access to the computing facilities in the Undergraduate Microlab in the basement of the Chrystal Macmillan Building (rooms B.03 – 04). Access outwith normal office hours is via the external door at basement level (down ramp). The machines in the lab can be used for typing up essays and assignments, but they will also have additional software facilties for data analysis, graphics and other data/text needs. Details of lab regulations and registration requirements, or any further information, can be obtained from the lab manager, Alan Hill (Room 2.17), CMB).
READING ROOM
Further dedicated study space for undergraduates in the School can be found in the undergraduate reading room, also in the basement of the Chrystal Macmillan Building (room B.08). There are also a number of additional computers in the reading room.
SOCIOLOGY SEMINARS
You are encouraged to attend the Sociology Seminars. Details of each seminar speaker are posted by email in advance.
BRITISH SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (B.S.A.)
The B.S.A. is the professional association for sociologists in Britain. You are eligible to join and encouraged to do so. Student membership is available at a discount rate and includes six issues of the journal Sociology. Write to B.S.A., Bailey Suite, Palatine House, Belmont Business Park, Durham, DH1 1TW. Its web site can be found at http://www.britsoc.co.uk/
Here are a couple of other sociological associations you might find interesting:
The European Sociological Association: http://www.europeansociology.org
The American Sociological Association: http://www.asanet.org/
SOCIOLOGY WEB SITES
You'll find a very useful guide to free online resources in the Social Sciences at:
http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/catalogue/coll_subject_s.aspx#3
Another useful starting point is Intute. See the free online tutorials:
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/sociologist
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/social-research-methods
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/social-statistics
INTO SENIOR HONOURS AND BEYOND
As you proceed through honours you'll find that the challenges subtly alter: see e.g., Phil Race, How to Win as a Final-Year Student: Essays, Exams and Employment (Buckingham: Open University Press, 2000). As you start to make decisions about further study and/or employment, the Careers Service (3rd floor, Main Library Building) is available to assist you: see the second last page of this Handbook. Whatever you decide, you'll need letters of reference: any staff member who has taught you, not just your Personal Tutor can be asked to provide these. It is normal and in your interests to ask someone in advance if they are willing to be named as a referee, and to provide them with your curriculum vitae and the job/course particulars.
PEER SUPPORT
Sociology is running a peer support scheme for first-year students this year. Student leaders of the scheme are likely to have been selected by the point at which you read this handbook. However, if you are interested in getting involved in the scheme for next year, please contact the honours convener.
8
Sociology Society
8
Student Feedback and Input
STUDENT FEEDBACK AND INPUT
We try hard to take account of student views in planning our teaching. There are two “official” routes for this, but please don’t restrict yourself to them: a quick, informal word with a course teacher can often sort out an incipient problem.
1) Staff-Student Liaison Committee
This is convened by a member of staff with representatives from Sociology 1 and 2 as well as Sociology 3 and Honours years. It meets at least twice a year and reports to the Departmental meeting, and can be convened more frequently on request. All members of the liaison committee are free to put any item on the agenda. Whenever possible, we endeavour to take appropriate action in response to matters raised by students in this committee. In the recent past we have taken action and made reforms to procedures with respect to a number of issues raised by students, including the sessions which prepare students to do their project; the regulations concerning the late submission of assessed work; circulation of information about the project topics students are working on; and the introduction of an informal evening reception to welcome students to honours study in Sociology.
2) Course Assessment
Student reactions to individual courses are canvassed at the end of each course, usually by means of a questionnaire which all students are asked to complete. Sets of course reviews, incorporating this feedback, are available from Karen Dargo. In addition to being canvassed for feedback throughout their degree, students who are about to complete their degree programme are also asked to complete a questionnaire to provide an overall assessment of their degree in Sociology. In the review completed by students who graduated in 2013 the positive aspects most commonly singled out were the experience of doing the Honours Project, the friendly and supportive staff, and the variety of topics and choice of courses.
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Programme Specification
Programme Specification for the MA in Sociology and its associated joint degrees, University of Edinburgh
In 2000, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education published a benchmark statement for sociology to "provide a means for the academic community to describe the nature and characteristics of programmes". Amongst other things, this statement provides "general guidance for articulating the learning outcomes" for programmes such as the Edinburgh honours degree in sociology and its joint degrees. The Programme Specification has been written with this in mind and can be downloaded at: http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/undergrad/subject_and_programme_specific_information/sociology/programme_specs