Assignments: Batch Two: Assignment Nine

Devise, conduct and report on a small-scale observational study of the greeting and parting behaviour of students.

Guidance

For general guidance about what is expected in your essays for this module, see the general criteria.

What Key Features Do I Look For?

  • Familiarity with relevant texts
  • Evidence - the stronger the better
  • Argument - coherent and balanced
  • Theoretical discussion - relation to relevant theories
  • Understanding of relevant concepts
  • Reflexivity - reflections on methodology
  • Examples - insightfully analysed
  • Style - readability and effective presentation

Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages. For more detailed notes on writing essays in this department, click here.

Advice for this particular assignment:

Focus primarily on non-verbal communication. Watch in particular for body movement, gestures, postures, touch, facial expressions and rituals. What are the most common patterns of nonverbal communication associated with greeting and with parting? In what ways does this relate to particular relationships and contexts? There's nothing wrong with involving your own friends - as long as they don't mind.

Note also that this is an assignment for which the inclusion of relevant pictorial illustrations is essential. These should be inserted electronically into your Word document rather than cut-and-pasted in. You can scan such illustrations in from print sources, save them from disk-based sources, download them from online sources (such as my Powerpoint slides) or even create them from scratch in a graphics package. Use them to help you to make points more effectively. Label each one, 'Figure 1' etc. and add a caption.

If you take photographs featuring identifiable individuals you must obtain permission first: use a consent form explaining that you are doing this for educational and research purposes only. Anyone featured will need to sign such a form granting you permission to use such photographs for these purposes only; pixelate out faces of bystanders where you have no such form. Any consent forms used must form part of your submission. Do not take photographs in commercial premises without asking permission first. On campus is probably more practicable than at somewhere like the railway station since you would need to get further permission from station staff.

Some suggested reading

Note: Treat with extreme caution sources labelled with this symbol!


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