A Critical Look back

               For my final blog I would like to indulge on a somewhat critical reflection on my own blog, and in deed the whole ‘Doing social research’ module, a Module which I have found quite a bit difficult in.  So firstly I’m going to criticises my own blog. Prior to starting this module I was toying with my writing a more personal blog, as a way of reflecting on my life and humouring my ego. However after having being required to write one for an assignment it think I will have to wait a while for the mental scars to fade before I can embark on that particular endeavour. The first issue I encountered, and may I add one that did not fade with time, knowing what subjects were appropriated to write about, an issue on which I am still not the wiser. Whilst the issues I have focused on are things that have had an effect on me during the time of writing them, and I hope I have developed upon them with a sociological train of thought, I am aware that they are painfully low in academic backing. However I would like to clarify that this is because the topics I have chosen to write about have had very little academic attention. This is challenge of finding appropriate things to write about was not helped by the ambiguity of the advice that was offered from the modal itself, although the biggest problem I admit was the scattered nature of my mind.  

                Although overall I am in some way proud of my blog, despite the probable number of spelling, grammatical and structural mistakes, it have been beneficial to me in a way as writing down my thoughts on particular issues has allowed me to give a better structure to them and even develop them. Although another difficulty I encounter with them is not knowing how they were going to be marked, as this made it difficult to know what to include, and what to leave out. But on the bright side at least that has allowed for pieces of writing that have been more of a reflection on myself, and as far as I can see shows more signs of how I have developed within the module.

                As for the wider context of the module, I have found it hard at times to concentrate during lecture, although the sessions where this has been a problem are usually the ones which are two hours in length and have been dedicated to teaching us how to use twitter, a service which I have used in the past and thought it was useless, and still deem it as so. However I do understand that these sessions may have been useful for the less tech-savvy members of the group, although I do feel two hours is a bit long for such a topic. I think the most useful aspects of the module for me have been the seminars, as this has allowed for input from our lecturer which have been guided and added to by the students, resulting in a more productive session. Overall I feel that I have not developed as much as I could have throughout this module, with my knowledge not being much more than it was from A-level research method, although again I do recognise that this may be the first time some people had been properly introduced to research methods.

                As for the group poster, whilst at first I was extremely sceptical towards it (as I have previously stated) I feel like this has been the part of the module which has allowed me to develop the most. This is for two reasons, firstly despite my hatred for group work, it has been highly beneficial working with other people as it has allowed me to observe different ways of achieving our findings, through means which perhaps would not have been my first choice, such as the focus group we carried out. Secondly it has allowed me to put research methods, which until previously existed purely in the realm of theory. This has allowed me to understand the pros and cons of them in a better light.  Also through carrying out the focus group it has allowed me to develop my understanding of the ethical implications of research, and gain more appreciation of them through having to consider them myself.

                To finish I would just like to make in known  that my writing in this blog is not aimed at the lectures teaching this module, I have tried to make that clear when writing this blog, but I felt the need to make sure this was clear. I personally think that any problems with this module is born from focusing it on ‘doing social research’, when we are not allowed to carry out real social research. Furthermore research methods are a particularly dry subject within the academic field of sociology, and that given the problem I have found with it, the whole experience could have been a lot worse.