recommend me a good unit/sequence to do?

[greenbeans]

Hello

So I'm planning on studying Bachelor of Arts at Monash 1st year in 2012...
I have selected French proficient, the basics for linguistics and journalism 1&2

Trying to decide on something else to pick along the lines of sociology, english, creative writing, literature studies, etc.

Has anyone had any experience with this/any advice to give to help me make this decision? Or do you think these combinations of studies are good/bad/too intense/will bore me to death?!

TIA!

[kiraxxx]

if you like english, then you could do the Academic Writing and Professional Writing sequences because it expands on uni style essay writing, sentence construction, editing and referencing etc... It could be useful for journalism 

[greenbeans]

yes, i had a chat to the guy that runs that.... not that i'm too keen on looking for 'extension' but it might bore me a bit. and plus the guy told me the sorts of stuff they cover and they didn't sound too interesting... and it doesn't really lead anywhere, but i can understand why you referenced it, as it is a sequence that would complement my other subjects thank ya tho!

have you studied any other arts units at monash, kiraxxx?

[ShortBlackChick]

Hey you at Caulfield or Clayton?

I'm at Clayton, but I dont really know what I'm doing. Well I know what Units I'm doing but I dont really know why. LOL! I'm doing International Studies, Sociology and Sustainablity, Environment and Society, and I have no idea where that will lead me!

[gemgem49]

I'd maybe pick something like sociology. None of the subjects you've picked really have a strong  'research' focus, at least not in first year (thinking of journalism here) so it would be good to have a subject where you can develop research skills and essay writing skills.

[greenbeans]

yeah i'm leaning towards sociology - thanks guys for all your input!

those that have done sociology... what's it like? what do you learn about? stimulating, too challenging?


OOOOH and gemgem49: what do you mean these subjects aren't essay writing?
journalism and french in particular sound like they have heaps of essays.. and linguistics would probably have reports and such!

[gemgem49]

I mean research essays. You're obviously going to be doing writing in all of your subjects but some arts subjects are heavily research based in their assignments. It's a good skill to have, especially if you plan on going into an honours year.

Journalism in first year has 'articles' but they're not really research based. You might do some light research depending on the topic but it'd be more stuff you'd find on the internet rather in spending hours looking through online journals or books in the library, and it wouldn't make up your entire assignment.

Linguistics when I did it had mostly short answer assignments.

French will probably have language translation essays and maybe a culture essay, but again I don't think it will be anything that will require you to consolidate research skills.

Idk, these are just my thoughts   I also think sociology would go quite well with journalism as both are focusing on different components and issues of society. It could be advantageous to have more insight on the make-up of society as a journalist.
http://arts.monash.edu.au/sociology/about/index.php

Hmm yup. I don't know much about literary studies or creative writing units though ^__^ I guess it would depend on where your interests lie as well. If you're only doing it first year and LOVE writing, I'd do one of those?

[greenbeans]

yes some excellent points here. i'm not too sure if i could see myself spending hours in a library like that. maybe i will check out literary studies, i just wish there was a subject like 'advanced english for post year 12s that are depressed and want to go and do it again'! thanks again

[kiraxxx]

have you studied any other arts units at monash, kiraxxx?

yeah, I am doing psych as well for arts, so I guess you could do the first year sequence for that if you want.
If u did pysch in year 12, it should be fairly easy though RDA can become a bit annoying at times

[greenbeans]

ok cool, thanks guys. i enrolled in sociology after all that, fingers crossed XD

[slothpomba]

You can change your units up untill a couple weeks into uni (or now...next week..whatever floats your boat).

This is also a good reason why you shouldn't buy your books right away.

So, you got time to change your mind. Might want to look at the arts unit guides for a more comprehensive view of the subjects too (http://arts.monash.edu.au/enrol/undergraduate/after/index.php).