assignment 5

anyone started on their essays yet?

i started it this weekend, but i am not yet done... and its is due today!

i just did the two questions.. I didn't bother with the essay

in any case the assignment will only be marked by the end of october, so ...

if it gets marked at all

"Obtaining credits: You will not receive any credits for this assignment unless you
submit the research report (two copies) as described above, even if you submit the other exercises."

Since the other assignments only add up to 95 credits, submitting the report seems pretty non-optional.

yes... but somewhere along the line there are two other options.. if you submit assignment 1, you get to write the exam, but if that doesn't hold for this subject (because no-one is too clear on that rule), there is a thing that if you submitted all assignments, you get to write the exam, no matter what your credit standing is. happened with me last year - I only got 92 credits but I submitted all my assignments so I was allowed to write the exam.

Well, I hope you're right, and considering we're paying for the damn thing, nitpicking over stuff like that does seem inappropriate. However, what's the point of describing them as rules if they're only guidelines?

Personally, I'm somewhat irritated at this assignment, its taken me so long to do the report I've not even read the chapters related to the two questions (never mind answered the questions), and yet its clear that knowing the subject matter is what's going to get me through the exam, not the quality or otherwise of my research report.

I guess one has to look at the bigger picture - writing this report has been a useful learning exercise in terms of writing academic articles, even if it has had little direct benefit in terms of achieving the degree.

were you even able to find enough info? maybe I just tried to choose a really shoddy section of the work

My final topic did evolve somewhat from my initial plan. Admittedly the "2001-2007" restriction was a bit of a pain, as much of the ground-breaking work in my topic was done before this, but eventually I found enough.

try some of the unisa online subject databases
there are TONS of recents articles there