jornal

CITA01H3 Foundations of City Studies Reading Journal (Part of Assignment I)

Deadlines: There are three journal deadlines: Sep 24, Oct 8 and 29 by 11:59pm. You will be able to submit your journals via QUERCUS. Please use these deadlines as incentives to read the entire book by the end of October. You want to divide the reading into several manageable chunks. Choose one or several of the beginning chapters for you first journal, one or several chapters from the middle part of the book for your second, and one or several of the final chapters of the book for your final journal entry. Make that decision wisely: See how many chapters the book has (including intro and conclusion). Divide the book into three sections to scaffold and pace your own reading. You want to divide the reading into several manageable chunks. Study habit for success: In university, you will have to read a lot. In the Social Sciences and Humanities, if you take a full course load, you will read a couple of hundred pages a week. Try to set aside one or two hours a day to read. Find a place where you can read comfortably and without too much distraction. Format: Aim for about 300 words, 12-point font, Arial or Times New Roman. You can single- space the journal (final component, Book Review, will be double-spaced). Study tip: The standard formatting of written assignments in university is 12-point font, the usual fonts are Times New Roman or Arial, but you can also choose another of the classic font styles. All assignments should be submitted with “double space” line spacing, i.e. the space between one line and the next. Leave standard margins as they are set in Word or similar software. If you format your writing like this, one page will be approx. 270 words. Put your name, student number, and the full name of your TA at the top of the page and provide the full bibliographical reference for the book you write about. Also make sure to indicate which chapter you are reviewing by including page numbers. You don’t need anything else at the top.

Study tip: There are different citation styles of citing and referencing your materials (texts) in academic writing. A very common citation style is the one developed by the American Psychological Association (APA). Your instructors may specify which citation style to use for an assignment. If nothing is specified, I recommend using APA style for your social sciences papers. If you want to find out more about APA style, simply search for instructions on the internet. There are many good resources available. In APA Style, for example, the reference should look like this: Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location of Publisher: Publisher’s Name. We recommend a three-paragraph structure for each journal entry. In the first paragraph, identify the topic of the chapter and the author’s main argument. Here, you want to DESCRIBE the chapter. When reading the chapter and composing your reflection, ask yourself What? Where? Why? and Who? For example: Who wrote this? What is it about? What is the aim? In the second paragraph, identify and discuss how the author supports his/her argument. In other words, what method is used and what evidence provided? Here, you want to ANALYZE the chapter and author’s research. Ask yourself How? Why? and What if? “How is the author saying what they are saying?” “What evidence is being provided here?” “What research underlies this text (in other words, what has the research done as part of the research?)?” Why have they chosen the research methods they used? Why are these theories discussed? In the third paragraph, provide some personal assessment of the chapter. Here, you want to EVALUATE the chapter. Ask yourself “so what?' and “what next? questions. Do you find the author’s argument, method, approach convincing? If so, why, if not, why not? What do I think about this? How is this relevant to the course? What’s the merit of the text?

As always, we are here to help. If in doubt, just ask. Contact your TA by email for any assignment related questions.

1. Describe

2. Analyze

3. Evaluate