Studying Sociology

Making the most of seminars

Your course is likely to involve you in preparing for and contributing to seminars, whether through presentations, organised class debates, etc. Seminars provide an important opportunity to explore questions and issues with your peer group and to gain extra perspectives and points of view which you might not have considered otherwise. You will get the most out of them if you actively contribute your own views and are prepared to back up your opinions with reference to evidence and sociological debates. You will find you clarify your thinking through asking and answering questions. Sharing your ideas with others will also help you learn to deal with challenge and criticism.

1    As a basic minimum, bring the notes you have made as a foundation for discussion. You might also find that our topic-based mindmaps - downloadable from this site - are a useful aide-memoire and framework for making additional notes during the seminar.

2    You would do well to take the time to explore some of the web addresses we provide on this site so that you arrive at the seminar with some independent ideas. Each chapter topic in the book has a number of web addresses for you to explore, chosen for interest as well as coverage. We have annotated our lists so that you know roughly what to expect from each URL. In addition, there are many directories of useful sociology sites for the more adventurous surfer. The most useful of these are listed below. Key word or phrase searches using a good search engine such as Google can also produce interesting results but you'll need to bear in mind that the sites you find won't always be very sociological in content. Do use your critical sociological faculties to weigh up the value of what you find.

3    We have provided a number of possible extension activities in the password-protected section of the lecturer's zone of this site and your lecturer might use these either for seminars themselves, or for project work for you to pursue in groups outside the seminar. The benefit of these activities are, firstly, that by engaging you directly in sociologically-related activity, they will increase your grasp of issues and the impact of sociological thinking on the world. Secondly, by engaging you in what should be interesting work, your enjoyment of the subject should be enhanced and this is one of the main ways you are likely to increase your performance in assessments.

4    If you find you enjoy working with others, you might think about developing a 'study buddy' relationship - that is, working regularly with one or two others to share and further your studies. Better still, identifying a global 'study buddy' would give you email insights from a different cultural perspective. Ask your lecturer if she or he has any contacts with other sociologists around the world engaged in similar courses and whether they would be willing to facilitate contact with other sociology students. You could also try sociology discussion groups, or mailing lists, but it is often more effective if there is a personal contact to smooth things over. The advantage of an alternative viewpoint on issues of sociological concern can be invaluable.