UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

SOCL 1014/A, SOCL 1009/A, SOCL 1009, ARPL 1026/A

IDENTITY AND SOCIETY

2024

COURSE OUTLINE

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This outline contains all the important information that you need to successfully negotiate the
course. It contains key information about:
• The course aims, structure and content
• The course requirements such as the readings, tutorials, tests, assignments and examination
• The timetable
• How your work will be assessed
• How to reference your work correctly and avoid plagiarism
• The use of AI Machines
• The departmental regulations regarding Satisfactorily Performed (SP, sometimes still called Due
Performance or DP) certificates which you need to be admitted to the final examination, and
plagiarism penalties
• The contact details of the course lecturers and Sociology Department administration
• A code of conduct.

Please spend time familiarising yourself with its content!

Course Teaching Team

Course Coordination

SOCL 1014/A and ARPL 1026/A SOCL 1009A & 1009

1st Quarter: Professor David Dickinson Thabiso Moyo
Room 252 Robert Sobukwe Block thabiso.moyo@wits.ac.za
David.Dickinson@wits.ac.za
Consultations by appointment
2ndQuarter: Dr Christine Bischoff
Room 247, Robert Sobukwe Block
Christine.Bischoff@wits.ac.za

Course Lecturers (Contact details above)

SOCL 1014A & 1014 and ARPL 1026A SOCL 1009A & 1009
1st Quarter: Dr Christine Bischoff Thabiso Moyo
2nd Quarter: Professor David Dickinson thabiso.moyo@wits.ac.za

Teaching Assistant
Edmund Madhuha
Room 415, Robert Sobukwe Block, East Annex
edmond.madhuha@wits.ac.za

Please note: References to SOCL 1014 in this document refer to: SOCL 1014A and APRL 1026/A.
Wits Plus students (taking SOCL 1009A & 1009) should note that arrangements may differ from
those of SOCL 1014. Your lecturer will confirm any differences.

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1. Welcome

Welcome to the Sociology Department’s course Society & Identity! It is good to have you as part of what we
are sure you will find to be a fascinating and informative course. This course is the introductory course to the
study of Sociology at Wits University. We hope that you will be excited by the way in which this course, and
the many Sociology courses that follow, help you to think in new ways about the social world in which you
live. In essence, all our courses are designed to stimulate your sociological imagination. The informed use of
your sociological imagination will allow you to think systematically about the relationship between the
individual and society, and about the complexity of the social world around you.

We invite you to join us on a 14-week journey as we discover together what Sociology is about. You will be
part of a large class, much larger than you are accustomed to in high school, and you will have to learn new
ways of thinking, studying and writing. We will do our best to help you through this process and have
designed the course to do just that. The teaching team – the lecturers, the senior tutor, the tutors, and the
administrative staff – ask that you engage with us as much as possible. If you have any questions, do not
hesitate to be in touch with any of us. Don’t allow yourself to fall behind because you don’t ask us what you
need to know. We are here to help.

The 2023 course will be taught ‘face-to-face,’ but there will be material online which you will need to
access. It is your responsibility to fully participate in all the learning activities.

Once again a very warm welcome!

Christine, David, Edmond, and Thabiso

2. The Intellectual Aims of the Course

“Did you know that you are already a sociologist?”

Charles Lemert (2002) has made the fascinating argument that we are all sociologists, unconscious
sociologists, amateur sociologists, maybe, but sociologists nonetheless. We all display, and everyday life
requires, what he calls sociological competence. We all negotiate our world, or “get by” in life, because we
have sociological competence. Thus, getting a driver’s licence, looking for a job, negotiating a date with
someone new, choosing to study at Wits, all demand a level of sociological competence. As Lemert (2002:
4) puts it:

Nearly all of us, most hours of most days, run into social situations filled with demands and potential
risks we know, as if by instinct, how to handle. Greeting strangers, entering crowded rooms, asking
the time of day, finding the right subway, ordering Big Macs without fries, meeting deadlines, getting
deadlines extended – all these, much more, and virtually all the little events out of which we compose
the course of daily life entail sociological competence.

What we seek to do in this course is to build on your intuitive sociological competence, which is based largely
on unconscious knowledge. We want to change your practical-but-not-entirely-conscious sociological
competence into a discursive (something we are willing and able to talk about) sociological competence. This
will form the basis for you achieving the trained competence of the professional sociologist.

“But what is a sociologist? Or, more importantly, what is Sociology?”

Lemert (2002) defines Sociology as “the science of social things”. By this he means that it is an attempt to
understand society and the nature of the relationship between an individual and society. Society consists of
three things:

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 • social relationships (or our lives with others);
• social institutions (like family, education, religion, and the state); and
• social processes (like dynamics of power, gender, race, and culture).

As Lemert (2002: x) says, “society gets under our skins”. As social beings we necessarily live with other people
in a social world; we are inescapably social. Sociology helps us to understand that social world better, and
how we as individuals relate to it. We will do this by looking at a range of elements of the social world in
which you live: how you inhabit specific communities and how these communities are held together; what
role family, religion and education play in shaping your biography (or life story); and the role that gender,
race and culture play in shaping your identity. Throughout the course then, we will be exploring how society
and its history have shaped you as a person; and how who you are is because of the social world in which
you live.

Further, the course will demonstrate that the academic discipline of Sociology consists of many different
perspectives on the social world. We will do this by looking at the ways in which three of the most famous
and influential sociologists of all time understood the social world. They are Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx and
Max Weber, who lived and worked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries during a time of extraordinary
social change – philosophically, economically, politically and culturally. It was a time which fundamentally
shaped the “modern world” that influences us in profound ways. Sociology as an academic discipline
developed as a result of these three theorists, alongside many others, to make sense of these changes and
the nature of the emerging modern world of which they were a part.

Although these early sociologists were writing about a world at least a hundred years ago, the insights and
theories they developed are still heavily influential today as sociologists seek to make sense of our
contemporary social worlds. Your thinking and writing about the relationship between the social world and
individual social biographies, including your own, will be stimulated and enhanced as you see your life and
those of others through the perspectives of each of these three sociologists.

Ultimately what we seek to do is to enhance your ability to understand yourself (and others) in terms of the
social relationships, the social institutions and the social processes of which you are a part.

In sum then we seek to do three things in this course:

1. Introduce you to distinctively sociological ways of thinking about society, social life and social relations;
2. Stimulate you to think critically and imaginatively about the social world which you occupy; and
3. Develop your ability to think sociologically, which involves using theoretical concepts and arguments
competently and appropriately, challenging common-sense assumptions, arguing coherently, and using
evidence convincingly.

To this end, the course has been designed in four parts, although you should note from the outset that all
four parts are connected to each other. Ensure that you are continually identifying and thinking about the
themes that run throughout the course.

Part I: Introduction to Sociology

Part II: Emile Durkheim’s Science of the Social World
Part III & IV: Karl Marx and Max Weber in Today’s World

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3. Timetable

The course is taught on the D timetable slot, and students are required to keep all allocated slots free for the
SOCL 1014 course.

Day Period Time Venue Activity

Monday #5 12:30 – 13:15 Solomon Mahlangu Lecture
House SL6
Tuesday #6&7 14:15 – 16:00 Venues will be allocated Tutorials
with groups You will be allocated a 45-minuite
tutorial within this period.
Thursday #1&2 08:00 – 09:45 Solomon Mahlangu Lectures
House SL6
Friday #3&4 10:15 – 12:00 Solomon Mahlangu Lectures
House SL6

Note: There will be assignments on two Tuesday afternoons which will use all three allocated periods (#6, 7,
and 8), check the timetable and make any necessary arrangements.

The SOCL 1009/A (Wits Plus) timetable is as follows:

Day Time Venue Activity

Thursday 17:30 – 21:00 TBC Lectures, Tutorial & Academic Development

4. Course Co-ordination, Teaching and Administration

COURSE COORDINATORS

Course coordinators are responsible for course administration. If you have a question or problem
about the course, which you cannot find out the answer in this course outline, please send the
course coordinator (see page 2) an email.

1. Before sending your query, check that the answer is not contained in this outline or in one of
the notices that we have issued (see below).
2. Do not let a problem grow! If you delay we may not be able to assist you.

COURSE LECTURERS

Course lectures give the lectures and are available for consultations in their office (times to be given)
and the weekly WhatsApp consultation hour.

The lecturers also set the tests, assignments and exam on which your performance is evaluated.

Christine Bischoff will lecture Part I: Introduction to Sociology and Part II: Emile Durkheim’s Science of the
Social World.

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David Dickinson will lecture Parts III & IV: Karl Marx and Max Weber in Today’s World.

Thabiso Moyo will lecture all four parts in the SOCL 1009 Wits Plus course.

Teaching Assistant

The Teaching Assistant helps coordinate the course in several ways. This includes tutor coordination
and allocation of students to tutorials, monitoring of plagiarism, assisting the flexibility committee
and administration of the satisfactory performance (SP). They also assist with teaching, particularly
academic development components.

Edmond Madhuha is the Teaching Assistant.

COURSE TUTORS

Each student will be allocated to a tutorial group which will be led by a tutor. The tutors are
postgraduate students. Please consult with your tutor as much as you can. They are an integral
part of the teaching team of the course.

NOTICES

We send out notices on a regular basis. These are posted on Ulwazi (the online teaching platform)
and are sent to your Wits email. These contain important information and you must read them.

All notices will be taken as read. This means that you cannot say that you did not know about a
requirement that was contained in a notice. Don’t be caught out because you don’t read your
emails/Ulwazi notices!

DEPARTMENT ADMINISTRATION

The Head of the Department of Sociology is Professor Michelle Williams. She is ultimately
responsible for the administrative and intellectual coherence of the Sociology Department. You
may wish to bring certain issues directly to her attention. Her telephone number is 011 717 4425
and her email Michelle.Williams@wits.ac.za.

The departmental administrators who have responsibility for first year administrative matters and
who will be able to assist you are:

Ms Josephine Mashaba 717-4447 josephine.mashaba@wits.ac.za

Ms Ingrid Chunilall 717-4440 ingrid.chunilall@wits.ac.za

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE COURSE

QUESTIONS ABOUT CONTENT (I.e. the subject matter of the course)

• Ask your tutor.

• Ask the Teaching Assistant.
• Ask your lecturer – lecturers are usually available during lecture breaks and immediately after
lectures. You can also consult with them during their office consultation times and on the weekly
WhatsApp consultation hour.

QUESTIONS ABOUT COURSE ADMINISTRATION

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• Check this course outline.
• Check course messages.
• Look at the teaching team’s responsibilities (above) and direct your question to the appropriate
person.

YOUR LEARNING RESOURCES

1. Lectures

Lecturers are used to explain the course content, deepen your understanding of sociology, and
provide an opportunity for questions, discussion, and debate on topical issues.

You are required to attend lectures. We don’t monitor attendance at lectures, but if you choose not
to attend, please don’t expect to pass the course.

Arrive on time. Cell phones must be switched off and put away. Respect others right to learn in the
classroom. Take notes and go over them after the lectures. If you have something to say or a
question to ask, raise your hand and the lecture will give you a chance to speak. Your participation
in class is welcomed.

2. Readings

Lectures are accompanied by readings. These readings are provided as a course reading pack and
are also posted on Ulwazi. It is important that you study these readings – they provide deeper
content than can be fitted into the lectures. You can be tested/examined on any content in the set
readings even if it is not raised in lectures.

Most of you are studying sociology for the first time. Like any academic discipline (area of study) it
has its own language and terms. You need to get to grips with these if you are to understand
sociology. You are encouraged to acquire your own dictionary of sociology. You can also access
sociology dictionaries online via the Wits Library system.

The Oxford Dictionary of Sociology: Go to Library > Databases > Oxford Reference Online > search
for ‘sociology’ in the search box and you can then open the dictionary.

3. Tutorials

You have eight tutorial sessions in the course. You are allocated to a tutorial group of between 12
and 15 students which allows for greater participation. Your tutorial session lasts 45 minutes, plus
time to ask your tutor individual questions afterwards. The lecturers set the tutorial topics which
are run by your tutor. You are required to prepare for the sessions ahead of time and to actively
participate.

Attendance at tutorials is compulsory. If you are not going to be able to make a tutorial you need to
apply for flexibility. If you miss more two or more tutorials you will need to meet with the course
coordinator to assess whether you can continue with the course or not.

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 4. Online consultations (Ulwazi Chat)

Lecturers: (Dr Bischoff for the 1st Quarter and Prof Dickinson for the 2nd Quarter)

Thursdays 6-7pm (teaching weeks)

5. Personal consultations

Lectures will indicate consultation periods when you can consult with them in their office. You are
welcome to come individually or as a group to ask questions about the course content during these
periods.

Usually, lecturers are also available during the break in double lecture periods and immediately after
class to answer questions. Do not be shy if there is something you want to ask!

6. Keep abreast of current issues and debates

You should read newspapers (online or physical) and current affairs magazines, watch television
news and documentaries, and listen to radio news and discussion programmes. Try and relate the
issues that you read/hear/watch about to what is being covered in the course. You are welcome to
raise these issues in lectures and tutorials if they are relevant to what is being covered.

Most weeks we will circulate a short article (typically from a newspaper) that raises issue relevant
to our or other societies and which can be approached from a sociological perspective. We make
time in lectures for an open discussion based on the article and the issues that it raises. Anything
raised in the circulated articles or in the related discussion forms part of examinable material.

Your participation in all these teaching aspects is critical!

Please note: these different aspects of the teaching program all assist you to understand the key
issues in sociology and build appropriate skills. If you think you can skip some of these teaching
components and ‘wing’ the course, think again. The evaluation system, outlined below, is rigorous.
Students who take short cuts end up failing and having to repeat the course! Start off in the right
way and remain focused. We want you to pass, and pass well, but you can only do that if you help
yourself by participating fully!

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Week by Week Schedule (subject to change): Full-time students
Week by Week Schedule: Society and Identity 2023
1st Quarter 2nd Quarter
Week 1 Week 8
Monday 12 Feb Introduction & Course Monday 8 April Lecture
Requirements
Tuesday 13 Feb No tutorials this week Tuesday 9 April No tutorial this week
Thursday 15 Feb Lecture Thursday 11 April Lecture
Friday 16 Feb Lecture Friday 12 April Lecture
Week 2 Week 9
Monday 19 Feb Lecture Monday 15 April Lecture
Tuesday 20 Feb No tutorials this week Tuesday 16 April Tutorial
Thursday 22 Feb Lecture Thursday 18 April Lecture
Friday 23 Feb Lecture Friday 19 April Lecture
Week 3 Week 10
Monday 26 Feb Lecture Monday 22 April Lecture
Tuesday 27 Feb Tutorial Tuesday 23 April Tutorial
Thursday 29 Feb Lecture Thursday 25 April Lecture
Friday 1 March Lecture Friday 26 April Lecture
Week 4 Week 11
Monday 4 March Lecture Monday 29 April Lecture
Tuesday 5 March Tutorial Tuesday 30 April Tutorial
Thursday 7 March Lecture Thursday 2 May Lecture
Friday 8 March Lecture Friday 3 May Lecture
Week 5 Week 12
Monday 11 March Lecture Monday 6 Lecture
Tuesday 12 March Assignment 1 Tuesday 7 May Assignment 2
Thursday 14 Lecture Thursday 9 May Lecture
March
Friday 15 March Lecture Friday 10 May Lecture
Week 6 Week 13
Monday 18 March Lecture Monday 13 May Lecture
Tuesday 19 March Tutorial Tuesday 14 May Tutorial
Thursday 21 Public Holiday Thursday 16 May Lecture
March
Friday 22 March Test (no lecture) Friday 17 May Test (no lecture)
Week 7 Week 14
Monday 25 March Lecture Monday 20 May Lecture
Tuesday 26 March Tutorial Tuesday 21 May No tutorial this week
Thursday 28 Study Break Thursday 23 June Lecture
March
Friday 29 March Study Break Friday 24 June Study Break

Study Break: 28 March – 7 April

Study Break: 24 May – 30 May
Exams: 31 May – 28 June

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Additional Readings

1. Introductory Texts
Giddens, Anthony (2006) Sociology Cambridge: Polity
Main Library: Short Loan HM 51 GID
Ritzer, George (2000) Sociological Theory New York: McGraw-Hill
Main Library: Short Loan HM 585 RIT
Steve Bruce (2000) Sociology: A very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press
Joan Ferrante (2015) Seeing Sociology: An Introduction. Cengage Learning.
Stewart, Paul and Zaaiman, Johan (2013) Sociology Cape Town: Juta

2. Encyclopaedias and Dictionaries

The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers, 2000
Main Library: Reference Section HM 17 JOH
The Sage Dictionary of Sociology
The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology
The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Sociology (George Ritzer, 2007)
Encyclopaedia of Sociology (4 vols) New York: Macmillan, 1992
Main Library: Reference Section HM 17 ENC
International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences (17 vols) New York: Macmillan, 1972
Main Library: Reference Section H 41 INT
Encyclopaedia of Social Theory (George Ritzer ed) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005

AN IMPORTANT NOTE ON USING THE INTERNET

The Internet is an enormously useful source of information. But you need to be very discriminating in what
you read and use from it. This is for two reasons.

First, the Internet presents a very real temptation to cut and paste, or use already written essays in their
entirety, for your own work. We are now using software that will check if your paper is using unacknowledged
Internet sources. So do not use it without being very careful to acknowledge your sources, otherwise you are
plagiarising (discussed below), for which there are severe penalties.

Second, the Internet provides information of very uneven quality. You need to be selective about the
websites you use. Don’t just Google a topic and use the first site that pops up on your screen. Your first port
of call should always be the readings and references we provided. If you choose to ignore these and surf for
other material you do so at your own risk!

However, if you want an introduction to a topic Wikipedia is generally an excellent source which is well
referenced (for initial reading): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

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6. Course Assessment

MARK WEIGHTINGS

The final mark for the course will be calculated as follows:

Assignment #1 15%
Assignment #2 15%
Test # 1 15%
Test #2 15%

Year Mark1 60%

Final Exam 40%
Total (final mark) 100%

ASSESSMENT TASKS

1) ASSIGNMENT 1
Date: Tuesday 12 March (2pm – 5pm)
Topic: Parts I and II of the course

2) CLASS TEST 1
Date: Friday 22 March (10.15am – 12 noon)
Content: Parts I and II of the course

3) ASSIGNMENT 2
Date: 7 May (2pm – 5pm)
Topic: Part III and IV of the course

4) CLASS TEST 2
Date: Friday 17 May (10.15am – 12 noon)
Content: Parts III and IV of the course

Your assignments are developmental and are designed to build your skills as a sociologist. Part of this
process is you getting feedback from your markers and incorporating this into future assessments,
particularly the summative (final) exam. Assignments are returned with comments which are pointers as to
how you can improve future work. If you don’t look at these comments you defeat the purpose of
developmental assessments, limit your intellectual growth, and run the risk of failing the course.

5) FINAL EXAMINATION

Specific details regarding the structure of the exam will be provided later in the course. The examination will
constitute 40% of the final course mark. Please note: in terms of the sub-minimum rule, any student who
fails the examination will fail the course, even if the student’s overall mark for the course is above 50%. In
other words, in order to pass the course as a whole you must pass the exam with at least 50%.

1
The year mark is your combined mark of your semester tests and assignments.
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7. Satisfactorily Performed (SP) Certificate and Flexibility Committee

All students must qualify for a Satisfactorily Performed (SP) Certificate in order to be permitted to write the
final examination for the course.

In order to qualify for an SP certificate you must:

1. Achieve a minimum of 40% in both Test 1 and Test 2.

2. Write both assignments and achieve a minimum mark of 30% for Assignment 1 and 50% for
Assignment 2.
3. Achieve a minimum of 40% for your year mark for the course.

If you fail to meet any of these requirements your registration for the course will be withdrawn and you
will not be permitted to write the exam.

FLEXIBILITY

If, because of illness or a family emergency, you are unable to sit a test or assignment you must
apply for ‘flexibility.’ Any application must be made on the Flexibility Application Form (posted on
Ulwazi) and must be accompanied by proof of illness from a health professional or appropriate
proof of family emergency (for example a copy of a death certificate). Please note that such
applications should be submitted before the deadline. In the case of an unforeseen emergency, it
must be submitted within 48 hours following the test or assignment.

All online flexibility application forms must be clearly completed, have proof attached and emailed
to the Senior Tutor and copied to josephine.mashaba@wits.ac.za.

Applications for flexibility are assessed by the course Flexibility Committee. Nobody other than the
Flexibility Committee can, or will, grant flexibility.

Once the Flexibility Committee has considered your flexibility application, a notice will be posted on
Ulwazi informing you of the Committee’s decision.

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FLEXIBILITY COMMITTEE (Full-time Students)

The Flexibility Committee responds to applications in the following manner.

An application to be excused from a tutorial will only be granted in the case of illness, bereavement, or other
compelling reason supported by documentation.

An application for a deferred assignment will only be granted in the case of illness or bereavement supported
by documentation.

An application for flexibility on a test is granted in only the most exceptional of circumstances. A rejection of
the application and an award of a zero mark for the test will mean loss of the SP certificate.

Please note that the Flexibility Committee is an ad hoc committee that meets as and when it is required.
Therefore, all queries regarding flexibility applications and outcomes need to be addressed to the course
co-ordinator.

FLEXIBILITY (Wits Plus Students)

Please consult with your lecturer in regard to any requested flexibility ahead of time. You will be required to
provide sick note/relevant documentation in the event of flexibility requested for illness/family
responsibility.

QUERIES REGARDING SP CERTIFICATES

Provisional notices listing all students who have had their SP certificates withdrawn will be posted on Ulwazi
and sent to your Wits email. These lists are provisional, and students have the right to appeal against the
withdrawal of their SP certificate. Such appeals must be done in writing, and submitted to the course co-
ordinator, outlining the reasons why there has been an error or the SP withdrawal has been unfairly awarded.
Students on the Final SP list will not be granted entry to the final examination and will automatically fail the
course. Students who are not on the final SP list have been granted a SP certificate and are permitted to write
the final examination.

DEFERRED EXAMINATIONS

If you are unable to write the final examination for this course, you will need to apply to your home Faculty
(i.e. the Faculty which offers the degree for which you are registered) for permission to write a deferred
examination. The decision to grant a deferred examination rests entirely with the Faculty, and all queries in
this regard should be directed there. Please note that university rules provide for a deferred examination to
be written as soon as seven days after the original examination date. Details regarding the date, time and
venue for deferred examinations in Sociology will be posted.

CONDONED PASS

If you fail the SOCL 1014/1009 module with a mark of between 40 and 49%, but continue to the second
semester SOCL 1013/1008 module and achieve a combined total mark for both modules of 100 or above,
you will qualify for a condoned pass. This means that you will be considered as having passed the first
semester module. Please note that this rule applies only to first time first year students registered in the
Faculty of Humanities.

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8. CODE OF CONDUCT
_____________________________________________________________________

Staff and students share a common commitment to building a culture of teaching and learning
excellence in the department. This commitment places certain responsibilities and common
expectations on students, teachers and departmental administrative staff.

STUDENTS' RESPONSIBILITIES

• To read the course outline and take note of the rules of the course regarding the lecture and
tutorial schedule, the mark breakdown, the assessment dates, plagiarism, referencing, the use
of AI, the flexibility system, and the SP requirements.
• To arrive before the start of the lectures and tutorials and take a seat quietly.
• To switch off cell phones before and during the lectures and tutorials.
• To attend all lectures and all tutorials on time (absences and late arrivals will not be
tolerated/there are no make-up lectures and tutorials).
• To respect the decorum of the lectures and tutorials (no talking/no interrupting fellow students,
lecturers, and tutors). If having been warned, a student continues with disruptive behaviour they
will be required to give the lecturer their student card, leave the lecture, and meet with the
lecturer to explain their behaviour.
• To raise their hand to ask a question and to be attentive when other students are asking a
question and when the tutor or lecturer is talking.
• To undertake work assigned by the teaching team conscientiously and diligently.
• To tolerate differing views relating to academic, social, cultural and political issues in the
classroom and in the university.
• To be prepared for, and to participate actively in tutorials.
• To hand in all tutorial assignments (typed) on the due dates to the tutors before the start of
the tutorial (All tutorials are compulsory).
• To complete all the course assessments.
• To remain in the tutorial group allocated to them by the department.
• To check their Wits emails and the Ulwazi site for the course regularly for information and
updates.

THE TEACHING TEAM’S RESPONSIBILITIES

• To teach in a manner that respects the dignity and rights of all students without prejudice as to
race, religious beliefs, colour, gender, sexual orientation, physical disability, age or language.
• To search continually for effective and appropriate methods of learning and teaching and to
provide, where possible, teaching materials relevant to the course.
• To prepare lectures thoroughly, attend punctually and teach in an accessible manner.
• To keep up to date in the discipline.
• To evaluate students' written work regularly, fairly and in a timely fashion.
• To initiate regular course evaluations.
• To maintain regular consultation times.

THE DEPARTMENT'S RESPONSIBILITIES

• To ensure that an effective channel for students to apply for extensions is established.
• To ensure that assessment results are displayed promptly and clearly.
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9. THE USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELIGENCE (AI) MACHINES
____________________________________________________________________

The invigilated format of the course’s tests, assignments and exam means that you will not be able
to use AI.

However, you are permitted to use AI for a limited number of tasks for your tutorial hand in
homework.

AI may only be used for your tutorial assignments in the following ways:

• To edit your work for clarity

• To edit your work for grammar and spelling
• To meet any required word count should you have written too much.

• You must provide a declaration detailing how AI was used (or if it was not used) for any
submitted work.

Note that should your tutor believe that you may have used AI to write your tutorial assignment,
they are instructed to report the matter to the course lecturers.

Should you be found to have used AI, other than as permitted, you will be penalised for academic
dishonesty and reported to the Department’s Academic Integrity Committee.

10. Plagiarism

WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?

“Plagiarism is submitting statements, ideas, opinions or findings copied without acknowledgement from
another source as if they were one’s own” (Killen and Walker, 1979: 15).

TYPES OF PLAGIARISM CAN BE:

Copying
Copying another student’s essay
Copying from books or articles without using quotation marks
Copying directly from lecture notes
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing an author’s written work - i.e. rewording it, or re- ordering the ideas, and presenting them
as your own, without acknowledging the source

Lifting Ideas
Using an author’s ideas, expressed in your own words, and pretending that they are your own.

Cut and Paste

Putting together extracts from various authors to make up your essay. Even if you use quotation marks
or acceptable paraphrasing, this sort of essay cannot be regarded as your own work.

WHY IS PLAGIARISM A PROBLEM?

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Plagiarism is intellectual theft. It is passing off someone else’s ideas as your own.

University education is concerned to teach students to understand what various authors say about particular
subjects. The purpose is to develop students’ capacities to assess the worth of particular ideas, to weigh them
against each other, and to test one author’s ideas against another’s. The goal is to draw students into
developing their OWN ideas, and to be able to argue their case in the context of already-existing writings on
the subject.

Essays and examinations are not meant to test students’ ability to learn by rote or to reproduce what they
have read, but to assess their capacity to understand and analyse ideas. Plagiarism undermines this goal;
essays or answers which depend on the unacknowledged ideas of others do not allow a fair assessment of
the student's own understanding.

Disallowing and penalising plagiarism is therefore not an arbitrary rule, but part of our way of assessing to
what degree students themselves have mastered the particular topic or debate.

HOW TO AVOID PLAGIARISM

Rule Number 1: Use your own words.

It is very obvious to lecturers and tutors when students rely on language with which they are unfamiliar. You
are, of course, encouraged to use new sociological concepts as you encounter them. However, a good
exercise is to explain to yourself in your own language the meaning of these concepts.

Rule Number 2: Acknowledge your sources

If you use someone else’s ideas, identify that person according to the conventions for footnoting or
referencing. We have given you a guide to these conventions in the following section of this module guide.
See also the important note regarding referencing from the INTERNET. For further information, we encourage
you to consult a style guide (for sale in all bookstores, available in the library, and included in most
dictionaries). Essentially, all references must include: the author's name and initials; the title of the book or
article; the journal title (for articles); the publisher, place and date of publication; and the page referred to.
These references enable a reader to track down the words and ideas you are borrowing to check whether
you are using them accurately and fairly. They also enable a reader to know exactly where your ideas end
and someone else’s begin (Crews, 1974: 361).

Rule Number 3: Use proper attribution

Many students do not attribute ideas to authors in the actual text of their essays. Phrases such as “According
to Jones (2000: 35)…” or “Smith (1998: 93) argues that …” are extremely useful ones, as they allow you to
acknowledge your sources and to weigh up the arguments of different authors objectively.

Rule Number 4: Use acceptable paraphrasing

In some cases it is not easy to avoid paraphrasing. For example, an important paragraph to which you want
to refer might consist of a number of key words which you cannot avoid using. In this case, you should change
the sentence structure of the quoted material and use as many of your own words as possible. You must
include in your paragraph a reference to the fact that it is based on the ideas of the author you have read.
Phrases such as “As Crews (1974) has suggested …” or “To paraphrase Crews (1974) …” will help here.

Rule Number 5: Quote accurately

In your essay, you may want to use an author’s words directly, to support your view, to show what his or her
views are, or to subject them to criticism. Quotations from authors are perfectly acceptable, and often liven
up essays IF they are properly referenced, and IF they are not a substitute for your own argument. Extensive
quotations are not acceptable. Use quotations only where they are essential.

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Quotations should always be placed clearly in quotation marks, and set off, if possible on a separate line (or
lines) from the main body of your writing. These techniques indicate to the reader that you are using
someone else's words. For example:

The ideas of Karl Marx on the nature of the bourgeoisie are very controversial. According to Marx (1964: 28),
“The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more
colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together.”

PENALTIES FOR PLAGIARISM

The university and the department regard plagiarism as extremely serious. All plagiarised work will normally
be given zero. All cases of plagiarism will be reported to the department’s Plagiarism Officer and the plagiarist
name will be recorded by the department. A student who has plagiarised may be reported to the School of
Social Sciences Plagiarism Committee, who will be responsible for reviewing the case and for referring it to
the University’s Disciplinary Committee if necessary. Plagiarism may result in the withdrawal of the course
SP certificate.

REFERENCE LIST
Crews, Frederick (1974). The Random House Handbook. New York: Random House.

Killen, Patricia O'Connell and Carfic Walker, eds (1979). Handbook for Teaching Assistants at
Stanford, 2nd Edition. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Marx, Karl (1964). The Communist Manifesto. New York: Washington Square Press.

11. Referencing

When writing assignments, tests and examinations, students will be expected to demonstrate knowledge
and understanding of articles in the course workbooks, textbook and additional works.

In written work, it is essential that you make precise references to the particular books and articles upon
which you have drawn. In tests and examinations, precise references are obviously not required, but students
are expected to write in such a way as to indicate to the marker the source of their ideas: which works they
have read, and how they relate to the question. If in your examination answer you have drawn upon the
writings of Max Weber, you might, for example, indicate this by saying, "Weber, in his essay 'The Protestant
Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism', argues that..."

As discussed above, referencing correctly is essential for avoiding plagiarism. You need to learn the
conventions for referencing in text (i.e. in the actual essay/assignment itself) and for writing up a reference
list. Both these are discussed below.

Guide to referencing correctly

Guiding Principles

There are three key reasons why we reference:

• To acknowledge the intellectual sources that we are using (respecting intellectual work).
• To allow people to check the accuracy of what we are saying by referring to the source material.
• To allow people to locate the source material so that they can read/research further on a topic that
interests them.

There are two key principles when referencing:

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 • The reference you provide must enable a reader to locate (with the minimum of effort) the source
that you used.
• The system of referencing that you use must be consistent throughout any piece of work. Don’t
change styles half way through! Consistency should be complete, down, for example, to whether you
put the date of a publication in your bibliography in brackets or not. A lack of consistency can confuse
a reader.

If you bear in mind these three reasons and follow these two principles when you reference you will not go
wrong!

Referencing sources

We recommend, and offer training and support, based on the American Psychological Association (APA)
referencing style.2 A brief guide to this style is below, a more extensive guide can be found on Ulwazi.

APA style follows the ‘Harvard’ Referencing System. In this system the author and year of publication (and
page number where necessary) are cited in the text (the ‘in-text’ reference), and the full documentation is
given in a reference list (alphabetised by author surname) at the end of your work.

APA Format Citation Guide

Core Components of an APA Reference:

1. APA Referencing Basics: Reference List

A reference list is a complete list of references used in a piece of writing including the author name, date of
publication, title and more. An APA reference list must:

• Be on a new page at the end of the document

• Be centred

2
We will, however, accept any system of referencing can be followed as long as it is clear, consistent and
meets the objectives and principles outlined.

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 • Be alphabetically by name of first author (or title if the author isn’t known, in this case a, an and the
should be ignored)
o If there are multiple works by the same author these are ordered by date, if the works are
in the same year they are ordered alphabetically by the title and are allocated a letter (a,b,c
etc) after the date
• Contain full references for all in-text references used

2. APA Referencing Basics: In-Text Citation

In-text references must be included following the use of a quote or paraphrase taken from another piece of
work.

In-text citations are citations within the main body of the text and refer to a direct quote or paraphrase.
They correspond to a reference in the main reference list. These citations include the surname of the
author and date of publication only. Using an example author James Mitchell, this takes the form:

Mitchell (2017) states… Or …(Mitchell, 2017).

The structure of this changes depending on whether a direct quote or parenthetical used:

• Direct Quote: The citation must follow the quote directly and contain a page number after the date,
for example (Mitchell, 2017, p.104). This rule holds for all of the variations listed.
• Parenthetical: The page number is not needed.

Two Authors:
The surname of both authors is stated with either ‘and’ or an ampersand between. For example:
Mitchell and Smith (2017) state… Or …(Mitchell & Smith, 2017).

Three, Four or Five Authors:

For the first cite, all names should be listed:
Mitchell, Smith, and Thomson (2017) state… Or …(Mitchell, Smith, & Thomson, 2017).

Further cites can be shorted to the first author’s name followed by et al:
Mitchell et al (2017) state… Or …(Mitchell et al, 2017).

Six or More Authors:

Only the first author’s surname should be stated followed by et al, see the above example.

No Authors:
If the author is unknown, the first few words of the reference should be used. This is usually the title of the
source.
If this is the title of a book, periodical, brochure or report, is should be italicised. For example:
(A guide to citation, 2017).
If this is the title of an article, chapter or web page, it should be in quotation marks. For example:
(“APA Citation”, 2017).

Citing Authors With Multiple Works From One Year:

Works should be cited with a, b, c etc following the date. These letters are assigned within the reference
list, which is sorted alphabetically by the surname of the first author. For example:
(Mitchell, 2017a) Or (Mitchell, 2017b).

Citing Multiple Works in One Parentheses:

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If these works are by the same author, the surname is stated once followed by the dates in order
chronologically. For instance:
Mitchell (2007, 2013, 2017) Or (Mitchell, 2007, 2013, 2017)

If these works are by multiple authors then the references are ordered alphabetically by the first author
separated by a semicolon as follows:
(Mitchell & Smith 2017; Thomson, Coyne, & Davis, 2015).

Citing a Group or Organisation:

For the first cite, the full name of the group must be used. Subsequently this can be shortened. For
example:
First cite: (International Citation Association, 2015)
Further Cites: (Citation Association, 2015)

Citing a Secondary Source:

In this situation the original author and date should be stated first followed by ‘as cited in’ followed by the
author and date of the secondary source. For example:
Lorde (1980) as cited in Mitchell (2017) Or (Lorde, 1980, as cited in Mitchell, 2017)

3. How to Cite Different Source Types

• In-text citation doesn’t vary depending on source type, unless the author is unknown.
• Reference list citations are highly variable depending on the source.

How to Cite a Book (Title, not chapter) in APA Format

Book referencing is the most basic style; it matches the template above, minus the URL section. So the
basic format of a book reference is as follows:

Book referencing examples:

Mitchell, J.A., Thomson, M., & Coyne, R.P. (2017). A guide to citation. London, England: My Publisher
Jones, A.F & Wang, L. (2011). Spectacular creatures: The Amazon rainforest (2nd ed.). San Jose, Costa Rica:
My Publisher

How to Cite an Edited Book in APA Format

This reference format is very similar to the book format apart from one extra inclusion: (Ed(s)). The basic
format is as follows:

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Edited book example:
Williams, S.T. (Ed.). (2015). Referencing: A guide to citation rules (3rd ed.). New York, NY: My Publisher

How to Cite a Chapter in an Edited Book in APA Format

Edited books are collations of chapters written by different authors. To reference a single chapter, a
different format is needed. The basic structure is as follows:

Edited book chapter example:

In the following example, B.N. Troy is the author of the chapter and S.T. Williams is the editor.

Troy, B.N. (2015). APA citation rules. In S.T, Williams (Ed.). A guide to citation rules (2nd ed., pp. 50-95).
New York, NY: Publishers.

How to Cite a Journal Article in Print or Online in APA Format

Articles differ from book citations in that the publisher and publisher location are not included. For journal
articles, these are replaced with the journal title, volume number, issue number and page number. The
basic structure is:

Journal Article Examples:

Mitchell, J.A. (2017). Citation: Why is it so important. Mendeley Journal, 67(2), 81-95

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Mitchell, J.A. (2017). Citation: Why is it so important. Mendeley Journal, 67(2), 81-95. Retrieved
from https://www.mendeley.com/reference-management/reference-manager

How to Cite a Newspaper Articles in Print or Online in APA Format

The basic structure is as follows:

Author surname, initial(s). (Year, Month Day). Title. Title of Newspaper, column/section, p. or pp. Retrieved
on DD Month YYYY from URL*
*Only include if the article is online. Note: the date includes the year, month and date.

Newspaper Articles Example:

Mitchell, J.A. (2017). Changes to citation formats shake the research world. The Mendeley Telegraph,
Research News, pp.9. Retrieved on 12 April 2018, from https://www.mendeley.com/reference-
management/reference-manager

How to Cite Magazine Articles in Print or Online in APA Format

The basic structure is as follows:
Author surname, initial(s). (Year, month day). Title. Title of the Magazine, pp.
Magazine Article Example:
Mitchell, J.A. (2017). How citation changed the research world. The Mendeley, pp. 26-28

How to Cite a Website in APA Format

When citing a website, the basic structure is as follows:

Author surname, initial(s). (Year, month day).* Title. Retrieved from URL.
* Date of retrieval.
Website example:
Mitchell, J.A. (2017, May 21). How and when to reference. Retrieved
from: https://www.howandwhentoreference.com.

Referencing guide adapted from: https://www.mendeley.com/guides/apa-citation-guide

12. Test and Exam Preparation

The best way to prepare for the tests, essay and exam is to work CONSISTENTLY THROUGHOUT THE
SEMESTER. The following tips and strategies are useful when preparing for your tests and exams:

1. What is your study timetable?

• When do you write the test or exam?
• What other work do you have to do before you write this test or exam?
• How much time do you have to study?
• When are you going to study for this test or exam?

2. What themes of the course will be covered in this test or exam?

• Do you have all the lecture notes for these themes?
• Do you have the notes from tutorials?
• Do you have any written assignments for these themes?
• Have you read all the relevant readings required for these themes?
• Have you made notes on any additional readings you may have done?

3. What is the format of the exam or test?

• In other words, are there going to be essays questions? Short paragraph questions? MCQs?
• Has the exam or test been divided into different sections? What are the sections?
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 • Are there different types of questions for each section?
• How long is the exam or test?
• How much time do you therefore have to spend on each question?
• How are marks allocated?

4. What revision strategies are you going to use? These could include:
• Drawing charts
• Making summaries
• Writing down key words
• Doing mind maps
• Checking previous test and exam question papers
• Producing model answers to possible test and exam questions

5. Think of some questions that might possibly appear in the exam or test.
• Use lecture notes, tutorial and essay questions, past papers, etc. to help you.
• How would go about answering these questions?
• Note that most test and exam questions contain task words and content words – writing a good
answer to the question depends on you being very clear on what the question is actually asking you
to do.

TASK WORDS are those words that tell you what you are required to do in the question, for example words
like “describe”, “state” and “discuss” are task words. Not all task words are obvious! You may have to work
out what you are required to do.

CONTENT WORDS are those words that tell you what concepts, issues, debates or problems you are being
asked to deal with in the question.

WRITING YOUR EXAM

Many students begin to write as soon as they have the exam paper without reading the instruction or the
questions carefully. This can lead to a disaster!

READ THE EXAM PAPER CAREFULLY

1. Read the instructions on the front page.

2. Read through the exam paper.
3. Answer the following questions:
• Is the exam paper complete?
• How many sections or parts are there in this paper?
• How many questions are there in each section or part?
• Are there any compulsory questions?
• How many questions do I have to complete?
• Do I have a choice of questions?

13. Marking Guide and the allocation of marks

The examiners who will mark the tests, assignments and the final exam will be guided by the following:

1. With some exceptions possible, marks will be allocated in increments of 5%: eg 40, 45, 50, 55.
2. The substantive marking range will be 20% to 80% - but marks higher or lower can be given if this is
appropriate.
3. Marks will be allocated according to the Mark Allocation Guide below.

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Mark Allocation Guide

0%-20% ▪ Either a blank answer or entirely irrelevant answer (0%)

▪ Indication that some rudimentary thought has gone into the answer (10%-20%)
20%-45% ▪ Failure properly to understand the question
▪ Deficient answer to the question
▪ An opinion piece
50% & 55% ▪ Understands the question
▪ Provides partial answer (eg 2 out of 3 elements of the question) which is
basically accurate
▪ Answer depends on lecture material with no or little engagement with
literature
60% & 65% ▪ Understands the question
▪ Provides a coherent answer
▪ Engages with the literature
70% ▪ Understands the question
▪ Provides a coherent answer
▪ Engages with the literature well
▪ Evidences strong grasp of key concepts
75% & 80% ▪ Excellent understanding of the question
▪ Evidences independent critical thought
▪ High degree of engagement with the literature
▪ Conceptually sophisticated
▪ Evidences lateral thinking
85% & up ▪ Indicates extraordinarily good work

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