Taught by: Dr Tiffany Chuang
Name: Kannan Vignesh Raj
Content (Structure/Organization): 4
The content of the course is genuinely interesting because it is an area of study and a way of thinking I do not usually employ when I think about social sciences. For instance, I was assigned to analyze Mukerji's work that analyzed the role of gardens in the coming of the age of absolutism and how the French utilised grandeur gardens to their advantage, diplomatically speaking. It was a relatively heavy read as I remember being completely confused on the first go, but Prof Tiffany helped me understand it better by guiding me through the process.
Accessibility and Assessment: 5
I think its course is very accessible. I had no idea of the academic concepts before, but the general concepts of how space and place are used are very commonplace and do not require much background.
Manageability of Workload: 2
Heavy. Despite me liking it very much, I consider myself lucky that it was a light semester and the other challenging mod I had to take was NGN2001D (which was also great under Prof Dalton).
Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades:
A is achievable for those with better writing skills than me (which should be quite a lot of people) because the Professor is rather exhaustive with her regular feedback (each of my 3 essay papers had 1 draft) and that is usually enough to get something to click inside my head.
Learning Value/Recommendation: 5
It provides a greater exposure of social sciences and various associated concepts and ideas to those who are completely fresh to the field (like yours truly) and I really value everything I have learned from it.
About the Instructor:
10/10 solid. A very unequivocal recommendation from me for Prof Tiffany. She is responsive through email and usually doesnt let one off the hook until they get the gist of what they set out to accomplish during consultations. She is very patient as well, providing me with writing advice that I never received in all my years of schooling and english tuition. She helped clearly identify my strengths and weaknesses in writing and clearly communicated solutions to help improve my writing. She is also very personable as well, taking effort to know the students and adapting to their style of writing and humour. Overall, she's up there with the best teachers I have ever had the pleasure of being taught by.
Additional Comments/Word of Advice:
V worth if you're willing to commit to the grind.
Name: Tan Liang Rong
Content (Structure/Organization): 4
Syllabus -> This mod is first and foremost a writing mod, but its topical focus is specifically on what constitutes a space and topics related to space (Power dynamics, Exclusion etc. seen from a spatial lens). Obviously, the mod bears a more sociolgical focus rather than geography vibe (though anyone interested in Urban studies would find the subject matter rather compelling)
In terms of writing, you will learn how to write at a micro (paragraph) level as well as a macro (essay level) and the skills involved in constructing a coherent academic essay. This module will also teach you the basics of planning and conducting your own literature review and fieldwork which a tangential to the goal of writing but crucial for any student who intends to get into research or will be writing essays as their main form of workload (i.e FASS students)
Structure -> As an 'intro to writing mod', the assignments offer you great breadth in the specific topic you want to pursue (though most tend to follow the course readings), Prof Tiffany is more than happy to allow you to bring in other scholarly sources/ideas. However, in terms of the skills/format you are expected to write in, they are fixed (this IS a writing mod)
IMO, it is a flexible as you want it to be, you can write a perfectly satisfactory essay using the course readings alone (though it would probably be a pretty boring one), but you can get as conceptual/abstract as you want it to be, provided you are willing to do the research needed to find the sources you need to write about your topic
Manageability of Workload: 1
HEAVY. The 4 MC workload is a big lie, be prepared to spend around 20 hours a week (if not more) on this module. Between the readings, ideating, researching, thinking and actually writing the essay (not to mention the editing and consults in between), there were periods of time where I did nothing but NTW the whole week (which I would not advise).
You can never 'finish' the work on this mod, and it's important to set an internal deadline for yourself on how much time a day/week you wil commit, because it really is a timesink. This is especially true for 2036, because of the extra fieldwork assignment that is wedged in between our paper 2 and 3 such that:
Paper 1, Paper 1 Final, Paper 2, Fieldwork, Paper 2 Final, Fieldwork Presentation, Paper 3, Paper 3 Final
The 'guilotine' of this course is the mad rush from submitting your fieldwork to submitting your paper 3, with back-to-back deadlines in this stretch (not overlapping, you're just expected to consistently write and plan new essays)
I cannot emphasise enough, DO NOT OVERLOAD if you want to take 2036. That being said, I never once found any of the deadlines impossible. Challenging/Demanding? Yes. But certainly doable with good time management.
Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades:
I would say A- is about the upper bound of the course. An A in this course is an essay that Prof Tiffany cannot find any errors to remark upon (which as you can imagine is pretty difficult) and an A+ is one that makes her shed tears of joy (which are the only tears not shed in this course).
That being said, I would also say that Prof Tiffany is pretty lenient with grades, there are plenty of 'pity grades', from your fieldwork presentation to your fieldwork report, such that most students will typicaly wind up in the B+ to A- range so long as they put in effort.
I would say, if you're hunting for an A grade NTW, I would not advise taking 2036, there are other NTWs that are easier to score both from a marking perspective and an assessment perspective too.
Learning Value/Recommendation: 5
This is the main point of the my review, and why I elected to write one to begin with. If you ask around, it is pretty apparent that this module is probably one of the more (if not the most) challenging/demanding NTWs out there, and I often feel that alot of attention is spent on emphasising the workload/challenge without emphasising the payoff.
Truthfully, in spite of toiling away at this mod and spending a good chunk of my time and mental health writing like a madman, I do not regret spending the time I did on this mod (which is not something that can be said for all NTWs). I think the biggest draw for NTW2036 is the insight and learning capable IF you put in the effort to try and learn.
The course writing is designed to be easily accessible and the topcis, while abstract, are relatable to daily experiences (we do live in a society after all). The course is difficult because Prof Tiffany pushes you to write better, and the word limit forces you to obsess over the most minute of prose to question if there was a more compact/efficient way of getting a point accross. What NTW2036 teaches you is not the vague promise of how to write 'well' but the sheer density of analysis and insight you can compress into 3000 words when you put your mind to it, guided by a professor.
I can say that I have emerged from this module a different writer having understood what exactly it means to write 'academically', and is thanks to 2036 attaching very real and defiinable methods to attain very subjective and qualitative goals in writing.
About the Instructor:
Prof Tiffany knows her stuff really well, and she often gives out nice sources that you can peruse in your spare time, demonstrating her knowledge of the field (and if she doesn't know the area, she knows where to find the answers which is also helpful).
She's an incredibly helpful professor who is willing to consult you on your essay (if time permits) and as a USP alumni, communicates lesson content in a very 'Singaporean Way'. I.e. through the use of structures, acronyms (like the 3Cs of a Lit Review) and other forms of writing that would be familiar to any student.
Side Note: 'Singaporean' in this case is not intended as a pejorative implying rote learning but rather as an indication that she knows her audience of (mostly) Singaporean students and knows how to speak the lingo.
She also gives actionable and detailed feedback for each essay, which is something that I really appreciate, because it shows effort on her part to do respect to an essay that you've clearly worked really hard on, rather than a few one-off sentences
Additional Comments/Word of Advice:
When doing your literature review, summarise each of your 'useful' sources (after filtering for the not useful stuff) with 1 - 2 sentences and organise them into 'themes' which should help you develop a better macro understanding of a specific 'literature'.
Don't write for a whole day (or god forbid a whole week), experience tells me that your efficiency when writing drops after 3-4 hours, do something else for the day. And plan to have certain goals achieved per session of writing, rather than sitting for 4 hours and getting little done.
Don't organise your essay into a mind map. Editing and rewriting is as much as skill as writing your essay, no one gets it right on the first attempt. Unfortunately, NTW doesn't teach this and its something you'll have to learn the hard way. But for starters, organising your essay into a mind map and rewriting from the mind map begins with the conclusion that you should keep everything in your previous essay and just reorganise it when this isn't true, and it also leads to essay bloat as your baseline is as much content as your previous essay plus whatever you will invarably add during a rewrite.
Its better to simply reread your essay and verbally explain what you were trying to say and write what you said ad verbatim. Compare that with your written work and get rid of anything that doesn't make it onto your verbal explanation
Content (Structure/Organization): 4
It is well structured with the first half focusing on introducing foundational concepts in the class, and the second half applying it to those concepts. If you understand the concepts in the first half of the class, the second should be easy.
The course's learning outcomes are clear: you have to write in an academic style (which is clearly defined by prof's presentations), and if you listen in class you will not face difficulties
Accessibility and Assessment: 5
I think its course is very accessible. I had no idea of the academic concepts before, but the general concepts of how space and place are used are very commonplace and do not require much background
Manageability of Workload: 2
I think its fairly high. We have 3 papers along with a paper presentation and a paper 3 presentation.
Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades:
It is not impossible but it is hard. I did OK, but I worked quite hard for it
Learning Value/Recommendation: 3
Personally, while I enjoyed the content I don't think it is very useful. It is fun and I learnt a lot, but not very practically applicable
About the Instructor:
Prof tiffany is very knowledgable and even answers questions after / outside of class. I can't think of anything negative to say, even for the sake of balance
Additional Comments/Word of Advice:
Work hard and take help from! She's very dedicated and will help you so as long as you put the effort in yourself
Name: David Lim Ming Quan (@davidquan321)
Content (Structure/Organization): 5
This course is very structured and the prof details clear outlines and techniques in writing that students should be aware of. That being said, prof does always emphasise that the structure she uses isn’t a one size fits all and that students should never fear breaking out of it (although she does ensure we know the risk). Readings and class objectives are straight forward and self contained each class. Each class you learn a new aspect of academic writing alongside going through one of the readings. This makes it 2 readings per week
Accessibility and Assessment: 5
As someone with zero background in sociology but a strong foundation in the social sciences in general, I found this course having a very minimal barrier to entry. Readings may need a bit of adjustment to fully understand but that’s to be expected for any academic deep dive in any field. This course is very much sociological in focus, so you don’t have to worry about it being very philosophical or abstract.
Manageability of Workload: 3
This course has the highest workload of the NTWs that I’ve heard from my peers. 3 major essays with another group presentation project on a different topic. Deadlines also seemed to be before other NTWs. The workload is definitely daunting but I think it is very effective in drilling in the skills you need to write and continually refine your essay.
Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades:
I never felt like I got a grade I didn’t deserve and the prof is quite rigorous in her analysis of your essay, picking out many things you yourself didn’t even know you were trying to do (or missed). I would say the prof is a good balance, the grading in particular never felt as scary or an uphill battle like how many of my peers described their NTWs. Expect a thorough dissection of your paper but you don’t have to worry too much about how strict she is.
Learning Value/Recommendation: 5
Very useful. As someone who never really struggled with writing before this, this class definitely completed its objective of drilling in me the expectations of a proper academic paper. You WILL come out of this course a better writer, no matter what skill level you are.
About the Instructor:
Prof Chuang is a great professor. A former USP alumni, she’s very relatable and it’s super easy to connect with her in class. More than just knowledgeable in her field of course, her commitment to analysing each essay throughly and providing feedback is her strongest suit as a prof. I have received mini essays in return for my essays that provided me specific ways to improve, not just broad comments that I’ve been used to before this.
Additional Comments/Word of Advice:
I would say the only daunting thing is the workload. If you’re looking for as light semester as possible, then I would say look for other NTWs. If you don’t mind that though then I will happily recommend this course, especially if they’re interested in housing policy/urban studies
Name: Ng Kang Zhe (@kangzhe)
Content (Structure/Organization): 5
This is a writing course that covers methods of academic writing through the lens of the study of spaces. In particular, this course centers itself around urban studies with a sociological lens - spaces in urban settings and their various impacts.
The writing techniques covered are: Motive and Thesis, Close Reading, Evidences, Essay/Argument Structure, Comparative Analysis, Lens Analysis, Peer Review Process (including writing one), Research Planning, Conclusions, Academic Presentations.
The class size is 12 people, with other NUSC students (mostly from year 1) taking it. Prof Tiffany will spend the first half teaching about a new writing technique(s), and show many examples on how they are used in the readings. She will also show different thought processes you can try to "discover" these writing techniques/ways of arguing. The second half of the seminar will be a group discussion on the assigned reading, usually related to writing technique taught for that lesson. Sometimes there are also worksheets for you to try out those writing techniques as small exercises.
Accessibility and Assessment: 4
Writing wise, moderately difficult. As an academic writing course, you will have to let go of your perception of writing as this is completely different from what you write in high school/JC/etc. There is a lot more structure to academic writing, though at the same time a lot more freedom too. Sometimes it may be difficult to start an argument, paragraph, or even a whole essay, but this course will help you with that.
The readings are not the easiest thing to understand due to the language of academic writing and also the relative nicheness of the field. However it will get better with practice (basically read more).
Prof Tiffany is very open to consultations though, but you have to seek for this help yourself. Elaborated further on the professor section.
Manageability of Workload: 2
Very high. There are two readings a week, each 20-30 pages long (so a total of ~50 pages a week on average). It is imperative to do the readings, otherwise you will be wasting your time during class discussions and learning about the different writing techniques that are extremely useful when writing your actual individual papers.
Timelines are also tight for the graded deliverables. In addition to the readings, there are a total of three papers, which is already very high on its own. Furthermore, you will have to submit a draft a week prior - while not graded is still a very important part of receiving feedback. You also have to write peer reviews (~500 words) to one classmate for both Papers 2 and 3 and you usually have around 48 hours of response time.
Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades:
Papers 1 and 2: B+
Paper 3: The letter grade is not disclosed, but based on the comments I would guess B+ or A-.
There isn't a strict rubric per se. Prof Tiffany however is very open to consultations, so use them when you have to. I believe an A- is achievable for your papers if you are clear in what you are trying to argue.
Actual grade: A-
Learning Value/Recommendation: 5
This course is for you if you like to find things in "everyday things taken for granted" to analyze. The perspective on sociology is definitely refreshing (as a mathematics major), and the content is very fascinating. Just be prepared for the intense workload. Usefulness: Will help you to write. A lot better.
About the Instructor:
Prof Tiffany is very clear in her teaching and her style of teaching is very enjoyable. She strikes a good balance between listening to an instructor, and having discussions. This forces you to learn actively, which is instrumental to reading and writing well. She also gives good feedback to drafts and research ideas, and even will help you all the way with brainstorming or ideation if you really are struggling to start your essay. However you will have to ask for this help from her yourself after Paper 1, as she will leave you to your own devices in Papers 2 and 3.
Prof Tiffany also gives a lot of freedom to what you want to write and how you want to write it, which I felt was the best part for me for this writing course.
Additional Comments/Word of Advice:
My review on NUSMods here (mostly the same): https://nusmods.com/courses/NTW2036/space-place-and-the-human-experience