The detection work carried out – by different people – in Michael Gilbert’s Smallbone Deceased (we looked at the first chapters in an early exercise) draws on an eclectic range of skills and discipline areas. Identify and analyse the range of skills and specialist knowledge required to solve the two murders which take place in Smallbone Deceased.
Design a new week’s work for this module based on any appropriate topic relating to work you find interesting. Offer a brief rationale for your choice of topic. Then follow the pattern of this module’s Canvas pages – i.e. create text (and links where appropriate) under the headings of Getting Started, Preparing for the Webinar, and Discussion Boards. Include a plan for your week’s webinar, and devise an essay question (or another kind of assessed project if you prefer) in which students could explore your chosen topic further.
Choose one topic – or aspect of a topic – you have covered on the module and three or four items which relate to it. These could include, for example:
Paintings or photographs
Novels or other literary works
Academic articles
Films or TV programmes
Pieces of music
Physical artefacts
Your items could come from very different times and places – or reflect the contrasts (e.g. of social class) within a single time or place. Write a reflective commentary introducing your items, comparing and contrasting them, and reflecting on any implications you can draw from your analysis
Script a debate between two characters who have different views on one of these topics:
Trade unions and/or industrial action (strikes)
Universal basic income
Zero hours contracts
Climate taxes (you could focus on proposals on one or more of these, for example: taxes on meat, fast fashion, plastic, frequent flyers)
You can either give each character one long speech or create a to and fro argument with several switches of speaker. You may like to write a brief (two sentence) introduction to your scenario – for example, you may decide to stage an imaginary conversation from the 1960s rather than one set today, or your conversation may take place in a different country.
The key criteria are:
- engagement with the module
- Clear use of English
- Clear organisation of material
Depending on your assignment choice and approach you may also demonstrate
- Powers of analysis
- Research skills
- Creativity
