Group Report
A report is different from an essay, which is directed towards development of an argument shaped by a research question. A report involves a survey of existing scholarly and other literature such as empirical data/studies, policies/laws, and possibly popular or community views on the issue under consideration, and the provision of recommendations based on logic and reason.

In order to write a briefing report you must first of all consider whether the issue you wish to investigate really is a problem. Does it have or require a policy/legal solution? If not, it will very probably be difficult to develop a compelling report!

The 5 major elements of your group briefing reports are:
1. Background to the policy problem: what is the problem?
2. To what extent is it a problem; for whom and why?
3. Existing policies/law and their limits
4. Debates about alternative policies
5. Preferred recommendations and why

The Topics for the Group Reports are located below. You must use appropriate referencing (Harvard Style) and your bibliography should be largely from credible sources. A key task is for the group to organise for at least one person to look over the whole manuscript to ensure that the report is a coherent whole in its final form. Your tutor can offer assistance with the report and with adjusting sections of it you have greater or fewer than 5 in your group. Please look at the Resources on how to undertake this assignment and/or consult with the Faculty Study Skills team.

The Group Report is an individually-assessed piece of work, so you will be assessed on your own contribution to the group assignment. Every group member will be required to submit the whole group report with a cover sheet via MyUni to allow tutors to accessa nd greade the assignment.

In this report it is essential that you provide the minimum number of references required, which for a group of five is at least fifteen (15) scholarly sources in your reference list, with in-text references supporting specific points in the report body. This minimum can be adjusted according to the number of group members; i.e., there is a minimum of three original sources per group member. It is likely that you will substantially exceed this this minimum as required by your argument. Sources in your reference list are not included in your word count, but quotations and in-text references within the body of your essay are. There is flexibility of 10% on the word count, meaning that you can write 10% too much or 10% too little without penalty.

Suggested Group Report Topics 
1. Freedom of speech - for example, policy regarding freedom of speech in local government regulations such in the case of Adelaide City Council and Rundle Mall; current debates over hate speech/racial vilification; the Charlie Hebdo debate

2. Video games - for example, regulation and classification of video games; offensive speech and online harrassment

3. Linguistic self-determination - for example, policy restricting language use; official language regulation; Native Tongue Title

4. Climate change and social responsibility - for example, national, international or NGO policies regarding release of chemicals/toxins (e.g. Carbon Tax); remediation of old polluted sites such as has recently occurred in Adelaide; or use of natural resources

5. The Network of Networks - for example, technology's contraints on personal freedom; corporate privacy policies; collection of personal (meta)data etc.

6. Presentation of the self - for example, workplace policies on tattooing; wearing of uniforms in schools

7. Bioethics - policies regarding compulsory vaccination; Do Not Rescusitate Orders; euthanasia; electronic storage and sharing of medical or genetic data

8. Wikileaks & Anonymous - freedom and constraint on the Internet; website blocking; hacktivism

Group Presentation
The Group Presentation is based upon the written group report. It is an oral version of the written report and thus requires some adjustment to be clear and engaging for your seminar group audience. Each member of the group will present the section on which they have already written, recrafting the material so that it is appropriate to verbal presentation and stays within time limits. Each person should speak for no more than two minutes. If the group has 5 members this will mean that the group presentation takes no more than 10 minutes. It is essential to plan well, rehearse and keep to the allotted time (you will be marked partly on this basis).

Presentations will occur in the second half (the Small Group Discovery timeslot) of each seminar in weeks 10, 11 and 12. A Schedule of the order of groups presenting, with their associated timekeepers, will be provided by your tutor before the conference presentation weeks.

Assessment of the presentation will be individual, but an important criterion will be how welll the group works together.. Group work is a crucial aspect of many study programs and workplaces. We are also aware that group work is not always straightforward. However, significant learning for the immediate and long term future can also emerge out of the negotiating and self-reflection which group work involves. Groups which function effectively learn how to share complimentary skills in order to create better outcomes. This too will be part of the assessment of your work. To achieve such collective synergy, shared understandings of working in your group are required, and you should pay particular attention to establishing and developing good working relationships with your colleagues. Things to consider here might include:

• arriving on time
• regular attendance and letting the designated contact person know if you cannot attend
• participation, sharing ideas and knowledge
• enabling inclusive discussion, which prevents any single member from dominating exchanges
• rotation of group reporting roles to all members (eg re speaking on behalf of the group, keeping notes etc)
• clear expectations regarding specific roles (contact person, group leader) and clear division of workload/tasks
• clear understandings of how you will communicate and meet outside of set classes
• clear steps to be taken in managing dissatisfaction with individual contributions: what will your group do?

Remember also that the tutor can and will assist with problems regarding group work that the group may have been unable to resolve. You will very likely be asked to discuss, make some decisions about, report on and record these matters in the first seminar. Group Presentation feedback will be sent via MyUni in Week 13 and is assessed as a group mark, i.e. every member of the group will receive the same mark.

Primary Analysis Blog
An essential aspect of studying in the Faculty of Arts is analysing and interpreting primary texts such as art, literature and film. The lectures in Weeks 10-12 focus on these areas of creative endeavour and will model the analysis and interpretation of primary texts, and by the end of Week 12 you are required to submit a blog post with your own analysis of a piece of music, art or literature. Sample works for analysis are made available in MyUni, but you might also select your own (subject to approval by your tutor). This blog post is only visible to your tutor.

Like everything else at University, your Primary Analysis must be supported by evidence from the text. You are therefore required to refer to specific aspects of the piece of music, literature, or artwork to support your claims of interpretation, and to persuade your reader that you have produced a sound analysis of your chosen piece. It is not necessary to provide additional references (i.e. secondary sources in the form of articles etc.), since a primary analysis can be effective by only focussing on the primary text. However, if you wish to use concepts or ideas from secondary sources such as readings or lectures, this can make your interpretation even stronger.

It might be useful to consider that a primary analysis is essentially an argument (like an essay), but an argument for a particular interpretation of your chosen artwork. Of course interpretations can be subjective and personal, but by persuading your reader of the strength of your analysis by using evidence from the text, you make it more objective.

Some questions you might like to consider when beginning your Primary Analysis include:
* Who wrote the piece? What is their background? Has this influenced the artwork?
* What other artworks does this piece relate to, and how does this shape your appreciation of it? You might choose pieces from the same author, composer, or artist, or a piece from a similar era, or a very different piece to help compare and contrast.
* What do you think the artist was trying to convey in this piece? What was their intention?
* How might different audiences from different contexts understand the artwork? Is this different from what the artist may have intended?
* What does this artwork have to say about any of the political, social, or cultural issues we have covered in the rest of the course?
* What are some of the most important images, themes, motifs, or messages in the artwork? (Ensure you provide examples.)
* Do you think the artwork is 'beautiful', or aesthetically pleasing? (Note: you might need a working definition of aesthetics, or beauty, to answer this question.)

Of course, you are not required to answer every one of these questions; you may choose to only address one or two in some depth. Alternatively, there may be questions relevant to your text that are not provided here: these are just a guide.

Seminar Preparation
Thorough preparation for your contact time in this course is essential to get the most out of the time you are dedicating to attending lectures and seminars. Therefore, this course has a Pre-Lecture Quiz which focusses on the material covered in readings. These quizzes are designed to test your knwoledge of the materials covered in Readings and Lectures, and your engagement in these activities contributes towards your overall mark. Some of the questions in these Quizzes are somewhat ambiguous and designed to generate discussion rather than lead to a 'right' or 'wrong' answer; nonetheless, they are based clearly on the reading material and are designed to assess how closely you read the required texts.

It is expected that you will complete the Quiz before the lecture each week. The Quiz will close at 5pm on the day of the lecture, and you will not be able to submit answers after this time. You will also receive immediate feedback on both correct and incorrect responses in each Quiz.

Seminar Participation
Participation consists of active engagement in the seminar discussions. Seminars are organized around a program of content focussed by discussion of the Lecture and Set Readings that will be addressed each week and Small Group Discovery activities which involve skills development (see Learning Activities Summary in this Course Outline).

Assessment of Seminar Participation
Seminar participation is unlikely to ever reach 100%, since that would imply and indeed require perfection. A seminar participation grade is not an indicator of mere attendance, but rather reflects levels of preparation, interactive engagement and demonstrated intellectual capacities.

You might look over the general grading guide for written work on the previous page, as well as the Writing Centre learning guide 'Participating in Tutorials': http://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/learning_guides/learningGuide_participatingInTutorials.pdf.

Elements which are taken into account in the Seminar Participation grade include practical features such as:
• Consistently arriving and leaving on time;
• Evident preparation for seminar sessions in terms of attending/listening to Lectures and reading of Set Readings; 
• Consistently undertaking the Pre-lecture Quizzes; 
• Bringing along the image to be discussed in class following completion of the Tests. 

However, seminar participation also involves group work and independent thinking skills such as:
• A balance of actively listening to others and participation; 
• Sharing information and personal understandings of course materials; 
• Actively undertaking collaborative and problem-solving work in informal discussion, group tasks and assessment tasks; 
• Demonstrating engagement and cooperation with peers and tutor; 
• Taking responsibility for self-learning and the learning of the group; 
• Being respectful in relation to different perspectives, values, understandings and feelings of group members; 
• Articulating arguments about course materials, not simply relying on others; 
• Showing evidence of independent thinking.