TMA 02

Hiya,

I've had my second TMA results back. Considering the amount of work put in I feel it reflects quite well. I know that I am still not giving this my best. Maybe it is because it is not really what I want to be doing, I'm not sure.

I signed up to do either a literature or philosophy degree and am doing art, music etc. Excuses though I think! I need to commit myself more fully to achieve top marks.

The OU marking structure is
Pass 1 - 100-85 - A
Pass 2 - 84 - 70 - B
Pass 3 - 69 - 50 - C
Pass 4 - 54 - 40 - D
And then all sorts of nasty fails we wont mention.

Obviously I'd like to be in Pass 1 but at the moment, getting into Pass2 is not too bad. I've not done anything like this in over 10 years!

My TMA02 was done too quickly and I feel the result shows that! The only section I really took my time with was Philosophy. I'm not sure how long these essays are supposed to take but I spent about 2 hours on each.

Anyway, enough wittering, my result is as follows...

TUTOR'S COMMENTS AND ADVICE TO STUDENT:

Dan,

You have made a good effort answering the questions and there is alot of potential here.

The philosophy section is the strongest of the four and you display a good understanding of the various philosophical terms that you were introduced to in Block 1. Hattie's final argument could be padded out a bit, but overall, well done.

You are heading in the right direction with your analyses of the painting, the poem and the piece of music, however, each would have been stronger had you offered less description of content and more analysis of colour, tonal range, composition, strucure, imagery, diction, timbre, etc. that you were asked to cover. There is quite a bit of repetition in your discussion of the painting and you tend to spend rather too much time on lighting. I'm left wondering about colour and tonal range, the arrangement of the composition. What colours are used and how are they used? What about the linear arrangement of the composition? The same general comments hold true for your analysis of the poem. You make some interesting observations, but need to go a step further in your discussion of them. What, for example, is the effect of the unorthodox rhyme scheme in the sestet? What words does Thomas use and how does he use them? Parleying, for example, suggests not only chattering birds, but negotiation during war. You have the gist of 'For No One', but again are general rather than specific. How, for example, does the French horn complement the meaning of the lyrics? How does the song end? It has an unfinished quality to it that mirrors the theme.

71/100

Dan
x