Summative Evaluation

I have quite enjoyed this module as I think been given the opportunity to research and create a body of work on something of your choice is quite a luxury, especially having as much time to do so. I started off really liking the topic I chose as its something that I am interested in anyway. But as the module went on I feel like another topic would have been better, I say this because I would have liked a topic that is current with social issues going on today. There are a lot of things that I could research when looking into Subcultures, like discrimination and racism, although I think choosing a topic that is relevant to today's society and culture could be more meaningful and evoke more feeling and passion.

Speaking to others in peer reviews and crits I realised that although I have really enjoyed working on subcultures, that if I chose another topic, I would be more passionate about keeping with the same topic for Cop3.

I found the essay quite difficult, I am not a natural writer and I don’t have a vast vocabulary, which makes things difficult when trying to write and educated, critical analysis of something. For my first draft, I received feedback, which said it read like a story, which it did, and that is my downfall. I did improve by adding more evaluation to it; although I think with extra time I could have improved it even more so by going to student support for some help.

With the practical side of the module, I did struggle at first trying to come up with a way to show my argument, that subcultures like we stereotype them, no longer exist in today's society. I didn’t know how to illustrate it properly, which ended up me having a really slow start to this part of the module. I found group crits and peer reviews really helpful in this instance, I got to talk to others about the problems I was facing and I found it really beneficial to me, as it was these times when I got my best ideas and feedback.

When I started my practical work and was happy with my concept, I really enjoyed creating it. I was excited to make an interactive publication and along with the concept, it excited me and motivated me to see the finished product. At some points, I definitely felt restricted by the requirements in the brief for instance, the page count for the publication. I only felt restricted because of being limited to printing one-sided, to be able to cut the pieces out. I tried different formats and ways of how to create a publication where I could use more space and ended up with an A3 publication.

I am really happy with the artwork within the book, I spent quite a while making sure each garment would fit the paper doll so the book could be functional. The main thing I would change about the content is the order form within as I think it is way too large and I should have thought about the scale of the book more whilst working on screen.

I definitely think that I need to improve on my time management skills; I think I should go by the college’s recommendation of set days for set modules and try hard right from the beginning. I think I sometimes slack a bit with work at the start of the module and then I realise how much work I can actually produce when it gets closer to the deadline, which just makes me feel like I’m doing myself an injustice. Also, I definitely need to keep on top of my blogging, although at periods through the year I can keep up to date, sometimes I let it slip and it can be quite detrimental, especially when documenting and evaluating key moments.

Overall, I am happy with the work I have produced for this module, although there are things I would change with both the essay and the publication, I definitely know what I would do differently next time and coming in level 6 I am going to seek advice from student support for writing essays as I think that would really help me in the months to come. Although I know I can improve on things, it has been really insightful in to what exactly I need to improve on next time.