Assignment Presentation

1. Not all submissions will be written pieces, but most of them will be: these notes
are intended as guidance for their composition and presentation. They are not
intended to present you with an additional burden, but on the whole, you have
said that you welcome clear guidance and it is no more effort to get it right
(i.e. in accordance with academic norms) than to get it wrong. So:
Binders
. !f a submission needs a binder, please use the slim plastic clear"fronted #pro$ect
folders% or a single plastic sleeve with a staple in the top"left"hand corner of the
papers if at all possible. &arrying around a load of ring"binders and even lever"
arch files does not put the mar'er in an appropriate dispassionate mood(
). *lease do not put each page in a separate plastic sleeve: ta'ing them out to
annotate them is a pain, and tutors have recently resolved not to do so. So if you
do use plastic sleeves you will not get written feedbac' on the script.
+. ,owever, do put the submission for each unit in a different binder. There have
been cases where wor' was overloo'ed, because it was included in the same
binder as a piece for another unit (and perhaps even a different tutor).
-. !f you have a substantial amount of material in appendices, and especially if it is
to be read alongside the main te.t, consider putting the appendices in a separate
binder so that the reader or mar'er can have both of them open alongside each
other, rather than continually having to thumb between the front and bac' of a
single binder. !n that case, of course, use an elastic band or document folder to
'eep the binders together.
/. Sometimes, tutors may as' for two copies, for moderation, sampling or archive
purposes. Technically, the copyright of any wor' you submit for assessment
belongs to the 0niversity.
Layout
1. Submissions should be double- or one-and-a-half spaced, (like this paragraph) with
numbered pages, written on one side of A4 paper only with wide (at least 1!4 cm!"
pica) margins# 1$-point te%t (also like this paragraph) is a good standard si&e# 'o be
really picky, a serif typeface such as 'imes (ew )oman, *ustified, which is easier on
the eye for solid te%t#
2. Submissions should be word"processed, because:
!T s'ills are relevant and transferable, and
it means that there is bound to be another copy available, so that
tutors can write on the submitted copy.
3. *ersonally, ! am all for sub"headings for different sections of a submission, but
this view is not shared by all lecturers. !f you use sub"headings, please ma'e
them identifiable as such with bold type or similar, as in this document.
14. Similarly, numbered paragraphs ma'e for easy reference to particular sections on
a mar'ing sheet, but whether to use them or not depends somewhat on the
nature of the submission. Some people actually cite the code numbers for the
5utcomes in the margins: not all submissions lend themselves to this, but it is a
useful device if you can use it. Note that the 5utcomes do not have to be
addressed in numerical order: let the sense of the wor' dictate their order.
Quotations
11. 6uotations should be clearly separated from the rest of the te.t with 7uotation
mar's. They can be single"spaced, but anything longer than a single line should
be indented and separated from the body of the te.t by a blan' line.
+So a substantial piece of ,uoted material will look rather like this, standing in
the same relationship to the rest of the te%t as does this paragraph (Atherton,
$--./..)
1. 8ll verbatim or paraphrased 7uotations need the source, date and page number
(or at least the chapter reference) alongside them. See below for the
conventions.
1). Only use 7uotations when:
the author has made a point particularly well, and probably more
concisely than you could say it and9or
you are going on to discuss in detail what she or he has said at this
particular point.
1+. There is no point in 7uoting from standard te.tboo's: confine yourself to
#primary sources%.
1-. ;o not use 7uotations simply as a way of proving that you have actually read the
boo' or article( 5r for padding.
Referencing
1/. The referencing conventions to be followed in written wor' ('nown as the
,arvard or simply <author9date< system) are that sources are referred to
(#flagged%) in the body of the te.t by author and date in parentheses, e.g. =arvis
(44/), with the page or chapter number cited if direct 7uotes or specific
allusions to the author>s argument are used, e.g. =arvis (44/: -4) or =arvis
(44/: ch. +).
!f you come from a medical or physical science bac'ground you may be
more familiar with the ?ancouver system which may be easier to follow when
wor's are cited $ust once or twice, but familiarity with the author9date system
is a course re7uirement.
11. Note @emember that the point of referencing is to enable a reader to go to the source material
herself, so it is useless if it is not specific enough: if in doubt, use that as the guiding principle.
That if you are referring to a te.tboo', which covers a wide range of material, it
is not enough to flag the boo' itself: you must refer to the chapter, section or
page. Simply flagging the source as a whole is only sufficient when that source is
ma'ing a single point, as most academic articles do.
12. The date in 7uestion is the date of the original publication, or of the edition you
are wor'ing from: reprinting dates do not count. @emember that since much
research and opinion progresses by a process of debate, the date of an article or
boo' says a great deal.
13. 8cademics are notorious for writing in droves. (Ahat is the collective noun for
lecturersB 8 #waffle% perhapsB) !f there are three or more authors for a source it
is usual to refer to the first author et al.(meaning #and others%) in the
te.t, e.g. Cander et al. (442), rather than Cander, Doustedt, Ec'erdal,
Fc&artney, Fostrom, @atcliffe and Sanders (442).
4. 8t the end of the essay or dissertation full details should be cited (in alphabetical
order of author):e.g.
0ar1is 2 ($--3) Towards a Comprehensive Theory of Human Learning 4ondon5
)outledge
1. !f the reference is to an article or a paper within an edited volume, the article title
should be #in 7uotes% and the name of the $ournal underlined or (preferably,
nowadays) in italics. The volume and part of the $ournal (or its specific date)
should also be cited:
6ander 7, 8oustedt 0, 9ckerdal A, :c7artney ), :ostrom 0 9, )atcliffe : and
Sanders ; ($--.) +'hreshold 7oncepts in 7omputer Science in ) 4and, 0 < =
:eyer and 0 Smith (eds#) Threshold Concepts within the Disciplines )otterdam5
Sense 2ublishers (pp# 1->-11.)
;inchin ? and <ay @ ($-->) +Asing concept maps to optimi&e the composition
of collaborati1e student groups/ a pilot study Journal of Advanced Nursing
51($) 0uly pp# 1.$-1.B
. !deally, there should be two lists of references at the end of the wor': one called
#@eferences% which sets out those wor's cited or referred to in the te.t as set out
above, and another called #Dibliography%, which includes:
The actual sources for the references. E.g. if an article was included in
a collection of articles gathered into a boo', although originally published in
another $ournal, or was cited by another author, the bibliography should
include the information about the wor' you actually read, in which it was
included or cited. E.g.:
897;9) < (1"3C) +Dhy school is a lousy place to learn anything in
reprinted in ) 0 8urgess (ed#)Howard ec!er on "ducation 8uckingham5
Epen Ani1ersity 2ress, 1"".
8ny other boo's or articles which you read in support of the
submission, but did not refer to directly in the te.t.
8fter all, how many of you have actually read DG55F D S (ed.)
(13-/) Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, the classification of educational
goals Handbook ! "ognitive #omain New Hor': FcIayB
That would be in the #references%, but the Dibliography would contain
@EE&E ! and A8GIE@ S (441) $ %&actical 'uide to Teaching T&aining and
(ea&ning. (/th revised edition) Gondon. Dusiness Education *ublishers.
(Ahich is what you actually read.)
Note that this dual system is not always necessary when the
referencing is uncomplicated.
Citing the Internet
). !ncreasingly, you may wish to cite material from the !nternet, particularly the
Aorld Aide Aeb. There are two ma$or things to note:
There is a lot of rubbish out there: the freedom of the !nternet is both its
glory and its biggest liability from an academic viewpoint. ;o not rely on it for
authoritative statements on anything J always bac' up from printed sources.
The changeability and impermanence of the net means that you would be
well advised not to cite Ai'is (including Ai'ipedia), and should store a copy of
the page in 7uestion on your machine for future reference.
+. *ages can be up"dated in minutes. !f the tutor wants to chec' your source, it
may not say the same thing as it did when you wrote the submission, so it is
important to cite the date of access. !f you thin' it li'ely that the page might
change (e.g. a news report) copy the page or print it as an 8crobat document,
and 'eep it so that you can produce it if re7uested. !t is not usually necessary to
print out such material or to append it, but feel free to chec' with the mar'ing
tutor if in doubt.
-. The standard form of citation is to use the usual Name (Hear) flag in the body of
the te.t and then, for the full version at the end:
8uthor, (Hear) Title, K5n"lineL, *lace of publication e.g. 0I. 8vailable (or
<retrieved<) from: Aebsite address K8ccessed: give dateL
/. E.amples of referencing from the internet are:
A8GIE@ = @ and T8HG5@ T (44/) The "olumbia 'uide to Online
)tyle (
nd
edn.) K5n"lineL 0S8:
availablehttp:99www.columbia.edu9cu9cup9cgos44/9basic.html (8ccess
ed 1 =uly 441)
8T,E@T5N = S (44) $cademic %&actice! $ssignment %&esentation
'uidelines K5n"lineL: 0I:
8vailable:http:99www.doceo.co.u'9academic9assignmentMpresentation.
htm
(8ccessed: )4 =une 441)
1. ,owever, many websites do not have clear authors or dates of publication, so this
poses problems for the in"te.t flag:
!n the absence of a date, simply use <(n.d.)<Jwithout the 7uotation
mar'sJfor <no date<.
!n the absence of an author use a version of the organisationNs or
websiteNs nameJshortened if necessaryJin its place, and be consistent
with its use in the reference list at the end
So flag that reference in"te.t as <(8*8, 414)< Kthe date is in the footer in
this caseL, and list it as:
8merican *sychological 8ssociation (414) <,ow do you reference a web page
that lists no authorB< retrieved 8ugust 414
from http:99www.apastyle.org9learn9fa7s9web"page"no"author.asp.
Diagrams and pictures
2. ;iagrams can be very effective ways of succinctly conveying comple.
information, and there is value in developing your s'ill in presenting information
visually, so they may be a useful ad$unct to the te.t.
3. ,owever, there is no need to reproduce diagrams of, say, Faslow>s hierarchy of
needs or Iolb>s learning cycle, which are already li'ely to be familiar to the
mar'er.
)4. ;iagrams may be self"e.planatory to you, but they may need a commentary for a
reader coming upon them for the first time.
)1. Oenerally spea'ing, other illustrations such as photographs should be placed in
appendices. 5nly use pictures which add something to the wor': clipart
decoration for its own sa'e may have its place in handouts, but is not appropriate
here.
Plagiarism
). *lagiarism is not merely the unattributed insertion of substantial pieces of other
people>s material into your wor', but any attempt to pass off someone else>s
wor' as your own, and it is a serious offence. (*lagiarised wor' may be
automatically failed and even lead to e.clusion from a course. Hour college or
university will have a formal policy on plagiarism and probably some informal
guidance, too. @ead it.)
)). Since, however, it ma'es good educational sense for students to ma'e use of all
resources available to them, including tutors, mentors and colleagues in
preparing their wor', the safest course is to be punctilious about ac'nowledging
any assistance received. Such ac'nowledgement should also include an indication
of its nature, such as:
#Than's to Piona Dountiful (Fentor) for information on the
implementation of competence"based assessment for politicians:
and to Dill Oates for Ficrosoft Aord>s spelling chec'er.%
)+. !t is not usually necessary to ac'nowledge the tutor him" or herself.