CRITERIA FOR MARKING OF WRITTEN WORK
3.1 Criteria for Classification
Your written work, whether it counts directly towards your degree or not, will be marked according to the criteria for classification given below. These criteria for classification are based on the assumption that all students selected should be capable of a II (i) degree at the end of their programme. While this does not imply that every piece of work must reach this standard, the criteria for classification have been drawn up on the assumption that a class lower than II (ii) will imply a performance that falls below our expectation.
The criteria below apply if you have made a serious attempt at your work. It is possible to receive a grade of NS (‘no serious attempt’).
Students who cheat (plagiarism, copying another student’s work, inventing data or results) are also liable to suffer severe penalties, after an interview with a disciplinary panel. Penalties can include resubmitting your work for a mark of 0 (failing a module can affect your overall classification) or expulsion from the University.
General Criteria
Every piece of work you submit for assessment will be evaluated according to the following criteria: you should bear these in mind when planning, researching, writing and editing your work. What follows covers bot h examinations and assessed essays: self- evidently, some of these criteria will be more appropriate for essays, some for exams (accuracy of recall, for example, is more readily applicable to examination than it is for essays).
a) Knowledge
1. Range of reference to texts and scholarly material: range might typically indicate breadth of engagement across texts and scholarly materials as well as ability to engage with material right across a module. Depth should not be sacrificed at the expense of range.
2. Depth of engagement with texts and scholarly material: you will be expected to show rigorous, meticulous detailed engagement with texts (literary works, films, or texts for linguistic analysis), involving evidence of a nuanced engagement and close, attentive reading and/or analysis.
3. Initiative, effort and independence in searching out and using relevant materials and resources, for example, locating materials outside the bibliography, searching the library databases, use of manuscript or other unpublished materials, use of newspapers, microfilm materials, related materials in other media (e.g., film), administration of questionnaires, collection of language in use.
4. Accuracy of recall and/or analysis: detailed knowledge of texts, accurate use of technical and critical terminology, accurate linguistic analysis, accurate use of contextual materials, ability to select specific illustrative examples with awareness of their contextual location within texts.
b) Intellectual Skills
Critical ability is crucial to the development and exposition of your intellectual skills and typically comprises the following:
1. Conceptual skills: you are introduced to conceptual thinking from Level 1 on as you begin to implement any number of approaches to the material with which you are working. Depending on the module you are taking or the kind of assignment that you are required to write, you should be aware of the approach that you choose to take and the interpretative frame or theoretical framework you are using in your approach to the material. These might be concepts derived from a particular critical, literary or linguistic theory, the influence or teachings of particular practitioners, an approach with an emphasis on historical, cultural, or political issues that have shaped a writer or a text, a particular methodological approach. Developing conceptual skills enables you to ask different kinds of questions about a text or a topic and it is your ability to generate interesting questions that will lead to the areas outlined below.
2. Originality/creativity/freshness of ideas: you can relate these to many of the points listed above: the more breadth you can cover in more detail, the more you are able to show initiative and independence in researching, the greater the originality, creativity and freshness of your ideas.
3. Ability to initiate and conduct an argument: you will need to understand what the supplied question or topic is asking of you, what kinds of questions you need to ask about the given topic, and then you will need to show:
4. Ability to select and marshal material relevant to the topic, to make sure that one major point develops and follows another, that you are building a persuasive case for your argument, and that every point you make can be supported by different forms of evidence from the text, from your findings or from scholarly reading.
5. Ability to work coherently with material of different kinds: you can draw on any one (or even more) of a number of critical, theoretical or methodological approaches. For example, in literary work you might choose to follow a school of critical thought, a particular historicist approach, a psychoanalytical approach, a cultural materialist approach, or a gender-based approach. In linguistic work you may choose to adopt a theory and methodology associated with a particular school of thought, and you will need to state what your source is for grammatical terminology. In both literary and linguistic work, the approach you decide to take will need to be consistent. You will also need to bear in mind what your particular essay word length will allow you to do and what kind of balance you need to achieve. It is better to be selective and coherent than to attempt to be comprehensive.
c) Technical Skills
1. Competence in (a) grammar, spelling and punctuation: you can find further advice on these in this handbook, on the Faculty of Arts Study Skills Website and on the VLE. If you feel you would like, or that you need, additional help, look out for information on writing workshops during the course of the academic year: these are held by the Faculty of Arts, by the School and by the Skills Centre, and details are advertised through posters and through email.
2. Appropriate range of vocabulary, control of style, clarity of expression: by ‘appropriate’, we mean that you should have a proficient command of relevant technical and critical terms as well as a vocabulary that allows you to express your ideas with fluency and with nuance. You should write in an academic style.
3. Accuracy and clarity of presentation – footnotes, bibliography, references, etc.: there are rules and regulations about these. We have outlined these for you in the Handbook and they should be followed: expect to be penalised if you disregard them. Accuracy of referencing is crucial: it can lead to inadvertent plagiarism so please make sure you get this right.
4. Practical skills: You are expected to develop good time-management skills and essays must be handed in on time. You should expect to work flexibly with the type of essay or project that you have been asked to write: different questions will demand different kinds of skills from you, different modules may require you to think about different or specific conceptual approaches, different essay lengths may also require different skills: a 1700 word essay, for example, is going to demand different skills compared to a 7000 or 14000 word dissertation: so critical flexibility and working with a clear understanding of what is required of you is important. Presentation skills are important, whether this means accurate and clear written presentation or clear and organised oral presentation. To avoid penalties it is in your interest to ensure that you are aware of all practical details: dates and times of handing in assessed work; dates and times of examinations; familiarity with a particular examination rubric. It is also important that you take responsibility for ensuring that you hand in TWO IDENTICAL COPIES of your assessed work.
Class I
A First Class piece of work (72-90 on the Module Grade Scale) will demonstrate to an increasing extent the following:
a) Knowledge: an impressive to outstanding command of the material on the module; a sustained ability to select and to make coherent diverse material, on and beyond the module where appropriate; significant research initiative where appropriate.
b) Intellectual skills: independent, perceptive and nuanced insights; an ability to challenge or develop scholarly material or the arguments of others and, where appropriate, to engage with current debate.
c) Technical skills: excellent to outstanding command of Standard English with increasing stylistic sophistication.
A Class II (i) piece of work will demonstrate:
a) Knowledge: knowledge of an appropriate range of material on the module; an ability to produce a coherent and sustained argument; wide acquaintance with critical and contextual material where appropriate; evidence of an ability to research specific tasks with independence where appropriate.
b) Intellectual skills: ability to select and organise material purposefully and cogently; ability to handle complex ideas; evidence of independent thought.
c) Technical skills: good and varied expression; sustained Standard English; good range and control of style; good presentation.
A Class II (ii) piece of work will demonstrate:
a) Knowledge: evidence of knowledge relevant to the module; an acquaintance with critical and contextual material where relevant.
b) Intellectual skills: ability to organise an argument; ability to select relevant material for the answering of a particular question; some critical awareness, some ability to handle conceptual thinking.
c) Technical skills: competence in the handling of academic prose using Standard English and an appropriate range of vocabulary.
A Class III piece of work will demonstrate:
a) Knowledge of relevant material on the module.
b) Intellectual skills: some ability to organise an argument.
c) Technical skills: some competence in handling and understanding of prose writing.
Fail
Failed work will demonstrate:
a) Knowledge: insufficient or no evidence of knowledge of material on the module.
b) Intellectual skills: very limited ability to produce and develop an argument; very limited or no evidenced ability to address the terms of the question.
c) Technical skills: incoherent prose writing, very poor control of Standard English.
You will also find it helpful to consult the VLE and the Faculty of Arts Online Learning Resource (ds.ac.uk/arts/studyskills) for further practical advice pertaining to these General Criteria (see Section 6.6).