Coursework

HANDING IN COURSEWORK ASSIGNMENTS (CWAs)

In the Department of Linguistics and English Language, coursework submission consists of two elements:

1. Submission of paper copy

Firstly, you need to submit a printed copy of your essay. The Essay Box for Linguistics and English Language is on C floor of County South, in the Mixing Bay opposite room C57. Leave your work in the appropriate box ('Part I' or 'Part II') with a signed cover sheet attached (see 'presentation' section below). Louise Williams or Vicki Haslam will remove it after the deadline has passed, so that we know whether students have submitted on time.

2. Submission of electronic copy

Secondly, you need to submit an electronic copy of your work. This is done via the LUVLE site for each course module that you are studying and is very simple to do. Full step-by-step instructions are available. This web page also contains the answers to many questions you may have about electronic submission, so please make sure that you read it carefully BEFORE you start to prepare your coursework. It’s very important that your paper copy and electronic copy are identical. This is because the paper copy is the one that will get marked in the first instance, but the electronic copy is the one that the External Examiners will see. So, for example, it’s not OK to hand write phonetic symbols on your paper copy, as they will then be missing from the electronic version.

We need to collect both paper and electronic copies from you so that your tutor has a copy to mark and write comments on, but we also have an archived electronic version to submit to the External Examiner if necessary. (This saves you from having to hand your coursework back in again during the summer term, although please keep the original paper copy safe just in case.) In addition, the electronic version is used for the purposes of checking for plagiarism.

Please note that if either the paper OR electronic copy is not submitted, it will be considered to be a non-submission of the coursework and the appropriate late penalty will be applied. So you must make sure that BOTH copies are submitted before the deadline. Electronic submissions are automatically date and time stamped, so we can tell exactly when your work was submitted.

Essays/dissertations submitted by post

There are two instances in which students are permitted to submit coursework by post, rather than in person:

  1. When the coursework is due for submission outside of term time, e.g. where an extension has been obtained.
  2. For exchange/visiting students, when they have returned to their home country before the coursework deadline.

In all other circumstances, coursework must be submitted in the normal way, as described above.

Students wishing to submit their work by post MUST notify the appropriate Co-ordinator (Louise Williams for Part I, Vicki Haslam for Part II) in advance. Failure to do so may result in work being recorded as late.

Students who submit essays/dissertations by post are advised that they should do so using registered post. Irrespective of the form of postage used, we will take the date the post office franks the mail as the date of submission. Where students do not use registered post and the coursework goes astray in the post, we will deem such coursework not to have been submitted. Where a student uses registered post and the coursework goes astray, we will accept the registered post document as proof of the date the coursework was posted and the student will not be penalised for the work having gone astray.

If coursework is being submitted by post, the electronic copy must ALSO be submitted via LUVLE before the deadline (date and time). Submission of only one copy, whether paper or electronic, will be considered to be a non-submission of the coursework and the relevant late penalty will be applied.

Word Ranges

For each piece of coursework, you will be given a word range (usually 2000 - 2500 words for essays and 9000 - 10,000 words for dissertations). The Department considers word ranges and other parameters set as part of coursework assessment to be an important and integral part of that assessment. Word ranges help to ensure that students submit comparable work. Moreover, writing to a word range is a useful skill that can be acquired at university and which will still be valuable after you graduate. The Department therefore requires students to indicate on their coursework cover sheet the exact number of words used (and remember that we can easily check that figure using your electronic copy!). Work that falls outside of the specified word range is liable to be penalised by the member of staff marking it. The further it is outside of the range, the greater the effect on the final mark.

In your word count, DO include:

  • The introduction
  • The conclusion
  • Section headings and sub-headings
  • All quotations, citations, and in-text short references ( Author date: page )
  • Tables that include your own commentary
  • Footnotes (remember you should not use footnotes for references, so footnotes should be used very rarely for side comments)
  • Linguistic examples: if they come in the middle of a paragraph and are only one or two words, include them.

But DON'T include:

  • The references section
  • Any appendices
  • The actual coursework question itself (which you should normally copy out at the start of the CWA as its 'title')
  • Your name / college / module and other such administrative details
  • Captions and labels on graphs and diagrams
  • Tables that only include statistics or linguistic examples (e.g. concordances or lists of words)
  • Table captions
  • Linguistic examples : if they are lengthy and occur in a paragraph or text box on their own, don't include them.

In a dissertation , the following extra rules apply:

  • DON'T include the abstract
  • DON'T include the title page
  • DON'T include the table of contents / cover page / list of tables and figures
  • DON'T include the acknowledgements.

And remember...

... in our department we always set a word range, not a word limit. Students often hear that you are allowed '10% each way', i.e. that for a 2000-2500 word essay you can go up to 2,750 words or down to 1,750 words. This is entirely false. When we ask for 2000 to 2500 words, we want... 2000 to 2500 words!

Extensions

Please DO NOT HAND IN WORK LATE - this is not acceptable and there will be a penalty in the form of marks deducted (see Late Submission for details). If you have a good reason for UNAVOIDABLY handing in work late (for example, illness or a serious personal problem) you should ask for an extension ( see extensions for details).

Presentation

A special essay cover sheet is provided, which you must attach to each essay. (There is a separate form for dissertations.) The use of cover sheets ensures that you provide all the details we need, and has space for your tutor's comments. A copy of the form will be kept in your file, and the original returned to you. Please make sure that:

  • the work is word processed (handwritten work is not acceptable, as this cannot be submitted electronically);
  • you use margins of at least one inch or 2.5cm;
  • you use double spacing;
  • there are no loose sheets. (There’s no need to put your work in a special folder – a staple is the best way to secure it. Please note that the use of paper clips, or turning over the corners of pages, are NOT acceptable.)

Return

Tutors have four weeks to mark coursework. When your work is ready for collection, you will receive an e-mail to let you know - please don't try to collect your work before you have received this e-mail. Your marked coursework can be collected from Louise Williams in C51 (Part I students) or Vicki Haslam in C49 (Part II students) during their normal office hours. Please KEEP ALL COURSEWORK SAFELY after it is returned.

Tutors will sometimes make specific recommendations on how to improve your work in the future - if you don't understand these, you should always ask. Likewise, you are welcome to discuss your work with your tutor after it has been evaluated. If you need further feedback, for example if it is not clear to you why your coursework got the mark it did, please request it - take advantage of tutors' office hours for this purpose. However, in accordance with Faculty regulations, please note that students do not have the right of appeal against an academic judgement. This means that you cannot ask for your work to be re-marked if you are unhappy with the mark that you have received.