Goldsmiths College History Department

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|Student Number | |
|College Email | |
|Degree Programme |e.g BA History, BA History/Sociology |
|Year of Course | |
|Course name |e.g. Concepts and Methods |
|Essay Deadline | |
|Submission Date | |
|Are you dyslexic? | |

Essay or Assignment Title
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Guidelines on using this essay template
Q. What assignments have to be submitted online?
A. Almost all the assignments you do in the History Department will be submitted online via the VLE. We do not accept paper copies of essays.
Q. What wordprocessor format should I use for assignments?
A. Only two formats are acceptable: Word (.doc, docx) and RTF (.rtf). Word format is preferred.
Q. Is there a template I should use when writing History essays?
A. Yes, you can find it in here in the History Department Virtual Office on the VLE in the section entitled 'Essay Template'.
Q. What happens if I don't use the template?
A. Your work will receive a mark of 0.
Q. How should I name my file when I upload it?
A. With your student number (e.g.22350987) and course code (e.g. HT51001A). Leave a space in between each item. The filename should then resemble the example below:
22350987 HT51001A.doc

Q. How many files can I upload for each assignment?
A. Only one file, which much include all text, footnotes, and bibliography.
Q. If I make a mistake, or want to make some changes, can I upload the file again?
A. Yes, you can upload as many times as you like before the deadline. Only the final copy will be saved.
Q. Can I upload a file from home, or only from College?
A. You can upload a file from home or anywhere else that has an internet connection.
Q. Are essays checked for plagiarism?
A. Yes, and the penalties for plagiarism are severe. If you are not sure what counts as plagiarism please refer to section 4 of the History Examinations Information Centre on the VLE.)
Q. How will I know what the deadlines are for assignments?
A. These are announced at the start of each course, and will be shown on the course areas on the VLE.
Q. Are the deadlines for submission of coursework final?
A. Yes, the deadlines are final. The VLE will not allow you to upload work after the deadline and failure to submit work on time will result in a mark of 0 unless there are extenuating circumstances.
Q. What are 'extenuating circumstances'?
A. Circumstances that are unforeseeable and totally beyond your control, such as being taken ill or suffering a serious accident. Technical problems with your home computer, the internet, or failing to plan your time properly are not valid extenuating circumstances. To avoid last-minute problems you are advised to upload your work a day or more in advance of the deadline.
Q. What should I do if there are valid extenuating circumstances which prevented me submitting an assignment on time?
A. Submit the work together with an extenuating circumstances form (available from section 3 of the History Examinations Information Centre) within SEVEN DAYS of the deadline. You will need to enclose medical or other written evidence.
Q. How should I submit late work?
A. Via the late submission link near the normal submission link.
Q. When will my essay be marked?
A. Normally within two weeks.
Q. What feedback will I get on my assignments?
A. A mark out of 100 and feedback indicating both what you did well and how your work could be improved.
Q. What is the 'Self-Assessment and Feedback Form' at the end of the essay template?
A. This is a form you should complete for each essay you submit. Indicate in the boxes how well you feel you have met the assessment criteria. The tutor will do likewise so you can see clearly where there are gaps between your self-assessment and that of the tutor. You must complete this form otherwise your work will receive a mark of 0.
Q. How will I receive the feedback?
A. Tutors will grade the essay and complete the 'Self-Assessment and Feedback' form at the back of the essay. Log back into the VLE to see your grade and read the completed feedback form.
Q. Should I keep a copy of the assignments I upload?
A. Yes, you should always keep the original file as a backup.
Q. Should I put my name anywhere on the work I submit online?
A. No. All that is needed is your student number.
Q. What should I do if I have other queries?
See your course convener or personal tutor. (The College Computer Helpdesk in the Library will not answer queries relating to the VLE.)

Definition of Plagiarism

Plagiarism is an attempt (deliberate or inadvertent) to gain advantage by the representation of another person's work, without acknowledgement of the source, as the student's own for the purposes of satisfying formal assessment requirements.

Recognised forms of plagiarism include

1. the use in a student's own work of more than a single phrase from another person's work without the use of quotation marks and acknowledgement of the source; 2. the summarising of another person's work by simply changing a few works or altering the order of presentation, without acknowledgement; 3. the use of ideas or intellectual data of another person without acknowledgement of the source, or the submission or presentation of work as if it were the student's own, which are substantially the ideas or intellectual data of another person; 4. copying the work of another person; 5. the submission of work, as if it were the student's own, which has been obtained from the internet or any other form of information technology; 6. the submission of coursework making significant use of unattributed digital images such as graphs, tables, photographs, etc. taken from books/articles, the internet or from the work of another person; 7. the submission of a piece of work which has previously been assessed for a different award or module or at a different institution as if it were new work; 8. a student who allows or is involved in allowing, either knowingly or unknowingly, another student to copy another's work including physical or digital images would be deemed to be guilty of plagiarism. 9. If plagiarism is suspected students will be required to supply an electronic copy of the work in question so that it may be subjected to electronic plagiarism detection testing. Therefore students are required to keep work electronically until after they receive their results as electronic detection may be part of the investigative process.

Source: Assessment Handbook 15f.

Introduction

(Replace this text with your Introduction. Notice the body of your essay should be double-spaced. The Introduction should explain what you understand the question to be asking, what you think you will need to do to answer it, and how you intend to structure the discussion that follows)
Main Text

(Replace this text with your main section and any subsections, inserting footnotes in the format below.[1] Quotations of four lines or more should be indented as a block text, single-spaced and without quotation marks. The result should look something like this, and there should always be a footnote at the end of the quotation so that its source can be located easily.[2]

For subheadings use italics without bold letters, ie ‘Heading 2’.)
Conclusion

(Replace this text with your conclusion. Your conclusion should state clearly your answer to the question and reflect critically on how successfully you have achieved the aims you set yourself in the Introduction)
Bibliography

Books

(e.g. Blackfoot, Emery. Chance Encounters. Boston: Serendipity Press, 1987)

Journal Articles

(e.g. Banks, William. 'A Secret Meeting in Boise,' Midwestern Political Review 6 (1958:26-31).

Online resources

(e.g. The Best of the Web: Internet Sources for History. Available from http://humbul.ac.uk. Accessed 3 April 2007.)

Essay Self-Assessment and Feedback Form
|Please give a rating of how well you feel you have met each of the assessment criteria by putting an X in one of the three |
|boxes below. 1=fully, 2=partially, 3=poorly. Your tutor will make a similar assessment and give additional feedback below. |
|Have you addressed the question throughout the essay? |1 |2 |3 |
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|Tutor's comment: |
|Does the essay have a clear and logical structure? |1 |2 |3 |
|Your assessment | | | |
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| Tutor's comment: |
|Have you demonstrated understanding of the main concepts and/or theories? |1 |2 |3 |
|Your assessment | | | |
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|Tutor's comment: |
|Have you put forward a reasoned argument which shows evaluation and analysis? |1 |2 |3 |
|Your assessment | | | |
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|Tutor's comment: |
|Critical use of evidence and sources to support essay answer |1 |2 |3 |
|Your assessment | | | |
|Tutor's assessment | | | |
|Tutor's comment: |
|Presentation, bibliography, footnotes, and use of language |1 |2 |3 |
|Your assessment | | | |
|Tutor's assessment | | | |
|Tutor's comment: |

Overall Comment:

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[1] (For a book) Emery Blackfoot, Chance Encounters (Boston: Serendipity Press, 1987). (For a journal article) William Banks, 'A Secret Meeting in Boise', Midwestern Political Review 6 (1958):29.
[2] [For further guidance on citations, view all the resources on the Concepts and Methods in History VLE.]

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In submitting this work I confirm I have read and understood the regulations relating to plagiarism and academic misconduct that I signed when I submitted my assessment registration form.

IMPORTANT 1. This template must be used for all assignments 2. You must complete the self assessment and feedback form at the end 3. The assignment must be submitted by the deadline

Work which does not meet these requirements will receive a mark of 0.