Format and Content | Word Count | Academic Malpractice | Making Use of Feedback
Format and Content
A video demonstrating how to implement the following format standards in Microsoft Word can be found here.
- All written assessments must be word processed, unless otherwise specified by the tutor.
- Format for standard A4 paper size.
- Use 11 or 12-point font.
- Text should either be aligned either ‘text left‘ or ‘justified’.
- Margins should be the same or similar to Microsoft Word’s defaults:
- top margin = 2.54cm
- bottom margin = 2.54cm
- left margin = 3.17cm
- right margin = 3.17cm
- All texts must be double-spaced (except bibliography and long/block quotations — see the Referencing and Bibliographies Requirements for details). The intent of the double-spacing, by the way, is to leave enough room for your tutor to add comments to the text when providing feedback.
- Indent the first line of each paragraph, except the first paragraph. The indent should be the size of a tab stop (1.25 cm in Microsoft Word). When the text is double-spaced and you indent the first line of the paragraph this way, there is no need to put additional space between paragraphs. The goal of the indent is to make paragraph breaks absolutely clear to the reader.
- Number all pages. Page 1 is the start of the task. There are no page numbers for the title page, abstract or table of contents, if those are part of the assignment.
- Place the exact word count (not including bibliography) at the end of the paper, after the conclusion (but before the bibliography)
- Tables must be numbered and the caption is put above the table. The source is indicated underneath. Typically the table will be centre-justified. For example:
- All photos, graphs, diagrams and drawings are figures. Figures are numbered, so the text can refer to them — such as by saying ‘See Figure 3’ (for example). The figure number and caption goes underneath the figure. The source goes straight under the caption. Typically the figure will be centre-justified. For example:
- Titles of books, films, web articles and journals (but not journal articles) are listed in italics (no quotation marks). Use capitals for the first letter of main words in titles.
- Use British-English spelling and British style of quotation marks (‘ … ’), not double (U.S.: “ … ”). Note that punctuation marks ( ; : . , ) are placed outside the quotation mark. An example of a quotation within a quotation: ‘“But the Emperor has nothing on at all!” cried a little child’.
- Generally, use words for numbers up to twelve rather than just the number. Example: ‘We recorded eight tracks of drones’. Also use words for common fractions, such as ‘one-fifth of the class’. A number is always expressed in words if it appears at the beginning of a sentence, for example: ‘Twenty per cent of the group …’. Use numbers when preceding measurement (3 cm), in statistics (‘3 of 21, or 4% of the population…’), and times, dates, ages and money.
- For formal writing, normally do not use contractions (use ‘cannot’ instead of ‘can’t’, ‘does not’ instead of ‘doesn’t’, etc.) except where quoting direct speech (in order to keep the other author’s original style).
- Unless specified by otherwise by the tutor, your written work should contain at least an introduction, body, and conclusion.
- A title page is not a strict requirement in most cases (Dissertations and Final Projects being an exception), but a title page can certainly help communicate pride and care in your work.
Word Count
Unless your assessment brief indicates otherwise, do not exceed more than 10% over or under the designated word count or you may be penalised. When in doubt, check with your tutor.
As noted in the Formatting information above, always indicate the word count after the conclusion of your paper.
Plagiarism and Bad Academic Practice
University Regulations define plagiarism as the significant use of other people’s work and the submission of it as if it were your own work. Examples of this include:
- copying from another student’s work or copying from a text (book, article, journal, web source, documentary, lecture notes…etc.) without acknowledging where this information came from
- pasting and copying text from the Internet and using it without acknowledgement
- paraphrasing source material without acknowledgement.
The University defines collusion as submitting work as your own when it has been produced by or with others.
Your work will be screened electronically to check against a vast database of web-based, journal and book sources to determine whether you have used sources without acknowledgment.
To your reader, it should be absolutely clear where and to what extent you have made use of a source. In order to avoid plagiarism, all essays must be consistently referenced and contain a bibliography (as described in Referencing and Bibliographies).
Although it may also be appropriate to reproduce diagrams, examples or illustrations from another work, the source must be fully acknowledged. (See ‘Figures and Tables’ in the Format and Content section, above.)
If you want to use material from one of your previous (university and pre-university) assignments, you must ask your tutor for permission to do so. If permission is given to use the material, appropriate referencing and bibliography entries must still be used.
If you are in any doubt about what constitutes an academic offence or bad academic practice, ask your tutor.
Making Use of Feedback
After submitting an assignment, the most important thing you receive back from your tutor is not the mark, but the feedback on the work.
Your tutor will provide you comments about the your work on the assignment as a whole, plus annotations, corrections and suggestions directly on the text.
Your tutor does this for one purpose: to help you learn and improve your writing.
For that to work, you need to study that feedback and use it to improve your next piece of writing.
If you are confused or unclear about parts of the feedback, ask your tutor for clarification.