Instructions on Assessment:

 

Summative Assessment 1 (25% of overall mark)

15-minute team presentation followed by Q&A session (25%) to be conducted on 13 December 2023.

 

Working in teams of four or five members, you will provide an assessed presentation to the rest of the seminar group. You will choose the presentation topic from a list prepared by the module tutor; the topic will be a broad one, requiring you to integrate material from multiple weekly topics. This assessed presentation will be accompanied with slides, will last between 13½ minutes and 16½ minutes (that is 15 minutes with the standard +/- 10% time allowance), and will be followed by a 10 minute Q&A session with the rest of the seminar group. You will be assessed on both your presentation and your answers to questions from the rest of the group; every member of the team will be awarded the same mark, based on the rubric outlined below. 

 

If you are unable to attend the assessed presentation, in order to be awarded the same mark as the rest of your team, you will need to provide documentary evidence explaining your absence. For instance, if you are ill on the day of the presentation, you will need to provide a signed and dated doctor’s note to that effect. 

 

If you fail to attend the assessed presentation, you will be awarded a zero. Travel plans do not constitute a valid reason for absence.

 

Summative assignment 2 (75% of overall mark)

3000 word essay (75%) to be submitted by 17 January 2024.

 

You will choose your essay title from a list prepared by the module tutor. It will require you to focus in-depth on one or two of the weekly topics, although you are not discouraged from drawing on material from other topics where you believe it is pertinent to do so.

 

The essay is to be prepared with full academic apparatus; use of in-text references, paragraphing

to structure the essay and incl0075sion of a bibliography are obligatory, definitions of technical

terms, inclusion of graphs and figures are expected where apposite. The bibliography and in-text

references should be prepared in the APA 7th style (as is used in this handbook and detailed here:

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples). Help and advice on

preparing the essay will be provided in the seminars; the final seminar will provide an

opportunity for students to ‘workshop’ a draft of their assessed essay together.

 

The essay will also need to be submitted with a cover page, providing the following details: your

name, your student number and a declaration of the word count. The word count limit will be

assessed in the same way as it is for your dissertation. In particular, the standard + 10 percent

word limit allowance applies, entailing a ‘hard’ word count limit of 3,300 words. Excluded from

the word count are the declarations page, the reference list, and any illustrations, figures and

tables you have used (although if the table includes material that ought to have been presented

textually, i.e., they have been used to circumvent the word count, then any text they contain will

be included in the word count assessment). In-text references are included.

 

Note in relation to similarity scores on Turnitin, these are only used as an indicator that

plagiarism or some other form of academic misconduct has occurred. Turnitin scores can often

by inflated by declaration pages and references lists. Conversely, in cases where an essay has been

ghost-written by a third party, a Turnitin score might be very low. In any event, in any instances

where there is evidence that academic misconduct has occurred it will be investigated. You are

expected to retain all the notes you produce in the course of preparing the essay which may be

requested in the event than an academic misconduct is suspected. The Assessment Regulations

for Taught Awards (ARTA) contain the Regulations and procedures applying to cheating,

plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct and the full policy is available at:

https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/university-services/academic-registry/quality-andteaching-excellence/assessment/

 

The submission date for the essay will be communicated to you via the module eLP site and in

seminar sessions. Submissions should be made via TurnItIn. An extension to the published

submission date will be granted for valid personal extenuating circumstances only. If you believe

you have grounds for an extension, please contact Student Central and the module tutor as soon

as possible and before the published submission date. Where appropriate, written

medical/professional evidence must be provided to support the extension request.

 

In the event that the essay is submitted after the published hand-in deadline and without an

approved extension, the following penalties will apply. If the essay is submitted up to 1 working

day (24 hours) after the published deadline, 10% of the total marks available for the assessment

(i.e.100%) will be deducted from the assessment mark. For illustration, a piece of work that

would have been awarded 65%, but which has been submitted up to 24 hours late, will instead

be awarded 55%.

 

Essays submitted more than 1 working day (24 hours) after the published hand-in deadline

without approval will be regarded as not having been completed. A mark of zero will be awarded

for the assessment and the module will be failed, irrespective of the overall module mark.

 

Submission of Assessment:

 

You should submit your assessment electronically via our Turnitin Assessment Tool.  To submit your assignment, you should go to the Assessment and Submission Section of the module Blackboard site you are submitting.  Within this section you will find instructions of how to submit your work.  All assessments should be submitted as PDF files.

 

To convert your files to PDF mode within the Microsoft Office suite you simply click on Save As and choose the Save as PDF/XPS option.

 

Your assignment will be marked and feedback offered 4 weeks from the hand in date.

You must also keep a copy of your assignment for your own records in case a second copy is required. The assignment submitted will not be returned to you, so again keep a copy for your own use.

 

Late submission of work 

 

Where coursework is submitted without approval, after the published hand-in deadline, the following penalties will apply.

 

For coursework submitted up to 1 working day (24 hours) after the published hand-in deadline without approval, 10% of the total marks available for the assessment (i.e.100%) shall be deducted from the assessment mark.

 

For clarity: a late piece of work that would have scored 65%, 55% or 45% had it been handed in on time will be awarded 55%, 45% or 35% respectively as 10% of the total available marks will have been deducted.

 

The Penalty does not apply to Pass/Fail Modules, i.e. there will be no penalty for late submission if assessments on Pass/Fail are submitted up to 1 working day (24 hours) after the published hand-in deadline.

 

Coursework submitted more than 1 working day (24 hours) after the published hand-in deadline without approval will be regarded as not having been completed. A mark of zero will be awarded for the assessment and the module will be failed, irrespective of the overall module mark.

 

For clarity: if the original hand-in time on working day A is 12noon the 24 hour late submission allowance will end at 12noon on working day B.

 

These provisions apply to all assessments, including those assessed on a Pass/Fail basis.

 

Word limits and penalties 

 

If the assignment is within +10% of the stated word limit no penalty will apply.

 

The word count is to be declared on the front page of your assignment and the assignment cover sheet.  The word count does not include:

 

Title and Contents page	Reference list
Glossary	Bibliography

 

Please note, in text citations [e.g. (Smith, 2011)] and direct secondary quotations [e.g. “dib-dab nonsense analysis” (Smith, 2011 p.123)] are INCLUDED in the word count.

 

If this word count is falsified, students are reminded that under ARNA page 30 Section 3.4 this will be regarded as academic misconduct.

 

Word limits and penalties  

 

More than 10% over the word limit

The marker will stop reading when they judge that the word count exceeds the recommended word count by more than 10% i.e. for a 3000 word essay, the marker will read only the first 3300 words and will indicate on the text where they stop reading.    The content following this point will not be read and a mark will be awarded only for the content up to this point.

 

Students must retain an electronic copy of this assignment (including ALL appendices) and it must be made available within 24hours of them requesting it be submitted.

 

Note: For those assessments or partial assessments based on calculation, multiple choice etc., marks will be gained on an accumulative basis.  In these cases, marks allocated to each section will be made clear.

 

Academic Misconduct

 

The Assessment Regulations for Northumbria Awards (ARNA) contain the Regulations and procedures applying to cheating, plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct.

The full policy is available at: 

https://northumbria-cdn.azureedge.net/-/media/corporate-website/new-sitecore-gallery/services/academic-registry/documents/qte/assessment/guidance-for-students/academic-regulations-for-taught-awards-2019-20.pdf?la=en&modified=20190920142412&hash=739B150A76E2586F2F71145D859A465B9A814BF8

 

You are reminded that plagiarism, collusion and other forms of academic misconduct as referred to in the Academic Misconduct procedure of the assessment regulations are taken very seriously by Newcastle Business School.  Assignments in which evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct is found may receive a mark of zero.

Module Specific Assessment Criteria (Marking rubric)

 

	0-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-69	70-79	80-100
Component 1  Team presentation	The presentation was extremely poor. The presentation does not address the assigned topic. There is essentially no evidence or theory applied to the topic. No conclusions relevant to the assigned topic are provided. The standard of presentation was extremely poor and unprofessional. Audience questions are unanswered.	The presentation was poor.  The presentation was insufficient.  Minimal evidence presented; limited relevant analysis  Conclusions are largely unrelated to the topic.  The standard of presentation was poor. Responses to audience questions were evasive and unclear	The presentation was inadequate and not of a passable standard.   The presentation was inadequate, barely addressing the topic.  Inadequate evidence presented.  Conclusions are tangential to the topic The standard of presentation was inadequate; it is not always possible to trace the source used.	The presentation was of a good standard.   A reasonable set of arguments relevant to the topic were presented. Good evidence presented. Sparse conclusions, albeit of some relevance to the topic The presentation was of a good standard and reasonable answers provided to audience questions.	The presentation was of a very good standard.  The presentation was coherent and well developed. Very good evidence presented. Reasonable, logical conclusions presented, but room for improvement. The presentation was very good.	The presentation was excellent.  The presentation was excellent. It was clear and pertinent to the topic. Excellent evidence presented. .  Conclusions emerge clearly from the evidence presented and are directly applicable to the topic.  Excellent presentation.	The presentation was outstanding.   The presentation  was outstanding, advancing fully developed, well-detailed arguments, pertinent to the topic.  Evidence presented is outstanding, contributing to a persuasive and informative presentation.  Conclusions indicate original thought. The presentation was outstanding; audience questions were persuasively and succinctly answered.

 

	0-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-69	70-79	80-100
Component 2  3000 word essay	The essay is extremely poor. There is no meaningful evidence of an argument and/or a narrative being developed.  There is essentially no evidence of any research being undertaken that is pertinent to the essay topic. The structure and quality of the writing render the essay incomprehensible.  The referencing is completely insufficient.	The essay is poor.  The argumentation is insufficient, with limited coherence.  Insufficient  research undertaken.  The structure and quality of the writing render the essay difficult to comprehend.  Insufficient referencing; references are rarely in APA style and it is frequently impossible to trace the source used	The essay is inadequate and not of a passable standard.   The argumentation is inadequate, lacking coherence.  Inadequate research undertaken; limited acquaintance with the relevant literature.  The structure of the essay and the writing are inadequate.  The referencing is inadequate; it is not always possible to trace the source used.	The essay is of a good standard.   A reasonable set of arguments relevant to the topic are developed. Good research undertaken. Awareness of the disciplinary issues from a basic range of reading. The structure of the essay and the writing are good.  Referencing is adequate; evidence is not invariably referenced.	The essay is of a very good standard.  The argumentation is coherent and well developed. Very good research undertaken. There are signs of reading beyond the minimum requirements The structure of the essay and writing are very good.  Very good referencing of appropriate sources, albeit with some deficiencies.	The essay is excellent.  The argumentation is excellent. It is are clear and well-developed.  Excellent research undertaken; the essay is based on a wide reading of the literature.  The structure of the essay and writing are excellent.  Excellent referencing. Accurate and consistent. Very few errors appear.	The essay is outstanding.   The argumentation  is outstanding. It is fully-developed, well-detailed, and coherently presented. Outstanding research undertaken, indicating a thorough understanding of the relevant literature. The structure of the essay and the writing are outstanding.  Referencing is outstanding and without apparent error.