ENGL2035: Modernism
Assessment

Assessment for this course has four components:

In keeping with School policy, you must complete all four components to qualify for a pass in this subject. Submission of written work is not enough.

The rationale behind this is the need for assessment to be equitable.  That means that a pass in the course indicates: (a) that your overall workload has been comparable to that of other students doing the course; (b) that you have covered the breadth of the set reading (that is, you have read all the set texts); and (c) that you have dealt with some of this material in depth.  The examination and your tutorial attendance cover the first and second of these criteria; the research essay covers the third.  

A set of essay topics is appearing on this site in weekly installments.

Assessment in general will be discussed in class at the initial tutorial.

The following table shows the Faculty's and School's standard allocation of grades to each range of marks:

As you will see from the criteria sheet, in the research essay you are directly allocated a grade on the basis of how you fulfill the stated criteria. Numerical marks are used to allow the grades for all of these components to be weighted and added.

The table below shows the system of equivalences between marks and grades, taking into account the + and - gradations.

This scale will be used to convert the grade for each piece of assessment into a numerical mark. At the end of the semester, the standard table at the beginning of this section will be used to convert your total mark back into a grade.

Assignments will be marked with reference to the assignment Key, which contains some notes on very common problems encountered in essays. The feedback you get on this essay may refer you to specific entries in this. If you read the Key carefully before you start your research assignment, you may find you can save yourself a number of marks--and perhaps even make the difference of a grade.

All assessment in this course will assume you are familiar with the basics of essay writing, and can:  

• write clear and intelligible statements,  
• use the grammatical, syntactical and stylistic conventions of formal essay style,  
• use the standard punctuation marks, and  
• construct an argument. 

EMSAH uses MLA style, and you are expected to use this for all your assignments.  A Style Sheet summarising MLA style and giving examples of its use is available for free outside the School Office on the fourth floor of the Michie building.  As this is an advanced-level course, and as the use of style sheets and conventions of documentation is an essential and basic scholarly skill, it will be assumed that you are familiar with and competent in MLA style.  As you can see from the criteria sheets for the essays, you will lose points if you do not follow MLA.   

All assignments should be submitted using the School Cover Sheet, which is also available from outside the Departmental Office.  You should get a copy of this early, and make yourself familiar with the general guidelines for submitting assignments you will find on the back of it.  You can also see these Guidelines for assignment presentation on the EMSAH website, from which you can also  download a copy of the Cover Sheet in MS Word or RTF format, to cut and paste into and then print off with your assignment.

For your essay to be assessed, you must sign the Cover Sheet's declaration that, except where documented, the essay is original and your own work, and that it has not previously been submitted for assessment at this university or elsewhere. Essays without this declaration cannot be accepted. 

Marked assignments may also contain notes in the margins of your text.  Some of these may use the following abbreviations: 

Key   =   Look this up in the separate Assignment Key.
SS     =   Look this up in the EMSAH Style Sheet.  Numbers (e.g. SS3.1.2) refer to individual numbered sections of the Style Sheet.

Late assignments without extensions will generally not be given marginal commentary. 

Assignments which are handed in after the due date and have not already been given an extension will be penalised at the rate of 2% per day.  

As stated above, you need to complete all components of the assessment to qualify for a pass in this course. School policy is that lecture and tutorial attendance is an essential component of all courses.

This component is worth 10% of the total for the semester.  I propose allocating that 10% this way:

• One mark will be given for each week of tutorial attendance, to a maximum of 10. (In other words, attendance at any 10 of the 11 tutorials will count as full attendance.)
• On top of that, your active participation in a given week will earn you another mark, for a total of 20. (Come to 10 weeks and participate actively, and you get 10 + 10 = 20 marks. Come to 8 and participate actively in all of them, and you get 8 + 8 = 16 marks.)
• This will then be scaled down to the allocated 10%.
• Attendance is required at a minimum of 8 tutorials out of 11. Beneath that level, if you can explain and document your absences, you may be asked to do extra work in lieu of the missed tutorials in order to qualify for a pass

Under this scheme, just coming to 10 tutorials will give you 5%, and regular participation will give you the full 10%.

It is your responsibility to ensure that

• you attend the minimum number of tutorials required for a pass in this component, and thus for a pass in the course;
• your name is marked off on the roll at each tutorial you attend;
• you document all absences to your tutor, by email.