Academic Writing

Please read these instructions carefully. However, contact your tutor in case any difficulties with the instructions. You should submit your completed assignment to your tutor no later than the due date which will be announced later. Please use standard A4 size paper for your TMA. Your name, personal identifier, course and assignment numbers must appear at the top of each sheet. It is better to use double spacing so that you can easily handwrite corrections to your drafts and tutors have space to encourage with your points as you make them. Start each question or part/report in the assignment on a new page. All text should be word-processed, but, diagrams and accompanying notes may be hand drawn and hand written and on large sheets of paper please. Completing and sending your assignments When you have completed your TMA, fill in a new assignment form (PT3), taking care to enter correctly your personal identifier course and assignment numbers. Keep a copy of your TMA for security. The copy that is eventually returned to you after the assessment process will have comments written on it. All assignments are treated in strict confidence. It is very important that you ensure that your tutor receives each assignment by the cut off date given. If you feel that you are unable to meet the cut-off date for the TMA because of unusual circumstances, please contact your tutor as soon as possible to discuss a possible extension to the cut-off date. Plagiarism Access to other sources of information such as reference books or the Internet is encouraged. You may find it interesting to look there for additional relevant information. Very short extract from published sources may be included in context but you should avoid copying significant amounts of text from other authors. You should note that whilst the internet can provide lots of information much of it is not refereed and should be treated with caution. If you take material from the course or elsewhere and incorporate it in your answer word-for-word, you must indicate where you have taken it from. Not to do so it termed ‘plagiarism’ and is regarded as an infringement of copyright. To attempt to pass off such work as your own is cheating. You must therefore acknowledge all your sources of information. Plagiarism will lead to a loss of marks and extensive plagiarism could mean that you fail this TMA. For more information about what constitutes plagiarism or cheating you should refer to the current Assessment Handbook.