Oxford University

Continuing Education
A Guide to
Producing
Coursework
for the Weekly
Class Programme
INTRODUCTION
If it is some time since you last produced work for assessment, or you feel
that you would like help developing your writing and presentation skills, we
hope that you will fnd this introductory guide to producing coursework use-
ful. We believe that coursework is an important element in the weekly class
programme because it encourages independent study and provides a focus for
your reading and thinking. Working on a coursework assignment allows you to
pursue your own interests within the subject you are studying and to measure
your own progress and achievement on your course. In addition, successful
completion of the assignment and regular attendance on your course enables
you to work to achieve an undergraduate-level qualifcation. Most weekly
classes carry university-level credit points which can be accumulated to gain
the Departments Certifcate of Higher Education or be transferred to other
institutions.
Your tutor will provide you with a list of coursework assignments or help you
to choose a suitable project. It is essential that your assignment is directly rel-
evant to your course and its stated learning outcomes. The range of available
assignment activities varies from course to course, but may include a portfolio
of exercises, worksheets, essays, reports, book reviews, records of feldwork
or experiments, the writing up of a museum or gallery visit, oral presenta-
tions or data analysis. It is important to select an assignment that interests you
because it will be easier to produce a good piece of work if you enjoy what
you are doing. These notes are designed to help you to tackle your coursework
successfully.
PLANNING AND WRITING AN ESSAY
Examining the title
Read the question carefully and check that you understand what you are being
asked to do. Identify key instructions such as account for, assess, compare,
contrast, describe, discuss, evaluate, explain, outline or questions such as why,
when, what, how and use them to determine the material you need to cover
and how you need to organise it. Make sure that you understand the meaning
of unusual or specialised words or phrases.
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Producing a plan and collecting material
Once you have done some preliminary reading it is useful to produce a plan
for your essay. This will help you to organise your ideas and enable you to
plan your research and gather relevant material from your class notes, hand-
outs, books, articles, electronic media or other sources purposively. Your plan
should be a list of the main points which will form the basis of your argument
or discussion. As your work progresses, you may discover that you need to
modify your plan as your ideas change, or you fnd that some material is not
available. Select your research material carefully, seeking advice from your
tutor if needed.
Reading and note-taking
It is helpful to make brief notes when reading. This will enable you to list the
key points and evidence you need to write your essay and help you to under-
stand and digest what you have read. Record the source of your notes and
the relevant page numbers. Develop a system for storing your research notes
and references (perhaps in a loose leaf fle or card index) so that they can be
retrieved easily.
Structuring your essay
An essay consists of a beginning, a middle and an end. These are the:
Introduction which explores the question, provides context and
indicates the direction or structure of the argument to follow.
Discussion which develops a logical argument from a series of points
and supports it with relevant evidence such as facts, examples, illustrations,
data tables etc.
Conclusion which draws together your ideas, summarises your
argument and demonstrates that you have answered the question.
Writing your essay
Many students fnd it diffcult to start the writing process. You may fnd it
convenient to write your introduction frst but it is not essential to work
through an essay from beginning to end. Some students prefer to write their
essay in stages and then combine the separate parts to produce the fnal
polished version. Try to write clearly and precisely and to explore one major
point per paragraph.
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Reviewing and editing your essay
It is always useful to produce a draft version of your essay. This will enable you to:
check that you have answered the question
re-order points to strengthen your argument
check grammar, punctuation and spelling
add or remove supporting evidence
check the length of your essay. (Essays which do not conform to the
prescribed limits may be penalised.)
PRODUCING OTHER FORMS OF WRITTEN WORK
Much of the guidance given above can be applied to other written work, in-
cluding short answers to coursework exercises or course worksheets. You may,
though, fnd the following tips useful:
Producing a project
For projects you need to collect, present and interpret information on a
particular topic and to identify a central question. You may fnd it useful to
produce a short draft outlining how you plan to tackle the project in order to
assess its feasibility with your tutor.
Writing a report
Reports recording research projects or practical exercises are structured
differently from essays and usually include the following:
Aims which defne the objectives of the project
Methods which describe how the project was planned and implemented
and discuss methodological strengths and weaknesses
Results which present the fndings of the project or exercise in prose,
tabular and/or graphic form
Conclusions which summarise and interpret the results, critically
evaluate fndings and show that the aims have been achieved.
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Writing a course journal
You will be expected to write a brief report on all or a specifed number of
sessions attended. Your journal entries might summarize the content of the
session, describe what you found particularly interesting, highlight subjects,
activities or skills that you would like to pursue further etc. Your reports
should be refective in character and trace the development of your knowledge,
skills and ideas as the course progresses.
Writing a book review
You will need to supply full details of the book (title, author, publisher or
journal, year of publication and number of pages). The review should be
structured like an essay (with an introduction, middle and end) and include:
a brief summary of the book
an evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses
an indication of whether it is enjoyable and easy to comprehend
an assessment of its contribution to the subject.
PRESENTING YOUR WRITTEN WORK

It is important that work produced at undergraduate level follows accepted
academic conventions. You will be familiar with many of these from your
reading but applying them to your own work takes practice and patience.
Mastering presentation conventions is one of the objectives of undergraduate
work and your tutor can provide further advice as needed.
Quoting from sources
If you want to quote material from other authors in your assignment you
can do this directly (reproducing the actual words of the author) or by using
paraphrase (describing the authors idea or ideas in your own words). Direct
quotations are usually reserved for important or provocative points, for
example ideas or language which need to be discussed or produced in support
of an argument. Try to keep direct quotations as short as possible because one
of the objectives of writing an assignment is to express your own views in
your own words. Short quotations should be placed in inverted commas. Long
quotations, if used, should be indented from the main text and do not require
inverted commas.
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Acknowledging sources
When you use material or arguments (including quotations) from other
writers work it is important to acknowledge your debt and to include a
reference identifying the source. If you do not you may be accused of
plagiarism. Plagiarism is the deliberate copying of passages wholesale (or
disguised by paraphrase) from books, other students work etc, without
acknowledgement. Plagiarism is dishonest and is always penalised.
References
There are three main ways of presenting references. Seek advice from your
tutor about which to use but remember that once you have chosen a method
for your assignment you need to apply it consistently in that piece of work.
Footnotes Each point or quotation to be referenced is numbered consecu-
tively (using brackets (1) or superscript
1
) and a list of numbered notes is
provided at the foot of the page:
eg 1. Lockyer, R. (2005) Tudor and Stuart Britain, p.36.
A short form can be used for subsequent references to a title:
eg 2. Lockyer, p.120.
3. Tudor and Stuart Britain, p.120.
If consecutive references are taken from the same source ibid (meaning in the
same place) or ibid plus page number are used:
eg 4. ibid.
5. ibid p.40.
Material taken from an article in a journal or from the internet should be
similarly acknowledged.
Endnotes The same conventions are used as for footnotes but the notes are
listed at the end of the assignment, chapter or book.
Harvard system An author date note with page numbers is enclosed in
round brackets and inserted in the text directly after the point or quotation.
Full details of the work are provided in the bibliography.
eg It has recently been suggested (Guy 1988, p.36) that
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In some subjects, for example music or art, you may need to refer to material such
as specifc passages of music or individual paintings in your assignment. Your tutor
will advise you about the appropriate referencing conventions for your subject.
Bibliography
You need to include a list at the end of your assignment of all the books,
articles, internet sites etc which you have used to write your essay. The list
should be given in alphabetic order of authors surnames with:
for a book: authors surname and initials or frst name, publication date,
title (italics or underlined), place of publication.
eg Eliot, T. S. (1957) On Poetry and Poets, London.
for an article: authors surname and initials or frst name, publication date,
title of article (in inverted commas), title of periodical or book (italics or
underlined), editors name or volume number and page numbers.
eg Tarling, D. H. (1975) Archaeomagnetism: the dating of archaeologi-
cal materials by their magnetic properties, World Archaeology 7, 185-197.
for material from the internet: authors surname and initials or frst
name, title of page (in inverted commas), title of complete work if page is part
of a group of documents, date page was created, URL (in angle brackets), date
you saw page (in round brackets).
eg Stratford, Jenny, The treasure roll, Richard IIs Treasure, 2007,
<www.history.ac.uk/richardII/roll.html> (11 July 2007).
Layout
Assignments can be hand-written, typed or wordprocessed but must be legible.
For ease of administration and marking please:
use A4 paper and write or print on one side only
leave a wide margin for your tutors comments
write the title of the assignment on the frst page
number and write your name on each page.
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PREPARING AND GIVING ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Many students enjoy sharing their work with other members of the class by
making an oral presentation. You will need to negotiate a date and time with
your tutor, and to seek advice about the form and length of the presentation and
whether or not it is possible to share the work with one or more of your fel-
low students. Like written work, an oral presentation needs to be planned and
structured with an introduction, development of argument and conclusion, but
you will also need to consider what resources you wish to use (slides, overhead
transparencies, handouts, etc.). Careful preparation contributes to confdent de-
livery: it is particularly useful to inspect your equipment in advance (especially
slides to ensure that they are the right way up), to fnd a comfortable position
to speak from and to check that you are not speaking too quickly or too quietly.
Try to keep to time and remember that your tutor and fellow students will be
more interested in hearing what you have to say than in judging your per-
formance! Remember to keep your notes as you will need to submit them for
assessment purposes.
UNDERTAKING PRACTICAL WORK AND FIELDWORK
In some subjects it may be possible for assessment activities to be integrated
within the class programme or feld trips and to combine written, oral and
practical elements. These might include:
the identifcation and classifcation of samples
simple experiments
practical demonstrations
problem-solving exercises
analysis of data
drafting of plans or maps.
You would need to plan and prepare the activity in advance of the session, and
to complete and write up the work afterwards. Advice - including assessment
details - will be provided by your tutor.
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SUBMISSION OF ASSIGNMENTS
It is important to plan your work schedule carefully in order to ensure that you
leave enough time to complete your coursework by the submission deadline. It
is useful to keep a copy of your script so that if the original is lost or damaged
you do not have to rewrite your assignment.
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA FOR LEVEL 1 CREDIT
The following criteria are used to assess assignments for credit:
Knowledge and understanding
shows understanding of the requirements of the assignment
displays knowledge of subject matter
demonstrates understanding of relevant ideas, contexts, issues and relationships
Selection and analysis
selects appropriate ideas, evidence, data, techniques
evaluates evidence / analyses data or sources used to support argument or
justify conclusion
Organisation and structure
structures assignment according to the conventions of the discipline
develops a logical and coherent argument
shows ability to organise ideas, evidence, data, to support argument
Communication and presentation
uses language and/or tables, graphs etc, effectively to communicate ideas
provides references and reading list.
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SEEKING FURTHER HELP
If you encounter a problem with your coursework, for example you are uncer-
tain what is required or you cannot fnd the books you need, do seek advice
from your tutor. It is often possible to arrange a brief discussion during coffee
break or after class.
If you require further help with study skills, the Departments Study Skills
Programme offers a wide range of study skills workshops and an on-line
introductory study skills course. Details can be found in the prospectus,
newspaper and study skills three-fold or on the website at
http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/category_results.php?Subject=Study+Skills.
If you require further assistance contact the Weekly Class Programme Offce
on 01865 280892 or email [email protected].
Alternatively, the Departments library at Rewley House holds a wide range of
study skills textbooks which you can borrow or consult.
We particularly recommend:
Northedge, A., (2005) The Good Study Guide, The Open University Press.
Chambers, E. & Northedge, A., (1997) The Arts Good Study Guide,
The Open University Press.
Northedge, A., Thomas, J., Lane, A., & Peasgood, A., (1997) The Sciences
Good Study Guide, The Open University Press.
Creme, P. & Lea, M. R., (2003, 2nd edn.), Writing at University: A Guide for
Students, The Open University.
Cottrell, S., (2003) The Study Skills Handbook, Palgrave MacMillan.
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Oxford University
Department for Continuing Education
Rewley House
1 Wellington Square
Oxford
OX1 2JA
Telephone 01865 280892 / 280893 / 280894
Fax 01865 280900
Email: [email protected]