Coursework
The following guidelines detail School guidelines on the presentation and submission of coursework that you complete for AMBS courses. Please note that these rules may be supplemented by additional guidance provided by your lecturer on individual courses.
If you need clarification on any of the rules relating to a particular course, in the first instance you should refer to the course Blackboard page. If you still cannot find the information that you need, please contact the Course Unit Director.
If you take a course run by another School (i.e. it doesn’t have a BMAN or MCEL code) the instructions and submission arrangements may vary. It is your responsibility to seek clarification from the Course Unit Director or the School that owns the course if you are unsure.
Format and presentation of assessed coursework
- All coursework must be word processed.
- The University operates an anonymous marking policy. To ensure that your anonymity from staff and examiners will be preserved only your Student ID number should appear on your assessment. Your ID number should be on all pages of your coursework.
- All pages should be numbered.
- All assessed coursework should be presented using the following format.
| Coursework Presentation Criteria | |
|---|---|
| FONT SIZE | Font size must be 12 point font |
| CHARACTER SPACING | Character scale must be 100% and spacing and position should be normal (the default options) |
| MARGINS | Normal margins (2.5cm) must be used (top, bottom, left and right) |
| LINE SPACING | Line spacing must be 1.5 lines, with an extra line between paragraphs and headings. |
| ALIGNMENT | Non-justified |
Length of assessed coursework
Coursework is assessed by page limit or word count as specified by the Course Unit Director in the course outline and/or assessment brief. This will also state whether the page limit or word count is to include references, appendices, diagrams etc.
Penalties for exceeding the length of a piece of coursework
Rather than applying a penalty to work that exceeds the word-limit, markers will use a “guillotine” system. Under this system, markers will impose a cut-off, and not take into account anything you write after the word limit has been passed. For example, if the question requires a 2000-word answer, anything you write after the 2000-word mark has been passed may be ignored. It is therefore advisable that you aim for concision.
You will not be penalised for answers that are shorter than the limit: answers will be given credit for being comprehensive, rather than for being a certain length. However, answers significantly below the word limit usually do not meet the learning objectives of the assignment and markers may be able mark down very short answers.
In very exceptional circumstances, individual Course Unit Directors may specify a penalty for exceeding the length of a piece of coursework. If penalties are to be applied full details will be published in the full course outline when the assessment is set.
Further coursework guidance
If a student chooses to approach another person to proofread their written work, or seeks to use a proofreading service or agency, they must take account of the following principles:
- It is the responsibility of students to ensure that all work submitted is their own and that it represents their own abilities and understanding. Any proofreading of work that is undertaken by a third party must not compromise the student’s own authorship of the work;
- Proofreading undertaken by a third party must not take the form of editing of text, such as the adding or rewriting of phrases or passages within a piece of student’s work;
- Proofreading undertaken by a third party must not change the content or meaning of the work in any way.
Note: The University Library’s My Learning Essentials provides an online tutorial, Better Safe than Sorry: Proofreading Your Work, which allows you to learn and apply techniques to ensure you check your work properly.
All typed summative assessment, including dissertations, should be submitted online and subjected to plagiarism detection software. If the use of online submission and/or plagiarism detection software is inappropriate, details of alternative arrangements will published by the Course Unit Director.
Note: This is in accordance with the University’s Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment on Taught Programmes.
The details of how and when you should submit your coursework will be provided by the Course Unit Director but please do review the below guidance in advance of submission to ensure you submit correctly and on time:
Full guidance will be given on each course Blackboard page, but in particular, please ensure you follow the steps below:
1. You will be prompted by submission link to enter a submission title. Please note that this is not your essay title but your student ID and course code with no spaces, as shown in the example below:
Submission title: 10054321BMAN11111
You MUST enter the submission title for your work in the above manner, otherwise you risk it being treated as a non-submission.
2. For group work, please enter your group number if you have been allocated one, OR the ID number of the student who is submitting the work, together with the BMAN code, e.g:
Submission title: Group5BMAN11111
OR
Submission title: 10054321BMAN1111
See Blackboard Submission Guidance for BMAN Courses for further instructions.
Coursework submitted by any alternative way to that instructed (e.g. via email) will be deemed a non-submission.
It is advisable to allow time for submission; do not leave submission right up to the deadline but make an allowance so that any last minute problems can be resolved. University computing facilities can be in great demand at certain times of the year which can coincide with key coursework deadlines (e.g. the end of a teaching period). It is every student’s responsibility to plan for unexpected circumstances such as minor illness as well as allowing sufficient time in the event of peak system usage.
If you are experiencing difficulty in submitting your work online:
- Check the IT Service Desk which will tell you if there is a service availability issue (see box on right of webpage) or check the system status for Turnitin.
- Retry submission. If you are still having difficulties, close the browser and try again with a different browser, for example, instead of Internet Explorer use Firefox.
- If there are still submission problems contact the IT Service Desk with full details of your course code and name, the assignment name and type you are submitting, the browser you are using, the tools you are using e.g. Turnitin (Tii) or Discussion Boards and the problems you are experiencing.
- Contact the Assessment Team in AMBS (2.092d), Telephone: 0161 529 3830, Email: ambs.assessment@manchester.ac.uk.
In the event of Blackboard/Turnitin being unavailable (see 'Coursework Submission Problems' for the steps to confirm this), and to allow you to submit your assessed work by the deadline please email your work to ambs.assessment@manchester.ac.uk.
The subject line of the email should include your BMAN course code and Student ID number e.g. BMAN12345, 10076543. You should also ensure that your Student ID is shown clearly on the work you are submitting.
These contingency arrangements are only in the event of Blackboard/Turnitin being unavailable. Work will not be accepted via this submission method under any other circumstances.
Exceptionally you may be asked to submit your coursework by paper copy. These are the procedures you should follow:
Non-submission of summative coursework (i.e. coursework that contributes a percentage weighting toward the course unit mark) without good reason will result in a mark of zero for that paper/piece of work.
Unexcused late submission of assessed work will be penalised in order to avoid the unfair advantaging and disadvantaging of students.
Penalties for any piece of assessed coursework submitted after the designated deadline are as follows:
The mark awarded will reduce by 10% of the maximum amount available per 24 hours (e.g. if the work is marked out of 100, this means a deduction of 10 marks per 24 hours late. If the work is marked out of 20, the deduction would be 2 marks each 24 hours late.) The penalty applies as soon as an assignment is late; a 10% deduction would be issued if an assignment is submitted even 1 second after the deadline, and the work would continue to attract further penalties for each subsequent 24 hours the work was late, until the assignment is submitted or no marks remain.
Please note that this is in accordance with the University’s Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment on Taught Programmes and it is not at the discretion of the School or the individual lecturer to abate the policy.
This guidance relates to first attempts only. Students who submit referral assignments after the deadline will be automatically subject to a mark of zero. There is no sliding scale in operation for resits/referrals.
Once first marking of online coursework assessment is complete and ready for you to view, you will be informed via email. We recommend reviewing this guidance on How to download feedback from Turnitin.
The marks you see on Turnitin/Blackboard will be your provisional and, in most cases, unmoderated marks. This means that they may be subject to change following application of late penalties, review of potential academic malpractice investigations and completion of internal andexternal moderation processes.
Once these processes have been completed, you will receive a further email notification to confirm that your final assessment marks are ready to view on My Manchester. Please note that these marks are still subject to Exam Board ratification at the end of the year.
Please be reminded that this applies to coursework marks only. For course units with examinations, exam marks and overall course unit mark publication will be set for a specific date in Semester 1 and then again in Semester 2.