Solved: IF3059 ‘Social Issues in Context: Text to Essay’

Module Booklet Contents

1.0 Teaching team

 2.0 Module Summary and Description

Having developed your reading, writing and other academic skills in IF3058 (Reflecting on self and society), and having engaged with a range of social issues via the news, the Social issues in contexts module builds on these skills and prepares you for essay writing at undergraduate level in the Social Sciences and Humanities.

Our focus will move towards longer and more academic texts, helping you deconstruct and critically analyse these sources and use them to develop arguments in response to essay questions.  We will guide you through the process of researching, planning, drafting and improving an essay relevant to your field, supporting you in the understanding of associated academic conventions and practices. We will continue to build on the academic skills and discourse developed in the previous module.

See the week-by-week schedule for further details of the module content. The module draws on content from a range of areas relevant to degrees in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities including: Crime and justice, Society and community, Young people and childhood, Media, Education, Health, Social Professions, International contexts.

The module is assessed through a coursework essay, for which you are expected to submit one draft for formative feedback.  See the assessment section for more details.

2.1 Module Learning Aims and Outcomes

 3.0 Indicative weekly teaching programme

The indicative weekly programme shows the topic likely to be covered in each teaching week. Please note that the precise order can change. Check your Weblearn module for up to date information.

To view the time, date and location of class see your personal timetable available at

https://student.londonmet.ac.uk/timetable

4. Attendance and Absence

You are required to attend all teaching sessions of this module. If your attendance is unsatisfactory, the module leader will arrange that you are withdrawn the module. Before doing this, the hub will email you to inform you of this. If there is a specific reason why you cannot attend a particular session, you must contact the module leader in advance of the lecture. If the reason is accepted, it will be noted on the register as an authorised absence. You will only be granted authorised absence for one week; if the absence is longer you must discuss this further with your Student Liaison Advisor or Academic Tutor.

5. Academic Integrity and Plagiarism                                                

Academic integrity requires honesty in your studies. You should not present another person’s sentences or ideas as your own work. You should clearly identify quotations through the use of quotation marks and references to the sources. Failure to adhere to these academic standards may lead to allegations of academic misconduct, which will be investigated by the Casework Office.

Academic misconduct covers a variety of practices, such as:

• Plagiarism: copying another person’s ideas or words and presenting them as your own work, without the use of quotation marks and/or references;
• Self-plagiarism: reproducing parts of one of your assignments in another piece of work;
• Inventing, altering or falsifying the results of experiments or research;
• Commissioning another person to complete an assessment;
• Collaborating with others in the production of a piece of assessed work which is presented as entirely your own work;
• Cheating in an exam (e.g., by taking revision notes into the exam room).

For full details of academic misconduct and how allegations are investigated, see the relevant section of the University’s academic regulations: https://student.londonmet.ac.uk/your-studies/student-administration/rules-and-regulations/academic-misconduct/.  

6.0 Assessment

All assessments are designed to support your learning and help you develop a deeper understanding of the topics covered in your module.

6.1 What is formative and summative assessment?

• Formative assessments provide an opportunity to learn and do not contribute to your grade.
• Summative assessment contributes to your overall mark and grades.

6.2 Module Assessment Cycle

The module assessment cycle shows all assessment related activities of your module.

6.3 What do I need to do for this assignment/assessment and when do I need to submit?

• Choose ONE of the two essay titles on the following pages and write an academic essay.
• Word count: 1000-1400 words (not including reference list)
• Final essay deadline: Friday 7^th May before 3pm 

6.4 What are the essay questions and core reading material that I must include?

Choose and write ONE of the following essays only.

OR

6.5 Source material and reference list

The essay MUST include appropriate support material from 3 or more source texts, fully referenced in Harvard style.

These 3 or more source texts MUST include the CORE reading text. The other sources can be chosen from the further reading texts (or video sources) covered in class or on Weblearn for your chosen theme. Alternatively, you may supplement (but NOT replace) the core reading with other relevant and academically appropriate texts you found yourself. You must include a full Harvard Reference list for your 3 or more sources at the end of your essay. 

6.6 Resources

We use a wide variety of texts and resources which will be given to you in class. This will include core reading for each essay theme. 

Listed below are a range of additional materials which can usefully support you in your academic studies and which you can find in the university library or online.

Burns T. and Sinfield S. (2012) Essential Study Skills[Sage Publications: London]
Cottrell S. (2008) The Study Skills Handbook[Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke]
Creme P. and Lea R. (2008) Writing at University[Oxford University Press: Buckingham]

Fava-Verde, A and Manning, A. (2006) Essay Writing[University of Reading: Reading]

Metcalfe M. (2006) Reading Critically at University[Sage: London]

Haywood S. (n/d) Academic Vocabulary – Academic Word List (AWL)http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/alzsh3/acvocab/index.htm

Links to useful Londonmet resources:

Harvard Referencing

http://metranet.londonmet.ac.uk/services/sas/library-services/referencing/

Clued up!  Digital Skills for the 21^stCentury Student.

http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/epacks/digital-literacies/

London Met Student Study Hub – One stop shop for student learning support material

http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/studyhub/

Heroes and Villains: an academic honesty and integrity website exploring essential academic good practices 

http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/epacks/heroes-&-villains/index.html

6.7 Essay drafts

You are strongly advised to submit one essay draft for formative feedback. Your essay draft may be up to 1400 words, but may be less (e.g. an essay outline/plan indicating paragraph themes with 1 or 2 paragraphs drafted in full). To receive feedback, you must submit your draft via Weblearn/Online assessment by the following date: Deadline: Friday 26^th March before 3pm

Drafts of essays may not be submitted for feedback after these dates. Each student will have the opportunity for online tutorials to discuss your draft and help you improve your work before final submission.

6.8 Response to feedback and referencing/originality checklist (10% of mark)

Write a paragraph (100 words) at the end of your final essay explaining how you responded to and improved your essay draft based on the feedback you received from your tutor (via Weblearn and/or in your tutorial).

Please also complete the referencing/originality checklist at the end of the essay template, which is designed to help you avoid unintentional plagiarism. (Plagiarism is an academic offence and will be dealt with according to university procedures. Referencing procedures are covered in class and on Weblearn)

6.9 Marking Criteria (see Weblearn for more detail)

• Your essay organisation/structure
• The content of your essay/how well you’ve answered the question set
• Your use of source material (including the core reading material) to effectively support what you say, and your in-text referencing and reference list
• Your language use/written style
• Response to feedback and completion of referencing/originality checklist

To Pass the module:

To pass the module you must achieve an overall minimum mark of 40%. If you pass the module on re-assessment, the component you resit will be capped at a pass mark level of 40%

7.0 Module specification

8.0 Referencing Guidance Harvard Referencing Quick Guide

Harvard referencing can vary in format. This guide provides examples based on the style in the book Cite Them Right. Check with your tutor and/or module handbook for further guidance on the referencing requirements for your assignments. Remember to add page number(s) to your in-text citation where necessary (see full Harvard guide)