Task Description
Essay Title: Nothing New Under the Sun
In the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, King Solomon states that “There is nothing new under the sun”. Looking back over the history of mankind in all its facets, social, economic, wars and conflicts etc, do you agree or disagree with this statement? Provide examples in support of your argument and cite other authors with similar or differing opinions. You may however, come to your own conclusions at the end of the argument.
6 academic sources are required as a minimum, Harvard referencing throughout the text is mandatory and submissions that do not meet these criteria will be rejected (see notes below). In particular, you should ensure that your references actually support the point you wish to make, since they will be checked.
Students are invited to submit a short outline of their essay for tutor approval and advice by Week 4. This should be in the form of an e-mail and should not exceed one page.
Format
1500 words +/- 10% (not including cover page, table of contents, bibliography and appendix, although these are all required). Submissions that do not reach the minimum wordcount will not be accepted.
Re-take: Individual Assignment
Deadline: Please see the Moodle page of the module.
The assignment will be assessed based on the following criteria (see the grid on Moodle):
• Structural logic (10%)
• Background information (20%)
• Argument & rationale (30%)
• Relevant Conclusions (15%)
• Correct in-text Harvard referencing & bibliography (15%)
• Presentation, format, paragraphing and accuracy (10%)
The resit for the assignment is the same subject as above; you may resubmit the same paper, with corrections, that you submitted for the original deadline. The resubmission deadline will be specified on Moodle after the grades for the original submission are published.
Academic conduct notice
Harvard-style referencing needs to be used consistently throughout. Incomplete referencing shall result in reporting the case to the Academic Conduct Officer, who keeps a record of such violations. First offenders may resubmit their papers and may receive 40% at most. Repeated violations of academic standards shall be sanctioned in line with the plagiarism regulations as detailed in the Student Handbook.
Where the Academic Conduct Officer has reason to suspect that a piece of work submitted by a student was wholly or in part written by someone other than the student who submitted it, and this has not been disclosed by the student, they may call for the student to defend the work in a viva or a written comprehension test. The burden of proof in such a viva or test will be upon the student to demonstrate to the examination panel’s satisfaction his/her full comprehension of the work s/he has submitted. Failure to appear without satisfactory explanation will result in immediate failure of that assessment, with consequences of academic misconduct and application of sanctions.
