The course has 10 study points (credits), and the home assignment lasts throughout the course’s ca. four weeks duration with submission date soon after the final lecture/seminar. To receive a pass grade (i.e. E and above) the exam submissions may be of a relatively delimited and simple format. However, the examiner should also bear in mind that the course is situated in the students` third term of the master level program, and one may therefore have somewhat high expectations as for content and format of the submissions.
The examiner should also be aware that training in writing skills is an integrated part of this course. The formal aspects of the submission should also be contemplated when examining (disposition, argumentation, formal aspects regarding referencing, etc.), even though the contents should be in the forefront when examining.
The students have been instructed that the minimum length is, excluding bibliography and any appendices, ca. 2 pages/800 words, and maximum length is ca. 3-4 pages /1200-1600 words. In the case they want to treat more than one article from the reading list for the review, the maximum length may be expanded slightly if deemed necessary to ca. 5 pages /2000 words length excluding bibliography and any appendices.
They may write the essay in English or in one of the Scandinavian languages. The examiner should not let minor grammatical errors influence the final grading when grading assignments that are submitted in English.
Regarding contents, the expectations are that all submissions should as a minimum contain an attempt at performing a specification and eventual delimitations based on the assignment instructions, and subsequently conduct the critical review in accordance with principles for essay writing (e.g. Burns and Sinfield, 2012; Silverman, 2017), which are both on the students’ reading list). The explanation of the methods used within the term assignment information should include information about use of any auxiliary tools (e.g. AI-based) within the writing process.
Candidates who receive an A will:
- Demonstrate an excellent understanding of concepts and theories, and an ability to use these in theoretical and practical argumentation
- Give a focused and relevant submission which responds to the assignment`s wording and use relevant literature
- Show the ability to reflect critically and to discuss by way of, for example, showing nuances and differences across different types of concepts
- Has submitted a work which fulfills the stylistic and technical requirements for an academic work of this type
Candidates who receive a C will:
- Demonstrate an understanding of basic concepts and models
- Give a submission which in overall covers the assignment question. A submission will typically contain necessary definitions and descriptions and show a good understanding of the curriculum literature.
- To a larger degree than in A and B mark level submissions be straightforward renderings of the curriculum literature and be less critical and independent when describing, reflecting and explaining
Candidates who receive a F will:
- Show a lack of understanding and knowledge of the theme and the problem formulation
- Tend to be dominated by colloquial concepts and lack of connection to curriculum literature
- Have submitted a purely descriptive review without any argumentation or critical reflections whatsoever
- Have submitted a review which clearly bears evidence of plagiarism
The assignments are relatively openly formulated, and the candidate may therefore in addition to curriculum literature choose to reference additional relevant independently collected external literature.