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ASSESSMENT 4 Reflective Essay Please choose one theme from the list below and write an essay of 800 words (+/- 10%)

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ASSESSMENT 4 Reflective Essay

Please choose one theme from the list below and write an essay of 800 words (+/- 10%). The word count includes footnotes but excludes your Bibliography and image captions. This essay should be in double-spaced, typed format, and should be illustrated.

Date for essay submission: Monday 13th December, 12 noon, via LEARN.  

Feedback and provisional marks will be returned early in semester 2 via LEARN. Confirmed marks will be available after the Board of Examiners meeting in late January 2021.

Please note that all students must attempt the assignment in order to pass the course.

 

If you find that the file will not upload (especially if you are using Safari), try a different browser (e.g. Firefox); if that does not work, please contact the IS Helpline. Please allow sufficient time to upload your work before the deadline. If your work is late, you risk a penalty being applied. Grounds on which extensions can be granted are listed in the relevant part of the LEARN site.

 

What are we looking for?

The essay is an opportunity to explore one of the broader themes of the course. A list is provided below and you will also find a folder of thematic images that may help you to focus your thoughts or provide a starting point for them. The themes identified here are a mixture of some that are specifically architectural, even structural, and others that refer to wider historical or cultural aspects.

What we want you to do here is to think across the course, looking for things that link the architecture of different places and even different times. It is an essay that requires you to show the same academic rigour as essay 1 but, at the same time, to think creatively and perhaps more speculatively. That may well result in an essay that has fewer footnotes than the first one, because you will be the originator of the ideas and arguments. You will not be penalised for creative thinking.

 

Essays should be clearly written and well-presented, although the essay is not an exercise in desktop publishing. Illustrations should be numbered, relevant to the text and should be referred to in the text (e.g. 'see fig. 1'). Any illustrations MUST be placed in the text, as close as possible to the place where you are discussing it (certainly within a page or so). Please do not put the illustrations at the end. This is easier for you but it is very difficult for the person marking your essay (which could be a grumpy professor) if they have to keep going backwards and forwards to match up text and image. Remember that this is a digital essay that we mark on screen.

 

The essay is also an exercise in time management. You will have other deadlines during the semester and may have to submit several pieces of work in close succession. It is up to you to manage your time so that you can successfully tackle all of your coursework, and you are therefore advised to make an early start to this piece of work.

 

The best essays will demonstrate that their author has done some independent reading (i.e. they will not simply present material from the lecture). They will also offer an answer to the question which uses evidence and examples selectively and deliberately to support an argument – i.e., they will not just present a sequence of facts. It can sometimes be daunting to have to start to develop your own ideas in a short space of time, but tutors will help. 

 

Your work will be marked as follows. Please note that what is considered a 'very good' or 'good' mark may be lower than you are used to from High School.

Common marking Scheme 1 (CMS1)

Grade	Mark (%)	Description
A1	90-100	Excellent.
A2	80-89	Excellent.
A3	70-79	Excellent.
B	60-69	Very Good.
C	50-59	Performance at a level showing the potential to achieve at least a lower second class honours
D	40-49	Pass, may not be sufficient for progression to an honours programme
E	30-39	Marginal Fail
F	20-29	Clear Fail
G	10-19	Bad Fail
F	0-9	Bad Fail

 

Full details of what each grade means can be found by looking at the University’s ‘Common Marking Scheme’, which you can see in in 'Assessment Information' just above the assessment briefs in LEARN.

 

 

Your feedback will be organized as follows: KNOWLEDGE (/ 20) Range:

Command of material:

Awareness of scholarship:

ANALYSIS (/ 50)

Ability to synthesise an argument across a broad range of material:

Ability to put architecture into a historical context: Structure of the essay: PRESENTATION (/ 30)

Quality of writing

Quality of images

Notes and references (including bibliography)

GENERAL COMMENTS

 

Tutorials and Preparation

This essay is the fourth assessment (out of four) for this course. There will be a tutorial specifically on this in week 10, in which the tutors will discuss with you some of the wider themes of the course.

 

Referencing

As you research your essay, you will find information and historians’ arguments which you want to refer to in your own work. You may agree with what a historian has said; equally, you may disagree and want to argue something different. (Do not be shy about disagreeing – you don’t have to agree with everything already published on the subject!). In all cases, it is critical that you do not simply copy and paste text from the internet, or from academic sources. If you do, you risk losing marks because Turnitin will show markers that you have done this.

You should make sure you acknowledge the source of all the information you present by using footnotes in your text. You will discuss when to do this in class, but in essence you should use a footnote:

 

1. when you directly quote a source (whether a historic document or a historian) – put inverted commas around the quote and then use a footnote to show the source of the information. Do not simply copy and paste text without a reference, as this could look as if you are trying to pass off someone else’s writing as your own, even if this is not what you mean to do, and you risk being penalized.
2. to show where you have taken information or an idea from (unless the information is well known, such as the date of the Act of Union). This allows us to see that your source is trustworthy, and so strengthens your argument. In these cases, you need a footnote reference even though you are not using exactly the same words as your source.

 

All essays must also include a bibliography of the works consulted in preparing the essay. You will be required to confirm when submitting that your essay is your own work, expressed in your own words, and conforms to the University’s guidelines on referencing and Plagiarism. Please note that all essays are checked by Turnitin, which can spot any similarities with published sources or other students’ essays. The method for how to reference an essay correctly for this course will be posted on the course LEARN site. Please follow it carefully as otherwise you may lose marks.

 

Always ensure that you leave sufficient time to edit your essay before submission. At the very least, it is expected that you make use of the spell check facility.

 

Research and Referencing for essays must be undertaken using legitimate and recognised academic sources such as printed books and journal articles held in the university libraries or accessed as e-resources through DiscoverEd. You should use the lecture bibliography to identify relevant material – simply reusing content from the lectures alone will not be sufficient. You will, of course, be using the internet for essay research but please use a designated academic portal (e.g., Grove Art Online, or Proquest Art and Architecture) from the Main Library’s website. ‘Wikipedia’, ‘Khan Academy’ and other web-based sources are not encouraged (they often contain errors) and their use can lead to the award of a reduced mark. Engagement with academic reading will be rewarded.

 

Selected Course Themes

Architecture & Religion across cultures

Architecture and Nature The structural vault

Architecture and political power. This is a very wide theme and you might choose to focus it a little more on, for example,

Baroque architecture and structures of power or the idea of ancient Rome in European architecture