qmu essay format

Ten things to remember when writing and checking your essays

Answering the question

1. Make sure you have understood and answered the question fully. Don’t substitute the essay you want to write for the one you are asked to write. If the essay question provides you with pointers make sure you consider them carefully – they are there for a reason.

2. Write out the question clearly and accurately at the start of your essay. Make sure that you transcribe any key terms or proper names correctly.

The nitty-gritty

3. Check that you have spelt the title of the work and the name of the author correctly throughout your essay. The same goes for the names of any characters. Failure to do this makes a very bad impression.

4. Keep to the word length. See the Handbook for penalties for over-length work. Students who are noticeably under the word limit tend not to produce effective work.

5. Use a dictionary, not just for spelling but to make sure you check the meanings of particular words and use them appropriately, in the correct grammatical form. Use resources provided to ensure that your spelling and grammar are correct throughout your essay.

6. Read your draft aloud, either to yourself or to someone else, to detect awkward sentences. If you have trouble with long, over-involved sentences, write short ones.

Constructing your argument and selecting your points

7. Don’t waste time and space retelling the story or action of the novel, play or performance – your tutor already knows this. Brief reference to crucial events, scenes or moments is all you need.

8. Organise your notes and be selective. You can’t use everything, so choose the ideas and examples which make the most effective argument. Tell your reader in the first paragraphs what you will be concentrating on.

9. Back up your argument with well-chosen examples from the text. Make sure that the quotation you select to back your point actually does do the job you want it to do.

10. Don’t use critical quotation without giving some sense of your own evaluation of it. Don’t assume something must be right just because a critic says so. Use your own judgement. There are some very bad critical books. Remember you can also quote critics in order to disagree with them. Make it evident when you draw on the critical opinions of other people by acknowledging your sources. Failure to do this constitutes plagiarism.

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• Queen Mary Academy
• Assessment and Feedback
• Assessment case studies

Critical essay writing assessment

Dr Maria Grazia Turri

Senior Lecturer in Creative Arts and Mental Health

Students have to identify a research question on which to conduct research and critically analyse the topic in the form of an essay. We believe there is value in personal experiences, therefore, students are encouraged to engage with their experiences and have them reflected in their academic work (keeping in mind any ethical requirements and academic standards). This ensures students stay in touch with their work throughout the semester.

Assessed skills

Students are assessed on:

The use of sources appropriate to the  research question (i.e relevant primary  and secondary sources)

Critical engagement with the research  material, including the use of productive examples or case studies, and the use of pertinent referencing to support your argument

How well the structure of the essay supports the overall claims being made

The presentation of the argument(s) in a coherent and persuasive manner

Written communication which must be presented in a clear and assertive style using a recognized citation system

Gives students the liberty to choose and work on a topic of interest in an area of their expertise

Prepares students for advanced research projects like dissertations. Essays can be used progressively towards writing a dissertation

Students get an opportunity to contribute knowledge in a sector/field they are passionate about

These essays encourage critical thinking

Teaches students to be more selective in terms of the topic and sources they  consult

Puts new knowledge in conversation with  other knowledge already produced

Encourages students to be inquisitive and ask meaningful questions that contribute to the body of knowledge in their field of interest

Students learn how to make arguments  that add flesh to their work/research

• Students who have never produced critical academic essays may struggle with this type of assessment and likely require an extra hand to help them catch up with the rest of the class
• Assessment relies a lot on writing skills and students who are not articulate may find it difficult to put their thoughts coherently in writing
• As an institution with a diverse community of students, students whose first language is not English may struggle with critical (English) writing skills

Assessment tools used

• QMPlus

Feedback to students on assessment

Students get feedback in the form of text comments on their essay submissions. Ongoing feedback is also provided during seminars in preparation for summative assessments

Assessment format

Can it be used face to face and/or online?

Online and face-to-face

Do you use it summatively or formatively?

Summative assessment

Integrity issues

Even with technological resources like Turnitin, submissions can still be compromised. The biggest challenge is that students usually resort to lifting a greater potion of their essays from undergraduate submissions and other sources without proper acknowledgement or referencing.

Referencing and Plagiarism: Referencing: the basics

• Techniques to Avoid Plagiarism
• Effective Note-taking
• Referencing: the basics
• Paraphrasing, summarising and quoting
• Frequently asked questions
• Harvard Referencing Examples
• Harvard cheat sheet
• APA Referencing Examples
• Library Services referencing workshops
• ELS study skills workshops
• Old QMU referencing
• QMU Regulations and Procedures

What is referencing?

Referencing is a way of crediting all the sources of information and ideas that you have used in any piece of work. It comprises of two parts: the citation and the reference:

• The citation is a note in the text to show that the information you are referring to has come from someone else
• The reference is a full note of the details of that source of information so that a reader can locate that source

Key principles:

1. The point of citation is to connect arguments you are making with other people’s ideas

2. The point of referencing is to allow people to find the sources you have used

3. Always include citations in the body of your work and a reference list at the end

4. Always make sure the format of your citations and references is consistent

5. Always check the guidance on your assignments for specific information about referencing

Why should I reference?

When you use someone else’s ideas in your work, either by using your own words or making a direct quotation, you must reference the source, in order to:

• Show you are aware of other people’s ideas and are including them

• Acknowledge other people’s ideas

• Support points and arguments you want to make

• Allow the reader to find the original material you have used In your work, you will use ideas and information from other sources to support points and arguments you want to make

When should I reference?

• When you summarise or paraphrase ideas and information from someone’s work

• When you quote directly from someone’s work

Failure to do any of the above is considered to be plagiarism.

What is plagiarism?

“...the presentation by an individual of another person’s ideas or work (in any medium, published or unpublished) as though they were his or her own...” (QMU, 2007, p. 42).

Plagiarism is considered to be a major breach of academic regulations. For further information about plagiarism, look at the plagiarism wiki:

QMU Guide: Finding My Voice

Do I include citations in my word count?

Citations are included in your word count because they are in the body of the work. The reference list at the end is not included in the word count.

How do I reference?

As we’ve already mentioned, you reference by citing sources in the body of your work. In Harvard referencing, the citation consists of an author (family name or name of organisation) and year in round brackets, e.g. (Smith, 2019). Insert the citation as soon as you refer to a source in the text. In addition to citing sources in the body of your work, you also need to create a reference list.

A reference list:

• Is alphabetical by author

• Must contain full details of all the sources you have cited in your text

You will always be required to provide a reference list; however, you may sometimes be asked to provide a bibliography as well. Where a reference list only identifies sources referred to in your writing, a bibliography takes the same format as a reference list, but includes all the materials you have consulted to prepare your assignment.

What is Harvard referencing?

Different universities and fields of study use different referencing styles. These are chosen to work best with the kinds of sources most commonly used. The purpose of a referencing style is to make sure that no matter what the source of information, it is clear to a reader what kind of source it is and how they can find it.

When you are reading academic work, you will encounter some features of referencing that you do not use in the Harvard referencing style. These include:

• Footnotes: these are notes that appear at the bottom of the page and relate to a part of the text on the page indicated by a small number, for example:    1

• Latin abbreviations: ibid (meaning “in the same place” to refer to something from the same source as previously mentioned), op. cit. (meaning “the work cited”, to indicate the same work cited previously for this author), sine loco or s.l. (meaning “no place of publication known”), sine nomine or s.n. (meaning “no publisher’s name is used”)

This guide is designed to help you with referencing for your assignments at QMU. If you are producing work for other purposes, you should check to see if you should follow a different referencing style.

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• Last Updated: Apr 8, 2024 9:47 AM
• URL: https://libguides.qmu.ac.uk/referencing

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• Knowledge Base
• Referencing
• MHRA Referencing | A Quick Guide & Citation Examples

MHRA Referencing | A Quick Guide & Citation Examples

Published on 13 February 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 28 March 2024.

MHRA style is a set of guidelines for referencing , commonly used in humanities subjects.

In MHRA, sources are cited in footnotes , marked by superscript numbers in the text. Subsequent citations of the same source are shortened, usually to just the author’s last name and the page number.

The protagonist of Silas Marner , and others of his profession, are described as resembling ‘the remnants of a disinherited race’. 1 Though Marner’s appearance is not outwardly strange, we are told that for his neighbours, ‘it had mysterious peculiarities which corresponded with the exceptional nature of his occupation’. 2

The bibliography at the end of your text contains all your sources, alphabetically ordered by authors’ last names:

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Table of contents

Mhra footnote references, creating an mhra bibliography, missing information in mhra references.

Footnote numbers appear in your text wherever you quote or paraphrase from a source. These numbers are usually placed at the end of a sentence, after any punctuation, and always after the quote or paraphrase they relate to:

The footnote itself then provides full information on the source, including the page number on which the relevant material appears:

A footnote always ends with a full stop.

Different types of source require different information in a footnote reference. Formats and examples for the most commonly cited types are given below.

• Book chapter
• Journal article

Shortened notes

If you cite the same source multiple times, in every subsequent footnote after the first citation, the information is shortened to save space:

MHRA recommends using the shortest intelligible form of the citation – usually just the author’s last name and a page number if relevant. Sometimes, you might still need more information to avoid confusion.

For example, a book in multiple volumes would still include a volume number along with a page number. If you’ve cited multiple books by the same author, include the title (shortened if it’s longer than four words) along with the author’s name:

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

At the end of your text, you include a bibliography with information on every source you cited. The bibliography lists all your sources in alphabetical order by authors’ last names.

The information here is presented similarly to that in the footnotes, with the following differences:

• For alphabetisation purposes, author names are inverted so that the last name comes first (e.g. ‘Dickens, Charles’).
• Specific page numbers are not required, because you’re now referencing the whole source rather than citing a specific passage.
• There is no full stop at the end of a bibliography entry.

For example:

Presentation of the bibliography

Bibliographies should have a hanging indent – this means that the second and subsequent lines of each entry are indented to make it clear at a glance where it ends and the next entry begins. In Word, you can find this option in the ‘paragraph’ settings.

Note that when a source lacks an author and is therefore listed by title, it is alphabetised according to the first word of the title, as with Napoleonic Wars .

Multiple works by the same author

When more than one of an author’s works are listed, the author’s name can be replaced with a double em dash (——) for the second and subsequent works:

Citing multiple chapters of a book

If you cite multiple chapters from the same edited book, or multiple articles from the same issue of a journal, they should always be listed separately in your bibliography, not combined into one entry:

You may encounter sources which do not contain all the information you need for a reference. This section covers how to deal with various missing elements of your source information.

When a source, such as a website or an older anonymous text, doesn’t list an author, MHRA recommends starting your footnotes and bibliography entry with the title. In these cases, the source is also alphabetised by title in your bibliography:

When a source does not list a publication date, the term ‘[n.d.]’ (no date) is used in place of the year. With web sources, an access date is still included at the end:

No page numbers

Websites, and some other source types such as ebooks, usually don’t have reliable page numbers.

With short texts, page numbers can usually just be omitted from a citation, but if you feel it’s necessary to refer to a particular passage, an alternative location marker like a paragraph number or heading can be used:

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2024, March 28). MHRA Referencing | A Quick Guide & Citation Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 15 April 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/referencing/mhra-style/

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