Marking criteria

In this section of the SML website, you will find marking criteria for coursework essays, and for the different types of language work.

These are designed to give you an indication of the decision-making process which underpins the marking schemes used by colleagues in the School.

It would, of course, be impossible to be entirely specific about the precise criteria employed for marking each piece of work set, and there may be different requirements for different types of essay or project work, and for the different disciplines represented within the School (e.g. literary and cultural studies, history, politics, linguistics, medieval studies, etc.). However, the marking criteria for ‘essay work’ will give you a good idea of the standards we aim to apply across the board.

The criteria are not applied in a crude mathematical or formulaic way. It is not our policy, for example to give three separate marks for knowledge, argument and presentation and award the average of the three for the essay as a whole. More often, the mark awarded will represent a compromise which will be explained within the written feedback: “an excellent and original essay but weakened by flaws in sentence-construction and expression”, for example. In general, our experience is that essays which are good in content are also good in construction and expression; if not, guidance will be given on the areas of weakness.

In the case of work presented in a foreign language it is of course commoner for the marker to detect a significant difference between content and expression: excellent material in an essay on a social or literary topic will be brought down by linguistic mistakes, and a flawless essay will not gain a top mark if it is derivative, irrelevant or dull. In such work, first-class marks will only be given to work which achieves almost all the first-class criteria, whereas extreme weaknesses in either content or language may result in a fail or very low mark. Similarly in the case of translation between languages, extreme weakness in either understanding of the original or idiomatic and accurate use of the target language may result in a fail or very low mark.

The expected standard of work increases from year to year during your programme of study as you develop the various skills, but the balance of the aspects outlined here does not significantly change; rather, you can expect that the complexity of the tasks you are given will increase as you progress from the First Year to the Final Year.

Remember also that the mark you receive for a piece of work will be reduced in accord with faculty guidelines if you submit it late without prior agreement, and in particular that penalties will be applied in cases of plagiarism.