Project2

I must stress what is said in the Project Guide - be very careful not to transpose or paraphrase any text or arguments without attribution.- if you do so you are open to the charge of plagiarism. - passing off someone else's work as your own - this is a major academic sin!. It is very easy to do unwittingly, and something that is perfectly legitimate to do in ordinary TMAs but not in the project - it's no excuse to say ‘great minds think alike'! If you are paraphrasing, you can indicate this by for instance - ‘as Murphy argues'

Try to avoid the use of the ‘perpendicular pronoun', I. For the semioticians amongst you academic work is histoire not discours. Personal opinion should be contained, although I admit it has to be used on occasions. Conversational style is increasingly used, but there is a point beyond which this is inappropriate in academic work. For instance, elisions such as ‘isn't' (let alone ‘ain't'!) should be avoided (except of course within quoted dialogue) but ‘it's' is quite common. On the other hand you do have to employ the terminology, however turgid, of a particular theory or writer you nay be discussing.

I prefer clear standard English, so I try to avoid the archaic Latinisms, ‘e.g.' and 'i.e.‘ (what's wrong with ‘for instance' and ‘that is'?). It's even worse to use them incorrectly.

In TMAs I would not normally take into account any spelling and grammatical errors for the marking, maybe just indicate them. This will not be the case for the project. So, if you have a word processor use the spell check - but do still take care to proof read - I recently marked an essay where the student kept referring to ‘ethic minorities'!. Do use a good dictionary and thesaurus.

We have eaten of the feminist apple and there can be no innocent use of ‘he', ‘man' and so on, as generic terms. Any such use would be making a very provocative and loud statement. When your quotes include such usage you should acknowledge this by inserting (sic).

I find the unpronounceable androgynous pronoun ‘s/he' bizarre, and‘he or she' awkward (why not ‘she or he'?). And of course beware of the ultimate patronising ‘he, (or she)'. I prefer to tackle this by using the plural ‘they', ‘we', the viewerS', or turning the verb around.

Do remember that ‘gay' is now standard English for homosexual and that this word now has taken on patronising, medical connotations. The jury is still out on whether to use the term ‘queer' but there are now University courses on Queer Studies which cover Victim.

The length of the project, up to 6,000 words, may seem daunting when you have been accustomed to the monthly TMA of 2,000 words, but is about the normal length of an article in an academic journal. It is important to structure it very carefully - you can just get away with a rambling TMA, but in the project it is recipe for fail marks. I suggest that you divide the project, and your work, into logical parts (this you will have to decide from the nature of your own project), and then you can tackle them separately building up the mosaic of your argument. Chunks of 1,000 to 2,000 words are useful, so, you could have an introduction and a conclusion plus three or four sections which could be identified with subheadings.

Timing your workload is crucial and difficult - in the last weeks you may suddenly change your mind about your argument, or find a whole new area to research which changes the thrust of your project. But do set yourself target dates by which to complete a piece of reading, or other research, or write up a section. Proof reading, checking, photocopying take more time than you may think now so allow for that in your timetable in TMA4.

I would expect about 10% to 15% of your project to be quotes. Anything much less would tend to indicate that you had not grasped the relevant academic literature (this does depend on your project) - anything much more that your project may be a ‘cut and paste' job without any great input from you.

Illustrations are always fun, but not essential. Do not include them just to make the project ‘prettier' - you will receive no extra marks, unless they aid the understanding of the argument - so insert a reference in your text. You can get stills from the BFI but these are hugely expensive - best just to photocopy from illustrations in magazines, books etc. (copyright is not be a problem for unpublished educational use), or even easier, if you have got here, is to copy and paste from internet sites as I have done on this site.

Apart from synopses, consider if there is anything you wish include. For instance if you are dealing with one director it might be worthwhile listing all the director's films you touch on in some detail, or a biographical summary (from All Movie Guide for instance). Or notes from interviews or letters or programme notes.

The project is the ‘exam' part of the course. It is double marked, initially by myself for my students and another OU tutor (hence the need for two copies to go to Walton Hall). It will then go for a final check by the team at Milton Keynes. Under no circumstances send the project to tutors directly and do not be late, unless you have a very good reason - such as you might for not turning up for an exam. All such issues are not dealt by me but by the Assessment Policy Office and you should have the necessary forms in your posting.

Please note that after TMA04, where tutors will give personal advice on individual projects, I will be available for advice by email or on the phone, but only to my students - and do consider that whilst you are researching it is the conference and holiday season! You will not receive PT3 type feedback on the Project - you will receive a brief feedback form from the examiners. Just as with exams, you will be notified around Christmas of the mark awarded with the final results.