An explanation of the feedback you will receive for your coursework.
The feedback for your assignment will include a selection of the following “quick marks” indicating areas where you have done well (marks starting with a “+” sign), or where you need to improve (starting with a “-” sign).
- -Title: vague
Be more specific and use the title to advertise precisely what the paper is about. Use the title to encourage the reader to read your paper in order to find out more. - +Abstract
Concise and informative. - -Attribution
This figure or text appears to have been taken from another source and is not correctly attributed (e.g., by citing the source). This is plagiarism and you must be more careful. You will score zero marks for this part. In serious cases, further action will be taken. - +Attribution
Good use of citation or other ways to correctly attribute the source of this material (text, figure, etc). - +Bibliography: good citation
This citation a well-chosen and supports your argument. - -Bibliography: poor citation
The cited work does not support your argument. It may be irrelevant or not specific enough (e.g., a whole textbook) or not the original source (e.g., citing a webpage instead of peer-reviewed material). - -Bibliography: citation needed
You are making a claim that needs supporting evidence. - -Bibliography: be more specific
Give chapter/section/page numbers for longer works, to help the reader locate the point you are making. Don’t expect your reader to search through the cited work. - -Bibliography: detail
This entry has missing details. Check all your other bibliography entries too – the marker may not enumerate every single problem. - +Bibliography: extensive
You read beyond the essential course readings and cited more original sources. - -Bibliography: restricted
You stuck mainly to the essential course readings. Try to read more widely and cite from sources that are more original (e.g., cite Taylor’s book and not King’s lecture slides). - +Detail
You described this point with the right amount of detail. - -Detail: too little
There is insufficient detail here to be able to properly judge your understanding of the material. - -Detail: too much
You spent too many words / too much space describing this part. - +Figure: effective
An effectively used figure that adds to your report. - +Figure: good caption
This figure/table has an informative and self-contained caption. - -Figure: poor caption
This figure/table has an uninformative caption. It is either too short, or the caption doesn’t make sense. Captions should fully explain the figure. Don’t be afraid of captions that take 2 or more lines of text. - +Figure: good use of spectrograms / waveforms
This spectrogram or waveform plot is effective and aids understanding. - +Figure: well annotated
The annotations on this figure are helpful. - -Figure: poorly annotated
This figure is not clearly annotated to help the reader understand the point you are trying to make. Graphs must always have both axes labelled with the quantity, and also specify the units. For example, time (s) or frequency (Hz). - +Figure: original
The use of original figures is much better than using ones from books or the lecture slides. - -Figure: not original
The use of original figures is much better than using ones from books or the lecture slides. Create your own figures, to demonstrate that you understand the material well. They don’t have to be as polished as those in books. The process of expressing an idea in an original figure will help you improve your understanding. - -Figure: poor quality
This figure is poorly drawn, poorly reproduced (e.g., a low resolution screenshot) or hard to read. You should learn how to create vector graphics, and how to include them in a document in their original vector format (e.g., use PDF and not PNG). - -Figure: verbatim output
Do not use excessive amounts of verbatim output. Create your own compact illustrations to make the point. If you do include verbatim output, do so sparingly, and annotate it carefully. - -Format: widows and orphans
Don’t place page breaks in places that leave single lines of text or headers at the end of a page. Don’t assume your word processor knows this. - +Writing: quality
Good quality writing - -Writing: quality
Unclear or ungrammatical writing. Check it more carefully. Use a spellchecker. Read it back to yourself (perhaps out loud), imagining yourself in the place of the reader. Ask yourself if it makes sense. - -Writing: structure / ordering
It was hard to follow your structure and the marker had to re-read your assignment more than once (in whole or in part) in order to follow it. - +Writing: concise
Your writing is concise and to the point. - -Writing: longwinded
Your writing is longwinded and over-complicated. It may be hard to read, or hard to understand what point you are making. Get to the point more quickly. Try using shorter and grammatically-simpler sentences that each make one clear point. - -Writing: informal
Too informal or colloquial. - -Writing: vague
Vague wording – be more precise. - +Writing: style guide
You correctly adhered to the style guide. - -Writing: style guide
You failed to follow the style guide, even though templates were provided for you to use.
