Assignment Guidelines

Your assignment brief will detail the required length of your assignment either by giving a word count and/or a duration in minutes.

For written work, you must include an accurate word count either in the submission portal or on your coversheet. If you do not include a word count, you may be awarded a mark of zero. Additionally, an incorrect word count will be viewed as suspected academic misconduct.

Unless otherwise specified, the published word limit excludes:

• Appendices
• Bibliographies
• Graphs and charts
• Images and graphics
• Tables, including titles and content
• The assignment task from the brief if you include it at the start of your assessment

However, your word count includes:

• Other footnotes
• Quotations
• In-text references and citations
• Titles and subtitles that you use to structure your assessment

Show assignments allow you to combine different media (for example, images, audio and video) with written work. The titles of blocks within the main body of your portfolio count towards your word count. The post outline, found in the “document overview” tab, can show you the running total word count of your entire post; be aware that you must deduct any exclusions, see the previous section.

• For written content, please follow the guidance above for written work. Please ensure you label the appendices, bibliography, etc. clearly.
• Images can include photographs, graphics, and posters. If your image contains words, these words will not be counted towards your word count.
  • Any images you use should support your response to the assignment brief and should be accompanied by written commentary that explains what the image is and why you have included it. You should include only necessary text in your images; any discussion of the image should be done in the body of your text and should be included in your word count.
• Videos or verbal audio that you have created can be used to provide evidence or to advance your argument. Your assignment brief will make clear what content is allowed in video or audio and how it contributes to the assignment length.

The conservatoire follows the University of Hull’s Code of Practice on Assessment Procedures for overlength assignments. This Code of Practice applies to all assignments that contribute towards your mark for a module. The following information aims to help you understand Hull’s guidance. In addition you are strongly advised to read the University of Hull’s Code of Practice on Assessment Procedures, which can be found in their Quality Handbook: Assessment.

If your written assignment is under the length specified in your assignment brief, there are no specific penalties. However, if your assignment is underlength you may not be fully addressing the criteria of the brief and that will be reflected in the mark awarded. You should always aim to meet the length requirements of any assessment. This will allow you to properly meet the requirements of the task.

A mark will not be reduced below the pass mark¹ as a result of a penalty for exceeding the specified duration/length. However, if an assessment with a specified duration is under the specified length/duration the penalty will be applied in full and this may reduce the mark below the pass mark.

1. For undergraduate the pass mark is 40; for postgraduate the pass mark is 50. ↩︎

How do I present appendices?

If you want to refer to an appendix item in your work, you should use a bracketed reference to the specific appendix. The material in your appendices should follow the order that it appears in the text. Each different item should be labelled under a separate heading (e.g. ‘Appendix 1’, ‘Appendix 2’, etc.).