Academic source every 100 words

alexlyons

We were given a CA a week or 3 ago, and were told a good essay with 10 academic sources would get approximately 40%, and 20 sources would be looking at pretty near full marks, assuming its good. The word count is 2000. groups of up to 4.

A 4 person group, 500 words each, 5 academic sources, that's a source every 100 words. 100 words is barely enough to introduce it let alone discuss it etc. A good essay should also have web sources where applicable, where to fit them in I'm not sure!

I emailed my lecturer but wanted some feedback from any others out here.

thoughts?

Sheeps

alexlyons wrote: »

We were given a CA a week or 3 ago, and were told a good essay with 10 academic sources would get approximately 40%, and 20 sources would be looking at pretty near full marks, assuming its good. The word count is 2000. groups of up to 4.

A 4 person group, 500 words each, 5 academic sources, that's a source every 100 words. 100 words is barely enough to introduce it let alone discuss it etc. A good essay should also have web sources where applicable, where to fit them in I'm not sure!

I emailed my lecturer but wanted some feedback from any others out here.

thoughts?

Is it not 2000 words minimum? Also, you don't necessarily have to have all 4 people writing the essay. You could all research and read different papers, discuss them and come up with a brief outline of what the essay should entail, then you all write it together.

alexlyons

nope. direct quote from the brief "the paper will be 2000 words in length"

even if it was, 3000 words would only give you an extra 50 words a source, thats adding on an extra 50% in length which seems ridiculous....

alexlyons

Sheeps wrote: »

Also, you don't necessarily have to have all 4 people writing the essay. You could all research and read different papers, discuss them and come up with a brief outline of what the essay should entail, then you all write it together.

yes but that doesn't stop us from requiring 1 referenced academic source every 100 words

FewFew

Depends really what you're doing for your CA. The fact that the lecture seems to be grading the quality by the amount of sources sounds like it's nearly a lit review. Currently working on a dealio with 27 academic references in 2300 words, but it's a lit review so that's how such things go.

It's doable. Pain in the ass if it's split between four people though, they'll have to refrain from doing an intro and conclusion in their sections. I sounds like a huge amount but it's not impossible.

shoutman

I've just completed a 12,000 word group project and it worked out at having a reference every 130 words or so (even less if references were used more then onece).

It really isn't that hard once you do some very in depth reading.

Best way to build up academic base is to look through the list of references of any academic journal articles that you find usefull, that way it snowballs.

Ever2010

Yeah that sounds correct - it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to do a quote every 100 words though! For a 2000 word essay I'm sure you would've consulted at least 20 different resources.

Some articles or books will merely inform your thinking - these should be included in the bibliography, everything you've looked at to do with the topic. If you're looking at a certain theory for example you may refer to one side of an argument that A, B & C discuss and the opposite that D & E discuss - there's 5 references for a couple of sentences.

The lecturer is simply getting you to do as much reading around your subject area as possible. It's best to consult a wide variety of resources for your area, text books, articles, newspapers, reports etc. Ask in the library if you are unsure - they'll also be able to help you with referencing.

alexlyons

shoutman wrote: »

I've just completed a 12,000 word group project

iigghh

shoutman wrote: »

and it worked out at having a reference every 130 words or so (even less if references were used more then onece).

It really isn't that hard once you do some very in depth reading.

Best way to build up academic base is to look through the list of references of any academic journal articles that you find usefull, that way it snowballs.

from the feedback it sounds pretty resonable so. we're in the middle of it, actually towards the end, but I was a bit late out of the traps as you say, it's not that hard once you read a huge amount etc, which isn't the norm with our course so far. I'm generally saying what I think, and finding that a good few articles etc have the same sort of views, so I can reference them, while also learning new stuff from them, which I include.

Thanks for the help