POLS 2017 Foundations of International Relations

Term paper grading criteria

1. The maximum grade is 25%.
2. Grade distribution guidelines (bell curve) is not to be observed.
3. Deadline for submission of the term paper – XX.XXX 23.55 hrs. One day delay is punishable by 5%, two days by 10% etc…
4. If originality report generated by Turnitin software indicates similarity above 10% then:
   1. if it is below 20% but most of the sources are well documented and do not include Wikipedia, Yahoo or answers.com cited as sources no penalty is to be applied;
   2. if it is above 20% careful investigation needs to be carried out as to the nature of the similarity. If bits and pieces are found to be copied and pasted from other students papers available on the net the penalty is 5% off the final grade;
   3. if it is above 30% careful investigation needs to be carried out as to the nature of the similarity. If bits and pieces are found to be copied and pasted from other students papers available on the net the penalty is 7,5% off the final grade;
   4. if it is above 40% careful investigation needs to be carried out as to the nature of the similarity. If bits and pieces are found to be copied and pasted from other students papers available on the net the penalty is 10% off the final grade.
   5. Cover page, contents and bibliography are not to be taken into consideration at all! (This needs to be taken into consideration and if need be ‘manually’ subtracted by the examiner.

Layout and Sources

• Times New Roman 12 font
• Standard margins
• Spacing 1,5
• Pages numbered (8 not counting the front page and bibliography). Any term paper that is longer than 12 pages should also be penalized by 1,5% off the final grade
• Text aligned to both sides
• Title page

 Failure to observe any of these – 1% off the final grade unless stated otherwise

• Bibliography (division of sources – books, scholarly articles etc.)
• Writing style is to be chosen independently i.e.: MLA, APA, AFT or Chicago Style as long as it is maintained throughout the whole paper
• No Wikipedia, Yahoo or answers.com cited as sources

Failure to observe any of these – 1,5% off the final grade

General Quality criteria

• Reasoned (students need to state the aim of their term paper)
• Balanced (academic writing is to be objective and so one sided or strongly biased writing is to be discouraged)
• Theoretical (serious academic writing needs to refer to some school of thought)
• Supported with evidence (any claims including quantitative data or qualitative phenomena need to be supported with evidence – source of information)

Failure to observe any of these – 2,5% off the final grade

Core Quality Criteria

• Clear and proper thesis
• Synthesis and evaluation of the relevant literature/theoretical models taught in class
• Clear and well-organized writing: flowing coherently and logically

Failure to observe any of these – 2,5% off the final grade

Functional Criteria

Each term paper should include:

• Description of political phenomena
• Explanation of processes and their meaning from political science perspective

Failure to observe any of these – 2,5% off the final grade 

• Extra 5% to be awarded to those term papers that include value judgments, that is identification of the problem/challenge/issue and subsequent prescription for policymakers on how to change the state of the matters.