UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX Notice to MA students in the School of English, completing in 2011/2012 This notice should be read in conjunction with

the Examination and Assessment Handbook for Postgraduate Students 2011/2012 (hereafter called the handbook) which should be available online during the summer term at: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/academicoffice/1-3-2-2.html 1. Submission of Dissertation Title and Outline Students completing MA programmes are expected to submit a dissertation at the end of the 2011/2012 academic year. You are now required to prepare an outline of your dissertation. The outline must include the following information: a description of the general topic; an outline of the research programme within the topic; provisional bibliography, including an indication of where the sources can be found. Please enter the title of your dissertation on the enclosed form, and attach it to the outline of your dissertation. Consult with your programme convenor to identify an appropriate supervisor and then ask both your programme convenor and your supervisor to sign the form to indicate their approval. You should then submit the form to Liz Walker in the English School Office, B133, by the deadline specified in the handbook (25 May 2012). A change of dissertation title will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances, for example, in order to produce a more precise definition of the subject. The permission of your Supervisor and your Programme Convenor must be obtained before any change can be made. On submission, the dissertation title must be the same as the one previously approved. 2. Format of Dissertation Guidance on the presentation of dissertations is included as Appendix 2 of the handbook and a copy of this is attached to these notes. Please read this carefully. The prescribed length for the dissertation can be found on your Study Direct pages. The word count for the dissertation includes footnotes, but excludes the bibliography and appendices. The dissertation must be typewritten and bound using the tags and covers which are enclosed with this notice. (Plastic covers or folders should not be used). Good quality paper of A4 size should be used. Typing should be on one side of the paper only, with double or one-and-a-half line spacing for the main text and single-line spacing for the footnotes. The margin on the lefthand side should be one and a half inches and on the right-hand side should be half an inch. 3. Submission of Dissertation The deadline for the submission of the dissertation is: 4.00 pm on Monday, 3 September 2012. Dissertations should be submitted to the School Office, School of English, Arts B133, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QN. Dissertations may be submitted by post (Recorded Delivery is recommended). Receipt will be acknowledged provided that a stamped, self-addressed envelope is included at the time of submission. Assessments submitted by post will be considered to be submitted on time as long as they are postmarked by no later than the day immediately preceding the deadline. When you submit your dissertation you must also submit the enclosed Dissertation Declaration which must be signed. Candidates are strongly advised to retain an additional copy of their work as copies used for the examination will not be returned. 4. Late or Non-submission of Dissertation Please note that if you submit a dissertation after the due date of 3 September 2012 but before 30 September 2012 (this is the date when your registration will expire), the lateness penalties set out in the handbook will be applied. If you do not submit a dissertation it will be formally recorded as non submitted and consequently you will receive a fail mark (F) which will cause failure of the degree.

For information about submitting mitigating evidence, please consult the handbook or contact the Student Life Centre. Please note that if you are permitted a Sit or a Resit by the Examination Board, as your registration with the University will expire with effect from 30 September 2012, you will be required to re-register as a continuation student and pay the appropriate fee (currently 235). 5. Pass List The MA Examination Boards are scheduled to meet in the first week of November 2012, exact dates to be confirmed. Pass Lists will be published on the School notice boards and on the notice board outside the Student Progress and Assessment Office within 7 days following the individual Examination Board meetings. Please note: The formal confirmation of the award of the degree is the pass list. The onus is on you, as the candidate, to consult the pass list to see if you have been awarded the degree. You will not be notified in writing by the University. If you are unable to attend the University to check the pass list in person, you may telephone your School Office or the Student Progress and Assessment Office for your result. A formal transcript of your ratified marks will be sent to you before the end of the Autumn Term 2012. This will be sent to your HOME ADDRESS as shown on your record. Please make sure this is up-to-date. If you need a transcript urgently, you may request one from the Student Systems Office in Sussex House (email: transcripts@sussex.ac.uk). 6. Graduation Ceremony The Winter Graduation Ceremony will take place in January 2013. Graduation material will be sent to you during the Autumn Term 2012. Please note that all debts to the University must be cleared, and all Library books returned, before the degree can be conferred. Withdrawal from a Degree Programme Please note that, if you wish to withdraw from an MA programme, you must do so before 30 September 2012. If you do not withdraw before that date, and do not submit all the required assessments, including the dissertation, this will be reported to the Examination Board and you will be recorded as a Fail (through non-submission) rather than a withdrawal. Applications for Intermission Please note that applications for intermission must be made no later than two weeks before the deadline for the final piece of assessment i.e. the dissertation. Therefore, no application for intermission will be accepted after Friday 17 August 2012.

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If you have any queries about the information contained in this notice, please contact Jane Burton in the Student Progress and Assessment Office at: j.burton@sussex.ac.uk or Tel: 01273 678410.

THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX APPENDIX 2 : GUIDANCE TO CANDIDATES ON THE PRESENTATION OF DISSERTATIONS AND TERM PAPERS This guidance is for MA Programmes in the Schools of Global Studies, MFM, English, HAHP, IDS and SCLS. All other students should refer to information made available in their Schools and Programme handbooks. 1. Guide to conventions 1.1 The best models for the techniques of quotation, footnote referencing, and the setting out of bibliographies are books and journal articles by established scholars in your discipline or field of research. 1.2 There exist also several style manuals. In the humanities, The Handbook for Writing Research Papers, Theses and Dissertations (New York: Modern Language Association, 1977) and A.C.Winkler and J.R. McCuen, Writing the Research Paper: A Handbook (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979) are useful guides and may be obtained from the University Bookshop. 1.3 However, it is most important to consult your supervisor about the conventions applying in your discipline in general and in your chosen area of research in particular. IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT HAVING SELECTED A PARTICULAR CONVENTION YOU USE IT CONSISTENTLY AND ACCURATELY. 2. Dissertation organisation Each dissertation must be arranged in the following order: Title page Summary (approximately 100 words) Titles of Chapters and of Appendices (if any) List of Abbreviations (if any) List of Illustrations, Figures, Maps and Tables (as appropriate) Preface* Chapters Appendices (if any) Bibliography Pages must be numbered consecutively, including any appendices. Dissertations must include a 100-word summary. * A short preface outlining the purpose of the dissertation and the main problems to be

discussed, the principal sources used, and, where relevant the extent to which the dissertation is based upon secondary authorities. It must also indicate the extent to which the author is indebted to the Supervisor and other individuals for assistance. 3. Scholarly conventions Bibliographies 3.1 Each dissertation must contain a bibliography listing all the sources consulted or used in the preparation of the work. 3.1.1 Common conventions for the arrangement and punctuation of printed books and articles cited in a bibliography are as below. Underline is equivalent to italics. Titles of periodicals should be given in full. Give place of publication and publisher for books. Noland, A., 1956. The Founding of the French Socialist Party (1893-1905), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Colton, J., 1953. 'Leon Blum and the French Socialists as a Government Party', The Journal of Politics, 15. 4 (November), 517-543. Maitland, F.W., and Bateson, M. (eds), 1901. The Charters of the Borough of Cambridge, Cambridge Antiquarian Society. Landes, D., 1965. 'Technological change and development in Western Europe, 1750-1914', in H.J. Habakkuk and M.M. Postan (eds), Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol. VI pt 1, The Industrial Revolution and After, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 274-601. Wordsworth, W., 1926. The Prelude, ed. E. de Selincourt, 1st edn, Oxford: Clarendon Press. NB The current trend with abbreviations is to use a full stop only when the last letter of the abbreviation is not the last letter of the word abbreviated; hence ed. = editor, but eds = editors, edn = edition, pt = part. The older convention is also still found. Titles of dissertations are not underlined; they should appear between single inverted commas. Foreign titles follow the conventions of their own language. For example, Romance languages capitalize only the first word and proper names. Capitalization. The current trend is towards capitalizing only as in normal prose. However, it is very common to capitalize major words in titles of journals; quite common in titles of books; less common in titles of articles/chapters. 3.2 In some disciplines, it is customary to subdivide the bibliography into separate categories. For example, a History or a Politics dissertation usually contains the

following headings: A PRIMARY SOURCES: (a) manuscript and archival sources (b) government publications c) newspapers and periodicals. Manuscript Sources Names and location of public and private repositories and collections of papers should be given in full in the bibliography and in the first footnote reference. Note: manuscript is abbreviated to MS not MSS which is the abbreviation for manuscripts. B SECONDARY SOURCES: This section usually consists of a list of all books, articles and theses consulted or used in the preparation of the dissertation, arranged alphabetically by author's surnames. In some cases, secondary sources may be subdivided into books, journal articles, and pamphlets and sometimes by periods or topics.

C INTERVIEWS: If you have interviewed people in connection with your research, they are usually listed alphabetically in the bibliography, with the date and place of the interview and the serial numbers of any tape recordings of the interview. Please note that this is only for certain kinds of interview. Check with your supervisor. 3.3 For guidance on how to cite electronic sources (internet, on-line and CD ROM) you should consult your School guide to writing term papers where one is available. Otherwise, information about documenting sources on the internet can be obtained at htpp://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/mla.html 3.4 It should again be emphasised that conventions vary from subject to subject, and you should consult your supervisor at an early stage before compiling your list of sources, even at a preliminary stage in your research. 4. References and footnotes 4.1. The variation in the citation of courses and in the use of footnotes is somewhat greater than in the case of bibliographies. The advice of your supervisor is

particularly important in this part of your work. 4.2 AVOID PUTTING INTO FOOTNOTES INFORMATION WHICH CAN BE PUT INTO THE TEXT. FOOTNOTES (IF ANY) SHOULD BE AS BRIEF AS POSSIBLE. 4.3 According to the majority of conventions, references (citations) should be incorporated into the text, using the "Harvard" (Author, date: page) system. References in the text should be of the following forms: ...applies also to nouns (see Matthews, 1981: 231-233)... Rigter and Beukema (1985: 116) distinguish between... A secondary source should be cited in the following way: Malotki (1983, cited in Lakoff 1987: 88) claimed that... Only the primary source - in this case '(Lakoff 1987)' - should be listed in your bibliography. ENSURE THAT ALL THE PRIMARY SOURCES CITED IN YOUR TEXT APPEAR IN YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY. 4.4 Some conventions prescribe the use of footnotes for references to sources. The footnotes should be assigned serial numbers and each chapter should have a separate series of such numbers. 4.4.1 The first footnote reference to a book, article or thesis should be as follows: A.Noland, The Founding of the French Socialist Party (1893-1905) (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press,1956), p.10. J.Colton, 'Leon Blum and the French Socialists as a Government Party', The Journal of Politics, XV, 4(November 1953), p.100 For subsequent references the short-title system may be used. This consists of the author's surname and the abbreviated title of the work. For example, the article by J.Colton cited above would be abbreviated to: Colton, 'Leon Blum', p.100 4.4.2 Where there is more than one reference in a footnote, entries must be separated by a semi-colon. 5. Dissertation presentation

5.1 The pages of a dissertation should be typed, on one side only, on A4 paper (approximately 12" x 8") and should be set out as follows: (a) the text of the dissertation must be typed with either double line spacing, or one-and-a-half line spacing. (b) Indented quotations and footnotes must be single-spaced. (c) the left-hand margin must be 1" wide; the right-hand margin must be at least " wide; the top and bottom margins should each be 1" deep. (d) Pages should be numbered at the top. 5.2 The following conventions are recommended for the punctuation and setting out of quotations: (a) Use single quotation marks except for a quotation within a quotation. (b) Indented text must be used for long quotations. They must be singlespaced and indented from the margin of the text; they do not require quotation marks. (c) Where a part of a sentence is omitted from a quotation it should be replaced by three dots; thus '...' (d) Where an omission from a quotation includes two or more consecutive sentences, or the end and the beginning of consecutive sentences, this should be indicated by four dots; thus '....'. (e) The punctuation and spelling of the texts being quoted must be retained; where a candidate wishes to indicate that an error exists in the original text, this can be done by inserting the term 'sic' after the error in question, e.g. 'liason (sic)'. This is the only way 'sic' should be used. (f) If phrases or words are inserted in a quotation they should be framed by square brackets, e.g. 'the Parliament [of India] decided that'. 5.3 Foreign words and phrases, except for quotations or complete sentences, must be underlined or italicised. 5.4 Hand-written corrections and insertions to the typescript are not acceptable. 5.5 For information on the required length of the dissertation and other details please consult the General assessment handbook for postgraduate students. The word count for the dissertation includes the footnotes, but does not include the bibliography or appendices.

6. Expression of measurement Distances and quantities may be expressed in either metric or imperial units. 7. Presentation of maps and diagrams Maps and diagrams should be inserted in the text; if possible they should be page-size, or involving only a single fold. Separate rolls of maps are highly inconvenient both to the examiners and to the administration and should if at all possible be avoided. The source of the information shown on maps should be clearly stated. With regard to presentation, a useful guide is F.J. Monkhouse and H.R. Wilkinson, Maps and Diagrams, 3rd edn. (Methuen Inc., 1971). 8. Statistical tables, graphs, etc. There are many useful and concise methods of presenting information and the fruits of investigation, which need careful consideration to exploit their value and to avoid ambiguity. Here again, consult the usage of leading journals in your field, and make use of your supervisor. Tables, for example, should be presented as clear units, indicating clearly the source(s) of the information they contain. There are several publications which discuss such important non-verbal tools: see, for example, C.A. Blyther, The Use of Economic Statistics (Allen and Unwin paper back, 1960; later editions), pp. 22-23 and 4851. 9. Checking It is most important that the dissertation should be checked thoroughly to ensure that it is free from typing, spelling and other errors, that quotations have been faithfully transcribed errors, and that references are accurate.