Is there a draft in here?

There’s just something wrong with the way my European Politics course is structured.

The course content is great. The lecturer is interesting (if a little bit too far to the left for my liking).

But the assignments are horrendously structured.

Like most courses of this level, a major chunk of the course mark lies in a large Research Essay we must present at the end of the year.

That’s fine. I enjoy research essays, thankfully. When they go well.

And, really, the demand for a research proposal is fair enough, making it worth 5% is good too, as it means people will put thought into them.

But here’s the weird part: He wants a draft introduction and outline. Four weeks before the final is due. And worth 10%.

For a draft introduction.

To request one is fine. Make it obligatory, no problem.

But how can ten percent of my mark for the year rest in a draft?! It doesn’t make sense. The point of a draft is to clear the ideas, get things moving, so that it can be heavily edited and presented in a refined form.

But this one is worth something.

So, does that mean it should really be basically as good as my final introduction?

But how could it be? I haven’t written the entire essay yet. Haven’t even finished the research. What do I do? How do you mark a draft?

To make things worse, it’s due tomorrow. I’ve been doing quite a bit of research. Know roughly how I want to present things and which angle I’m going to take. But I’m not really ready to write a brilliant introduction.

Even worse, he hasn’t returned our proposals yet. He’s had 5 weeks. From the course outline - “I will use your proposals as a control to ensure you are on a productive track of research.” Good. Wish you had. Will absolutely love finding out that I’ve been barking up the wrong tree once I’ve handed in my draft introduction.

September 12, 2007 | Filed Under Academia | 4 Comments 

← Previous Page