Examiners’ Expectations

Disclaimer: Being human, examiners’ expectations do differ from one another. However, in general, we (yeap.., me included) do follow some sort of the “generally accepted” guidelines and ethics when we were marking the scripts, assignments, theses, and or attending to students’ presentations and defence. Students are strongly adviced to understand thier examiners’ expectations when preparing the papers.

In most examinations and assessments, students want to attain good if not excellent grades. Therefore, students must not only produce well articulated and edit papers, but to present them in the manner that impresses the examiners. In order to achieve this, students must understand the examiners’ thought process and their expectations. Regardless, whether in academic paper writing or presentation slides, there are key attributes that most of the examiners will look for as amplified hereunder. However, students are reminded that these attributes are merely suggestions, and that students must be fully prepared all the time for other areas that are not mentioned.

Prior Understanding: Students must be able to demonstrate that they have an understanding of the Final Project Paper. The soundness of their work, their arguments, data collection and handling illustrates this attribute.

Perseverance and Diligence: Students must demonstrate that,

• they have identified most of the relevant databases for the literature search;
• both print and electronic sources been searched and referred to;
• all literature search been expanded and narrowed accordingly;
• there exist a clear and consistent records made for the search;
• importantly, there is an evaluation done on the literatures searched. 

Literature Review: Student must demonstrate that,

• key concepts, ideas, theories, arguments and data been identified in the literatures;
• the reviews are comprehensive, covering both the topic and the methodological areas;
• all necessary elements been categorised, compared, contrasted and synthesised from the literature in a scholarly manner;
• all citations are clear, consistent and detailed;
• all literatures been critically evaluated and all ideas and statements been fully attributed. 

Coherence and thoroughness: Student must demonstrate that,

• research aims and objectives are clearly stated and logically linked;
• research design is justified and capable of realising the aims and objectives;
• the justifications amplify the research aims through good use of arguments, discussions and literatures;
• the data collection instruments used been tested and evaluated as a reliable and valid means to appropriate data;
• the data presented (paper and defence) is clear and in full; and any anomalies in the data is fully explained;
• the discussion on the data is closely linked to the data itself, and the conclusions linked and related to the literatures;
• the conclusions, data, literatures and objectives are clear and logically linked.

Justifications and argumentations: Students must demonstrate that,

• the research is clearly justified with the required rationale;
• the definition used are proper and appropriate;
• the issues, topic, problems are clearly stated and justified, including the recognition of un-stated assumptions;
• the justifications, evaluations of literatures and conclusions are soundly argued;
• alternate justifications and or agreements used (if any) are appropriately analysed and supported;
• informative and relational statements made are clearly differentiated and supported;
• the differences between inductive and deductive reasoning are clearly understood.

Scholarly standards: Students must demonstrate that,

• the sources are correctly and fully cited and all proper attribution of ideas given;
• the referencing system adopted is fully understood and the bibliography contains all the necessary seminal work;
• there exist a sound use of research design to illustrate understanding of internal and external validity and the differences between descriptions, explanations and other kind of statements;
• the research effort is ethical, conforming to the University’s ethical standards and /or profession; and any moral statements are justified, balanced with an alternative positions discussions;

Methodological understanding: Students must demonstrate that,

• origins, nature and consequences of different methodological traditions are understood;
• sound justifications are given for the use of specific methodological assumptions;
• the relationships between methodology and data are clearly understood;
• the overall research design incorporating the methodological assumptions, data collections techniques, validity, reliability and limits to generalisation ability are clearly illustrated;

Discussions, conclusions and recommendations: Students must demonstrate that,

• the discussions are related to the reviews of the literatures;
• any statements and arguments are clearly justified and supported by the data or analysis of data;
• the conclusions are supported and evidenced by the data and or argument presented;
• discussions, conclusions and recommendations are coherently arranged, organised and linked; and any further improvement suggestions are realistic and appropriate basing on the analysed data; 

Reflective practitioner: Students must demonstrate,

• their ability to reflect and evaluate on what has been done;
• the relationships between the evaluations to the research aims, objectives and management of the project;
• that problems, gaps and or issues are clearly identified, supported and recommended for future research;
• the significance of their research has an application or practical opportunity with the probable areas suggested;

Presentations: Students must ensure that their paper,

• is well articulated, written and properly edit in terms of spelling, grammar and punctuations;
• conforms to the awarding University’s requirements;

 

 

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