How many words was yurs meant to be? (1 Viewer)

[SUNIL]

hey guys...can u give me an idea of jow long i shud make my essay? so far im just over 3000 words

 

[poodle]

if ur over 10% over ull get penalised....so over2750 ur gunna lose marks...remember its not up to how much u write, part of the essay is to keep to the word limit, not exceed it...mines only 2450 words

 

[Sarah168]

You definately should not exceed 3000 words AT ALL...

 

[Demandred]

Shouldn't it 2500? Well for my school, you cannot get pass 2500 words, full stop. Mines exactly 2500 , 2700 or so in you include the foot notes.

 

[~dEjA vOuX~]

It varies from school to school, but my teacher said they are flexible on the 2500 limit, but if it reaches 2700, then you lose marks. Mine was just under 2600. Don't worry if yours is 3000. Mine was 3700 at first and I had to cut it down heaps, but it is possible

 

[Vuki]

There is no set rule, it depends on your school/teacher. Mine was 2840-ish and I did not lose marks - and I did have a wordcount so it wasn't a con or anything. They basically told us if we go above 3000 then we're at risk of losing marks.

 

[Craig]

Our teacher hasn't been overly strict about the word limit; however 2 students will be entering their assignments into the HTA awards, in which the assignment has to be less than 2500. From what I’ve heard there quite strict on that, so I’m ensuring mine is less than 2500.

 

[ptitsa]

syllabus says you can't exceed 2500, so we stuck to that.

 

[Caratacus]

This is a cut and paste from the History Extension syllabus under the heading of "Course Prescriptions":

It will be in written form and may be accompanied by appropriate graphic texts only as appendices (apart from short explanatory captions). The essay must not exceed 2,500 words.

The syllabus also has the markingcode in it that hte teacher has to use.

You can get the syllabus here:

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/historyext_syl.doc

It will help you a lot to read it. Your teacher should have given you a copy of it.

Here are the essay requirements in full:


1 Designing an Investigation
The topic must be developed from one or more of the following areas:
• a historical debate or controversy
• a historian’s or archaeologist’s work
• changing analysis of an archaeological site over time
• ethical issues surrounding an archaeological site
• contrasting approaches to a historical personality, issue or event
• museums as history
• history in the media — film, documentary, fiction, docudrama, drama, poetry, opera
• an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the history of a personality, issue or event
• the impact of global or national events at a regional or local level
• oral history
• historical biography
• local history
• the history of an institution
• critical analysis of a major historical work
• the use and misuse of history in either a specific context or over time.

The topic of the project should reflect an area of student interest; however, the topic:
• must focus on the fundamental historiographical concepts and issues of HSC History Extension
• may be developed from a case study but should cover substantially different ground
• must not overlap significantly with the examinable content of any other School Certificate or Higher School Certificate course.


2 Documenting the Project
The history project should be a product of the student’s own work. It should be a piece of work that is free of plagiarism. Plagiarism may be broadly defined as presenting as one’s own the thoughts, writings or inventions of another. While the students may draw on the assistance of other people in developing the project, the student must take care to avoid practices that may be the subject of claims of academic misconduct, including plagiarism.

Students should keep a record of:
• the proposal for the investigation
• sequentially dated records of the enquiry process
• dated notes and progressive drafts of work
• all sources used in preliminary notes and drafts.

Teachers should:
• sign and initial the process log at regular intervals
• maintain a file of final, submitted and assessed projects.


The Proposal

The proposal should contain:
• description of preliminary research
• enquiry questions
• research intentions in relation to
– areas/texts to examine
– methodology.


The Essay

The essay should contain:
• synopsis
– this will be a brief description (300 words) on the development of the precise question that provides the focus of the essay; the ways the essay addresses
the precise question; the content used in the essay and why it was included.
• essay
– the essay is an argument in response to a precise question with evidence in support, the sources of which are acknowledged. It will be in written form and may be accompanied by appropriate graphic texts only as appendices (apart from short explanatory captions). The essay must not exceed 2,500 words.
The essay should contain material from a range of perspectives, including the student’s own views. A consistent system of referencing should be used to acknowledge the use of sources.


The Bibliography

The bibliography should contain:
• a consistently formatted alphabetical list of all sources used within the project
• evaluation of three of these sources. The reviews should:
– be selected for the three most valuable sources used in the history project
– not exceed 600 words in total
– explain the strengths and weaknesses of each source, considering its usefulness and reliability and the reasons it was valuable to the project and
the central argument of the essay.


The Process Log

The process log should contain:
• description of procedures
• log of sequential development of the topic
• record of major decisions of the project
• review: cumulative self, peer and teacher evaluation of the project and record of interviews.

Certification of the Project

A statement by the principal, teacher and student that the project is considered to be an original piece of work carried out by the student must be attached to the final copy of the project.
Certification is required to ensure that each submitted work is wholly the work of the student entered for the Higher School Certificate and has been completed under the supervision of the teacher. The Office of the Board of Studies will provide a certification form for this purpose. If the supervising teacher cannot certify the student’s work the school must complete a non-certification report document.

It is essential that:
• aspects of the process of development of the project take place in school time
• work completed away from school is regularly monitored by the supervising teacher
• each student sign a statement, witnessed by the supervising teacher, that the submitted major work is their own work
• the process log be submitted with the essay. This requirement is necessary for verification of authenticity and will be referenced in the case of appeals being made to the Board of Studies.

 

[silvermoon]

its true that the syllabus says the word limit is 2500 words - however, a word limit still has a margin on either side. sometimes ppl will be generous and give u more words than usual, but the norm is 10%, so id stick 2 that. dont worry bout it being 2 long - mine was waaaaay 2 long - but its better 2 have 2 condense ur work then be under the limit and stuck for what 2 write

 

[Caratacus]

Agreed silvermoon that normal practice is + or - 10% of the set word count ie here 2250 - 2750 words. And indeed: it's far better to be over & have to condense, than to be under & have to waffle up.

 

[tWiStEdD]

mine pushed the word limit a bit... (the +10%)

its up to your teacher in the end, ask if how much u have written is 'out of line'

 

[charlie_charlie]

My first draft reached 4000 words....cut it down to 2570!!!
So yes, it is possible to cut many words out and get an acceptable essay.
And i would stick to the word limit, within a few hundred words at least. I think my teacher said use 2500 as a word limit, because most people would always go over about 200 words.

 

[charmed_cuties]

well i reckon my essay will exceed the limit by maybe 200 words, still in the process of editing it, almost finished though

 

[angelduck]

Okay, people, please remember syllabus, if it says dont exceed a certain amount DONT EXCEED IT!!!!!
I think Saj is a syllabus man, so rana, id b careful bout going over

And yes, that dude was right, for HTA awards, you cannot exceed 2500, or they wont even read it, and they can check that coz they do a word count so be careful everyone, its much better to be just under and know you've stuck to the syllabus than be over, create an excellent essay, and not be able to enter it in the awards!!!!!!!!

Mines 2478!

 

[Vuki]

Actually, I'm fairly certain that the two nominations from our school were above 2500. Charlie Charlie on these forums was nominated so she can tell you, but most people in my school went over 2500.

 

[charlie_charlie]

Yep, I just checked my official word count- 2581
And I'm pretty sure the other essay nominated was more than 2500
Basically, you can go over the word count, but only to finish off your argument, same concept when the teachers say in the exams "finish off the sentence you're writing."

Its not as if you're going to lose 1/2 your marks if you're one word over. Or 81 in my case.

 

[jaNetix]

lol....mine was 3500 last yr
lucky for me no marks off....