University of Cape Town
Writing guide
Technical papers, review papers and
essays
Department of Information Systems
January 2009
1 WHAT’S IN A NAME?
An academic paper is a form of essay that differs from most other essays. It is more formal. It can be
compared to an academic paper published in an academic journal rather than an article in a magazine.
There are differences between academic essays written for different academic departments. The
emphasis here is on papers rather than essays for the Department of Information Systems. These are
usually directed to the analysis and review of academic literature written on specific topics and the
drawing of conclusions. Because of this, we will often use terms such as review paper or technical
paper to avoid the style of essay favoured by non business departments. Papers for the Department of
Information Systems do not allow for the inclusion of personal opinions but rather look for logically
argued conclusions from the main points presented.
The form of your paper should be made clear by the instructions. If not, ask. For example, a paper will
often require the student to outline and summarise the literature. Other requirements of papers may be
critical treatment (critical assessment of others’ arguments) or evaluation (considered personal
judgement backed up by examples, facts and arguments of others). However, as already stated, we do
NOT require personal opinions or feelings.
If you are to write a good empirical report (ER) or technical report (TR) then good academic writing is
an important skill to learn. Papers are shorter and have considerably more focus and more cohesion
than ERs or TRs but they develop many of the necessary skills and approaches of these reports.
This guide is in three parts. The first part discusses searching for sources, the second focuses on
preparing for the paper with reference to planning and reviewing the literature, including a discussion
of plagiarism. The third part discusses writing up the paper.
2 APPROACHES TO THE INITIAL SEARCH
A search strategy is important to a literature review. One of the best ways to start is to search using key
words.
2.1
SEARCHES USING KEY WORDS
One approach to identifying literature is to search databases such as Emerald or Ebsco (discuss the best
sources for your topic with your mentor or the library). Another approach is to use keywords in Google
Scholar to identify sources such as journals or conferences and then look for those journals or
conferences in the library databases.
2.1.1 FINDING KEY WORDS
Break down your title, purpose statement and objectives into key concepts. A mind map may help here.
This should point to several key words or phrases. Look at some of the relevant papers you have
already found and consider their key words (often given below the abstract). Consider whether
synonyms for some of the key words may not be useful (try the thesaurus facility). Your initial
keywords will sometimes not be adequate and you may need to consider other sources of keywords.
Often theories in the field can provide good key words (i.e. the titles of the theories such as TAM or
technology acceptance model). Another possibility is to establish the key researchers in the field and
search on their names.
2.1.2 EVALUATING THE SEARCH PROCESS
As you search, it is important to evaluate the search process. If too much information is being
obtained, the key words are too broadly phrased. If too little information is being obtained consider the
potential causes and keep changing and refining your keywords). If you keep a list of the key words
you have already used and their effectiveness and record your search strategies and techniques (e.g.
sources, databases, search engines), this will help you to evaluate the strategy and avoid duplicating
effort. Consider:
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Changing your search terms to broaden or narrow the search (used advanced search or
inverted comma to restrict to phrases or Boolean logic – AND, OR, NOT if these apply)
Trying different sources (databases, journals)
Try different fields of the discipline or even related disciplines
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Ask for help from your mentor
Apart from using key words, there are other approaches such as recent seed sources and going direct to
relevant sources.
2.2
RECENT SEED SOURCES
If you can manage to find some recent papers or articles, you can follow up their reference lists to find
other papers. Often your mentor will have one or two papers to pass on to you. The reference list will
give you names of authors and their papers both of which can be directly followed up or provide clues
for key words. Another possibility is to use databases such as Emerald, Ebsco or Google Scholar to
find out who has cited your seed articles subsequent to their publication. This can be useful as it
uncovers articles that are newer than your seed articles.
2.3
RELEVANT JOURNALS AND OTHER SOURCES
Often specialist journals, conferences or websites will focus on the topic areas that you are interested
in. Try the topic area as a word in the title search in the library, e.g. knowledge management or in a
web search engine. These searches may point to a source that can be followed up. Again, a seed paper
may provide clues on specialist sources. Once a specialist source has been found, commence with the
latest publication and scan the contents pages for possible papers to follow up.
It is important to your research to attempt to find as much as possible that is related to your topic. If
you find little about an aspect, do not assume that nothing has been published. You can only assume
that you have found nothing.
2.4
INFORMATION SOURCES
Many information sources can be consulted in a literature review. These include:
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Journals – Peer reviewed journals are one of the best quality sources. Journal articles should
provide a major part of the literature review as they are relatively up to date. These are useful
sources as they are concise and usually reputable. However, it can take up to two years to
publish articles.
Research papers from conferences or posted on websites – take care to evaluate the quality
(peer reviewed conferences are the better quality sources). These have the advantage of being
relatively current and can provide details of key researchers or key words. You can also find
refereed journals that are only electronic.
Academic working papers – These are often posted under the auspices of the respective
universities or the author’s own website, either individually or in series. These are often not
peer reviewed so the quality criteria listed below should be applied. If used with care, these
can be a source of recent trends and developments.
Books (older books are acceptable if they are key writings in the field but older books such as
student text books are usually not acceptable). Text books can be useful to give you the
background or to provide sources or key words.
Theses are sometimes useful but they can be difficult to obtain. Be cautious with honours
student theses as the students may not have been sufficiently experienced to provide credible
information.
Web based ‘publications’ (many of these are of dubious quality either because they are
produced by unedited public contribution such a Wikipedia or because they are not much
more than personal opinion or blogs). Encyclopaedias or dictionaries (there is not much scope
for these but can be useful to define key words)
Government legislation
Documents and standards produced by governing bodies
Published reports and statistics especially government bodies
Newspapers and popular press (use with extreme caution but can have their place)
The quality of the source is of importance but is difficult to assess. The following will help you assess
the quality:
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What is the status, reputation or standing of the author? There are big differences between an
established academic, a student or a journalist. One should be particularly cautious of
anonymous writings.
When was the document published? Older sources should be treated with caution especially in
the field of information technology. Older books should be treated with even more caution.
Books, especially text books, are published long after the source material is published in its
original source, e.g. academic article and can be out of date. However, an older book or paper
may represent some key thinking and still be relevant today. For example, a key theory or
model which is still be used today may first have been presented years ago
Look at the writing style. If a paper or website is written in a journalistic style (e.g. chatty,
conversational, sensational) then be cautious about its standing.
Consider who the document was written for. For example the source may be a magazine for
the general public and not intended for academic use. If so, treat with caution.
Look at the credibility of the source. Has the source cited sufficient and suitable references to
support theories and ideas presented? Does the source contain sufficient evidence to support
the author’s conclusions? If not, treat with caution.
Look at the type of publication. Refereed journals and refereed conferences are clearly better
than magazines or blog type websites.
3 PLANNING YOUR WRITING
The first formal step in preparing a paper is to develop a plan. This is also the most important step in
the whole process, because a well-researched plan is the essential basis for a successful paper. The plan
should include the following:
1. Title
2. The area to be studied.
3. Why the specified problem is worth investigation or discussion.
4. List of headings – structure of the document.
5. Outline of argument – list the main point of each section.
6. Some possible conclusions or implications of the discussion and recommendations.
Obviously, in the planning stage there will be no final conclusions, but it may help to identify
what the conclusions may be.
3.1
HOW TO READ AND RESEARCH (INCLUDING COMMENTS ON
REFERENCING)
The first step is to develop a preliminary outline or plan. This would be a statement of the problem,
question or theme and the way you initially intend to address this. Once this is done, the next step is to
read up on the topic. In an academic paper the reading focuses on the papers, articles, books that
academics have written to research, study, conceptualise and understand the area. Begin by finding
some literature that seems to be relevant. You may have been given a paper to read, otherwise do a
search using the keywords that seem the most relevant and find a few likely papers or articles. The idea
at this stage is to get a picture of what the topic is all about – the background to the topic. The first few
papers you read may point to other papers that are worth seeking out or may enable you to focus your
keywords better.
As you read, try to concentrate on the issues, ideas and arguments that seem applicable to your paper. It
is important to make notes, to summarise as you go. This is a vital part of the process. You may wish to
make notes by hand or by computer but either way make sure that you use your own words and phrases
to summarise and paraphrase and to record the source.
If you record the actual words used in the source use quotation marks so that you do not forget to
attribute the quote. If your paper uses direct quotations without quotation marks and a reference to the
source, you will be in danger of being accused of plagiarism. In any event always record the full details
of all sources as you go to save time when putting the paper together as you will have all the details for
your reference list.
Referencing does not just apply to direct quotations. Facts and figures, ideas and theories drawn from
both published and unpublished works, must be referenced. Referencing enables readers to verify
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quotations and to follow-up and read more fully the cited author's arguments. A further purpose of
referencing is to lend authority to your statements. Note that a reference list is a list of all the sources
cited in your paper and a bibliography is a list of all the sources you consulted whilst reading in
preparation for the paper. Establish from your tutor or course leader which of these is required.
This emphasis on recording the source should not distract you from the main purpose of reading and
recording. Initially, you will be making sense of the field and finding a starting point. As you continue,
you will be attempting to structure your material and keeping it down to a reasonable quantity. There
are many ways to do this such as using index cards or notepads. The outlining facility of Microsoft
Word will be used to illustrate this process. As issues, ideas and arguments begin to be isolated, set up
headings for each of these in a Word document (start with heading 1). Type the summaries, paraphrases
or quotes of what you have found under the respective headings. Remember to include the reference.
Have a heading for references and type in the full reference of each source. From time to time, review
the material and, if needed, change the headings, break down long sections into sub-sections, move
your notes into more appropriate places or delete redundant notes. If you rewrite and edit the material
and condense and structure the sections you are, in effect, preparing an early draft of your paper.
Some pitfalls
 Attempting to read everything you lay hands on:
A literature review is not a review of
everything that has been published by anyone at any time. It is a review of what is most
relevant and important to your topic
 Going down side alleys: As you read, keep the word ‘relevant’ in mind. Sometimes you
come across interesting material that is not relevant and you get lured into reading this and,
even worse, putting it into your review. Keep asking yourself, is this related to your topic, is it
significant, is it important and, of course, is it relevant?
 Reading but not making notes:
It is so easy to sit comfortably and read a large batch of
papers with the idea that you will put the detail into your computer at the end. It often does not
happen. Discipline yourself to make sure that you do not just read but that you also record the
relevant details and the bibliographic details as soon as possible. This is where a laptop can
come in handy. Recording your notes can help you understand the paper and see how it relates
to the other material you have previously recorded.
 Considering that photocopying or printing out papers is progress
 Not recording sources (be aware of the APA methodology to avoid later work)
As mentioned, your search and recording of the literature would be designed to avoid plagiarism. The
rules and approaches to plagiarism are recorded below.
3.2
PLAGIARISM
The Department of Information Systems considers plagiarism to be the deliberate passing off of
another person’s work as one’s own, quoting (without quotation marks) or paraphrasing another’s
writings, without full attribution and acknowledgement, and will NOT be tolerated. Since so much of
the course mark is awarded for work done outside of our direct control, a great deal of trust is involved.
We therefore view plagiarism in the same way as we do cheating in examinations. Similar rules apply
to all students’ work such as projects, essays and other assignments.
Some examples of what we consider to be plagiarism are:
 You downloaded material from the Internet and submitted it as your own work.
 You downloaded material from the Internet and copied whole paragraphs or pages into your
assignment but you edited them slightly so that they fitted in. You might have written other
parts of the assignment yourself but chunks of it are made up of copied material.
 You found a few articles or books that really say everything that you need. You designed the
structure of the assignment yourself and wrote quite a bit of it. But one or two sections are
almost word-for-word from the article or books you used. You did this because they said
things in a way you felt you could not improve upon.
 You acquired assignments from previous years’ students and used them in the manner
described above.
 You re-used material you had previously submitted without permission.
 Someone else wrote all (or part of) the assignment or project for you, either as a favour or for
some kind of reward.
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3.3
HOW WILL PLAGIARISM BE DETECTED?
Students submit work to Turnitin (sometimes via Vula) plus a signed hardcopy of the declaration. If
Turnitin rates the amount of plagiarism below 25%, students normally incur no penalty. Work rated as
having more than 25% but less than 50% plagiarised will be awarded a mark of zero, and if the Turnitin
rating is greater than 50%, the student will be sent to the tribunal after counselling. Punishments (not
names) will be published.
In cases where blatant copying has taken place, the tribunal could suspend or expel a student from the
University. The course coordinator has NO discretion to waive any or all of the Plagiarism penalties.
3.4
WHAT IS ACCEPTABLE TO THE DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION
SYSTEMS?
Part of the objective of the course is for you to find lots of other material. All we ask is that you use it
in an ethical, honest and scholarly way. This requires you to be able to analyse and discuss a broad
selection of the material you found (not just one or two articles) and that you reference the material you
use. Acceptable use of another person’s material means that the assignment structure, layout and
contents are all your own work AND
 You used no more than one directly quoted paragraph per page (on average) and you
referenced the author of the quotation in accordance with APA convention.
 You used ideas, phrases, concepts, diagrams and statements already stated by others but you
rewrote them in your own work and you referenced them.
 You have a number of references on each page but they are generally taken from several
different sources. (If they are all taken from the same source then you may have relied too
heavily on that source).
The Senate policy declaration is accessible at http://www.uct.ac.za/about/policies/
4 WRITING THE PAPER – THE FORMAT
It is useful to consider the paper in four parts: Abstract, introduction, body and conclusion. These are
discussed below.
4.1
ABSTRACT
The abstract is required for longer papers and can be thought of as a summary placed at the beginning
of the paper and should be about 300 words. It is not the same as the Introduction or the conclusion and
should not be confused with either. Frequently, students produce something that is much the same as
the introduction, i.e. introductory material. Similarly, students often produce an abstract as the
conclusion. Neither of these approaches are correct.
The purpose of the abstract is to summarise the paper for potential readers and is usually placed at the
beginning of the paper. The best way to approach the abstract is to ensure that it gives, in a succinct
way (concise, to the point), the purpose or theme of the paper, the main points presented in the paper
and the key conclusions. As the abstract should be brief, you will need to summarise carefully.
Although the abstract is often written right at the very end, when the paper is completed, it can be
useful to draft the abstract as you write. In that way, you will consider the importance, logic and
structure of what you are writing as you proceed.
4.2
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the introduction is fourfold:
1.
To provide a background to the main theme of the paper. This should be supported by relevant
references. This should not be a detailed background. The idea is to provide the reader with
some of the reasons for the topic of the paper. For example:
“The ‘information age’ has resulted in a growing disparity between the information capabilities
of developed and developing societies (reference). One of the ways that the South African
Government is addressing this problem is through the promotion of telecentres or Multi-Purpose
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Community Centres (MPCC) as they are known in South Africa. Despite this, there are not
many successful telecentres in developing countries (reference). The reasons for this lack of
success seems to be unknown to many involved with the set up or running of telecentres despite
a number of research efforts (reference, reference).”
Note that the word ‘reference’ in brackets implies that one would supply a suitable reference to
support the statements made. In other words, in the first sentence, supply the name of the author
of the paper, book or document that supports the statement that there is a growing disparity
between the information capabilities of developed and developing societies and the date of its
publication. See separate sources on referencing for more on this.
2.
To state the aim or purpose of the paper. What is this paper setting out to achieve? For example:
“The purpose of this paper is to review the factors that contribute to the success of telecentres”
3.
To suggest why this aim or purpose will be of interest or why it is important.
“This review will be useful to persons planning to set up telecentres and managers of existing
telecentres. Knowledge of the factors will enable them to consider which of these need attention
in order to ensure success”.
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To outline how the topic will be addressed.
“This paper will commence with a definition of the term telecentre as there is some confusion
over this term. It will then consider each of the success factors and the impact of these. Finally,
the paper will summarise the key factors and show how they interlink.”
4.3
MAIN BODY OF TEXT
The main body of a paper should follow a logical sequence. Logic is important and is key to the
discussion. In a paper the writer is really presenting a case. He or she gathers information from the
literature and presents this in a clear and structured way. The paper provides examples or instances
from the literature of points for and against a particular approach, method or idea, i.e. premises. From
both standpoints – for and against – a logical conclusion is found. The case proceeds by presenting
several premises, drawing inferences from those premises and then using those inferences and perhaps
even more premises to reach a logical conclusion or conclusions. (A premise can be defined as a
statement that is offered as support for or as evidence of an inference or a conclusion.)
In a sense, one can say that the paper is gathering evidence supported by the literature and then drawing
that evidence together to reach conclusions just as detectives gather evidence to argue the guilt of the
suspect. Some of the pages offered by Google under the phrase ‘Logical argument’ contain useful
material.
There are not clear rules for the structure of the main body. However, there are approaches to structure
the review such as, by:
 Theory or theoretical model:
Often a topic has some clear underlying theories or
models such as those to identify factors influencing adoption of systems or methodologies for
systems development. These theories and models may demonstrate causal factors or
relationships. Alternatively, there may be standards or methods that need expounding.
 Trend:
A topic may result from a trend over a period of time such as developments
in technologies or methodologies or political changes.
 Theme: A topic may have themes, e.g. there may be a clear body of opinion on a subject
which needs summarising. Alternatively, there may be some differing theories or approaches –
some topics have had their share of controversy or arguments – which need to be highlighted.
 Definitions:
Some of the concepts that you use in your research may be controversial,
unclear or obscure. If so, you may need to define these.
 Problems or questions being asked: There may be problems or questions in your field and
these are occurring frequently in the literature.
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Research studies:
Be careful of this one, but sometimes important studies need to be
highlighted. Why care is needed is that it is easy to reduce the review to a series of reports on
different studies. This is not what is wanted.
The structure for the main body will often result from breaking the review down into subjects (theories,
themes, trends, arguments, premises) and treating each subject as a mini review.
Please do not restate what article one said then what article two said and so on. A well written literature
review evaluates, analyses and integrates all the available literature on each subject. The paragraphs
should not represent different articles but different ideas supported by references to the relevant
sources.
The review should not be literature driven but an analysis of current thinking on the chosen topic. The
review should focus on showing how the current thinking forms a whole. A literature review is thus
NOT simply a compilation of separate reports. The literature identifies the subjects (theories, themes,
etc.). A literature review should thus be subject centric and not author centric.
For example, – e.g. a subject such as a user reaction, a type of technology, an SDLC phase is described
giving an integrated view of the findings of author A and Author B, etc. and not a series of discussions
of each author in turn – e.g. Author A says, Author B says. An easy way to conceptualise this is to use
a table as follows – as you read an article link it to one or more concepts.
ARTICLE
Author A (2005)
Author B (2004)
Author C (2006)
Author D (2007)
Theme, concept, theory
X
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Theme, concept, theory
Y
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Theme, concept, theory
Z
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A final point is to note that writing up a review is not a sequential effort and cannot be done in one
sitting. You are unlikely to be able to sit down and start at the beginning and write to the end. It is a
long and iterative process.
4.4
CONCLUSION
The conclusion as the final section is not a summary of the paper but rather the presentation of the key
findings, conclusions and implications. The conclusion contains the findings, judgements or verdicts
that flowed from the evidence presented and thus does not present personal opinions or feelings. These
conclusions should relate to the aim or purpose of the research as stated in the introduction. In other
words, there should be a clear flow of thought from the original aim, through the discussion to the
conclusion.
There is an explanation of each element of the mark plan in the marking guide later in this document.
Some additional explanations are given below. You will see in the marking guide that marks are
allocated for both the extent and the quality of your sources. The explanatory notes make it clear that
you are expected to read widely and to focus on the better quality sources.
The explanatory notes for other aspects of the paper should also be clear but the following section does
elaborate on some of them.
5 MORE ON THE MARKING GUIDE
Some of the items in the explanatory notes have been covered in the discussion of the paper format
above, for example, the requirements under depth and breadth of treatment, analytical handling and
structure. However, students do worry about length.
5.1
LENGTH
The required length of the paper will vary and should be specified when the assignment is given.
Unless otherwise specified, the length includes the title page, the bibliography and any appendices or
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addenda. Length will not usually be a key criterion in awarding marks for items in the mark plan under
the heading of “Depth and breadth of treatment”, although short papers lacking in substance and long
papers full of repetition and padding will be down-graded.
5.2
DEPTH AND BREADTH
It is important in a review to identify and use a comprehensive range of relevant ideas, concepts and
themes. The important word here is relevant. The authors need to identify what is relevant to the topic
on hand. They should constantly ask themselves? Why are we discussing this? What is its relevance?
Some may think that there is a contradiction in the requirement of dept of treatment. On the one hand
good coverage is expected but on the other hand the material should be focused. There is no
contradiction. Once the relevant or significant ideas, concepts, themes and theories are identified, the
focus is on these but comprehensive coverage is required of each. In other words, the researchers need
to identify the significant theories or research in the field and ensure that the relevant ones are covered
in depth.
5.3
ANALYTICAL HANDLING
When writing a review and even in the summary it is important to avoid introducing personal ideas or
opinions. The review is of the literature and not of the authors’ ideas. The purpose of the review is to
extract key ideas, themes, concepts, theories, etc. from the literature and to integrate and summarise
these. Each subject (theme, theory, trend, etc.) should have an internal logic and isolated ideas should
be avoided. The subjects presented should all support a logical flow through to the summary. If a
subject warrants several pages in the review, the summary should logically devote more space to this
than a subject that warrants, say, only one page in the review. The summary of a well structured review
should contain no surprises or omissions. If the summary is read in isolation, the reader should have an
idea on how the research is likely to continue.
5.4
STYLE
Items under style include ‘readability’ ‘flow of ideas’ and maturity of treatment’. Readability is a
strange term but is intended to cover the things that could spoil the reading of the paper such as the
inappropriate use of personal pronouns (I, we, you, one), the inappropriate use of the passive voice and
excessive use of bullet points and quotations. Many journals today are allowing the use of ‘I’ and ‘we’
in academic articles. The department has decided not to allow this in papers. The reason for this is that
it is difficult to maintain a suitable tone throughout the paper and this style requires experience and
confidence to work. Many students mix the third person with the use of the personal pronoun, e.g.
“This paper addresses the topic of … and we conclude that the main reason for …” Further, the term
‘we’ is inappropriate if there is a single author. Finally, the term ‘you’ should never be used.
The use of bullet points and numbered lists is a useful tool in writing papers but should not be used to
excess. Similarly, a quotation can sometimes make a point far better than a summary of the author’s
comment. However, this should be used with discretion or the paper will seem like a patchwork quilt of
other people’s words. Starting a section with a quotation as a heading should also be used with
discretion as many times the quotation creates incorrect expectations or is not relevant.
The requirement ‘Flow of ideas’ covers two aspects. The first is what is sometimes called ‘staccato’
writing. Staccato writing is where the sentences seem to stand alone from the other sentences in the
paragraph. The paragraph seems like a succession of different ideas loosely grouped together. A
paragraph should be a cohesive unit which makes one or a small set of related points. The other aspect
is the linking of sections to one another. Often a reader will wonder: “Why is the author dealing with
this now?” The last paragraph of the previous section is a good place to indicate where the paper is
going. This does not mean that sentences such as: “This paper will now discuss management” are
sufficient. These are not good linking sentences or paragraphs. The author still does not know why
management is the appropriate topic for the next section. Compare the sentence above with: “Although
compatibility with strategy is of importance, a project will not be successful unless it is well managed.
Consequently, the next section will address this important issue.” Is this not better?
Finally, another strange term, maturity of treatment, addresses the way the paper is written. Students
often use journalistic writing which is much more ‘chatty’, ‘light-hearted’ or ‘dramatic’ than academic
writing. The use of ‘punchy’ sentences and emphatic adjectives (huge, dreadful, amazing, etc.) does not
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work in most academic papers or reports. This does not mean that academic writing needs to be dull. In
fact short, clear sentences work far better than long elaborate sentences that try to impress with long
words.
Another aspect of maturity of treatment is the way references are used. One common approach is to
‘puff up’ the reference. For example, “As stated by Bill Gates the chief executive of Microsoft in his
book …”. There is little need for this approach and it should be used with discretion. Another citation
approach that can cause loss of marks under maturity of treatment is the excessive use of the form of
citation that places the citation first, e.g. “As stated by Jones (2008) …” or “According to Williams
(2008) …”. This style is useful and it must be emphasised that the problem is only with excessive use.
Some students seem to use it almost exclusively.
5.5
SPELLING AND GRAMMAR
Incorrect spelling and grammar will be penalized. At tertiary education level and beyond, these types of
errors are simply inexcusable. All students should ensure that use is made of the spell-check and
grammar facilities in their word-processing software and ask a literate friend to proof read the draft.
Use can also be made of the UCT Writing Centre for assistance with language.
5.6
REFERENCING
More information on referencing is available from the UCT library website at
http://www.lib.uct.ac.za/Training/lit/infoskills.htm. Here you can also find a link to the relevant APA
Referencing and Citation guides that are used for Information Systems writing assignments.
5.7
QUALITY OF LAYOUT
The paper / report should consist of the following, in the given order:
 Title page
 Declaration
 Table of contents – easily prepared in MSWord (Insert/Index and tables/Table of
contents)
 An abstract
 Introduction
 Main body of text with intermediate section headings appropriate for the
substance of the document. Note that a paper will usually only need section
headings rather than chapters.
 Conclusion which must answer the questions posed or the purpose stated in the
Introduction.
 Reference list (see the link for more on referencing).
Note that for short papers a table of contents and abstract might not be required. A list of tables and
illustrations and appendices are also not normally required in a paper of moderate length unless
specified by the Course Convenor.
Papers should be typed one and a half or double-spaced in a normal font (e.g. 12 point Arial or Times
Roman). Only word-processed or desktop published papers are acceptable. Hand-written work will not
be marked. Headers and footers can improve the appearance of the paper. Make sure that the page
numbering starts with page one at the introduction and not the cover page.
Headings are very useful tools to indicate structure. Whilst most forms of heading and numbering of
topics or sections etc. is acceptable, as long as they is consistent some approaches can help establish the
logical flow of the information presented. Main section headings should be bigger than subsections.
Numbering can sometimes help the reader to see that the next section is a subsection, e.g. 1.1 will be a
subsection of section 1. If your sub-sections reach a level of more than four, i.e. 1.1.1.1, you should
consider whether your structure needs improvement. Any ordering of the topics or sections will then be
reflected in the Table of Contents. The table of contents does help the marker to establish the structure
as it shows main headings and sub-headings.
Tables and figures also require numbering as well as labelling. The numbering could either follow the
numbering of the chapter where the first figure in Chapter 5 is labelled ‘Figure 5.1’ or follow a
9
sequence starting with ‘Figure 1’ and then ‘Figure 2”’and so on. Tables would be numbered in a similar
way with their own numbering sequence.
6 PAPER MARKING GUIDE/EVALUATION FORM
Paper Title ........................................................................................................
Student………………………………………………………………………………
Marker .................................................
Date ..........................
Total Mark ................
SCORE
Item
/25
Depth and breadth of
treatment
Coverage of subject
0
2
4
6
8
10
Conciseness
0
1
2
3
4
5
Focus of topic
0
1
2
3
4
5
Contribution
0
1
2
3
4
5
/15
Analytical handling
Objectivity
0
1
2
3
4
5
Logical development
0
1
2
3
4
5
Integration
0
1
2
3
4
5
/25
Structure
Quality of Layout
0
1
2
3
4
5
Introduction
0
1
2
3
4
5
Conclusion / Summary
0
1
2
3
4
5
Abstract & Contents
0
2
4
6
8
10
/20
Style
Readability
0
1
2
3
4
5
Flow of ideas
0
1
2
3
4
5
Maturity of treatment
0
1
2
3
4
5
Spelling & Grammar
0
1
2
3
4
5
/15
Referencing
Readings – quality
0
1
2
3
4
5
Readings – extent
0
1
2
3
4
5
Citation and listing of
sources
Late penalty
0
1
2
3
4
5
/100
TOTAL
10
7 HOW MARKS WILL BE ALLOCATED
For each paper a paper evaluation form, as shown in the previous section of this document, will be
completed. The marks will be allocated as set out in the following marking guide with each sub-item
counting 5 marks. The description is that of an excellent piece of work.
Coverage of
subject
Conciseness
Focus of topic
Contribution
Objectivity
Logical
development
Integration
Quality of layout
Introduction
Conclusion
Abstract /
Contents
Readability
Flow of ideas
Maturity of
treatment
Spelling &
Grammar
Readings –
quality
Readings – extent
Citation and
listing of sources
Total
Depth and breadth of treatment
25
The coverage of the subject should be sufficient to enable the reader to achieve clarity and
understanding of all the discussion and to be able to follow all the logic of the discussion to the
conclusions. The paper should demonstrate a good knowledge and understanding of the subject.
The discussion should be concise and there should be no unnecessary discussion or excessive
verbiage. The writing should be to the point and not be rambling or vague. The author should aim for
economy of style and avoid words and phrases that add nothing to the discussion.
The author or authors should keep to the topic throughout the paper and maintain the readers’
interest. There should be no redundancy, repetition or presentation of irrelevant material. The focus is
dictated by the title and the purpose of the paper as stated in the introduction.
The paper should be meaningful and useful to those interested in the topic area.
Analytical handling
15
There should be no evidence of any introduction of personal bias or the presentation of unsupported
personal opinions. Appropriate support or evidence should be provided for all the assertions,
arguments and conclusions made in the paper. Arguments and conclusions should show a
convincing application of logic. Evidence for statements should be provided in the form of good
references (sources).
The planning of the paper, its execution and the logical argument should be such that there a clear
thread from the stated aim through the discussion to the conclusions. The overall argument or
discussion should be developed in a logical and rational way.
Extraction, integration and summarising of key ideas and themes.
Structure
25
The spacing of text, numbering of pages, use of headings, cover page, use of figures and tables, etc.
should all be excellent.
The introduction should commence with a succinct, focused and relevant contextualisation and
conclude with a clear statement of the purpose and details of the scope of the report.
The conclusion should present the key findings, conclusions and implications. These should clearly
and succinctly relate to the aim or purpose of the research and draw from the arguments presented.
A clear, logical and carefully planned and thought out structure and well organised key ideas and
themes. An excellent summary of the purpose of the paper, the main premises and inferences and
the key conclusions and implications.
Style
20
The paper should not use we, our, I or you and/or excessive use of passive voice and/or excessive
use of bullet points and/or excessive use of quotations
There should be sentences or paragraphs linking one section to the next in order to clarify the flow of
the report.
The paper should contain no journalism or sensationalism, no jargon and no facile, pompous or
superficial writing.
There should be no errors in spelling. Note that American and British spelling should not be mixed.
There should be no errors in grammar (e.g. complete sentences, use of verbs – mixing tenses or
incorrect use of singular and plural – incorrect use of words such as ‘one’ and ‘its/it’s’, punctuation)
Referencing
15
A full range of appropriate and recent sources should be drawn on. By appropriate is meant an
appropriate mix of refereed journal articles, journal articles and books, material drawn from the web
and the popular press. Note that the mix above lists the sources in an approximate order of
appropriateness but the nature of the topic should be taken into consideration.
The readings should indicate how seriously a student has approached the topic, the extent of his/her
reading and any creative connections that the student has made between the topic under discussion
and relevant references.
The citation of sources and listing of references in the bibliography should be flawless and consistent.
100
11
8 FORMAT FOR TITLE PAGE
Notes
1.
2.
3.
Replace relevant italicised text with your title, name, course, year, etc.
You are free to use illustrations, backgrounds and colour to enhance the title page.
The declaration can be placed on a separate page.
MY TOPIC
A paper presented to the
Department of Information Systems
University of Cape Town
by
NAME(S)
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the course
Due date
Declaration
1.
I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is to use another’s work and pretend that it is
one’s own.
2.
I have used the APA convention for citation and referencing. Each contribution to, and
quotation in, this ………………………… entitled …………………………………from the
work(s) of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced.
3.
This paper is my own work.
4.
I have not allowed, and will not allow, anyone to copy my work with the intention of passing
it off as his or her own work
5.
I acknowledge that copying someone else’s assignment, essay or paper, or part of it, is wrong,
and declare that this is my own work.
Signature(s) ……………………..
Date …/…/……
Full name(s) of student(s)
12