School of Marketing and Management
INTERNAL SUBJECT OUTLINE
Autumn 2004
ECO320
International Economics
Subject Lecturer
Dr Branka Krivokapic-Skoko
Building C02- Room 237
Telephone 02 63384428
Email
bkrivokapic@csu.edu.au
Class Contact
Consultation
Lecture
/Tutorials
Thursday
9:00-10:50
C02- G05
Monday
Wednesday
Thursday
11:00 - 1:00
12:00 - 1:00
4:00 - 6:00
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INTRODUCTION TO THE TEACHING STAFF
Dr Branka Krivokapic-Skoko, B.Sc (Hons), M.Sc(Econ), Ph.D. (Lincoln University, New
Zealand)
Branka is a lecturer in Economics and Management at the School of Marketing and Management,
Charles Sturt University, Bathurst. Since July 2000 she has been a subject coordinator for
management, economics and research method subjects, specially designed for distance education
students. Her principal research interests are research methods, theory and practice of
entrepreneurship, and economic sociology. She has published in the areas of cross-cultural
management, psychological contracts, business networking, and management of co-operative
business structures.
SUBJECT OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this subject is to provide students with a thorough grounding in the theory of
international trade and international policy, and to demonstrate the relevance of the theory to analysis
of (a) existing patterns of international trade and what determines them, (b) the conduct of trade
policy, and (c) the economic implications of international trade, and (d) to survey the basics of the
effects of various globalisation and technological issues on the domestic and world economy.
The approach taken is essentially microeconomics, and the paper
builds upon and extends the student’s earlier understanding of
intermediate and/or basic microeconomics subjects. The study of
international trade theory is presented as a major application of
general equilibrium analysis, while both general and partial
equilibrium technique are used in the study of trade policy.
Note that the subject may slightly moves away from so called “hard
core” international economics to focus on understanding issues
relevant to non-economics major students.
1.1. Subject Objectives
At the end of the subject the student should




understand at the level of formal analysis the major models of international
trade, both traditional and modern;
understand the principle of comparative advantage and its formal
expression and interpretation within different theoretical models;
be able to analyse the linkages between international trade and
information technology and international movements of capital and labour,
and to be able to relate this to the analysis of policy issues raised by
international migration and the spread of multinational corporations;
be able to discuss and analyse the economic effects of (a) trade, competitive
policy, tariffs, quotas, export taxes, export subsidies, voluntary export
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
restraints, voluntary import expansion measures, parallel imports (b) the
creation of regional trading arrangements such as free trade areas, customs
unions and common markets, and (c) intellectual property rights instruments
such as copyright, patents;
be able to define key issues in international trade negotiations and the
characteristics and economic effects of different types of regional trading
arrangements;
TEXTBOOK (compulsory)
Salvatore, D. 2003, International Economic. 8th edn. Wiley, New York
RECOMMENDED TEXT(S) (optional)
Root, F.R. 1993, International trade and investment. 7th edn. South-Western, Cincinnati.
Mikic, M. (1998) International Trade, Macmillan, London.
Lindert, P.H. and Pugel, T. A. (2000) International Economics, 11th edition, Irwin.
Krugman, P. R. and Obstfeld (2000) International Economics: Theory and Policy, 5th edition
Addison-Wesley, Readings Massachusetts.
Woods, N. (ed.)(2000) The Political Economy of Globalization, Macmillan Press, London.
Schwartz, H. (2000) States versus Markets: The Emergence of Global Economy 2nd edition,
Macmillan Press, London.
King, P. (2000) International Economics and International Economic Policy: A Reader, 3rd
edition, Irwin McGraw-Hill
The notes and focus questions for each topic in the accompanying Study Guide are based on the
prescribed text (Salvatore). The recommended texts should be consulted only if you feel that you
require an alternative description of a particular topic, should the prescribed text be found inadequate
for some reason. Additional reference material for each topic is provided in the accompanying
Readings.
Note:
You should read articles from international economic journals (see the library), The
Economist and the Australian Financial Review. You should also visit Internet sites of WTO,
World Bank, and IMF.
WEB REFERENCES (optional)
Some interesting web sites: WTO, http://www.wto.org/
UNCTAD, http://www.unicc.org/unctad/
OECD, http://www.oecd.org/
A useful gateway to economics-related materials on the web is WebEc, at
http://www.helsinki.fi/WebEc/WebEc.html
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Jokes about economics and economists can be found at http://www.etla.fi/pkm/joke.html
Of course, they might seem funnier after you finish your economics course.
SUBJECT PROGRAM
The subject comprises four broad areas:
1. International Trade Theories
2. Commercial Policies
3. Foreign Exchange
4. Open Economy Macroeconomics.
More specifically, the subject is divided into twelve distinct topics:
WEEK
LECTURE TOPIC
TEXTBOOK
26 February
Topic 1 Introduction to International Economics
Chapter 1 (1.1; 1.2; 1.3; 1.4)
11 March
Topic 2 The Law of Comparative Advantage
Chapter 2 (except 2.7)
18 March
Topic 3 The Standard Theory of International Trade;
Demand and Supply Curves and the Terms of Trade
Chapter 3
Chapter 4 (4.2 and 4.6)
25 March
Topic 4 Factor Endowments and Hecksher - Ohlin
Theory
Chapter 5 (except 5.6)
1 April
Topic 5 Leontief Paradox and Complementary Trade
Theories
Chapter 5 (5.6 except 5.6c)
Topic 6 Trade Restrictions : Tariffs and Non-Terrif
Barriers
Chapter 8 (8.1; 8.2; and 8.3)
8 April
Chapter 6 (6.1; 6.2;6.3;6.4
and 6.5)
Chapter 9
Topic 7 History of U.S. and Australian Commercial
Policies, the GATT, the Uruguay Round and the WTO
6 May
Topic 8 Foreign Exchange Markets and Exchange
Rates
Chapter 14 (except 14.7)
Chapter 15 (15.2A; 15.2B;
15.3C; 15.3D; 15.4A; 15.4C)
13 May
Topic 9 Balance of Payment
Chapter 13
20 May
Topic 10 The Price Adjustment Mechanism
Chapter 16 (16.1; 16.2; 16.5
and 16.6)
27 May
Topic 11 The Income Adjustment Mechanism,
Monetary Adjustments and Adjustment Policies
Chapter 17 (except 17.4)
Chapter 18 (18.1)
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3 June
Topic 12 The International Monetary System: Past
and Present
10 June
15 June
Revision
Chapter 21 (21.1; 21.2; 21.3;
21.4; 21.5; 21.6A; 21.6B)
EXAM PERIOD COMMENCES
ASSESSMENT
There are three (3) assessment items for this subject.
Assessment Items
Value
Due Date
1. Assignment 1
25%
22 April
2. Assignment 2
25%
3 June
3. Final exam
50%
To gain a pass in this subject, students must:


Achieve a passing grade in the final examination ie. score a minimum of 50 marks
Attempt BOTH assignments and achieve a total result of 50% or better overall.
ASSESSMENT DETAIL
ITEM 1: Assignment 1
25%
Rationale
This assessment item is designed to test your understanding of the theories and concepts covered to
date.
Assessment Task
(Multiple choice and short questions)
Part A:
Twenty (20) compulsory multiple-choice questions.
This part is worth 10 marks.
Write, clearly, the question number and the letter corresponding to the correct answer for each
question, in your answer sheet.
[For example only: Part A: 21. b.]
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1. Which of the following gives us a rough measure of economic interdependence of a nation:
a. the size of the nation’s population
b. the percentage of the nation’s population to its GNP
c. the percentage of the nation’s imports to its GNP
d. the percentage of the nation’s imports to its trade partner’s GNP.
2. The Mercantilists did not advocate:
a. stimulating the nation’s exports
b. accumulating of gold by the nation
c. restricting the imports of the nation
d. free trade among nations.
3. Ricardo’s explanation of the law of comparative advantage was based on:
a. opportunity costs
b. economies of scale
c. the labour theory of value
d. the law of diminishing returns.
4. The assumption that is generally not made in international trade theory is the assumption of:
a. two factors of production
b. perfect international mobility of factors
c. two nations
d. two commodities.
5. Both international trade and inter-regional trade must overcome:
a. trade restrictions
b. differences in monetary systems
c. differences in currencies
d. distance or space.
6. If a nation has the smallest absolute disadvantage in commodity x, then x is its commodity of:
a. comparative disadvantage
b. absolute disadvantage
c. comparative advantage
d. absolute advantage.
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7. If the internal relative price of x is lower in nation 1 than in nation 2 without trade:
a. nation 1 has a comparative advantage in commodity y
b. nation 2 has a comparative advantage in commodity x
c. nation 2 has a comparative advantage in commodity y
d. neither nation has a comparative advantage in commodity x.
8. If domestically 3x=3y in nation A, while domestically 1x=1y in nation B:
a. there will be no trade between the two nations
b. the relative price of x is the same in both nations
c. the relative price of y is the same in both nations
d. all of the above.
9. A concave production frontier indicates that a nation incurs increasing opportunity costs in
the production of:
a. commodity measured along the horizontal axis
b. commodity measured along the vertical axis
c. commodities measured along both axes
d. neither commodities.
10. Under increasing costs and in equilibrium in isolation, a nation consumes and produces at a
point:
a. on an indifference curve located entirely below the production frontier
b. on an indifference curve located entirely outside the production frontier
c. where the highest indifference curve possible is tangent to the production frontier
d. where MRT of x for y is not equal to MRS of x for y.
11. With free trade under increasing costs:
a. neither nation will specialise completely in production
b. at least one nation will consume above its production frontier
c. a small nation will always gain from trade
d. all of the above.
12. A nation has a relative abundance of K if it has:
a. a greater amount of K
b. a greater amount of L
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c. a lower r/w ratio
d. a higher L/K ratio.
13. Commodity y is K-intensive with respect to x when:
a. a higher K/L ratio is used in producing x than y
b. a lower L/K ratio is used in producing y than x
c. more K is used in producing y than x
d. less L is used in producing of y than x.
14. International trade can be based on:
a. economies of scale and the same taste
b. economies of scale and different tastes
c. economies of scale and product differentiation
d. all of the above.
15. Intra-industry trade involves:
a. differentiated products
b. monopolistic competition
c. economies of scale
d. all of the above.
16. The product-cycle is closely related to:
a. Linder’s hypothesis
b. the H-O theory
c. technological gap model
d. all of the above.
17. If a small nation increases the tariff on its imported commodity:
a. the production cost of protection decreases
b. the deadweight loss decreases
c. the rent of domestic producers increases
d. consumer’s surplus increases.
18. An increase in the demand for the imported commodity subject to a given import quota:
a. reduces the producers’ surplus
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b. decreases the domestic production
c. increase the domestic output of the commodity
d. reduces the quantity demanded of the commodity.
19. Adjustment for any shift in the domestic demand or supply of an imported commodity
occurs:
a. in domestic price with an import quota
b. in the quantity of imports with a tariff
c. through the market mechanism with a tariff but not with a quota
d. all of the above.
20. Which of the following was not negotiated under the Tokyo Round?
a. agreement on a government procurement code
b. removal of non-tariff barriers on agricultural trade
c. a generalised system of preferences for some type of exports of developing nations
d. uniformity in application of duties in countervailing and anti-dumping cases.
Part B:
This part is worth 15 marks.
1. Suppose that the following represents a small nation’s demand and supply schedules for
bananas:
Price per box ($)
10
20
30
40
50
60
Quantities (No. of boxes)
Demanded
Supplied
500
400
300
200
100
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Assume that the price of bananas is $10 per box under free trade and that the nation imposes
100 per cent ad valorem import tariff on bananas.
a.
What would be the price and the quantities of bananas
consumed and produced in the nation in the absence of trade?
b.
Determine the quantities of bananas consumed, produced and
imported:
(2 marks)
i.
under free trade and
ii.
with the tariff.
(2 marks)
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c.
d.
e.
Calculate the consumption, production, trade and revenue
effects of the tariff on banana imports.
What are the dollar values of changes in the consumer and
producer surpluses as a result of the tariff?
Calculate the dollar values of the protection cost, or deadweight
loss, of the tariff.
(2 marks)
(5 marks)
(4 marks)
ITEM 2: Assignment 2
25%
Rationale
This assessment item is designed to test your mastery of the subject matter and your generic skills in
essay writing. There are 2 parts to this assignment and you must answer both.
Assessment Task
Essay and short questions
Part A:
Topic:
Essay: This part is worth 13 marks.
Critically examine the validity of the following statement in the
light of tariffs and non-tariff barriers:
Protectionist policies designed to promote importsubstitution reduce competitiveness and lead to
inefficiency in production.
Essential readings:
Salvatore, Chapters 8 and 9. You may also find some
relevant readings from your book of Readings.
Some instructions for the essay
1. You should not exceed the word limit of 2000 (excluding footnotes, references, and
bibliography).
2. Essays should be submitted by the due date. Essays submitted late, without approved
extension, will carry a penalty. (See the section on Extensions for Assignments and Late
Assignments.)
3. The essay must be written analytically and presented in a scholarly manner. It must contain a
synopsis, adequate footnoting and references and a bibliography. Keep the use of direct
quotations to a minimum and, where used, they must be clearly acknowledged.
4. The essay should be preferably typewritten. If this is not possible, you should write as legibly
and neatly as possible, keeping ‘double spacing’ between lines. Adequate margins must be
provided for marker’s comments.
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5. Remember to acknowledge the sources of data and information by way of correct referencing
and footnoting. Evidence of direct copying without acknowledging the sources will result
in the essay being awarded a fail grade.
Part B:
This part is worth 12 marks.
a.
Assuming that $2 = 1 pound in Sydney, 270 yen = 1 pound in
London and 130 yen = $1 in Tokyo, indicate how profitable
triangular arbitrage can take place.
Suppose that Spot Rate = $2/1 pound and three-month Forward
Rate = $1.96/1 pound. Explain how an importer who has to pay
10,000 pounds in three months can hedge his/her foreign
exchange risks in the forward market.
Assume that the three-month Forward-Rate = $2/1 pound and
that a speculator believes that the Spot Rate in three months will
be $2.05/1 pound. Explain how this person speculates in the
forward market. How much will the speculator earn as profit if
he is correct?
Explain when is a devaluation successful.
b.
c.
d.
ITEM 3:
(2 marks)
(3 marks)
(3 marks)
(4 marks)
Final Exam
50%
Examination
The examination will be invigilated and will be of three (3) hours duration plus ten (10) minutes
reading time, covering the whole subject. The examination will be closed-book. The examination
will consist of:

20 compulsory Multiple Choice questions.
(This section is worth 20 marks)

6 Problem - type questions (the structure of which is similar to those in Assignments 1 and 2)
from which you must answer a choice of 3 questions.
(Each question is worth 20 marks)

2 essay questions from which you must answer a choice of 1 question.
(This requires a well-planned lengthy answer and is worth 20 marks).
Note:
A sample of the examination paper is enclosed at the end of the Subject
Outline for your reference.
EXTENSIONS AND LATE SUBMISSIONS
If you are having difficulty in completing work in time due to illness or unusual circumstances, you may
request an extension through your lecturer with supporting documentation eg. medical certificate.
Applications for extensions on or after the due date of the assessment items will not be considered. NO
extensions will be given without documentary evidence of inability to meet deadlines. A deduction of 10%
of the marks awarded per day late applies if a piece of work is submitted late without approved
extension.
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GRADES
Final grades for this subject are awarded by the CSU Faculty Assessment Committee in accordance with the
University’s Assessment Regulations (see current Academic Regulations via www.csu.edu.au). Grades will
be based on a student’s aggregate mark for all assessment components, subject to the overriding conditions
that a passing grade will not be awarded to any student who fails to achieve a satisfactory performance in the
final examination or in the final assignment if the subject does not have an exam.
Aggregate marks may be scaled to produce a distribution of grades which conforms to the expected norms
specified in the University’s Assessment Regulations.
PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION OF ESSAYS
1.
Introduction
The rationale behind assigning essays is that written expression is an important part of organisational
life. Essay writing is a useful way to test the amount of reading and reading comprehension, students
are often required to undertake considerable reading to prepare their essays.
Answer the question set, keep to the topic and include all relevant issues. Be clear and concise in your
expression paying particular attention to sentence structure. Put yourself in the reader’s position and
ask ‘Is the meaning clear?’
Go beyond what other people have said on the topic. Express their ideas in your own words but add
your own ideas and opinions. To do this you need to analyse and criticise ideas where appropriate
and argue your point of view. Support your arguments and opinions with extensive referencing.
Use headings for sections of your essay where appropriate. (See recent journal articles or your
textbook for example.) Include an introduction in your opening paragraph and a conclusion in the
final one.
Essays should be approximately the suggested length but should be compact. This means that final
drafts should involve cutting back, rather than padding, an earlier draft. Brevity is also a virtue of
good managers.
At least one copy should be made of the final draft copy. Keep a copy of your assignment in case the
original is lost. The practice of making duplicate copies of submissions is a normal part of
organisational life.
Essay deadlines must be strictly adhered to. Students should expect marks to be lost for late
assignments. Punctuality is a virtue of good managers.
2.
Preparation
Multi drafts
Quality essays cannot be written on a ‘one draft only’ basis. At a minimum, the essay writer should:
Start with a rough outline of topics that will be covered in the paper. Topics should be arranged in a
logical sequence. At this stage the paper will look something like a ‘rough’ table of contents.
Expand each topic into sentences and paragraphs that include all the thoughts the writer can find or
create related to the topic.
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Pare down this rough draft eliminating unrequited statements, correcting errors in spelling and
grammar, and adding the bibliography.
In many cases one or more additional redrafts will still be required as new material is found or
thoughts are reorganise
3.
Layout
Paper
A4 size blank white paper should be used for typed essays.
Assignments should be word-processed using double spacing.
The front cover
The front cover of your assignment should include:
1.
2.
3.
Your name and student number.
Subject, assignment number and topic.
Your tutor’s name and class time.
Margins
The left-hand margin must be at least 5 cm wide to allow for marker’s comments. Unless you
specifically request otherwise the marker reserves the right to place ink comments in the margins.
Pages
All pages <except cover page if there is one> must be numbered. Use only one side of the paper.
Number each page. Fasten pages securely in the top left-hand corner with staples, do not use paper
clips.
Table of contents and precis
A ‘table of contents’ page is optional. Similarly a precis is optional. If a precis is written, however, it
should be concise.
4.
Referencing
The following are abstracts from CSU’s 2003 Referencing Guide 7th Edition which can be located at
http://www.csu.edu.au/division/library.
4.1
How to Reference
All statements, opinions, conclusions or other intellectual content taken from the work of someone
else must be acknowledged, whether their work or ideas are directly quoted, reproduced, summarised
or paraphrased.
The acknowledgment of someone else’s work, by means of an in-text citation, must occur at the point
in your writing where you use that information. The basic in-text citation, in the author-date system,
consists of the last name of an author and the year of publication of the work, in round brackets. If a
direct quotation is being used, a page number is also included.
The in-text citation should be incorporated into your work in such a way as to cause the least
disruption to the reader. It must also be placed so that it is clear exactly which information is being
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acknowledged. Where an author’s name appears naturally in a sentence, only the date needs to be
enclosed in brackets. Three possible ways of incorporating an in-text citation are:
Jain (1976) refutes the theory by…
The theory was refuted (Jain 1976) when it was proved…
The new proof enabled the theory to be refuted (Jain 1976).
There is normally a corresponding entry in the list of references at the end of your work containing all
the details of the cited work, enabling the reader to locate the source of the information you have
used. For the above examples, the reader should find an entry in your alphabetically arranged list of
references under Jain, PL 1976, giving the title and publication details of the work.
4.2
In-text citations
The basic in-text citation in the author-date system consists of the last name of an author and the year
of publication of the work, in round brackets. There are significant variations to this, depending on
the information available, the number and type of authors and the type of material being cited. The
following explanations and examples cover many of these variations.
In a recent study Morris (1997) determined that…
This suggestion was first mooted at the Cairo summit (Callan 1986).
4.3
Direct quotes and paraphrasing
Different disciplines have different conventions regarding the use of material directly quoted from
other sources. You should minimize the number of quotations included in a paper, only including
those required to support your arguments.
Paraphrasing, or expressing the meaning of a word, phrase or work in your own words (The Oxford
English dictionary 2000), in order to make sense of the material, is generally preferred to direct
quotes. Paraphrasing does not mean changing a couple of words in the original statement, rather, you
should be giving your interpretation of what the author was stating.
If you paraphrase an author you must acknowledge the source with an in-text citation. Page numbers
must be included in in-text citations if you directly quote an author’s words or paraphrased
statements, if they refer to a specific part of the work or are required to identify part of a longer work.
If you directly quote an author’s words, the quotation needs to be placed in single inverted commas (‘)
if it is contained within the text. The author, publication year and page number must be
acknowledged.
As Nimon (1981, p. 112) states, knowledge about the community ‘is not passively gathered
by some convenient form of psychic osmosis, but must be actively sought’.
Elliot (1999, p.25) claimed that ‘the directors were deliberately understating the companies’
losses’.
‘The report was well received by the community’ (Starr 1990, p.12).
4.4
Electronic material
Electronic material can take many forms but should be treated, as much as possible, in the same
manner as books or periodicals and other print based resources.
Some Internet based resources may be transient in nature, being only available in that version for a
short space of time. It is therefore important to clearly indicate the version of the resource, its format,
the date it was accessed or viewed and the access details or location.
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Readers may not be able to access material at later date, and it is a good practice to download or print
material cited from Internet based sources, in order to preserve a physical record of the information.
An Internet reference should, where possible, take readers directly to the information cited in the text,
rather than a home or index page.
The URL will typically consist of the following elements:
http://www.csu.edu.au/division/library/resource/procite.htm
protocol
host name
path to document
file name
Agrigate 2002, Agrigate: An agriculture information gateway for Australian researchers, last
updated 26 March 2002, University of Melbourne, viewed 8 November 2002,
http://www.agrigate.edu.au/
Bruckman, A. 1994, Approaches to managing deviant behaviour in virtual communities, also
available as txt, ps files, viewed 4 December 1994,
ftp://ftp.media.mit.edu/pub/asb/papers/deviance-chi94.rtf
4.5
Electronic reproductions of works:
-based on a print source
Use for works where you have seen an exact electronic reproduction of the original print version,
often in pdf format. The format of the citation will be the same as that for the print version, but
should also include:
(a)
‘electronic version’ in roman type, after the title of the work,
(b)
the URL.
The date viewed is not required as the work is not liable to change over time.
-newspapers and magazines
Articles from the electronic versions of some daily newspapers are retained in an archive that can be
later accessed from the publisher’s Web site using a search facility. The date that the document was
published as well as the date viewed should be indicated.
Goodstein, L 2002, ‘US bishops grapple with the morality of war with Iraq’, New York Times,
12 November, viewed 16 November 2002,
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/12/national/12CND-BISH.html>.
4.6
Reference list formats
The list of references at the end of your essay, report, thesis or dissertation must include all of the
works that you have cited in the text. The only items which should not be listed are personal
communications, dictionaries, newspaper articles and encyclopedia entries that are not attributed to an
author, and Acts, Regulations and law reports that are not significant to an understanding of your
work.
Only works cited by you may be included in the reference list. A direct quote or paraphrase from
these works reflect contributions to the intellectual content of your work.
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Adam, P 1994, ‘Saltmarsh and mangrove’, in Australian vegetation, RH Groves (ed.),
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.
Gilbert-Rolfe, J 1995, Beyond piety: Critical essays on the visual arts, 1986-1993, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, England.
A list of references is different from a bibliography which may also include items relevant to the topic
that are not cited in the text. The format of the entries in a bibliography should be the same as that
shown for reference.
5.
Appendix
Where an appendix is necessary it should be located as the last section of the essay (that is, after the
reference list). However, if there are a few (less than five) pages of tables or appendix-type material,
they should be located within the main body of the essay in appropriate places. Try to avoid an
appendix if possible.
6.
General
‘I’ or ‘the Writer’
Both the use of ‘I’ (too personal) and ‘the writer’ (too pompous) are not recommended. It is much
better to make the essay totally impersonal by avoiding both. This means that careful - and in some
cases, considerable thinking must be put into some sentences to achieve impersonality.
If a student regularly gets poor marks on essays, consult with the lecturer. Where students are having
difficulty the lecturer will make comments on a rough draft of an essay if a student makes such a
request and submits the rough draft a few weeks before the final draft is due.
Abbreviations, Non-English Phrases and Slang
If one can say it in English, one should do so. Latin phrases and other non-English colloquialisms
should be avoided if possible. Abbreviations (unless a translation is made with the initial use) and
slang, should be avoided.
7.
Plagiarism
A plagiarist is one who takes for his/her own unacknowledged use the thoughts or writings of another
person, claiming them as his/her own. Plagiarism is cheating, and is one of the most serious offences
any writer can make.
Lecturers will recognise plagiarism when it occurs as they have read much of the literature you will
use, and you will lose marks if it is detected.
The University expects its students to abide by accepted protocols in their studies and research which
are designed to ensure the academic integrity and reputation of the University. In particular students
are required to:
•
•
•
•
Acknowledge their use of another person’s work in essays and other written work;
Not allow others to use their work without acknowledgments;
Honestly report the findings of their study and research;
Use only approved information and materials in examinations.
Students who require advice on these matters should refer to Academic Regulation 5 in the University
Handbook or consult their lecturer. The University will impose penalties on students who breach
these protocols which may include suspension or exclusion from the University.
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ACADEMIC STANDARDS
As an undergraduate student in a university, you are expected to produce work to high academic standards.
Written material must be presented well, be thoroughly researched, contain appropriate references, and
demonstrate considerable thought and appreciation of the subject matter. It is expected that you will read the
text and other literature thoroughly, and think deeply and critically about what you read. You will be
expected to contribute to class discussion, with informed, intelligent insights. It is vital that you do not
confine your readings to the text only. Broad reading from various academic literature, as well as
management magazines and the business section of the quality newspapers will assist you in your studies.
Page 17
CRITERIA FOR GRADING AN ESSAY
Listed below are features of an average acceptable essay (C+/B-). Higher or lower grades will differ in some ways listed. Holistic grading may be based on the features listed
under scope of essay.
(45%
POOR FAILURE
-
-
(flawed)
-
Unreflective personal
comment, incoherent
argument.
Entirely copied.
Complete misinterpretation
Of topic.
Major presentation flaws.
45-50%
Failure/Pass
(acceptable)
-
-
-
Topic not fully covered.
Discussion too brief.
Overuse of quotations, with little
explanation.
Insufficient support from
literature.
Presentation errors.
(acceptable)
-
50-64%
65-74%
Pass (average, competent) (promising) Credit
(perceptive)
SCOPE OF ESSAY
+
A reasonably balanced summary of the
issues as reflected in the course study
materials.
Some explanation, illustration and support
is provided from the literature.
Presentation meets most of the main
protocols.
+
+
(flair)
+
+
75% +
Distinction/High D
(scholarly)
+
+
A fuller, more systematic
exploration of the topic which
may include an attempt at
critical comment or appraisal.
Regular support provided from
the literature.
Few presentation flaws.
Comprehensive exploration of
the topic, with sound critical
comment and a personal
synthesis of the issues shown.
Detailed support from literature
including extra references.
No presentation flaws.
Main points elaborated.
Critical evaluations.
Extra references included.
Extra references integrated into
argument.
Few flaws.
Virtually flawless presentation.
STRUCTURE
Structure confused, not
discernible, not explained.
Opening paragraph simply
restates the topic.
Some major points missed.
Main arguments and conclusions outlined
in opening paragraph.
Definitions provided in context.
Main points discussed in logically
sequential paragraphs.
Summary in final paragraph.
EVIDENCE OF READING
No evidence of reading in text of
essay.
Reading not well integrated into
text of essay.
No acknowledgments or
bibliography.
Limited acknowledgments and
light bibliography.
The text of the essay shows that the course
materials have been read and
acknowledged.
An accurate bibliography is attached.
PRESENTATION
Major flaws.
Minor flaws.
Most presentation details met, eg. front
page, margin, legibility, citations, A4
paper, due date.
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SAMPLE EXAMINATION PAPER
Page 19