Academic assessment in the School of Humanities and Social Science always composes of research papers, essays and book reports which could be unfamiliar to students from other disciplines/schools. Thus, clear instructions and guidelines for students on ways to tackle these assignments/assessment exercises at the beginning of the semester are most essential.

1. Explain "plagiarism"

• Explain the concept of plagiarism, discuss its common forms and state the possible penalties CLEARLY; (Please refer to Teaching-Learning Tips, Issue 14/96, titled "How to deal with academic dishonesty" published by the Instructional Development Unit.)
• Please be aware that some students simply do not have the language skills to express themselves in another way other than the stated one. Helping students to make proper quotations and citations is essential.

2. Prepare a "format" guideline and marking scheme

• Prepare a guideline of research paper writing and/or introduce research handbooks to students for reference
• Prepare a marking scheme with the course instructor before the 1st class meeting. It may specify:

• The required length of the paper
• What you & the course instructor want to include in the paper
• What constitutes "excellence" (Give examples, if possible)
• Allocation of marks
• Deadline
• Possible penalties for late submission & any non-conformities
• Language in writing

3. Help students get familiar with the method of library research

The Library has provided a ten-step research guide in its Web page. It includes the following topics:

1. Define a Topic
2. Gather Background Information
3. Find Books
4. Search Journal Articles
5. Retrieve Newspaper Articles
6. Locate Information in the UST Library
7. Explore Internet Resources
8. Evaluate Your Materials
9. Write the Paper
10. Cite the Sources

You can take this for your reference and introduce it to your students. This guide can either be reached by entering into the Library Homepage or you can access the page at the following URL directly:

http://library.ust.hk/serv/skills/libskill.html

4. Provide useful references

You may reserve reference books that suit your course requirement in the Reference Section of the Library. Inform students of your reserve and encourage them to make good use of them.

Following are some good books for writing research papers:

1. James D. Lester, Writing Research Papers: A Complete Guide, New York: HarperCollins, 1990.
2. Kate L. Turabia, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
3. Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1995.

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