Erika Mansnerus

These essay guidelines are provided by Dr Juha Tuunainen, Helsinki Institute for Science and Technology Studies

GOALS
The primary goals of the essay are to serve as a means to deepen the learning process, and to develop student’s understanding of the subject matter. The student is expected to develop critical thinking when using the provided course materials (lectures and readings).
In other words, the essay should either enlarge or deepen the treatment of the themes that shall be addressed during the lectures and in the course readings. This can be done, for instance, by means of using additional material and the student’s own intellectual capacity. In the essay, one may also take up issues that were not adequately treated during the course. The essay should exhibit:
- the student’s mastery over the key concepts and substance related to the topic chosen and
- the student’s own intellectual contribution  (for instance, new perspective on the topic treated).
Thus, a good essay will not be a summary of the content of the lectures and course readings only but will be based on the student’s own problem setting and intellectual input.

CHOICE OF THE TOPIC
The student may choose the topic and perspective of the essay by him/herself. The only requirement in this respect is that the topic has something to do with the themes taken up during the course. At the beginning of the essay, it is useful to specify as clearly as possible what the topic(s) and/or questions(s) of the essay are.

LENGTH AND FORMAT OF THE ESSAY
The essays should be written in good English or Finnish language. The lenght of the essay should be around 2000 words excluding the title page and the list of references. The following information should be provided on the title page:
- the name of the essay,
- the name of the student and his/her student number,
- the student’s main subject and his/her university as well as
- contact information (for instance, email address).
When writing the essay one should use a consistent citation and reference system.

DELIVERING THE ESSAY TO THE TEACHER
The essay should be submitted to the lecturer Erika Mansnerus, via email (modelsevidencepolicy@gmail.com) no later than on 30.11.2011.
In order to submit the essay the student is expected to produce an outline during the course, by 30.9.2011
Details of preparing the essay outline will be given on the first day of the course.

MARKING THE ESSAY
The essay will be marked on the basis of its format and content. The grading scale is 0-5 and the grades indicate the following:
5 = excellent
4 = very good
3 = good
2 = fair
1 = passable
0 = fail

When marking the essays attention will be paid on the following issues:

A. Format

Length of the essay: 2000 words.
Use of text citation and reference system: the essay includes text citations and the reference list, citing other work is careful and systematic
Intelligibility and clarity of the text: essay is written by using clear and understandable English language
Organization of the text: the topic or the problem addressed in the essay is well-defined, the text proceeds smoothly and logically, the essay is organized into sensible sections and paragraphs (including introduction and conclusion/discussion).

B. Content

Originality: the student has formed a personal view on the subject matter, the essay includes his/her own contribution, reasoning, viewpoint and/or insight, course contents are being interlinked with the student’s earlier knowledge, knowledge achieved during the course is being applied in new contexts, the student is able to create new perspectives on the basis of the material used, existing literature is being used to support the student’s own argumentation.
Correctness: concepts used are clearly defined, theoretical and empirical substance is presented properly and understandably.
Choice of the title: the title is informative and consistent with the essay’s topic and content.
Use of course literature: the essay makes use of the course readings and suitable other material.
Treatment of the topic: the topic is treated analytically, different perspectives on the topic are taken up and discussed, the essay as a whole forms a coherent view on the topic addressed.