Over-length Coursework Policy

Although the types, lengths and styles of assessed written work vary considerable between disciplinary contexts, the production of written work to a specified length is an important transferable skill that you are expected to develop during your studies. The ability to produce concise, clear writing to a determined length is fundamental both to academic work and to professional working life.  In response to student demand for greater clarity, a Faculty policy has been developed to provide a consistent approach towards overlength work across the Faculty.  Where relevant and appropriate, written assessments may specify a word limit either as a single figure or as the upper limit of a range. Your work will be overlength if you go even one word over the stipulated length or upper limit.  There are no complicated penalties to apply.  Instead, overlength work will be addressed through marking solely that proportion of work that falls within the word limit.

Your individual module lead will provide further details via their Blackboard sites. This approach to overlength work does not apply if a piece of work has no word limit, however, you should attend to any length guidance given by your module leads.