LME3701/102/2022

Tutorial Letter 102/2/2022

Legal Research Methodology

Portfolio exam information

LME3701

Semester 2

Department of Criminal and Procedural Law

Open Rubric
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Contents
1 INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE ...................................................................... 2

2 NATURE OF ASSIGNMENT 03 (PORTFOLIO EXAM) ...................................... 2

3 FEEDBACK ON ASSIGNMENT 02..................................................................... 3

4 SUBMISSION OF ASSIGNMENT 03 (portfolio exam) ...................................... 4

4.1 Weighting of Assignment 03 ...................................................................... 4

4.2 Due date for Assignment 03 ....................................................................... 4

4.3 How to submit Assignment 03 ................................................................... 5

5 REQUIREMENTS FOR Assignment 03: Semester 2 2022............................... 5

5.1 Content of Assignment 03 .......................................................................... 5

5.2 Layout and formatting ................................................................................ 6

6 ACADEMIC HONESTLY DECLARATION .......................................................... 8

7 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................... 8

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Dear Student

1 INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE

This tutorial letter clarifies the requirements for Assignment 03 (your portfolio
exam), which is your final assessment in this module.

2 NATURE OF ASSIGNMENT 03 (PORTFOLIO EXAM)

Assignment 03 is your final research proposal on the same theme/topic you chose
for Assignment 02. Assignment 03 is basically an improved and fleshed-out version
of Assignment 02 with two main differences. The main difference between
assignment 02 and assignment 03 is that:

 Assignment 03 will not contain the list of preliminary sources (that

heading falls away). You should have consulted those sources in more detail
to draft your final proposal. In assignment 03, information from the consulted
sources will be incorporated throughout your proposal and, therefore,
appear in your footnotes and bibliography. Assignment 03 should have
many, many more footnotes than assignment 02. Ensure you are familiar
with the referencing style set out in Tutorial letter 302 available under
additional resources on myUnisa.

 Assignment 03 may comprise up to 12 pages (Assignment 02 was limited to

10 pages). The increased length provision applies to accommodate the writing
up of the further information you gathered from the sources you consulted.

You will use the information in this tutorial letter, tutorial letter 202 (which will be
made available a week after assignment 2) and the brief feedback from the marker
of your second assignment to finalise Assignment 03. Also, consult the PowerPoint
presentation under additional resources on MyUnisa that should assist as you
prepare your proposal.

We wish to reiterate that Assignment 03 is your portfolio exam. Please note that
standard examination rules apply to portfolio exams. If you miss the due date for
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submitting the portfolio exam (no matter the reason), you miss the exam. We
cannot accept portfolios after the due date as that would grant you an additional
examination opportunity that is not within our power. Please, therefore, plan
accordingly and make sure your portfolio is submitted on time.

3 FEEDBACK ON ASSIGNMENT 02

You will receive brief individual feedback on Assignment 02 from the marker to whom
your second assignment was allocated for marking. The marker will not point out
each and every mistake that you have made but will guide you on where to
improve. You can, therefore, not rely on the marker feedback alone. You will receive
a marking rubric attached to your second assignment that will be a good indicator of
where there is most room for improvement. You are then required to identify the areas
that need improvement, return to the study material and additional resources, and
improve on those aspects as you prepare for your portfolio exam. You are not barred
from making improvements that you deem necessary, even if the marker did not point
these out.

Please do not wait for this feedback before you start working on Assignment 03,
this tutorial letter 102, tutorial letter 202 (which will be posted about a week after the
assignment 2 deadline), and the PowerPoint presentation under additional resources
on MyUnisa will guide you in the meantime on what is required for the portfolio exam.

Please note that the mark you obtain for Assignment 02 is NOT an indication of
the mark you will receive for Assignment 03. Assignment 03 is assessed "afresh"
as if it is a final research proposal submitted to a study leader for consideration that
must meet all set requirements. By the time you submit your portfolio exam, you must
have mastered specific skills such as referencing.

The marker might give you the benefit of the doubt when marking assignment 2 but
will not be able to do so for purposes of the portfolio exam.

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4 SUBMISSION OF ASSIGNMENT 03 (PORTFOLIO EXAM)

4.1 Weighting of Assignment 03

At the end of the semester for which you are registered, you must submit a portfolio
exam (in other words, there is no venue-based examination for this module). The
portfolio will contribute 60% towards your final mark for this module. Compulsory
Assignments 01 and 02 will contribute 40%.

Remember that if you obtain less than 40% in the examination, your assignment marks
will not be considered when calculating your final mark for this module.

4.2 Due date for Assignment 03

Assignment 03 must be submitted on MyUnisa by no later than Friday, 11 November

2022, at 08:00 AM – this is 08:00 in the morning.

Please do not e-mail us with your portfolio if you missed the deadline on
MyUnisa. We may not, under any circumstances, accept portfolio exams via e-
mail. Also, please do not contact us with requests for an extension, as it will not
be granted under any circumstances (including load-shedding). It is an exam,
and we, lecturers, cannot adjust the due date.

Having regard to the above, you must plan the submission of your assignment
carefully. Please plan ahead and try to submit a day or two before the due date
so that you are not caught off guard by load-shedding or system challenges. These
cannot be used as reasons for being unable to submit.

Note further that you have to take full responsibility for what you submit as
assignment 03. Make sure you submit the portfolio for LME3701 and not work relating
to another module. If you submit a portfolio relating to another module for purposes of
the LME3701 portfolio exam, you will get 0% for your portfolio. We MAY NOT
replace your portfolio for you if you submitted the wrong document for purposes
of your portfolio exam.

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Lastly, make sure you submit your portfolio and your academic honesty
declaration as ONE PDF document. If we only receive your academic honesty
declaration, that is all we will mark. We CANNOT ADD anything to that which you have
submitted on MyUnisa as your portfolio exam so please DO NOT e-mail us with your
academic honesty declaration if you forgot to attach it to your portfolio as we may not
alter or add to what you have submitted.

4.3 How to submit Assignment 03

Please submit your Assignment 03 via MyUnisa. ONLY ONE document in PDF-
FORMAT is accepted for online marking purposes. Do not lock or otherwise disable
the editing functions on your PDF document because it prevents us from marking and
commenting on your portfolio.

You may resubmit your assignment on myUnisa a maximum of two times. After that,
the system will lock for you even before the due date. So, please ensure that the
document you choose to submit is indeed the correct one.

This is an individual assignment to be completed by you without the help of other

students or study groups. Academic dishonesty and plagiarism cannot be tolerated.
Refer to Unisa's policy on plagiarism. Plagiarism by a student is considered serious
misconduct, which could result in sanctions such as failure of the module or being
barred from the institution. Should we detect plagiarism in your work, you will get
0% for your portfolio, and the matter will be reported to the University's
disciplinary office.

5 REQUIREMENTS FOR ASSIGNMENT 03: SEMESTER 2 2022

For Assignment 03 (your examination portfolio), you must submit a final research
proposal based on the same theme selected for Assignment 02 in the correct format.

5.1 Content of Assignment 03

Your Assignment 03 must contain the following:

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 Prescribed title/cover page as per section D of the study guide

 Working title (on your title/cover page)

 Content page (table of contents)

 Your final research proposal with the prescribed headings (see below)

 Academic honesty declaration attached to this tutorial letter (also see under
additional resources on myUnisa)

Your final research proposal (Assignment 03) must contain the following 10 (ten)
headings:

1. Introduction

2. Problem statement

3. Hypothesis

4. Points of departure and assumptions

5. Conceptualisation of central research themes

6. Proposed chapter outlay

7. Projected time-frame

8. Description of research methodology

9. Conclusion

1 0 . Bibliography

5.2 Layout and formatting

Your Assignment 03 (examination portfolio) must comply with the following

requirements regarding layout and formatting.

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 This assignment entails a final research proposal as your examination portfolio

(Assignment 03).

 The text of all documents must be typed in font type Arial and font size 12.

 Footnotes must also be in Arial but font size 10.

 The text of the document must be justified, in 1.5 spacing and with 12pt after
each paragraph.

 Footnotes must be justified, in single spacing, and have a 1cm hanging indent.
There should be no space between footnotes. 1

 Margins must be set to "normal" (1 inch or 2.5cm)

 All headings must be aligned left, in Arial font size 12 and numbered numerically
(i.e. 1, 1.1, 1.1.1, etc.).

• Main headings are in bold and sentence case,

• Secondary headings in bold and italics,

• Tertiary headings in italics and

• Further headings in ordinary script (normal).\

 Pages must be numbered at the bottom right-hand corner of the page.

 The document's TITLE must be centred and in ALL CAPS and bold.

a) The assignment is limited to a maximum of twelve (12) typed pages, cover

page, content page, bibliography and academic honesty declaration

1 This is an example of a footnote with a 1cm hanging indent. Make sure that if your footnote goes
over one line that it is aligned with the first line of the footnote on the left. Remember to also
justify your footnotes and end it with a full stop.

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EXCLUDED. The 12-page count thus starts with your introduction and ends at
the end of your conclusion.

b) Your assignment must contain proper referencing using footnotes and a

bibliography of sources. You must provide evidence that you can cite various
types of sources (e.g., case law, legislation, books, journal articles, etc.). Please
refer to LLBALLF302 for the referencing style to be used.

6 ACADEMIC HONESTLY DECLARATION

Please ensure that you attach the academic honesty declaration you find on the last
page of this tutorial letter to your Assignment 03 (it is also available under additional
resources on myUnisa). Remember that you must sign the academic honesty
declaration, which must form part of your assignment. You will not be able to submit it
in a separate document.

You will lose marks if you do not attach a signed academic honesty declaration.

This is an individual assignment to be completed by you without the help of other

students or study groups. Academic dishonesty and plagiarism cannot be
tolerated. Plagiarism by a student is considered serious misconduct, which could
result in sanctions such as failing the assignment or module or being barred from the
institution following disciplinary action against you. Refer to Unisa's policy on
plagiarism.

7 CONCLUSION

We wish you all the best with your final research proposal.

Kind regards

Prof L Pienaar & Adv U Poyo

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ACADEMIC HONESTY DECLARATION

1. I understand what academic dishonesty entails and am aware of Unisa's

policies in this regard.
2. I declare that this assignment is my own, original work. Where I have used
someone else's work, I have indicated this by using the prescribed style of referencing.
Every contribution to, and quotation in, this assignment from the work or works of other
people has been referenced according to the prescribed style.
3. 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.
4. I did not make use of another student's work and submit it as my own.
NAME: ……………………………………………………………………………………...
SIGNATURE: ……………………………………………………………………………...
STUDENT NUMBER: ……………………………………………………………………..
MODULE CODE: ...............................................................................................
DATE: ……………………………………………………………………………………....
RESEARCH THEME SELECTED: ………………………………………………………
MARK RECEIVED FOR ASSIGNMENT 01: …………………………………………..
MARK RECEIVED FOR ASSIGNMENT 02: …………………………………………...