LME3701/102/2024

Tutorial Letter 102/1/2024

Legal Research Methodology

LME3701

Semester 1

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

4.3.1 Submit it in PDF format (but not scanned) .............................................. 5

4.3.2 Resubmissions ....................................................................................... 6

4.3.3 Turnitin.................................................................................................... 6

5 REQUIREMENTS FOR ASSIGNMENT 03: SEMESTER 1 2024 ....................... 7

5.1 Content of Assignment 03 ............................................................................. 7

5.2 Layout and Formatting .................................................................................. 8

6 ACADEMIC HONESTY DECLARATION ......................................................... 10

7 CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH YOUR PORTFOLIO EXAM

(ASSIGNMENT 3) WILL NOT BE MARKED. .......................................................... 10

8 NO SECOND EXAMINATION OPPORTUNITY AND NO SUPPLEMENTARY

EXAM OPPORTUNITY IN THIS MODULE ............................................................. 10

9 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 11

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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 and the
summary of each (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/worked in
throughout your proposal and, therefore, appear in your footnotes and
bibliography. Assignment 03 should have many, many more footnotes
than assignment 02. You may use more and /or other sources than those you
identified in assignment 02, in other words, you are not limited to those exact
10 sources you mentioned in assignment 02 and you may use more than 10
sources in assignment 03. 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 from the introduction to the

conclusion. (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 (available on
myUnisa) and the brief feedback from the marker of your second assignment to
finalise Assignment 03. Also, consult the PowerPoint presentation under additional

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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
submitting the portfolio exam (no matter the reason), you miss the exam. There
are no supplementary or aegrotat exams available in this module since it is a
research module.

We urge you to try and submit ahead of the due date to avoid any last-minute issues.
We as lecturers cannot extend the portfolio exam due date, no matter the reason
for the request. Due to the use of Turnitin, no submissions can be accepted
after the due date as that submission will not be compared against all other
assignments and sources which is unfair to those who 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. It is
your responsibility to go through your entire assignment and correct it. You can,
therefore, not rely on the marker feedback alone. You will receive a marking rubric with
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 (available on myUnisa) 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"
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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 weighting of the items in the
rubric is slightly different for Assignment 3 since the preparatory heading falls away
and the marks that were reserved for that are distributed across other aspects of the
proposal such as your referencing and bibliography, document layout and conclusion.

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.

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 before Friday 31 May at 21:00.

Note that the submission system will close on the due date and time
and will not remain open nor be opened after this due date and time
as it is an exam. Due to the use of Turnitin no late submissions are
possible.

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

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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.

Note further that you have to take 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 do so, 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.

Lastly, make sure you submit your portfolio and your academic honesty
declaration as ONE PDF document (searchable/readable PDF). 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

4.3.1 Submit it in PDF format (but not scanned)

Please submit your Assignment 03 via MyUnisa. ONLY ONE document in PDF-
FORMAT is accepted for online marking purposes. Make sure you submit a
searchable/readable PDF and not a scanned PDF. Scanned PDFs cannot be read
by Turnitin and we need a Turnitin similarity report to mark your work. Any assignment
that does not have a Turnitin similarity report will not be marked. Please refer to the
research topic document for more detailed explanations on the use of Turnitin and how
to check if your file is indeed readable/searchable.

Do not lock or otherwise disable the editing functions on your PDF document because
it prevents us from marking and commenting on your portfolio.

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For purposes of this exam, please do not scan a Word document for purposes of
making it a PDF and also do not “print to PDF” from a tablet for instance as Turnitin
is unable to read such documents. Also, do not use “CamScanner” or any such apps
as it simply submits an image file which Turnitin cannot interpret.

Note that if you get a “report unavailable” message on Turnitin, it means you must
fix your file format. It means you submitted a scanned or handwritten file that Turnitin
cannot read. If you leave your submission with this status, your portfolio exam will not
be marked since we need a Turnitin similarity report to mark your portfolio. THE
RESPONSIBILITY IS YOURS TO ENSURE YOU SUBMIT THE FILE IN THE
CORRECT FORMAT.

4.3.2 Resubmissions

You may resubmit your portfolio exam on myUnisa for as long as the system allows
you to do so. Note, however, that Turnitin allows you a maximum of 3 opportunities to
improve your similarity score. If you replace your assignment more than 3 times,
Turnitin will still consider the 3rd uploaded document to generate the similarity report.
You have to accept the submission statement before you will be allowed to submit it.
If your document is uploaded successfully, it will say “submitted for grading” on a green
background.

4.3.3 Turnitin

Your assignment has to be put through Turnitin for it to be eligible for marking. If you
do not accept the Turnitin EULA (terms and conditions) we may not mark your portfolio
exam. If you accepted the EULA when you submitted assignment 2, you will not have
to do so again when you submit your portfolio exam. Please see the research topic
document and tutorial letter 202 for screenshots regarding how to accept the Turnitin
EULA. You need not submit your assignment anywhere else than on Moodle, Turnitin
is integrated into Moodle so if you submit your assignment and accept the Turnitin
EULA, your assignment will be sent through Turnitin automatically.

If you encounter any problems with Turnitin during your submission, please inform us

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without delay so that we can escalate it to the Turnitin office if we are unable to assist.

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

students or study groups. Academic dishonesty and plagiarism are not 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 assignment, the
matter will be reported to the University's disciplinary office. Possible academic
dishonesty in the portfolio is considered separately from any possible academic
dishonesty picked up in your assignment 2. Even if we did not pick up any
academic dishonesty/plagiarism in your assignment 2, it does not bar us from
flagging your portfolio for plagiarism / academic dishonesty.

Portfolio exams with Turnitin similarity scores of higher than 80% will not be
marked. This refers to the “final” Turnitin similarity score after the assignment
was put through the Turnitin round-robin at the assignment due date and time.

Plagiarism picked up in assignments with similarity scores of lower than 80% is

not exempt from academic dishonesty proceedings and any amount of
plagiarism picked up, no matter the similarity score, will be referred to the
disciplinary office.

5 REQUIREMENTS FOR ASSIGNMENT 03: SEMESTER 1 2024

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:

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

available on myUnisa)

 Working title (on your title/cover page)

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 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 these 10 (ten) headings:

1. Introduction

2. Problem statement

3. Hypothesis / Aim of research

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.

 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. No
handwritten assignments are allowed.
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 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" in Word (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
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

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

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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 HONESTY DECLARATION

Please ensure that you attach the academic honesty declaration downloadable from
myUnisa. You NEED NOT SIGN the academic honesty declaration. You will lose
marks if you do not attach the academic honesty declaration.

We remind you of the strict rules regarding academic dishonesty. Academic

dishonesty and plagiarism are not 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 CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH YOUR PORTFOLIO EXAM (ASSIGNMENT

3) WILL NOT BE MARKED.

Please note that your portfolio exam (assignment 3) will not be marked if:

i) You did not accept the Turnitin EULA. This would mean that no Turnitin
report could be generated for you since you failed to accept the Turnitin
Terms and Conditions.
ii) Your submission is left with the message “report unavailable” which means
you submitted a scanned or handwritten document. This would mean that
no Turnitin report could be generated for you since you failed to submit a
searchable/readable PDF document.
iii) Your Turnitin similarity score is 80% or higher (after the round-robin check).
iv) You did the portfolio exam on the incorrect topic.

8 NO SECOND EXAMINATION OPPORTUNITY AND NO SUPPLEMENTARY

EXAM OPPORTUNITY IN THIS MODULE

Please note that from 2023, there are no second examination opportunities and/or
supplementary and/or aegrotat examination opportunities in this module since it is a
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research module. Please, therefore, do not miss the submission cut-off date and put
in as much effort as you can to pass. If you fail the module (also due to not submitting
your portfolio at all) you will have to re-register and redo the module.

9 CONCLUSION

We wish you all the best with your final research proposal. Feel free to contact us for
guidance as you prepare your portfolio.

Kind regards

Prof L Pienaar & Adv U Poyo

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