For this assessment, students are required to complete two tasks:

Task One: Creative Writing Task 

Students are required to choose two different genres from the weekly topic list and write a 500 word piece based on the events and characters outlined in the nursery rhyme 'Jack and Jill.' Drawing on their understanding of the genres, they can develop the characters, basic narrative and focus to suit necessary conventions. 

Task Two: Rationale 

Following the completion of their creative writing task, students are required to write a 800-1,000 word rationale. In this piece of academic writing, students must draw on the unit readings in order to explore the genres (and genre conventions) they have employed in their creative component and the implications of 'mixing genres.' Students should aim to detail (a) the genre conventions they have followed, (b) why they have adapted these conventions and - most importantly - (c) the implications of 'mixing' of genres. 

This task is designed so that students can demonstrate what they have learnt about the process of 'mixing' genres. It will be marked according to the following criteria:

• Demonstrates a clear and effective grasp of relevant genres and genre conventions
• Demonstrates engagement with the unit readings and material
• Stages a well-supported analysis of creative component that identifies genre markers, marks their manifestation and maps their implications 
• Identifies the implications of mixing genres and supports their analysis with academic research
• Effective use of writing skills to present academic research, including consistent and accurate use of in-text referencing

Submission: Students will submit their essay via the Turnitin link on the unit iLearn Site.

Late Penalty: A late penalty of 10% per day including weekends will be applied. 

Extensions: Students who have experienced a serious and unavoidable disruption to their studies and would like to seek an extension must submit a disruption to studies notification via ask.mq.edu.au. Please email your tutor if you have any questions.

In this unit, students are required to participate in the forum on a weekly basis. They must respond to the weekly stimulus in order to complete an assigned writing task of between 200-300 words. Then, they are required to post their task to the weekly forum within the defined time frame. The forum will be open from the Tuesday of each week until the following Tuesday. 

For this assessment, students will draw on their weekly tasks in order to submit one document to turnitin that contains two sections. 

Section One: Weekly Writing Tasks

For this part of the assessment, students must collate their writing tasks from Week 1 - Week 7 and paste them into a Word Document. 

Section Two: Scholarly Reflection 

For this part of the assessment, students must select two of their genre writing activities posted in the discussion forms between week 1 - 7. They should then complete a 500 word scholarly reflection task for each activity.

In these scholarly reflections, students are required to (a) outline the context of their post (identify the genre they are discussing), (b) demonstrate how their post enhanced their understanding of the key genre markers under review and (c) discuss how their understanding of the genre has developed since writing their post.

Students can find a template for this assessment task in the Assessments and Guides Section on the ilearn page. Each post they include should be 100-200 words in length (about a paragraph). This means you may use an extract of a post to reflect upon, as this will provide for a more focused and thorough reflection. The posts are not included in the word count.

This assessment task will be marked according to the following criteria:

1. Submission of weekly writing activities, including a well-selected sample of two of the student’s weekly responses to the activities
2. Demonstrates a clear grasp of relevant key theoretical concepts and their context
3. Demonstrates the ability to identify the significance and implications of relevant key concepts
4. Demonstrates a critical engagement with relevant unit readings, cultural studies scholarship and debates
5. Stages a thoughtful reflection on the process of learning and engaging with cultural studies scholarship
6. Effective use of writing skills to present academic research, including consistent and accurate use of in-text referencing. 

Submission: Students will submit their Activities Reflection Task via the Turnitin link on the unit iLearn site.

Late Penalty: A late penalty of 10% per day including weekends will be applied. 

Extensions: Students who have experienced a disruption to their studies and would like to seek an extension must submit a disruption to studies notification via ask.mq.edu.au. Please email your tutor if you have any questions.

For this assignment, students are required to write a 2,000 word independent research essay about a genre they have encountered throughout the unit and would like to explore further. Once they have chosen a genre, students must devise their own question and then draw on examples and academic research in order to formulate their own response to one key debate within this genre. These debates will be discussed each week and questions will be workshopped in the final weeks of the unit.

For example, students can ask questions such as:

• Is online fan fiction democratising?   
• How does gender work within the romance genre?
• How do detective fiction novels influence contemporary understandings of the law, crime and justice?
• What is the role of the blog as a life writing tool?

Students will have the opportunity to share and discuss their final research project in the discussion forum throughout the unit.

This assessment task will be marked according to the following criteria:

1. Demonstrates the ability to deploy analytical skills in order to develop a scholarly research question
2. Demonstrates a clear and effective grasp of relevant genre and genre markers
3. Demonstrates critical and sustained engagement with the unit readings and questions of cultural studies research
4. Ability to stage a well-supported analysis and develop a strong and well-supported argument
5. Effective use of writing skills to present academic research, including consistent and accurate use of in-text referencing.

Submission: Students will submit their Activities Reflection Task via the Turnitin link on the unit iLearn site.

Late Penalty: A late penalty of 10% per day including weekends will be applied. 

Extensions: Students who have experienced a disruption to their studies and would like to seek an extension must submit a disruption to studies notification via ask.mq.edu.au. Please email your tutor if you have any questions.