Students

LING3391 – Forensic Linguistics

2022 – Session 2, In person-scheduled-weekday, North Ryde

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff
Maria Herke
maria.herke@mq.edu.au
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
50cp at 2000 level or above including 10cp of LING units at 2000 level
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description
Forensic linguistics is a diverse, rapidly-growing field that applies linguistic knowledge and methods to the forensic context of law, language, crime investigation, and judicial procedure. This unit covers the various sub-fields and issues of forensic linguistics, such as, key theoretical and methodological approaches within the field, the work of the forensic linguist, the sub-field of forensic phonetics including speaker identification and voice comparison, authorship attribution of written texts, the linguistic investigation of plagiarism, and the linguist as an expert witness. Key outcomes of the unit are the ability to understand and describe basic concepts and theories in forensic linguistics, to demonstrate basic knowledge of a wide range of issues in forensic linguistics both in the national and international context. Students will have the opportunity to critically observe and linguistically describe relevant evidential data, as well as to analyse linguistic evidence in a scientific manner.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Describe key theoretical and methodological approaches within the field of forensic linguistics.
  • ULO2: Demonstrate basic knowledge of a wide range of issues in forensic linguistics in both the national and the international context.
  • ULO3: Critically observe relevant evidential data, and linguistically describe and characterise it.
  • ULO4: Demonstrate the knowledge and ability to analyse linguistic evidence in a scientific manner.

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Participation and engagement 35% No Week 4-5
Proposal for Forensic Linguistic case study 25% No Week 7
Forensic linguistc case study 40% No Week 13

Participation and engagement

Assessment Type 1: Participatory task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 25 hours
Due: Week 4-5
Weighting: 35%

 

Students complete a sequence of reading reflections and online peer feedback tasks throughout the teaching session.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Describe key theoretical and methodological approaches within the field of forensic linguistics.
  • Demonstrate basic knowledge of a wide range of issues in forensic linguistics in both the national and the international context.

Proposal for Forensic Linguistic case study

Assessment Type 1: Report
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Week 7
Weighting: 25%

 

Students present a written plan for a proposed Forensic Linguistic analysis case study. In this assessment, students will nominate a forensic linguistic issue/ problem from the national or international context and they will nominate a proposed professional organisation as their audience. Students will outline the linguistic evidence, either sourced or collected, and a relevant methodology that they propose to use to address this issue.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Describe key theoretical and methodological approaches within the field of forensic linguistics.
  • Demonstrate basic knowledge of a wide range of issues in forensic linguistics in both the national and the international context.
  • Critically observe relevant evidential data, and linguistically describe and characterise it.
  • Demonstrate the knowledge and ability to analyse linguistic evidence in a scientific manner.

Forensic linguistc case study

Assessment Type 1: Case study/analysis
Indicative Time on Task 2: 40 hours
Due: Week 13
Weighting: 40%

 

Students will analyse the linguistic evidence using the methodology, both of which were outlined in their earlier proposal in Assessment 2. Drawing on evidence and theoretical approaches from the unit and literature, students will then write up their findings as a professional report for their proposed audience.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate basic knowledge of a wide range of issues in forensic linguistics in both the national and the international context.
  • Critically observe relevant evidential data, and linguistically describe and characterise it.
  • Demonstrate the knowledge and ability to analyse linguistic evidence in a scientific manner.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

Seminar content will be delivered to you online via your ilearn site in the form of screencast videos (vlogs) and also via a weekly 1 hour seminar. Some lectures will be delivered online and some will be delivered face to face (on campus). See Unit schedule below for the delivery mode each week. If you wish to chat with myself (Maria), then do please email and we can organise a Zoom meeting. The seminars will be a mix of face to face or online synchronous. The week 1 seminar will be via zoom.

•Readings will be placed in Leganto

•Recommended texts:

•Coulthard, M., & Johnson, A. (2010). The Routledge handbook of forensic linguistics . Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ;: Routledge.

••Coulthard, M., Johnson, A. & Wright, D. (2017). An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics. Language in Evidence.

Unit Schedule

Week 1

What is Forensic Linguistics?

online

Week 2

Language and the Law

online

Week 3

Author Identification

f2f

Week 4

Writing your proposal and your Expert Witness Identity

online

Week 5

Linguistics Profiling

online

Week 6

Creating a corpus

f2f

Week 7

Corpus. Stylistic Forensics and Scamseek

online

Week 8

Forensic Phonetics 1

f2f

Week 9

Forensic reports

online

Week 10

Forensic Phonetics 11

f2f

Week 11

Forensic Phonetics 111

f2f

Week 12

Forensic Phonetics 1V

f2f

Week 13

Applied examples of FL

online

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

The Writing Centre

The Writing Centre provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via AskMQ, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Late Submissions

Requesting an extension to assignment due date

On occasion, you may be in a situation when you aren't able to submit an assessment task on time. Extensions are only given in special circumstances, by completing a Special Consideration request. For more information on Special Consideration, see https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/special-consideration  

Late submission of assignments

If you haven't been approved for an extension and you submit your assessment task late, penalties are applied. You should consult your unit convenor if you are in this position. Late submissions will receive a 5% per day penalty. If you submit the assessment task 10 days or more beyond the due date, without an approved extension, you will be awarded a maximum of 50% of the overall assessment marks. Weekends and public holidays are included.

Changes since First Published

Date Description
24/07/2022 nothing
24/07/2022 recommended readings added. due date assessment 1 changed

Unit information based on version 2022.02 of the Handbook