Delta Modules

Presenting written work for Delta – some guidelines

Overall presentation
Essays need to be word processed (not PDFs) and should be saved in .doc format – which is
possible both in Word and in OpenOffice.

Your essays must include a cover page showing:

 The essay title
 The centre name (AKCENT International House Prague) and number (CZ003)
 Your name (and candidate number to be added later)
 The date of submission (= date of the lesson)
 The number of words used

Essays also need to include a table of contents showing page numbers for sections and
appendices. This table of contents can also be on the cover page or on page 2.

There should be a running footer with

 Your name
 The essay title
 The page number (the format: ‘page X of Y’ is useful as it ensures we have all the
pages)

Please submit background essays, lesson plans and post lesson evaluations to the tutor
concerned in electronic format. We will add comments electronically and the portfolio of
your work should be maintained electronically. At the end of the course the assignment
that you select to be sent to Cambridge will be printed out and sent in hard copy along
with the official reports on all assignments. You are responsible for maintaining your
portfolio, so you should keep copies of the final versions of all assignments with feedback.
However, we will also keep copies ourselves and on the school server as back-up.

Word limits
There are clear word limits for all Delta assignments and these must be respected. A
background essay which does not respect the word limit cannot be considered for a grade
higher than Pass.

The word count does not include: cover sheet, table of contents, bibliography,
appendices.

Footnotes: you are not allowed to use footnotes.

Fonts and formatting

It’s up to you which font you use but please use one that is easy to read and sensible. Use
11 or 12 point as your basic size. You could use a bigger size for headings if you want.

Please set line spacing to 1.5 lines and use margins of at least 2 cm. So that it’s not too
dense, and easier to read.

Using a line space between paragraphs also makes it easier to distinguish them.

If you want the next section to start at the top of the next page and to stay there, use a
page break (Ctrl + enter) rather than hitting ‘enter’ repeatedly.

Be consistent in your use of fonts and formatting.

Cambridge Delta Modules course, Teacher Training Dept., Bítovská 5, 140 00 Praha 4, Czech Republic
Tel: +420 261 261 638 Fax: +420 261 261 880 Email: catherine.bowden@akcent.cz Web: www.akcent.cz
 Delta Modules

Citing examples of language – is this example clear?

The students might use of instead of on in this sentence.

You can use inverted commas:

The students might use ‘of’ instead of ‘on’ in this sentence.

Or italics:
The students might use of instead of on in this sentence.

…according to taste.

Use of language
Your grammar, lexis, spelling and punctuation must be accurate. This is an assessment
criterion for all written work on Delta. A few minor slips are permissible but anything more
serious may lead to a resubmission or fail. Please proofread your work carefully.

Spelling can be in accordance with any standard dialect of English but must be consistent.

Common language issues in our experience of marking candidates’ work are:

 Use of apostrophes: candidates vs. candidate’s vs. candidates’
 In particular: its vs. it’s
 Use of colons and semi-colons. Generally speaking, colons introduce a list or
lengthy quotation; semi-colons separate items in a list or divide a written sentence
into two complementary parts. If you aren’t sure how to use semi-colons, avoid
them.
 The difference between practice and practise
 The spelling of the words pronunciation (vs. pronounce), monophthong and
diphthong.
 The difference between e.g. and i.e.

Style
Delta essays are not like any other kind of essay. It may take you a while to crack the
style.
They:
 should be written in continuous prose rather than in note form
 are expected to be concrete, concise and practical.
 can include plenty of sub-heading, bullet points, numbers, tables etc. to help
organise your ideas and to help the reader follow your organisation.
 do not need and should not have flowery introductions or conclusions
 can and should include words like I, me, my in describing your own teaching
experiences and giving your own reactions to quotations.

Conventions for referring to sources

You are expected to refer to a range of key sources in your background essays, the number
is likely to depend on the topic and availability of resources but CambridgeESOL suggest at
least 3 different sources. These should be appropriate to the level of the Delta, so for a
systems essay a grammar book intended for English learners is not likely to be detailed
enough, and general methodology books such as Jim Scrivener’s ‘Learning Teaching’ or
Jeremy Harmer’s ‘The Practice of English Language Teaching’ might be a good starting
point for methodology but you should look for more specific sources too.

Cambridge Delta Modules course, Teacher Training Dept., Bítovská 5, 140 00 Praha 4, Czech Republic
Tel: +420 261 261 638 Fax: +420 261 261 880 Email: catherine.bowden@akcent.cz Web: www.akcent.cz
 Delta Modules
Within your text you should indicate that you are quoting by
using quotation marks and reference the source by giving the surname, year of publication
and page number in brackets: (Chomsky 1965: 3).

For longer quotations you could use a colon and then put the quoted matter in a separate
paragraph which is distinguished in some way from the surrounding text, e.g. by being
indented:

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Chomsky
remarks that:

Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-

listener, in a completely homogenous speech community, who knows
its language perfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically
irrelevant conditions as memory limitations, distractions, shifts of
attention and interest, and errors (random or characteristic) in
applying his knowledge of the language in actual performance. This
seems to me to have been the position of the founders of modern
general linguistics, and no cogent reason for modifying it has been
offered. (Chomsky 1965: 3-4)

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

If you want to edit down a quotation, use ellipsis marks in square brackets […] to show
where text has been removed.

Bibliographies
These should be placed at the end of the essay but before any appendices. Works should
be listed alphabetically by surname. If you want you could divide your bibliography into
sections (e.g. 1 Theory, 2 Materials) and then order the works alphabetically within the
sections. The bibliography should only include works with are actually quoted or
mentioned in the main body of the essay.

The way to make an entry for a single author book is:

Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
= Surname, Initials. (Year). Title. City: Publisher.

For two authors:

Swan, M. & Smith, B. (2001) Learner English. Cambridge: CUP.

Multiple authors:
Biber, D. et al. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harmondsworth:
Longman.

Edited book:
Graves, K. (Ed.) (1996). Teachers as course developers. Cambridge: CUP.

Section of edited book:

Messick, S. (1989). Validity. In R. Linn (Ed.), Educational measurement (pp. 13-103). New
York: Macmillan.

Journal article:
Chapelle, C. (1999). Validity in language assessment. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics
19, 254-272.

Cambridge Delta Modules course, Teacher Training Dept., Bítovská 5, 140 00 Praha 4, Czech Republic
Tel: +420 261 261 638 Fax: +420 261 261 880 Email: catherine.bowden@akcent.cz Web: www.akcent.cz
 Delta Modules

Electronic source:
British Educational Research Association. (1992). Ethical guidelines. Retrieved 22 May
2004 from: http://www.bera.ac.uk/guidelines.html

Plagiarism warning
Page 61 of the Delta modules handbook states:

Plagiarised work will not be accepted. Candidates should be advised on what

constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it.
Plagiarism includes:
 copying another’s language or ideas as if they were your own.
 unauthorised collusion
 quoting directly without making it clear by standard referencing and the
use of quotation marks and/or layout (indented paragraphs, for example)
that you are doing so
 using text downloaded from the internet without referencing the source
conventionally
 closely paraphrasing a text
 submitting work which has been undertaken wholly or in part by someone
else.

More about plagiarism:

• http://www.tonybates.ca/2012/05/16/10-types-of-plagiarism-and-why-im-
pleading-guilty-to-at-least-one-charge/

• http://www.lycoming.edu/library/instruction/tutorials/plagiarismGame.aspx

Cambridge Delta Modules course, Teacher Training Dept., Bítovská 5, 140 00 Praha 4, Czech Republic
Tel: +420 261 261 638 Fax: +420 261 261 880 Email: catherine.bowden@akcent.cz Web: www.akcent.cz