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The Sociology of Intoxication
Angus Bancroft
Course code SCIL10054
Lecture and seminar: Thursday 11am-1pm,
Seminar Room 1, Chrystal Macmillan Building.
Email me about most things,
[email protected], or drop in my office,
CMB 6.23
Follow me on twitter: @socintox
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What the course is about ................................................................................................ 4
Aims ............................................................................................................................................ 4
Readings...................................................................................................................................... 5
Zotero Shared Course Library ..................................................................................................... 5
Fieldwork and Field Trip ............................................................................................................ 5
Class conduct .............................................................................................................................. 5
Lecture Outline ............................................................................................................... 7
1. Introduction: How Drugs Become Drugs................................................................................ 7
2. Cultures of Intoxication .......................................................................................................... 7
3. Ritual, Distinction and Obligatory Intoxication ...................................................................... 8
4. Drug Problems or Problem Drugs? ......................................................................................... 8
5. Addiction – Triumph of Body over Mind? ............................................................................. 9
6. Alcohol and Economies of Pleasure ....................................................................................... 9
7. Psychedelics and Waking Dreams ........................................................................................ 10
8. Heroin, Crack and Street Ethnography ................................................................................. 11
9. Prohibition, Drug Control and Cognitive Liberty ................................................................. 11
10. Conditioning, Medicalisation and Enhancement ................................................................ 12
Assessment ..................................................................................................................... 12
Journal ....................................................................................................................................... 12
Long Essay ................................................................................................................................ 13
Video ethnography .................................................................................................................... 13
Lateness .................................................................................................................................... 14
Suggested Long Essay Questions ............................................................................................. 14
Plagiarism ................................................................................................................................. 16
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SSPS Extended Common Marking Scheme ............................................................... 17
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What the course is about “The best of life is but intoxication.” Lord Byron
Political and media discourses only consider intoxication when it manifests as a social problem,
treating its effects as accidental or incidental. This course aims to address two significant gaps in our
thinking on this topic. First, we mostly think of the experience of intoxication – being drunk, getting
high and so on – as happening largely at physiological and psychological levels. The content and
construction of the experience of intoxication itself seems to be thought of as off-limits to sociological
investigation and theorising, as irrelevant, or as an unfortunate and unwanted side effect. The course
will explore the social factors involved in the generation of different experiences of intoxication.
Second, when we do consider intoxication as worthy of study we turn it into a problem, rather than
seeing it as a normal social practice, as much bounded by rules and norms as any other activity. This
course draws on sociology, anthropology, history, psychology, neuroscience and other disciplines to all
you to examine intoxication as a practice embedded in social life.
The course is hands-on. You will conduct your own research into intoxication and write it up for
assessment.
Aims
In the course you will …
Examine the patterns and practices of drug, alcohol and tobacco use internationally.
Examine how some private substance use troubles become public problems, with regard to:
addiction; alcoholism; binge drinking; smoking hazards.
Discuss the uses and merits of different forms of drug control.
Examine the strengths and weaknesses of various sociological, psychological, biological and
anthropological approaches to and theories of substance use.
Explore the research base, the methods used to research substance use and limitations with them.
Produce your own journal reflecting on the issues raised in the course.
Optionally, produce a video ethnography of your research
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Readings
I encourage you to read across disciplines, and some of the best work on intoxication is historical,
anthropological and journalistic. A few examples are: Marshall, Mac (1979) Beliefs, Behaviors, &
Alcoholic Beverages: A Cross-cultural Survey, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan; Schivelbusch, W.
(1992) Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants, London,
Vintage/Random House; Walton, Stuart (2001) Out of It: A Cultural History of Intoxication, London,
Penguin; and Courtwright, David (2001) Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World,
London, Harvard University Press.
Two good sociological texts on regulation and control of illicit drugs are Blackman, Shane (2004)
Chilling Out: The Cultural Politics of Substance Consumption, Maidenhead, Open University Press;
and Barton, Adam (2003) Illicit Drugs: Use and Control, London, Routledge. Two wide ranging edited
collections are: Goldberg, Ray (ed.) (2008) Taking Sides: Clashing views in drugs and society, 8th ed.
Boston, McGraw-Hill Higher Education; and Manning, Paul (2007) Drugs and Popular Culture:
Drugs, Media and Identity in Contemporary Society, Cullompton, Willan Publishing. You can also
look at Bancroft, Angus (2009) Drugs, Intoxication and Society, Cambridge, Polity Press, which
emerged from teaching this course.
Key readings and prezis are posted on Learn, but please also make use of the Zotero shared library.
Zotero Shared Course Library
Rather than you having to dig up all the readings yourself, I have created a shared library online for
the course using Zotero. Zotero is a free bibliographic management programme and is the single most
useful application I use. It is available as an extension for the Firefox web browser or as a standalone
beta programme. You can download it from: http://www.zotero.org/. You have to sign up for a Zotero
account in order to use the shared library. I will send all students on the course an email inviting them
to join the group. You can annotate articles and also add references you come across that are not on the
reading list.
Fieldwork and Field Trip
Each week has a fieldwork task set for it, detailed in the timetable below. These are practical or
reading tasks I expect you to conduct outside of the class, which will form the basis for class discussion
and also the online journal (see Assessment).
There will also be a field trip to the drug education service, Crew, during the term.
Class conduct
At times we will be discussing potentially sensitive issues around drug and alcohol use and their
associated problems. You are free to discuss anything you like but do not feel obliged to share any
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personal experiences you do not want to. Please treat all personal information mentioned by your peers
as confidential. If you find any aspect of the course difficult or upsetting for any reason please feel free
to discuss with me in confidence.
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Lecture Outline
1. Introduction: How Drugs Become Drugs
In this session we will discuss the questions: What is a drug? Why do people use them? How do
some substances become drugs and others do not? What is intoxication?
Reading:
Bancroft, Angus. 2009. Drugs, Intoxication and Society. Cambridge: Polity Press. Chapter 1,
‘Defining Drugs in Society’.
*Becker, Howard. 2001. “Drugs: What are They?” Pp. 11-20 in Qu’est-ce qu’une Drogue? Anglet:
Atlantica.
Courtwright, David. 2001. Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World. London:
Harvard University Press. Chapter 1.
Fieldwork for next week: Read Dennis, P. A. 1975. “The Role of the Drunk in a Oaxacan
Village.” American Anthropologist 77(4):856-863. Take one intoxicant - this could be tea, coffee,
chocolate, cigarettes, or alcohol. Describe what roles are associated with it. Next week we will be
using what you have written to examine the ways in which the effects of drugs are culturally
experienced and mediated.
2. Cultures of Intoxication
In this session we examine the uses to which intoxicants are put and the ways their effects are
shaped by material culture.
Reading:
Becker, Howard. 1967. “History, Culture and Subjective Experience: An Exploration of the Social
Bases of Drug-Induced Experiences.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 8(3):163-176.
*Dennis, P. A. 1975. “The Role of the Drunk in a Oaxacan Village.” American Anthropologist
77(4):856-863.
MacAndrew, Craig, and Robert B Edgerton. 1969. Drunken Comportment. London: Nelson.
Chapter 2, ‘Some People Can Really Hold Their Liquor’, pp13-36.
Fieldwork for next week: Read Schivelbush, Wolfgang (1993), Tastes of Paradise: A Social
History of Spices, Stimulants and Intoxicants, New York: Vintage. Chapter 6: Rituals. Find an
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example of a ‘drug’ use ritual, and describe what it involves and what it does – what is achieves, its
purpose, its effect on participants. This may be a one-off rite of passage, or a recurrent event.
3. Ritual, Distinction and Obligatory Intoxication
This session examines the uses of drugs in rituals and in binding social groupings and affirming
social bonds.
Reading:
*Grund, Jean-Paul C. 1993. Drug Use as a Social Ritual: Functionality, Symbolism and
Determinants of Self-Regulation. Rotterdam: Instituut voor Verslavingsonderzoek. Esp. ‘The Concept
of Ritualisation’ and ‘Heroin Rituals’
Jarvinen, Margaretha. 2003. “Drinking rituals and drinking problems in a wet culture.” Addiction
Research and Theory 11(4):217-233.
Fieldwork for next week: Read Dingelstad, David, Richard Gosden, Brian Martin, and Nickolas
Vakas. 1996. “The Social Construction of Drug Debates.” Social Science & Medicine 43(12):1829 and
Klein, Axel. 2011. “Khat deaths – or the social construction of a non-existent problem? A response to
Corkery et al. ‘Bundle of fun’ or ‘bunch of problems’? Case series of khat-related deaths in the UK.”
Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy 1-2. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
Do a Google (or other) news search on a particular drug. Look at the risk terminology that
surrounds it. Who is at risk? Where does the risk emerge? How is it expressed? Who has responsibility
for avoiding or minimizing risk? Think widely about this: for instance, much of the danger involved in
drug use comes at the point of production, rather than consumption.
4. Drug Problems or Problem Drugs?
This session explores the moral regulation of problem drugs and the discursive generation of
problem people.
Reading:
Dingelstad, David, Richard Gosden, Brian Martin, and Nickolas Vakas. 1996. “The Social
Construction of Drug Debates.” Social Science & Medicine 43(12):1829.
*Corkery, John M. et al. 2010. “‘Bundle of fun’ or ‘bunch of problems’? Case series of khat-related
deaths in the UK.” Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy 100907083627021-18. Retrieved
September 21, 2010.
Gusfield, Joseph R. 1996. Contested Meanings: The Construction of Alcohol Problems. Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press. Chapters 2: ‘Contested Meanings and the Cultural Authority of Social
Problems’, 5, ‘Benevolent Repression’ and pp. 122-124.
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*Klein, Axel. 2011. “Khat deaths – or the social construction of a non-existent problem? A
response to Corkery et al. ‘Bundle of fun’ or ‘bunch of problems’? Case series of khat-related deaths in
the UK.” Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy 1-2. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
Fieldwork for next week: Read Phillipe Bourgois, “Disciplining Addictions: The Bio-Politics of
Methadone and Heroin in the United States,” Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 24 (2000): 165-195,
and Gerda Reith, “Consumption and its Discontents: Addiction, Identity and the Problems of
Freedom,” British Journal of Sociology 55, no. 2 (2004): 283-300. Consider: what defines an ‘addict’
and an ‘addiction’? In what ways are addicts disciplined, how and by whom? What are the problems
involved in defining addiction as a disease? Are addicts created, and if so by what?
5. Addiction – Triumph of Body over Mind?
It is possible to speak of some forms of dependency as socially sanctioned, caffeine addiction being
a fairly benign example. Much recent academic writing on drugs has taken care to separate ‘problem’
from ‘recreational’ drug use. However, it has not really examined where the boundary between the two
lies, and has tended to treat that separation as quite rigid whereas it is a mutable, porous boundary
which is studied in this session.
Reading:
Phillipe Bourgois, “Disciplining Addictions: The Bio-Politics of Methadone and Heroin in the
United States,” Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 24 (2000): 165-195.
*Gerda Reith, “Consumption and its Discontents: Addiction, Identity and the Problems of
Freedom,” British Journal of Sociology 55, no. 2 (2004): 283-300.
Howard F. Stein, “In what systems do alcohol/chemical addictions make sense? Clinical ideologies
and practices as cultural metaphors,” Social Science & Medicine 30, no. 9 (1990): 987-1000.
Fieldwork for next week: observe and record, or write down your recollections of, intoxicant use
in one of the following situations; a party, pub, nightclub, coffee house, or similar intoxication space.
In the class we are going to be discussing how our experiences of intoxication are socially shaped. So
that you can be ready to discuss this, after you have written your account I want you to think about the
literature you have read so far and think about how your account could be a sociological one. For
guidance read Cameron Duff, “The pleasure in context,” International Journal of Drug Policy 19, no. 5
(October 2008): 384-392.
6. Alcohol and Economies of Pleasure
Society is often said to be one where experiences are consumed, rather than lived. This session
examines the political economy of intoxication experiences. Please note, alcohol is just one focus of
this and you do not have to concentrate on that in your fieldwork task.
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Reading:
Cameron Duff, “The pleasure in context,” International Journal of Drug Policy 19, no. 5 (October
2008): 384-392.
European Centre for Monitoring Alcohol Marketing, The Seven Key Messages of the Alcohol
Industry (EUCAM, 2011).
Fiona Hutton, Risky Pleasures?: Club Cultures and Feminine Identities (Ashgate Publishing
Limited, 2006). Pp29-48 "Gendered Experience of Club Experiences".
Ben Malbon, Clubbing: Dancing, Ecstasy and Vitality (London: Routledge, 1999) pp. 199-202, “A
Night on E”.
Fieldwork for next week: Read Andy Letcher, “Mad Thoughts on Mushrooms: Discourse and
Power in the Study of Psychedelic Consciousness,” Anthropology of Consciousness 18, no. 2
(September 1, 2007): 74-98. Consider: what boundaries do hallucinogenic drugs transgress? Is this
different from other drugs and if so why?
7. Psychedelics and Waking Dreams
This session explores the use of psychedelic drugs to explore, enhance or depart from
consciousness. It examines why some psychedelic experiences are given a higher social status than
others, and what the use of psychedelics tells us about consciousness in modern society.
Reading:
*Andy Letcher, “Mad Thoughts on Mushrooms: Discourse and Power in the Study of Psychedelic
Consciousness,” Anthropology of Consciousness 18, no. 2 (September 1, 2007): 74-98.
Karenza Moore and Fiona Measham, “‘It’s the most fun you can have for twenty quid’:
Motivations, Consequences and Meanings of British Ketamine Use,” Addiction Research & Theory 16,
no. 3 (2008): 231 - 244.
Sarah Riley, Yvette Morey, and Christine Griffin, “Ketamine: The Divisive Dissociative. A
Discourse Analysis of the Constructions of Ketamine by Participants of a Free Party (Rave) Scene,”
Addiction Research & Theory 16, no. 3 (2008): 217 - 230.
Fieldwork for next week: Read Philippe Bourgois, “Just Another Night in a Shooting Gallery,”
Theory, Culture & Society 15, no. 2 (May 1, 1998): 37 -66. What ethical, moral and methodological
problems are there in research, especially ethnographic research, with heroin and crack users?
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8. Heroin, Crack and Street Ethnography
In this session we examine ethnographies with heroin and crack users. We discuss why heroin and
crack are especially stigmatised drugs, the different subcultures that surround them, and the limits of
research with users.
Reading:
Philippe Bourgois, “Just Another Night in a Shooting Gallery,” Theory, Culture & Society 15, no. 2
(May 1, 1998): 37 -66.
Tom Carnwath and Ian Smith, Heroin Century (London: Routledge, 2002).
A Taylor, Women Drug Users: An Ethnography of a Female Injecting Community (New York:
Clarendon, 1993).
Nicole Vitellone, “The Syringe as Prosthetic,” Body & Society 9, no. 3 (2003): 37-52.
Fieldwork for next week:
Read Robin Bunton, “Knowledge, Embodiment and Neo-Liberal Drug Policy,” Contemporary
Drug Problems 28 (2001): 221-243. Observe an aspect of drug control/regulation in action. This might
be surveillance, a ‘technology of suspicion’, prohibition of use, regulation of users or any other form of
regulation. Consider: do we have the right to use drugs?
9. Prohibition, Drug Control and Cognitive Liberty
In this session we will debate the history and effectiveness of various forms of prohibition.
Reading:
Richard Glen Boire, “On Cognitive Liberty,” The Journal of Cognitive Liberties 1, no. 1 (1999): 7-
13.
Robin Bunton, “Knowledge, Embodiment and Neo-Liberal Drug Policy,” Contemporary Drug
Problems 28 (2001): 221-243.
D. Manderson, “Possessed: Drug Policy, Witchcraft and Belief,” Cultural Studies 19, no. 1 (2005):
35-62.
Fiona Measham et al., “Tweaking, bombing, dabbing and stockpiling: the emergence of
mephedrone and the perversity of prohibition,” Drugs and Alcohol Today 10, no. 1 (2010): 14-21.
Fieldwork for next week: read Parry, V. (2003), ‘The Art of Branding a Condition’, Medical
Marketing & Media, 38, 5, 42-49; and list some ways in which drugs or medicines ‘enhance’.
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10. Conditioning, Medicalisation and Enhancement
This final session looks to the future and the institutionalised use of drugs to manage the self.
Reading:
Boire, R.G. (2004), 'Neurocops: The Politics of Prohibition and the Future of Enforcing Social
Policy from Inside the Body', Journal of Law and Health, 19, 2, 215-257.
Office of Science and Technology (2005), Drug Futures 2025? Executive Summary and Overview,
London, Department of Trade and Industry.
Parry, V. (2003), ‘The Art of Branding a Condition’, Medical Marketing & Media, 38, 5, 42-49.
Dossey, L. 2006. “Listerine’s Long Shadow: Disease Mongering and the Selling of Sickness.”
EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing 2:379-385.
Assessment
Assessment will be by an online journal (25%) and either a long essay or a video ethnography
(75%). The online journals and long essay are marked anonymously so do not put your name on it, just
your exam number.
See the ‘Essay and Journal Advice’ document on Learn for more information on how to approach
the assessment.
Course work will be submitted online using our submission system – ELMA. You will not be
required to submit a paper copy.
Marked course work, grades and feedback will be returned online – you will not receive a paper of
your marked course work or feedback.
For information, help and advice on submitting coursework and accessing feedback, please see the
ELMA wiki at https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/SPSITWiki/ELMA
Journal
The journal is your account of the fieldwork tasks. As this is a new form of assessment you can
submit a formative journal which will not be assessed but which I will give feedback on so you can
learn what is expected.
The formative journal should be 500 words long. Submit the formative journal by 12pm noon, -
Week 5, Monday 14th October.
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The journal itself should be 1400-1600 words long. It should contain an account of at least two of
the fieldwork tasks. Submit it by Week 8 Monday 4th November.
Journals above 1,600 words will be penalized using the Ordinary level criterion of 1 mark for every
20 words over length: anything between 1,601 and 1,620 words will lose one point, between 1,621 and
1,640 two points, and so on. Note that the lower 1400 figure is a guideline for students which you will
not be penalized for going below. However, you should note that shorter essays are unlikely to achieve
the required depth and that this will be reflected in your mark.
You can submit a video and a shorter journal of 700-800 words if you are planning to do the video
ethnography. This allows you to keep the option of taking the long essay open. Word count penalties
apply as with the journal above.
Long Essay
Long essays should be 3,500-4,500 words long, excluding bibliography. The essay is submitted by
12pm, Monday 9th December.
Long Essays must be between 3500 and 4500 words in length, including footnotes/endnotes but
excluding the bibliography.
- You must include a word count (which your word processing software can produce) on the title
page.
- Essays above 4,500 words will be penalized using the Ordinary level criterion of 1 mark for every
20 words over length: anything between 4,501 and 4,520 words will lose one point, between 4,521 and
4,540 two points, and so on. The same penalties apply to the journal.
- Note that the lower 3,500 figure is a guideline for students which you will not be penalized for
going below. However, you should note that shorter essays are unlikely to achieve the required depth
and that this will be reflected in your mark.
So that you can get feedback before you submit the essay, submit a draft essay by the end of week
8. I want each of you to arrange to meet me in week 9 to discuss your essay plan.
Video ethnography
This will consist of a short ethnographic video made by you. To take this option, take video diaries
and documentary material when you are doing the fieldwork task. The final video should be 10-15
minutes long, along with a 2000 word reflective review highlighting key themes and linking them to
the literature.
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You can look here for an example: http://goo.gl/LhqMNS. This was produced by myself and a
group of Sociology students. I am not looking for anything as polished, but some of the same
techniques might be involved.
I will have a special session to introduce students who are interested in this assessment to it.
Lateness
If coursework is submitted after the deadline (noon on the relevant day) then Lateness Penalties
will apply. See the Sociology Honours Handbook or other student handbook relevant to you for the
lateness penalties, and on what to do should you have a good reason for missing the deadline.
Suggested Long Essay Questions
For all questions, it is up to you how you defined ‘drug’, so you can include alcohol, cigarettes,
medicines etc. unless I have specified ‘illicit drugs’ or ‘medicines’. I’ve added suggesting starting
points to each question, and you can ask me for more, but I also want you to explore the literature
yourself and decide what’s worth including and what is not.
1. What makes drug/alcohol problems real?
Start with: Dingelstad, D., Gosden, R., Martin, B. and Vakas, N. (1996), 'The social construction
of drug debates', Social Science & Medicine, 43, 12, 1829.
2. Critically assess the claim that addiction is a disease.
Start with: Valverde, M. (1998), Diseases of the Will: Alcohol and the Dilemmas of Freedom, New
York, Cambridge University Press.
3. Pleasure: the enemy of health? Discuss.
Start with: Luik, J. (1999), 'Wardens, Abbots, and Modest Hedonists: The Problem of Permission
for Pleasure in a Democratic Society', in Peele, S. and Grant, M. (eds.), Alcohol and Pleasure: A
Health Perspective, Philadelphia, Brunner/Mazel.
4. Examine the claim that methadone maintenance is largely concerned with governing addicts.
Start with: Bourgois, P. (2000), 'Disciplining Addictions: The Bio-Politics of Methadone and
Heroin in the United States', Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 24, 165-195.
5. How useful is Becker’s account of becoming a marijuana user to understanding drug use
today?
Start with: Becker, H. (1953), 'Becoming a Marihuana User', American Journal of Sociology, 59, 3,
235-242.
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6. What evidence is there to support or refute the notion that British society may be entering a
new historical phase of drug use and regulation?
Start with: Campbell, N.D. (2004), ‘Technologies of Suspicion: Coercion and Compassion in Post-
disciplinary Surveillance Regimes’, Surveillance & Society, 2, 1, 79-92.
7. What are the implications for society of a ‘pill for every ill’?
Start with: DeGrandpre, R.J. (2000), Ritalin Nation: Rapid-fire Culture and the Transformation of
Human Consciousness, New York, WW Norton.
8. Take a number of empirical studies of intoxication and/or intoxicant use; examine the research
design and methods used and discuss whether they give a convincing account of the subject
matter.
Start with: Webster, P. (1998), 'Never the Twain Shall Meet', International Journal of Drug Policy,
9, 417-474.
9. Using comparative examples, discuss in what ways intoxication is a cultural phenomenon.
Start with: Heath, D.B. (2000), Drinking Occasions: Comparative Perspectives on Alcohol and
Culture, New York, Brunner-Routledge.
10. The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee has asked you to prepare an expert
report with your recommendations on drug control and classification. What do you tell them?
Start with: RSA (2007), 'Drugs - Facing Facts: The Report of the RSA Commission on Illegal
Drugs, Communities and Public Policy', London, RSA.
11. In what ways, if any, is risk replacing morality as the primary mode of governance around
intoxication?
Start with: Bunton, R. (2001), 'Knowledge, Embodiment and Neo-Liberal Drug Policy',
Contemporary Drug Problems, 28, 221-243.
12. Apply any of the theories or perspectives discussed in the course to the phenomenon known as
‘sobriety’.
Start with: Mullaney, J.L. (2006), Everyone is NOT Doing it: Abstinence and Personal Identity,
Chicago, University of Chicago.
13. Examine how drugs, or a drug, are defined and classified. This could be legally, scientifically
or professionally. How do these processes of definition contribute to the social construction
of drug problems?
Start with: Dingelstad, D., Gosden, R., Martin, B. and Vakas, N. (1996), 'The social construction of
drug debates', Social Science & Medicine, 43, 12, 1829.
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14. Compare how recreational and medicinal drug use are both ‘governed’ and ‘governing’.
Start with: DeGrandpre, R.J. (2000), Ritalin Nation: Rapid-fire Culture and the Transformation of
Human Consciousness, New York, WW Norton.
15. Where and how does pleasure come into intoxication?
Duff, C. (2008) “The pleasure in context,” International Journal of Drug Policy 19, no. 5: 384-392.
Plagiarism
Never reproduce material that is not your own unless it is clearly marked as such. This includes
material from readings, the internet, other students' work and your own work that has been submitted
for another course.
You must ensure that you understand what the University regards as plagiarism and why the
University takes it seriously. This is your responsibility. All cases of suspected plagiarism, or other
forms of academic misconduct, will be reported to the College Academic Misconduct Officer. You’ll
find further information in the Sociology Honours (or Visiting student) handbook, and at the following
page:
http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/undergrad/honours/what_is_plagiarism
We use the ‘Turnitin’ system to check that essays do not contain plagiarised material. Turnitin
compares every assignment against a constantly-updated database, which highlights all plagiarised
work.
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SSPS Extended Common Marking Scheme
A+ (90-100%) An answer that fulfils all of the criteria for ‘A’ (see below) and in addition shows
an exceptional degree of insight and independent thought, together with flair in tackling issues,
yielding a product that is deemed to be of publishable quality, in terms of scholarship and originality.
A (80-89%) An authoritative answer that provides a fully effective response to the question. It
should show a command of the literature and an ability to integrate that literature and go beyond it. The
analysis should achieve a high level of quality early on and sustain it through to the conclusion.
Sources should be used accurately and concisely to inform the answer but not dominate it. There
should be a sense of a critical and committed argument, mindful of other interpretations but not afraid
to question them. Presentation and the use of English should be commensurate with the quality of the
content.
A- (70-79%) A sharply-focused answer of high intellectual quality, which adopts a
comprehensive approach to the question and maintains a sophisticated level of analysis throughout. It
should show a willingness to engage critically with the literature and move beyond it, using the sources
creatively to arrive at its own independent conclusions.
B B- (60-63%) B (64-66%) B+ (67-69%)
A very good answer that shows qualities beyond the merely routine or acceptable. The question and
the sources should be addressed directly and fully. The work of other authors should be presented
critically. Effective use should be made of the whole range of the literature. There should be no
significant errors of fact or interpretation. The answer should proceed coherently to a convincing
conclusion. The quality of the writing and presentation (especially referencing) should be without
major blemish.
Within this range a particularly strong answer will be graded B+; a more limited answer will be
graded B-.
C C- (50-53%) C (54-56%) C+ (57-59%)
A good answer with elements of the routine and predictable. It should be generally accurate and
firmly based in the reading. It may draw upon a restricted range of sources but should not just re-state
one particular source. Other authors should be presented accurately, if rather descriptively. There
should be no serious weaknesses in the coverage of the topic and the relevance of the material. Factual
errors and misunderstandings of concepts and authors may occasionally be present but should not be a
dominant impression. The quality of writing, referencing and presentation should be generally good.
Within this range a stronger answer will be graded C+; a weaker answer will be graded C-.
D D- (40-43%) D (44-46%) D+ (47-49%)
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A passable answer which understands the question, displays some academic learning and refers to
relevant literature. The answer should be intelligible and in general factually accurate, but may well
have deficiencies such as restricted use of sources or academic argument, over-reliance on lecture
notes, poor expression, and irrelevancies to the question asked. The general impression may be of a
rather poor effort, with weaknesses in conception or execution. It might also be the right mark for a
short answer that at least referred to the main points of the issue. Within this range a stronger answer
will be graded D+; a bare pass will be graded D-.
E (30-39%) An answer with evident weaknesses of understanding but conveying the sense that
with a fuller argument or factual basis it might have achieved a pass. It might also be a short and
fragmentary answer with merit in what is presented but containing serious gaps.
F (20-29%) An answer showing seriously inadequate knowledge of the subject, with little
awareness of the relevant issues or literature, major omissions or inaccuracies, and pedestrian use of
inadequate sources.
G (10-19%) An answer that falls far short of a passable level by some combination of short
length, irrelevance, lack of intelligibility, factual inaccuracy and lack of acquaintance with reading or
academic concepts.
H (0-9%) An answer without any academic merit which usually conveys little sense that the
course has been followed or of the basic skills of essay-writing.
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External Examiners
The External Examiners for this course for session 2013-2014 are as follows:
Dr Esther Dermott, University of Bristol
Dr Michael Halewood, University of Essex
