Grad Dip Cours… · Web viewFor each assignment, SAP or SPP, there is a specific word limit (2,500 words for Assignments 1 and 2; 2,000 words for Assignment 3; 5,000 words for

Deakin University

Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies

Course Guide forGraduate Diploma(Strategic Studies)

January 2013

A/Prof Claude Rakisits

Director – MA/Grad Dip ProgramsAcademic Adviser

Deakin University: Course Guide for Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies) 2

Deakin University: Course Guide for Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies)

IntroductionThe purpose of this Course Guide is to inform Course Members (CMs) undertaking the Graduate Diploma (Grad Dip) of the academic requirements and standards that Deakin University requires in order for you to complete this degree.

Deakin University’s Director—MA/Grad Dip Programs (who is also CDSS Academic Adviser), will be the Deakin University person with whom CMs doing the Grad Dip option have the most direct and regular contact. The role of Deakin’s Director - MA/Grad Dip Programs includes:

briefing CMs and answering your queries about the requirements and processes involved in obtaining a Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies);

helping you to select relevant and ‘doable’ topics for Assignments One and Two and the two major papers that you must complete in order to obtain your Grad Dip: the Strategic Assessment Paper (SAP) and the Security Policy Paper (SPP);

in conjunction with your Home SD , acting as your Academic Supervisor to guide and advise you about the research and writing aspects involved in completing your written assignments, especially your SAP and SPP;

examining your Assignments One and Two, your SAP and your SPP, and providing an assessment of each of these to you; and

acting as the single point of contact between the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies (CDSS) and Deakin University on all aspects of the Graduate Diploma component of the Defence and Strategic Studies Course (DSSC).

Please do not ask me to read or comment on draft copies of your Assignments One and Two and your SAP and SPP as I will be marking them.

I look forward to getting to know you all throughout this year as you undertake the Defence and Strategic Studies Course. I wish you a productive, enjoyable and successful time at the CDSS.

A/Prof Claude RakisitsDirector – MA/Grad Dip ProgramsSchool of Humanities and Social StudiesFaculty of Arts and EducationDeakin UniversityBurwood VIC 3125

E-mail: [email protected] [email protected]

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mailto:[email protected]



ContentsINTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................2

CONTENTS.................................................................................................................................................3

PART I GRADUATE DIPLOMA ACADEMIC OPTION.................................................................4

ELIGIBILITY AND ENROLMENT...................................................................................................................4REQUIREMENTS FOR GRAD DIP CMS........................................................................................................5SUBMISSION DATES FOR ALL WRITTEN ACADEMIC WORK.........................................................................5EXTENSION POLICY....................................................................................................................................5RESUBMISSION POLICY..............................................................................................................................6GRADES AND GRADUATION.......................................................................................................................7

PART II YOUR WRITTEN WORK.................................................................................................8

ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS FOR ASSIGNMENTS, SAP AND SPP..............................................................8FORMAT OF YOUR ACACEMIC PAPERS.....................................................................................................10ASSIGNMENTS 1, 2 AND 3........................................................................................................................11CHOOSING AND SUBMITTING YOUR SAP TOPICS.....................................................................................11SAP OUTLINE..........................................................................................................................................13WHAT IS A STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT PAPER (SAP)?..............................................................................13CHOOSING AND SUBMITTING YOUR SPP TOPICS......................................................................................14SPP OUTLINE...........................................................................................................................................15WHAT IS A SECURITY POLICY PAPER (SPP)?..........................................................................................16

PART III.....................................................................................................................................................18

ACADEMIC SUPERVISION, RESEARCH AND WRITING.............................................................18

ACADEMIC HELP AVAILABLE...................................................................................................................18UNDERTAKING RESEARCH.......................................................................................................................18DEAKIN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY SERVICES................................................................................................19ACADEMIC WRITING AND THE ARGUMENT..............................................................................................19WHAT IS EVIDENCE?................................................................................................................................20THE CHATHAM HOUSE RULE..................................................................................................................21CHEATING, PLAGIARISM AND COLLUSION................................................................................................21TIPS TO AVOID PLAGIARISM.....................................................................................................................22SOME TIPS WHILE WRITING......................................................................................................................23STYLE GUIDES..........................................................................................................................................24

PART IV REFERENCING AND YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY.........................................................25

REFERENCING..........................................................................................................................................25INTERNET SOURCES..................................................................................................................................26DATABASE SOURCES................................................................................................................................26BIBLIOGRAPHIES; LIST OF REFERENCES...................................................................................................26

APPENDIX A: EXAMPLE OF SAP MINUTE......................................................................................27

APPENDIX B: EXAMPLE OF SPP MINUTE.......................................................................................28

Appendix C: Statement of Authorship....................................................................................................29

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Part I Graduate Diploma academic optionEligibility and enrolment

Course Members (CMs) doing the Defence and Strategic Studies Course (DSSC) who consider themselves eligible to undertake a Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies) may apply in February to Deakin University to be enrolled in this course. Deakin’s Director—MA/Grad Dip Programs, Dr Claude Rakisits, will provide interested CMs with an enrolment form.

To be eligible to enrol in the Grad Dip option, a CM must have an undergraduate or postgraduate university degree or, alternatively, recognition of prior learning (RPL), as assessed or verified by Deakin’s Director—MA/Grad Dip Programs. Applicants in the RPL category will need to set out on the enrolment form the scope of their professional training, experience and responsibilities. This is a Deakin University requirement.

Because the Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies) is taught and assessed in English, there is also a language requirement that applies to overseas CMs.

Either Your first language must be EnglishOr Satisfactory completion of a post-secondary qualification within the last five years at

an institution where English is the language of instruction and assessment and evidence of at least two academic years of English language study. (A copy of the applicant’s studies record, clearly indicating that English was the language of instruction, must be supplied.)

Or Satisfactory completion of at least two academic years of full-time study in a

university degree program where English is the language of instruction and assessment no more than two years preceding the date of enrolment at Deakin. (A copy of the applicant’s studies record, clearly indicating that English was the language of instruction, must be supplied.)

Or You have obtained an overall band of 6.5 or better in the International English

Language Testing System (IELTS) test (with no individual band less than 6) which will have been taken no more than two years before the date of enrolment at Deakin.

Course Members who are required to take the IELTS are only allowed to so once prior to enrolment in the Grad Dip Program at the beginning of the year.

For more detailed English language requirement to enrol in Deakin’s MA/Grad Dip Programs, go to: http://www.deakin.edu.au/future-students/international/assets/resources/documents/course-guides/pg-english-requirements-2010.pdf

If you are accepted into the Grad Dip Program, Deakin University will provide you with an information pack that contains relevant details about the university and the Grad Dip Program. It will also issue you with a Student Card that will entitle you to utilise Deakin University’s library facilities.

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http://www.deakin.edu.au/future-students/international/assets/resources/documents/course-guides/pg-english-requirements-2010.pdf

http://www.deakin.edu.au/future-students/international/assets/resources/documents/course-guides/pg-english-requirements-2010.pdf


Requirements for Grad Dip CMs

To qualify for the award of a Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies), you must complete all of the DSSC assignments and requirements as detailed in the applicable CDSS ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ and other relevant CDSS documentation, including this Course Guide for the Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies).

This requires you to: fully participate in the five thematic lecture blocks and associated exercises

within the Defence and Strategic Studies Course; satisfactorily complete the designated three assignments; satisfactorily complete a 5,000-word Strategic Assessment Paper (SAP); and satisfactorily complete a 5,000-word Security Policy Paper (SPP).

The three assignments, the SAP and the SPP, must all meet the CDSS’s academic requirements and standards as set out in the ‘Defence and Strategic Studies Course Deliverable Submission Details’ and in this Course Guide. These standards may be altered or amended from time to time. Should any changes or amendments be made, CMs will be advised of these by PCDSS.The document ‘Defence and Strategic Studies Course Deliverable Submission Details’ provides process details for the three assignments, the SAP and the SPP. CMs have some flexibility with the topics for all assignments, within the boundaries of the guidance outlined during the Assignment brief. CMs will nominate their own topic for their SAP and for their SPP. For the SPP, however, a course sponsor or service chief may, in some cases, provide a topic or topics for an SPP to a CM. SAP and SPP topics may or may not be related.

Submission dates for all written academic workThe CDSS sets the submission dates for the various pieces of academic work that you must submit to Deakin University this year. Deakin adheres strictly to these dates. Given the tight turnaround times involved marking and returning your SAP and SPP, these submission deadlines cannot be changed.

Extension PolicyAll CMs must submit their various items of written work on the due dates detailed. An extension to any piece of written work is normally only granted to a CM where unforeseen personal or compassionate circumstances have arisen. The maximum period of extension for the 2,500 word assignments is two weeks. Where a CM considers there is a case to request an extension, the CM must:

discuss the matter with the on-line SD and Deakin’s Director - MA/Grad Dip Programs; and

submit a minute or email to the DSTUDS (information copy to Deakin’s Director - MA/Grad Dip Programs and the relevant SD) not later than a week prior to the submission date.

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The same principles apply for any CM seeking an extension to the SAP. The maximum period granted for an extension will be two weeks after the original SAP submission date. No SAP will be accepted after this date. The delegate for extensions is the DSTUDS. Due to the tight timelines involved with marking, no extension will be granted for the SPP. If the SPP is not submitted in the manner and at the time prescribed, it will not be accepted.

Resubmission PolicyShould a CM fail his/her SAP, there is some provision for the CM to resubmit his/her SAP. It is important to note that the CM will not be automatically entitled to resubmit.

Ordinarily resubmission of the SPP will not be allowed as all CMs should have reached the appropriate academic standard by the time that this major paper is submitted.

A resubmission of a SAP or SPP will only be allowed on a case-by-case basis and as a result of the Principal, the Director of Studies and Deakin’s Director - MA/Grad Dip Programs all agreeing that this is appropriate and/or that the CM can achieve the required standard via an amended and resubmitted SAP or SPP.

If a resubmission is granted for a SAP, the CM will be allowed up to a maximum of four weeks to re-work their paper and resubmit this for examination. This will be from the date of return of the examiners’ report to the CM. The CM specifically will have to address the examiners’ criticisms in his/her resubmitted SAP. Deakin’s Director—MA/Grad Dip Programs will oversee the resubmission process with the CM.

If a resubmission is granted for a SPP, the CM will be given until Monday 27 January 2014 to re-work his/her paper and resubmit this for examination.

In both cases, the maximum grade that a CM will be entitled to for his/her SAP or SPP is a pass.

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Grades and graduationAs the DSSC is a non-competitive course, all SAPs and SPPs that meet Deakin University’s requirements are, from the CDSS’s perspective, non-graded passes that ‘meet the required standard’. This means that the Examiners’ Report that you receive for your SAP and for your SPP will not contain a numerical mark or an actual grade. Rather, the report will inform you if your SAP or SPP has ‘met the minimum requirements’ or not, i.e. whether it has passed or failed. You will also receive some comments, feedback and/or advice from the examiner in this report.

For those CMs interested, you will be able to access the formal numerical grades that you obtained from Deakin University for your SAP and SPP in December 2013 or early January 2014 (i.e. some time after you have left the CDSS).

Each paper will be awarded one of the following grades: 50-59: Pass (Fair); 60-69: Credit (Good); 70-79: Distinction (Excellent); >80: High Distinction (Outstanding).

Deakin University will award a Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies) to those CMs who successfully meet the necessary requirements by the due date/s. The physical awarding of Grad Dip testamurs (a testamur is university terminology for the actual certificate or document awarded to eligible students for a degree) coincides with the Faculty of Arts Graduation Day ceremonies that will occur in 2014. These ceremonies usually take place in Melbourne or Geelong in April and October - but you will need to check the actual dates and venue.

A CM must apply to graduate in order to obtain a testamur. Information will be provided about this process around the time that you submit your SPP. It is not necessary to attend a Deakin University Graduation in order to obtain your testamur. Deakin can send a testamur to any eligible CM who is unable to, or who chooses not to, attend a graduation ceremony at Deakin University. You will still graduate via a graduation ceremony, but in absentia. After this ceremony has been completed, Deakin will physically mail your testamur to you. It is therefore imperative that both before and after you leave the CDSS later this year that you provide Deakin University with up-to-date contact details.

If a CM fails to meet the necessary requirements to obtain a Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies) degree from Deakin University, the matter will be referred to the Principal of CDSS.

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Part II Your written workThis section discusses the written pieces of work that each CM undertaking a Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies) must complete this year.

Each CM must submit the following written pieces in the following order: Assignment 1; A Minute to Deakin’s Director—MA/Grad Dip Programs and Home SD (SD) that

informs them of the topic for your Strategic Assessment Paper; Assignment 2; A document sent to Deakin’s Director—MA/Grad Dip Programs and Home SD

(SD) that contains an ‘SAP Outline’ plan that details how you intend to structure and complete your SAP;

Strategic Assessment Paper (SAP); A Minute to Deakin’s Director—MA/Grad Dip Programs and Home SD that

informs them of the topic for your Security Policy Paper (SPP); A document sent to Deakin’s Director—MA/Grad Dip Programs and Home SD

(SD) that contains an ‘SPP Outline’ plan that details how you intend to structure and complete your SPP;

Assignment 3; and A Security Policy Paper (SPP).

Each piece is discussed below. These are followed by a discussion about the academic requirements and standards that your SAP and SPP must meet.

Academic requirements for Assignments, SAP and SPP Must have an ‘argument’; must be fully referenced; must include a bibliography.

Each assignment, SAP and SPP must be written in English to the highest academic standards possible. It must have an argument, be fully referenced and have a bibliography or list of references. For referencing, CDSS uses the Oxford system to provide details of the evidence supporting your argument. CDSS provides a Style Guide to assist the Course Members complete their references correctly.

For each assignment, SAP or SPP, there is a specific word limit (2,500 words for Assignments 1 and 2; 2,000 words for Assignment 3; 5,000 words for the SAP and the SPP), plus or minus 10 per cent. That is, if the word limit is 2,500 words, the assessors will accept any piece that is between 2,750 and 2,250 words. Your footnotes, bibliography and any appendixes are not included in the word count. However, be warned: if your footnotes contain large amounts of unreferenced ‘supporting’ material that is excessive and/or that makes it look like you are writing another thesis in your footnotes in order to avoid having these words counted in your word count, you will lose marks.

Each written piece should have an introduction, a middle section that makes your argument and provides your supporting analysis, observations and evidence, and a conclusion. Your argument should be structured logically. Do not number each paragraph. Your conclusion also should not be a reiteration; rather, it should tell your

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assessor what you ‘conclude’ or deduce from the material and the argument that you have presented. In other words, you need a conclusion that points to and/or discusses the implications or ramifications of your argument for future events and developments.

Each written piece should provide a comprehensive an answer to the question being asked (within the word limit) and should demonstrate a full understanding of the topic. This could include defining key terms in the question, placing the question in a broader relevant context (e.g. theoretical or empirical) and stating why the question is important in this context. Also, try to use shorter sentences rather than longer, more complex ones - they are both easier to write and to read!

Your piece should also mount and build a logical and analytical argument that states your ‘case’ - or answer - in relation to the topic. This argument must be supported and/or substantiated by evidence inserted into the piece via references. It does not matter whether your assessor personally dislikes or disagrees with the argument that you advance; rather, your argument must be convincing and well supported by credible evidence.

If you say something that you consider to be a ‘fact’ (but which may or may not be known to your assessor or which he/she potentially may contest or disagree with), you must support this ‘fact’ by providing a reference that tells your assessor where you obtained this ‘fact’ from: e.g., a newspaper report, a journal article, a book, an official publication, a recorded interview with someone, etc. Equally, if you state something significant or controversial or contestable without providing evidence, you assessor may well ask you to provide evidence to support your statement or proposition. Hence, you must provide suitable evidence to support or substantiate your argument when needed and/or as appropriate. These references must be from unclassified and, principally but not necessarily solely, English-language sources. They must be inserted into your document in an appropriate, consistent and accurate format that adheres to academic standards. Your assessor also must be able to find and access these references in order to check or investigate your argument. You should always provide a page number/s for the document given in each reference when this comprises a book or a journal article.

Sloppy referencing suggests poor scholarship and may detract from your argument. On the other hand, good referencing strengthens your argument and your overall written piece. It is better to over reference than under reference, but obviously there is no need to reference a non-controversial fact known by all. Importantly, references also guard against plagiarism (also known as intellectual theft!), an academic misdemeanour that is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated at the CDSS. See ‘Cheating, plagiarism and collusion’ below.

When you cite or quote from other written works, these must be done accurately via a reference/s. Indeed, when quoting someone else, each quotation must be inserted into your own text exactly as per the original, errors and all (in which case, insert [sic] after the error). If you omit something from the quote, use an ellipsis (…); if you alter or add something to the quote, put this in square brackets ([ ]).

A bibliography or list of references should be included at the end of each written piece. Works should be listed alphabetically by author’s family name or, if the report is an official document without an author, by title. Beware using an excessive number of Internet sources. While these are easy to obtain, their veracity and reliability is not always good.

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In summary, you need to present an answer that comprises a logical and analytical argument. We do not want mere descriptive pieces or unconnected observations that tell us what happened and when this happened, but, rather, an answer that addresses the question and tells us why certain things happened and their ramifications.

In relation to what comprises ‘the required standard’, the following table provides advice:

Criteria Requirement

Fulfilment of the overall task The task was fully comprehended. The author offered an analysis and an argument. The material presented was linked to the task, topic or question asked. The paper was submitted on time.

Use of information, including evidence and examples

Well researched with good use of material, information or evidence that is appropriate, consistent and supportive of the analysis and conclusions. References used to acknowledge all sources of information and all use of others’ ideas. Bibliography or list of references also provided.

Application of theories and/or concepts dealt within the topic or unit

Relevant theories and concepts, etc., applied in an appropriate way. No major misunderstandings; logical connections between ideas made; no serious omissions.

Structure and organisation Sequence and structure logical and easy to follow. Introductory and concluding sections used effectively. Paragraphs and appropriate headings used throughout. Word count requirement met.

Language use The English language used is generally sound and clear throughout. Spelling, punctuation and grammar generally satisfactory.

Format of your academic papersProduce your academic papers in Microsoft Word. These must be 1.5 spaced, with a 2.5 cm (1 inch) margin on the top, bottom, left and right margins. Use either Arial or Times New Roman. This must be in 12 point.

Print your papers single-sided in black and white format (apart from any graphics that may need to be printed in colour). Avoid the excessive use of graphics, except maps (which are very useful in academic works), charts and tables.

It is not good academic style to use photos. While these may be interesting, aim to produce an academic document with a strong argument, not a journalistic one with pretty photos that actually lessen or detract from your argument.

Photos also take up a lot of space and memory. Based on past experience, these could make it difficult to email your documents from the CDSS system.

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Assignments 1, 2 and 3The CDSS’s document titled ‘CDSS Written Assignment Tasks for 2013’ provides the topics for assignments 1, 2 and 3. Each written assignment must meet the academic requirements and standards as detailed above in the section ‘Academic Requirements for Assignments, SAP and SPP’ below.

Assignment 1 requires you to write a 2500-word essay in which you must ‘Analyse two key security challenges facing your organisation at the strategic level in the next ten years’. You will receive the assessors’ reports that will give you feedback on this assignment and advise whether or not your assignment ‘meets the required standard’.Assignment 2 requires you to write a 2,500-word essay on a topic that relates to the core elements of Block 2. You can select this topic from a list or devise your own. Assignment 3 requires an individual 2,000-word essay on a strategic management issue arising from Block 4. You can select the topic from a list provided during the Assignment brief or devise your own and have it cleared by the relevant SD.In writing these three assignments, you must seek to answer the question set and try to fulfil the criteria given in the table above. Also, you should assume that your reader or assessor knows little or nothing about the subject (even if you know that they do - your assessor particularly wants to know what you know about the subject). You should therefore seek to define your terms, mount an argument and provide analysis that explains why things are the way they are (rather than simply detailing what or how things are). In relation to these matters, see ‘Academic writing and the argument’ below.

Choosing and submitting your SAP topicSelect one topic; advise your choice in a signed Minute.

You need to start thinking about the theme—or topic—for your Strategic Assessment Paper now. (To find out what an SAP is see ‘What is a Strategic Assessment Paper (SAP)?’ below.) You are encouraged to discuss your SAP topic with Deakin’s Director - MA/Grad Dip Programs, Dr Claude Rakisits.

Once you have determined your SAP topic, put this information into a signed Minute addressed to Deakin’s Director—MA/Grad Dip Programs and the Home SD as well as send them an e-mail copy of it. Appendix A provides an example of an SAP Minute. Your Minute must not be more than a page. It must nominate the topic that you will write about and why you have chosen it. The Minute must also include your name and email address. You will not be held rigidly to the title of the topic provided in the Minute, although you must stay in the same subject and/or geographic area. If unsure, see Deakin’s Director - MA/Grad Dip Programs, Dr Claude Rakisits.

To submit your Minute, see ‘Submission of documents’ below. Your SAP supervisor will be your Home SD .

In selecting the topic for your SAP, bear in mind that the aim of the paper is to display that you are able to understand and synthesise some of the issues and their implications that you have examined in ‘Block 2: The Contemporary and Future Strategic Setting’. Hence, the topic for your SAP should involve issues or drivers that come out of the

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discussion of this environment. Your SAP must also attempt to project 10 years into the future for each chosen issue.

As examples (only!), some of the issues that you could think about investigating in your SAP are (in no particular order): major security themes occurring in, or impacting on, the Asia-Pacific region or a

nation or nations within this region, e.g. the impact of globalisation on Indonesia/Malaysia/Vietnam; weapons proliferation in North Korea; development and/or potential use of weapons of mass destruction in Pakistan/Singapore/Iran; the response to terrorism in Pakistan/the Philippines/Indonesia/Australia/Fiji; resource politics and rivalry over gas, oil, water, minerals; ethno-nationalism in the Philippines/Indonesia/India; health and demographic/population issues and their impacts; environmental and other trans-national issues and their impact on Australia (or any other nation); peacemaking and peacekeeping; etc.;

strategic developments in a particular region, e.g. the growing strength of China in Northeast Asia; Iran’s development of a nuclear capability and its impact on South and Southwest Asia; China’s or India’s development of a ‘blue-water’ navy; instability and state ‘failure’ in the Pacific Islands; the impact of the isolation of North Korea or Myanmar; the diminution (or otherwise) of New Zealand’s strategic and military capability; etc.;

developments—or lack of developments—in bilateral/trilateral/multilateral relations, e.g. the Australia-Indonesia relationship; the increasingly volatile China-Japan relationship; the role of the US in the China-Japan relationship; the functioning (or non-functioning) of ASEAN; the inability of the United Nations Security Council to enforce its will; the role and future of OPEC; etc.;

the regional policies of a major power and their actual and potential impacts, e.g. the role of the US in Northeast Asia; the role of China in East Asia; India’s role in South Asia; the role of Indonesia in the ASEAN region; the growing role of Australia (or New Zealand) in the Southwest Pacific; China’s strategic rivalry with India; etc.; and

particular points of conflict, e.g. potential conflict over the Taiwan Strait; territorial rivalry in the South China Sea; instability in the Korean Peninsula; the ongoing Kashmir dispute; security of sea lines of communication and the transportation of energy; piracy in the Malacca Strait; territorial disputes; etc.

The above (non-exhaustive) list is a guide only. Decide yourself the issue that you wish to research and write about. However, in deciding your SAP topic, ensure that: the topic/s that you select interest you—it will be hard to research and write a

10,000-word paper if you find the topic/s uninteresting, meaningless or irrelevant; there is sufficient English-language material available for your topic/s. You will

need to do some preliminary research in a library database (e.g. the CDSS’s library or the Deakin University Library) to quickly determine this. If a search on your potential topic returns few ‘hits’, it may be too obscure or too narrow;

the topic is feasible and you are able to write approximately 10,000 words on that topic. This means that a broad topic such as ‘China and its future’ will need to be narrowed down to something like ‘The Chinese Communist Party and its immediate future’ or ‘China’s military economy and its future’.

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SAP OutlineA plan that details how you intend to complete your SAP.

You must submit a plan to your Home SD and Deakin’s Director—MA/Grad Dip Programs that informs them of how you intend to complete your Strategic Assessment Paper. Do this in a document titled ‘SAP Outline’. It is also a prerequisite to completing your Strategic Assessment Paper and obtaining your Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies).

Your SAP Outline needs to provide a research and writing plan that shows how you intend to undertake the completion of your SAP. It must briefly and clearly: identify your intended argument/s for your topic (even though you may not have

fully determined these argument/s at the time of submitting your plan, writing it will start you thinking about these vital matters);

show the possible sections of your SAP; and provide a proposed timetable for writing the various sections of your SAP.

More specifically, your plan must include a synopsis of the main argument/s for your SAP topic, along with four or five proposed section headings, each with a (brief) paragraph summarising the contents.

At this stage, it is important to have thought out - or at least to have started to think about - the main points of your proposed argument/s, the key theories and analytical concepts that you will employ, and how you intend to develop these in your sections. However, your outline is a guide only. It is designed to get you focusing on what is needed to complete your SAP. You will not be rigidly held to the details provided in it.

To submit your SAP Outline, see ‘Submission of documents’ below. Your SD and Deakin’s Director—MA/Grad Dip Programs will return the plan to you soon after you submit it. It will be marked as ‘satisfactory’ or ‘unsatisfactory’. They may also provide some feedback on it and may suggest modifications, additions, etc.

What is a Strategic Assessment Paper (SAP)?Discusses one challenge; needs 10-year projection.

For CMs undertaking the Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies), the Strategic Assessment Paper is a written piece of 5,000 words. It is also one of the major requirements needed to obtain your Grad Dip.

Each SAP must be fully referenced, using footnotes at the bottom of each page. You are free to determine the structure of your SAP, although this would best be done in consultation with your SD or the Academic Adviser.

Your Strategic Assessment Paper must explore one current or future challenge to national or regional security. It may be written from the perspective of Australia or another nation in the Asia-Pacific region.1

Your Strategic Assessment Paper is an analytical document. It must critically analyse, assess and interpret the political and strategic dynamics of the topic that you have

1 Note: This includes what the United Nations refers to as ‘South West Asia’ or more commonly, the Middle East.

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chosen to explore. Put differently, it must examine the impact of the topic you have chosen on inter-state relations. Most importantly, its focus is strategic (big picture), not tactical (in the weeds). It must also include some theoretical or conceptual discussion of the descriptive and analytical approaches of your analysis. That is, you must discuss what the issue is, why it is important, and where it sits in the prevailing political, strategic and intellectual framework. Furthermore, this must be done analytically and critically. That is, you must offer an argument that provides compelling reasons or proof as to why the situation is the way it is, why it is important, the ramifications of the situation, and why it may or may not change in the future.

Hence, the requirement is for a factually-grounded, well-reasoned and well-structured paper, with a clearly-stated central argument (or arguments) that informs your reader - who, in this case, will be your supervisor and, most importantly, your examiner - why the situation you have chosen to analyse is the way it is and, based on your research and/or the theoretical approach that you have adopted to inform your argument, what is likely to happen in future.

You must therefore demonstrate a sound knowledge of the subject and employ a wide range of source materials both for your research and in your supporting references.

It is also a requirement that you must attempt to project 10 years into the future. That is, you must offer a prognosis or forecast and some informed suggestions and/or analysis as to the likely future and/or prospective future developments in relation to the issue or topic that you have chosen to examine.

As with all university assignments, you are encouraged to develop and present your own ideas on your topic. Wherever possible, these must be supported with evidence from the sources that you have used. (See the section ‘What is Evidence?’ below.)

On Monday 5 August 2013, you will receive two Examiner’s Reports, one from the Academic adviser and the other from a SD, that will give you feedback on your SAP and advise you whether or not it has ‘met the minimum requirements’.

Choosing and submitting your SPP topicSelect one topic; advise your choice in a signed Minute.

More than two weeks before you submit your SAP, you have to determine your topic for your Security Policy Paper. (To find out what an SPP is see ‘What is a Security Policy Paper (SPP)?’ below.) Your SPP topic may or may not be related to your SAP topic.

You are encouraged to discuss your SPP topic and the scope of this paper with the Academic Adviser and your SD, prior to the topic proposal date.

In some cases, a course sponsor or service chief may provide a CM with a topic for their SPP. Please advise the Academic Adviser and your SD, if this applies to you.

Once you have determined your SPP topic, put this information into a signed Minute addressed to Deakin’s Director - MA/Grad Dip Programs and the Home SD as well as send them an e-mail copy of it. Appendix B provides an example of an SPP Minute. Your Minute must be no more than a page. It must nominate the topic that you will write about and why you have chosen it. The Minute must also include your name and email address. You will not be held rigidly to the title of the topic provided in the

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Minute, although you must stay in the same subject and/or geographic area. If unsure, see Deakin’s Director - MA/Grad Dip Programs, Dr Claude Rakisits.

To submit your Minute, see ‘Submission of documents’ below. Your SPP supervisor will be your Home SD.

In deciding the choice of your topic for your SPP, bear in mind that the aim of the paper is to display that you are able to understand and synthesise some of the issues and their implications that you have examined in ‘Block 3: Higher Command and the Conduct of Joint and Combined Operations’, ‘Block 4: Capability and Force Development’, and ‘Block 5: Policy Formulation and Decision-Making. The topic for your SPP should therefore be about issues or drivers that you think will come out of the discussion of these more security- and defence-related environments and to which you can formulate appropriate, viable and achievable policy responses.

SPP OutlineA plan that details how you intend to complete your SPP.

You must submit a plan to your Home SD and the Academic Adviser that informs them or her of how you intend to complete your Security Policy Paper. This must be in the form of a document titled ‘SPP Outline’. It is also a prerequisite to completing your Security Policy Paper and obtaining your Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies).

Your SPP Outline needs to provide a research and writing plan that shows how you intend to undertake the completion of your SPP. It must briefly and clearly:

identify the main policy recommendation for your topic; show the possible sections of your SPP; and, provide a proposed timetable for writing the various sections of your SPP.

More specifically, your plan must include a synopsis of your SPP’s policy points, along with four or five proposed section headings, each with a (brief) paragraph summarising the contents.

At this stage, it is important to have thought out - or at least to have started to think about - the main points of your proposed policies, how and which bodies will implement these, any likely outcomes and obstacles that they may confront, the financial cost and implications of your proposed policies, etc. However, your plan is a guide only. It is designed to get you focusing on what is needed to complete your SPP. You will not be rigidly held to the details provided in it.

To submit your SPP Outline, see ‘Submission of documents’ below. Your SD and the Academic Adviser will return your plan to you soon after you submit it. It will be marked as ‘satisfactory’ or ‘unsatisfactory’. They may also provide some feedback on it and may suggest modifications, additions, etc.

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What is a Security Policy Paper (SPP)?

Offers realistic policy; has resource implications statement.

For CMs undertaking the Graduate Diploma (Strategic Studies), the Security Policy Paper is a written piece of 5,000 words. It is also one of the major requirements needed to obtain your Grad Dip.

Each SPP must provide full references where appropriate or needed. However, some policy that you formulate may be your own original work/ideas and therefore will not need to be referenced. You are free to determine the structure of your SPP, although this would best be done in consultation with your Home SD and the Academic Adviser.

If your SPP flows from or is related to your SAP, you will need to acknowledge this via a footnote early on in your SPP. The text for both documents will also need to be totally different, i.e. you cannot ‘cut and paste’ text from your SAP into your SPP. This is totally unacceptable. The two papers must be ‘stand alone’ documents.

Your SPP must discuss and provide appropriate, viable and achievable policy responses to a security2 and/or defence-related issue. The paper may be written from the perspective of Australia or another country in the Asia-Pacific. You must make it clear from which national government perspective you are writing (e.g. Australia, China, PNG, etc.).

Your SPP must then identify and discuss the significant security or defence issue, defect/shortcoming or need that you have identified to be the problem. It must discuss and analyse why this issue is important and/or why it is a current (or future) problem. As a rough rule, use about 20 per cent of your paper to place the issue in context. That is, about 1,000 words.

The rest of your SPP - the bulk of it: about 80 per cent - must then provide appropriate, viable and achievable policies that address how to deal with this issue that you have raised. In other words, you must propose policy options that will overcome or remedy the problem that you have identified and argue why and how these policies would/will successfully work to solve or overcome the problem. You may propose various economic, military, diplomatic, environmental and other policies as you see fit - and can reasonably argue. These of course may be original ideas and/or policies never before envisaged or espoused, in which case you probably will not be able to support them with references. It is fine to be original.

Your SPP should therefore seek to argue that ‘a’ or ‘a and b’ or ‘a, b and c’, etc., are the problem and that ‘x, y and z’ policies, etc., should be implemented - and why these policies will work. These must be specific policy prescriptions, not broad and sweeping generalisations. Your SPP must also detail how and which bodies (government or other organisations) should/would implement your policies, and argue why and how these policies would work. You may also need to consider how you may overcome any potential opposition to the policies that you propose.

Your SPP therefore gives you the chance to be creative and formulate imaginative policy responses to the significant issue/defect/need that you have raised. However, the options and suggestions that you make in your SPP must be realistic.

2 The term ‘security’ can be very broad. CMs should discuss and confirm these issues with the Academic Adviser.

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To avoid creating expensive policy ‘wish lists’, it is a requirement that you must include a resource implications statement in your SPP. This must take into account the current budgetary parameters of ‘your’ government and/or otherwise fully justify any change in national spending priorities. In other words, if you don’t believe that what you are proposing will cost any more money, then you must say so - although you may also need to discuss where you will get/move the money from to implement your policies. Equally, if you are proposing something that would radically alter the current budgetary position of ‘your’ nation, you need to discuss and/or justify where the new revenue will come from, e.g. from increased taxation, a reallocation of resources, a re-ordering of capability development priorities, a ‘fire sale’ of national assets, etc.

The resource implications statement does not need to be long or detailed - a paragraph or two will be sufficient. But somewhere in your SPP, your assessors will be looking for some words on the issue of how you will finance the policies that you have recommended.

To submit your SPP, see ‘Submission of documents’ below. On Monday 9 December 2013, you will receive two Examiner’s Reports, one from the Academic adviser and the other from a SD, that will give you feedback on your SPP and advise you whether or not it has ‘met the minimum requirements’.

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Part IIIAcademic supervision, research and writingIt may be some time since you have researched, written and produced any academic-type documents. This section deals with these matters and offers suggestions about the type of prose and documents that Deakin University expects you to provide in order to obtain your Graduate Diploma. It also discusses the role of supervision.

With the exception of Assignment 1, one useful way to focus your research and writing is to determine, then answer, one ‘big question’. Once you have formulated this question, it is easier to collect relevant information and write a focused paper that mounts and sustains an argument that seeks to answer your question. Don’t be afraid to mount an argument that puts your point of view - supported by relevant evidence, of course. This is good academic ‘form’.

Academic help availableYou are not alone as you research and write your SAP and SPP. Apart from other CMs, the CDSS’s SDs can also offer you guidance, instruction and help, they can act as a sounding board for your ideas and plans, and they may review a draft of your written material (see Defence and Strategic Studies Course Deliverable Submission Details for any constraints on certain SDs who may be involved as a marker). Apart from your Home SD, contact the Academic Adviser, particularly if you have any questions about what comprises suitable academic practice, standards and requirements.

Past experience suggests that, if you are having any difficulties with your written work, it is better to contact someone sooner rather than later.

Ultimately, your final ‘product’ will depend on what you write and how it is written, with CDSS staff only really able to help with structure, in the development of your style and with a critique of your content, argument and academic practices. Hence, it is your written work for which you are responsible and with which you must be happy and satisfied - regardless of what others say or do.

Undertaking researchIt is essential to read both widely and intensively on the topics that you have chosen for your SAP and SPP. When taking notes and/or photocopies of research items, it is better to take more notes rather than less. This invariably will save you time in the long run. Always be sure to note the full publication details of the item you are reading, including: the name of the author/s or editor/s; its full title; place of publication; publisher; date of publication; edition (first, second, fifth, etc.) or volume number; and, most importantly, the page number/s from which you have taken any notes or quotes. It is also handy to note the publication’s location and call number in case you need to check on something at a later date, e.g. the wording or page number of a quote.

The first place to begin your research is in the library, either the Australian Defence College (ADC) Library or by going on-line to the Deakin University Library. (See ‘Deakin University Library services’ below.) Canberra also has a number of world-class libraries you can access. These include the Australian National Library and

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libraries at the Australian National University, the University of Canberra and the Australian Defence Force Academy. There are also good local public libraries.

CMs should also keep up to date in their area of interest—and with international relations/strategic policy/news in general—by accessing on a daily basis a ‘quality’ newspaper, such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian or The Australian Financial Review. The ADC Library has copies of such newspapers, other current affairs-type magazines and a range of interesting academic journals that would be useful for your research. These may also offer further ‘leads’ in your area of interest.

The Internet is another source of information, although you must be realistic about using websites as references, chiefly as you cannot always be sure of a site’s veracity. Many websites lack balance and objectivity; some are plain bogus or propaganda tools. Website material also has another major flaw: material from it often disappears as websites come and go and/or are altered or reorganised from time to time. Therefore, if you use Internet material, keep a hard copy of any key material that you decide to use in your SAP/SPP as your examiner may ask to see it if he/she cannot find it elsewhere.

Deakin University Library servicesAll CMs enrolled in the Grad Dip Program have access to the Deakin University Library. The URL for this site is: http://www.deakin.edu.au/library/

Your borrowing rights at the Deakin University Library allow you to: borrow any non-reference book, document or audio-visual item in the Library; order copies of relevant journal articles held by the Library; access on-line journals and download full-text articles from various on-line

databases; request materials and communicate with the Library by mail, fax, phone, electronic

mail or via the Internet; renew items on loan by telephone or by accessing the Library catalogue yourself; and have Library materials sent to you by courier or post, with return to the Library at no

cost to yourself.

The University’s computer network allows 24-hour access to the Library computer system and other electronic services.

You need to establish a Deakin network user name and password to use many of these abovementioned options. This can be done after you have successfully enrolled in the Grad Dip Program. If, after some time, you do not have a network user name and password, contact Deakin’s Director - MA/Grad Dip Programs, Dr Claude Rakisits.

Academic writing and the argumentAcademic writing is different from government report writing or journalism. Generally speaking, a government report may operate inside a taken-for-granted set of conceptual and political assumptions. It usually describes the situation and analyses possible policy options and their consequences, often from the perspective of those who are inside the prevailing political, administrative and ‘in’ group. On the other hand, academic writing

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assumes far less about its audience and their knowledge - or lack of it - about a certain subject.

Academic writing defines its terms and mounts an ‘argument’.3 Instead of just describing a situation or problem, academic writing provides a line of reasoning or a point of view that proposes why the situation or problem is the way that it is. It supports or justifies this proposition with compelling and supportive reasoning and/or factual evidence.

Academic writing is therefore somewhat similar to mounting a law suit: it must mount a compelling case, or argument, that seeks to convince a critical

audience (in your case, your examiner); it must be to the point, interesting and avoid using jargon and acronyms as your

assessor either may have limited or no knowledge of areas related to your expertise, or, if they do have knowledge and expertise (as your examiner almost certainly will have), they will want to be sure that you know what you are talking about;

it must prove - or substantiate - every topical or contestable point by providing relevant evidence, preferably from a primary source (see next section);

it must acknowledge where its ideas and/or evidence came from (in your case, via references and a bibliography); and

the assessors must be able to procure copies of the evidence advanced, or, if they can’t, then the person mounting the case must have copies of the evidence that he/she can make available to the assessor.

What is evidence?Evidence is a vital academic tool that scholars - of which you are one while writing your SAP and SPP - use to substantiate or support their argument. They insert this into their written work by using references, usually in the form of footnotes. These comprise pieces of supporting information - usually references to published works and/or to other sources - which other scholars (especially your examiner) can also access in order to verify this information and thereby help to confirm your argument, and/or to further their knowledge of a subject.

Evidence comprises primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are those written, compiled or produced by people or organisations present when an issue or event took place. Secondary sources are interpretations of primary accounts. Primary sources include original accounts or versions of an event, occurrence or issue, such as: oral statements, personal journals and diaries; letters; newspapers and magazines published at the time; censuses; government reports published at the time; treaty texts; radio broadcasts, television programs and films produced at the time; etc. Secondary sources include: books, journals, and other interpretations of first hand accounts or versions.

Primary sources are important for original academic scholarship. Indeed, wherever possible, these are the best sources to use. Secondary sources play an important role where primary source documents are not readily available.

3 Brown, The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Volume I (A-M), p. 112, states that an argument is a ‘connected series of statements or reasons intended to establish a position’.

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The Chatham House RuleAn excellent primary source is often public talks, speeches and presentations. However, beware! All presenters at CDSS give their presentations under the Chatham House Rule. It states that:

When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.4

The CDSS policy is that anything said by any person who presents at CDSS, and/or any handouts that he/she provides at the CDSS, cannot be included in any written work that you submit (nor, indeed, in any written work that you do after the DSSC). This is to prevent misrepresentation or misquotation of a presenter and his/her stance (as happened a few years ago to a Director of Australia’s Defence Intelligence Organisation whose supposedly confidential speech at a university was reported in a newspaper by a journalist who had been in attendance as a student).

Should a CM wish to quote material from a presentation, the CM should contact the presenter separately and quote the subsequent discussion or correspondence. A copy of the Chatham House Rule is displayed in the Spender Theatre and each Syndicate Room.

Cheating, plagiarism and collusionDeakin University considers plagiarism and collusion to be extremely serious issues. Indeed, both are academic offences. They are also serious breaches of academic ethics and of Deakin University’s rules, and can result in failure on this course. They are considered forms of cheating, and severe penalties are associated with them, including cancellation of marks for a specific assignment, for a specific unit or even exclusion from the course.

Deakin University’s definitions of plagiarism and collusion are as follows:• Plagiarism occurs when a student passes off as the student’s own work, or copies without acknowledgment of its authorship, the work of any other person.• Collusion occurs when a student obtains the agreement of another person for a fraudulent purpose with the intent of obtaining an advantage in submitting an assignment or other work.

Whenever you refer to another person’s research or ideas (either by directly quoting or by paraphrasing them), you must acknowledge your source. Deakin University’s policy on plagiarism and collusion is available at The Guide http://theguide.deakin.edu.au/. Regulation 4.1(1) Student Discipline also contains important information regarding academic misconduct, including plagiarism and collusion.

Unauthorised collaborationUnauthorised collaboration is a related form of cheating. It involves working with others with the intention of deceiving your markers about who actually completed the work. If you have collaborated with others in preparing an individual assessment item, you must disclose this to Deakin’s Director - MA/Grad Dip Programs. Even with group work you will generally have to write up your own report.

4 For further information on the Chatham House Rule, see http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/about/chathamhouserule/ [accessed 22 August 2012].

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PenaltiesDeakin University’s Faculty of Arts’ Academic Progress and Discipline Committee will impose a penalty on any student who is found to have committed an act of academic misconduct such as plagiarism, collusion, examination cheating or unauthorised collaboration. These penalties can include:

a reprimand; a fine not exceeding $500; allocation of a zero mark in the relevant task (or another such mark as is

appropriate); allocation of a zero mark in the relevant unit (or another such mark as is

appropriate); allocation of a zero mark in such other units in which the student is enrolled; suspension of the student for up to one year; and exclusion of the student for a minimum of one year.

If a Course Member enrolled in the Graduate Diploma Program is guilty of plagiarism, it will be at the discretion of the Academic Adviser to decide whether the Course Member will fail instantly that essay or if the Course Member will be required to re-submit a new essay. If allowed to re-submit, the Course Member will only be entitled to a pass grade, i.e. 50 per cent, for his/her re-submitted essay.

Tips to avoid plagiarismTo plagiarise is to take someone else’s ideas and present them as your own. Never copy the words used by an author or anyone else and present them as your own. When you use the words of others, make it clear that you are making a direct quotation and cite this source via a reference/footnote. When you use ideas discovered or obtained from other people, acknowledge this source via a footnote.

Paraphrasing is when you summarise someone else’s ideas and/or words and insert these into a document of your own. You should try to avoid such a practice as experience shows that it can very easily lead to plagiarism. That said, should you decide to paraphrase another author’s words and/or ideas (see below), you must make it clear when you are doing so by citing this source via a reference/footnote. Furthermore, when paraphrasing, it is important that you avoid close paraphrasing, i.e. only changing one or two words in a sentence. Such paraphrasing amounts to plagiarism and is totally unacceptable. Should you be found to be engaging in such a practice, your assignment will be deemed to be unsatisfactory. You may - or may not - be given a chance to rectify this issue. This will be decided by the Principal.

You should also avoid paraphrasing your own words that you may have used in another document submitted to the CDSS or any other body/institution, e.g. using/paraphrasing words from your SAP in your SPP. If you really need to use some of your own words, you should quote yourself exactly and/or reference yourself and your relevant document. However, please bear in mind the point mentioned above that your SAP and SPP must be ‘stand alone’ documents in which the text is totally different.

In relation to using someone else’s ideas in your work, you must provide a reference to show where you obtained these. Your reference/s must also show the source of the major arguments of others that you may be using to mount your own argument and/or whose ideas you may be using, or building upon, in your own written work. This is

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good academic scholarship. Your references must also indicate the sources of all direct quotations.

If you are in any doubt about the meaning of plagiarism, discuss it with your Home SD or with the Academic Adviser.

Some tips while writingWhile research is vital and interesting, it is essential to stop reading and researching at particular points and begin to write up sections of your SAP or SPP. Even so, your research and writing tasks may be intermingled until about a month or so before your final submission date, after which the emphasis should be on refining your written product rather than engaging in further extensive research or reading. Your aim is not to submit a piece that has the latest, up-to-date information, but a piece that has excellent analysis, argument/s and/or policies. In other words, for your SAP, you want a paper that has lots of ‘why’ and ‘so what’, not lots of ‘what’ or ‘how’. For your SPP, you want lots of ‘here are my policies’ and ‘this is why and how they will work’.

Some people struggle with writing. However, if you don’t write anything, your Home SD will have nothing about which he/she can comment. It is better to get something down on paper, even if it is only a rough draft, rather than nothing at all. If you are having what amounts to ‘writer’s block’, i.e. you feel unable to write anything or are thoroughly confused about how to begin writing your SAP or SPP, contact the Academic Adviser, Dr Claude Rakisits, immediately.

Often just before you submit a piece of work, there may be some panic about important academic requirements that seemed trivial at the time when you were merrily writing your prose and expounding your argument. Matters that may rear their ugly heads include things such as: ‘Where did I get that reference from?/Where will I get a reference for that controversial point from?; What are the publication details for that book/article that I used as a reference?; What page was that quote on?’.

To save some time with such matters - that comprise vital aspects of excellent academic scholarship but which examiners love to detect mistakes in - the following may help: insert in full in the footnote the details, including the relevant page number/s, about

an issue that you are writing about at the time that you are writing about it; insert the full title and publication details for your reference with each footnote. This

avoids mistakes when cutting and pasting text that may have short forms of titles or terms such as ‘ibid.’ or ‘op cit.’ embedded in it;

as one of the last tasks that you do (probably the final thing before creating a Contents page), edit these long titles down to short titles;

be careful when inserting quotes: quotes must be exactly as per the original, including with any errors (in which case, insert [sic] after the error);

always insert the full title for a website and the date that you accessed it. Try to copy and paste these titles into your document as one mistake in a URL makes it impossible to retrieve a website. It also makes your scholarship look sloppy - and makes examiners very wary!

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Style guidesThe key to good writing is to be consistent. Choose a particular style guide and stay with it. With the world becoming an increasingly globalised/globalized place, it is now acceptable to spell this word, and other such words that use either an ‘s’ (the British and Australian traditions) or a ‘z’ (the United States tradition), either way. This applies to other such words like internationalise, recognize, materialise, democratize, etc. Just be consistent.

The reasonable use of acronyms and abbreviations is acceptable and the meaning need only be stated with its first use. Hence, write out the full title of the abbreviation the first time you mention it in your text, followed by its abbreviation in parentheses: thus the first reference to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) reads as such.

Avoid jargon. The overuse of acronyms is sometimes a form of defence jargon known in the United States as ‘Pentagonese’. ‘NATO’ is fine but ‘MRE’ for ‘Meals Ready to Eat’ is certainly not. It may therefore be useful to provide a list of all the acronyms you have used in a glossary (like the one at the end of this document). This is not included in the word count. Also, be aware that your supervisors and examiners may not be familiar with the technical specifications and capabilities of particular weapons systems.

The last two pages of CDSS’s Style Guide (included in your orientation pack) provide a few stylistic points to assist you with this issue.

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PART IV Referencing and your bibliographyRemember: You have been issued the Deakin University’s ‘Guide to assignment writing and referencing’. The notes in this section reinforce the guidance in that guide.

Referencing and bibliographies are important scholarly disciplines that mark one of the big differences between academic writing and journalese and/or official/secret report writing: the writer must substantiate his/her case or argument by providing references to open-source, public material that supports this case or argument. This is done via specific footnotes in the text of the essay/paper or endnotes at the end of it and by the inclusion of a bibliography or a list of references at the end of the essay/paper that shows the various sources and documents that the author consulted.

You must include a bibliography of works cited, accessed or used at the end of your document. It must include all sources that you have used as references, as well as any other sources that influenced your thinking on the issue about which you have been writing. List these in alphabetical order based on author’s name or, if there is no author, on the name of the organisation responsible for compiling the papers, report or document.

At CDSS we use the Oxford referencing system. In order to assist you, CDSS has provided a separate Style Guide which was included in your orientation pack. It is slightly different from the Oxford style used at Deakin University.

Referencing Every scholarly piece of writing needs references to confirm and/or enhance the argument. Indeed, references strengthen an argument. And it is better to over reference than to under reference. However, if a paragraph is based on one reference, it is more helpful to the reader or assessor to put the footnote at the end of the paragraph’s first sentence and then to put some words in the footnote like ‘This paragraph is based on (then list the document/s and its/their details)’. Hence, if in doubt, put in a supporting reference. These can be shortened later if needs be. Good references and good referencing only strengthen your argument.

Hence, you use referencing systems for citing references to quotations and to sources of information and argument. One also uses it if you wish to direct the reader to further reading on an issue dealt with in the body of the essay/paper.

In the Oxford system, references entail small numbers inserted (after the punctuation) in the body of the text either after a relevant point that needs a reference or after a quotation. A footnote at the bottom of the page is then used to provide the details of the reference or to expand on the point being made.

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Internet sourcesIt is acceptable to use Internet references, although academic assessors are still quite wary of the excessive use of Internet sources in an essay, as they suggest laziness and a lack of solid or substantial research. The excessive use of such sources also sometimes makes academic assessors wary of plagiarism. Beware of electronic material that you cite as it may disappear from the Internet. Therefore, it is a good idea to save copies of key Internet material in case it has been removed from the Internet and/or your assessor wishes to see it. In your reference to Internet material, cite the author or the organisation that owns the website, the title of the piece within the website, the website’s URL inside < > brackets and the date that you accessed this material.

Database sourcesDatabases are an excellent resource that can provide you with a wide range of scholarly and analytical materials as well as news items. Databases include the Jane’s online materials, as well as Proquest, CIAONet and Emerald, which are accessible through the Vane Green or Deakin libraries. However, unlike the Internet, a database resource should not be cited by the search string that appears in your browser address. It should be cited by author, name, date, publication and other information as if it is a hard copy. Basically, you need to give a citation as information that helps another reader to find it in conducting their own search. For Jane’s online materials, the citation to the title, author where known, and referenced to Jane’s online, and date accessed is acceptable.

Bibliographies; list of referencesYou must include a bibliography of works cited, retrieved or used at the end of your document. It must include all sources that you have used as references, as well as any other sources that influenced your thinking on the issue about which you have been writing. List these in alphabetical order based on author’s family name or, if there is no author, on the name of the organisation responsible for compiling the papers, reports or documents.

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Appendix A: Example of SAP Minute

MINUTE

To: Director MA/Grad Dip Programs

From: GPCAPT Billy Bloggs

Subject: Topic for Strategic Assessment Paper (SAP)

Topic: ANZUS obligations in the event of a military confrontation between China, Taiwan and the US

ANZUS is the pre-eminent treaty in regard to Australia’s National Security Strategy. It (supposedly) ties Australia closely to the United States on defence and security issues. With recent tensions between China and Taiwan over Taiwanese aspirations for independence, questions have arisen as to what Australia’s actions would—and should—be in the event of a military conflict between China, Taiwan and the US. This paper will examine the perceived and explicit obligations of each party under the various articles of the ANZUS Treaty. It will use current theories on International Relations to assess the influences of national policy drivers such as interests, competition, ideals and uncertainty on any decision to commit Australian military forces to such a conflict. It will also examine the likelihood of such a security situation developing and the ramifications of this for Australia and for US-Australia relations.

Name: GPCAPT Capt. Billy BloggsEmail address: [email protected]

Billy Bloggs

Date: 6 March 2011

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Appendix B: Example of SPP Minute

MINUTE

To: Director MA/Grad Dip Programs

From: GPCAPT Billy Bloggs

Subject: Topic for Security Policy Paper (SPP)

Topic: How Australia should deal with the rise of India and its growing military and maritime capabilities

Australia currently faces an array of actual and potential security challenges of both a conventional and non-conventional nature. One of the least considered of these challenges is the rise of India. Its development of a substantial military and maritime capability is significant. This will extend India’s strategic reach, give it a greater ability to project power, and enable it to have a greater influence on events in the South Asian, South-East Asian and Indian Ocean regions. India and Australia are both littoral Indian Ocean states. But will—or should—Australia and India compete or cooperate? This SPP will propose policies about Australia should deal with the rise of India and its growing military and maritime capabilities.

Name: GPCAPT Billy BloggsEmail address: [email protected]

Billy Bloggs

Date: 3 July 2011

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Appendix C: Statement of Authorship

AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE COLLEGE

DEFENCE AND STRATEGIC STUDIES COURSE

CM:

SUBJECT TOPIC:

SYNDICATE:

DUE DATE:

WORD COUNT:

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP:

I certify that this material is the result of my own research and writing, except where otherwise acknowledged, and that this work in whole or in part has not been submitted to the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies as part of any other written work, nor has it been submitted to any other university or institution as part of any academic unit or program for any reward.

APPROVAL TO PUBLISH:

I grant/do not grant* approval for the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies, or an agent of that organisation, to publish this article and my biography, in whole or in part. I also retain the right to reproduce or publish this article, in whole or in part.

Note - * Delete as applicable.

Signature: …………………………………….

Date Submitted:………………………….

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Documents

Grad Dip Cours… · Web viewFor each assignment, SAP or SPP, there is a specific word limit (2,500 words for Assignments 1 and 2; 2,000 words for Assignment 3; 5,000 words for