Essay Question for the In-Course Reassessment
Consider the extent to which Williams v Roffey [1989] EWCA Civ 5 has left the doctrine of consideration inconsistent and uncertain.
Before you commence this assignment
Read all of the instructions outlined above and ensure that you comply. In particular, please be aware that you must meet the hand in date specified for this work. Please note that any late submission will automatically be awarded a mark of 0% which will only be lifted if you have an Exceptional Factors application accepted by the University’s panel.
Go back through your work from your lectures and workshops on the topic of consideration and ensure that you understand all aspects of the topic. It is only once you fully understand the topic that you should attempt to answer the question. You should review the lecture notes on consideration and you should also read the relevant chapter(s) from your standard course text. Note that your research should not be limited to your lecture notes and the standard text, they will simply form the basis of your knowledge. If you are finding the standard course text difficult to understand, remember that there are many resources available for contract law via the library. A good, entry level, text is Elliott & Quinn, Contract Law. There are also many more advanced texts and your research should involve many different sources, including journals. A guide to alternative resources is contained in your workshop handbook. Remember to cite your secondary sources at the appropriate point throughout your work and in the bibliography. There was guidance given on referencing in Workshop 1.
Before you attempt to write your essay remember to reflect on the feedback you received for your formative assessment and, where relevant, your previous coursework attempt. This will explain why you were graded as you were and how to reach higher levels. Generic feedback was also posted for both pieces of work on Moodle. Ensure that your new piece of work is adapted to accommodate any previous shortcomings identified by your assessor and feedback on essay structure received during workshops. Remember to define all legal terminology and ensure that you link your work to the central question and argument that you raise. We have looked at the structure of essay questions in the workshops on Frustration and Breach and Remedies.
Often weak pieces of work do not adequately or accurately set out the legal rules or link them back to the question that has been asked or a central argument. Remember to structure your essay with an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Threaded throughout your work should be a central argument which you develop in the main body of your work. You must provide authority for everything you do. The conclusion should summarise the arguments you raised in the main body of your work.
When we ask students who performed poorly whether they have read the case report to the cases that they have cited we often find that they have simply repeated a rule from the textbook. To fully understand the rule we recommend that you read the cases themselves though the textbooks will assist in your interpretation of those cases. There should be authority cited for each legal rule that you state. We are particularly interested in the reasoning behind cases, the approach of the judges and how this may be used in future cases. This is where you can show analysis of the law in your answers. If you think there is conflicting authority and different approaches in the cases, remember to discuss both approaches and try to reconcile them where appropriate. Again, textbooks and journals will assist with this.
Weak pieces of work often lack clarity, perhaps in use of language or because the arguments and rules have not been clearly articulated. We would recommend that once you have written your answer you should leave it for a couple of days and then go back and read it again to check that your arguments are clear and that your use of language is appropriate. The assessor will not fill in any gaps in the piece of work. This means that you should commence the work and aim to finish it early. If you are an overseas student and have difficulty with language, please note that there is help via the HUB. For both home and overseas students there is also help available to you in developing your structure and style via the Faculty Student Support Officers and the Student Experience Tutors. Details of both of these modes of assistance can be found via the HUB but an early approach will be essential.
Submission Instructions: Read Carefully
1. You are only eligible to submit this In-Course Reassessment coursework if you either failed the coursework submitted in January 2018 (achieved a mark lower than 40%) or you did not submit it at all. You cannot do this piece of work if you passed the January 2018 coursework but were disappointed with your mark. To clarify if you are eligible to take this assessment you can speak to the Student Experience Tutors in Manchester Law School.
2. Even if you are eligible to submit this piece of work under paragraph 1, then it is optional and you may choose, instead, to wait to see what your final combined Contract Law unit mark is following the exam. Remember that you must pass the unit as a whole and not each element of assessment. Your coursework and exams are worth 50% each of your final unit mark and the overall unit pass mark is 40%. If you have not achieved an overall pass mark once your coursework and exam marks are combined then you would resit any failed element of assessment in the usual resit period of August. Guidance on this is available in the Contract Moodle site (in the generic feedback to the Contract Law coursework from January) or from the Student Experience Tutors via the HUB. It is important that if you decide to undertake this In Course Reassessment that you are not distracted from your ongoing studies and preparation for your other forthcoming assessments, e.g. your exams. If you did achieve a combined pass mark once your exam is combined with your first coursework mark then any In Course Reassessment mark would not be entered into your profile.
3. This piece of work must be submitted electronically only via Moodle and TurnItIn. You do not need to submit a hard copy. Feedback will therefore be returned online via TurnItIn. The TurnItIn software checks your work and provides a report which marking staff will use when considering whether you have committed academic offences such as plagiarism and collusion with other students. You must upload the final version of your essay to the system and please note that the software will not tell you your TurnItIn score for this work.
4. All of the submissions must be made by 11.55pm on the day of submission but you are advised to complete this by 9pm in order for the TurnItIn system to process your submission. Any late submission would be recorded as a fail unless you successfully submit an application for Exceptional Factors.
5. Your work must comply with a strict maximum word limit of 1500 words. The word count must be declared at the start of your work. Footnotes and the bibliography are not included in the word count. Any words beyond the word limit will be disregarded. Please note that there is no discretionary excess.
6. Coursework submissions must be typed in arial font size 12.
7. All submissions must be properly referenced in accordance with the Oscola referencing system and contain a full bibliography of sources used. We expect to see evidence that you have used a number of extra secondary sources (books and articles) in addition to the core textbook and casebook. We discussed the referencing system in Workshop 1 and you have an example in the suggested answer to the formative assessment. There is also guidance available on Moodle.
8. Write several drafts of your answer and proof-read it aloud and amend any spelling and grammatical errors before submitting it.
9. Your work must comply with all assessment regulations for the LLB and in submitting your work, you are declaring that you have done so. Any students found to have breached any academic regulations, e.g. plagiarism or collusion; will be dealt with under University’s disciplinary process. You are not permitted to discuss the content of this work, even in outline, with other persons and in submitting this work you are declaring that it is your own individual work. Further guidance on what constitutes plagiarism is available on Moodle and you should read this carefully before submitting your assessment. Should you require further guidance please refer to the Skills Online section of Moodle, Avoiding Plagiarism.
10. Please note that Unit Leaders are not able to grant extensions for coursework. If you are experiencing circumstances that are beyond your control that are impacting on your performance in the assessment you should consider the Exceptional Factors process. Information on this can be found by searching for “exceptional factors” on the University website, via the HUB or via your personal tutor. If you wish to discuss an extension based on an agreed Personal Learning Plan that you have in place please contact your Year Leader.
11. The Assessment Descriptors for Level 4 apply to this work and we have appended them to the end of this work. All of those descriptors are relevant to this assessment. In addition, step marking will be applied.