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Memoire en francais

Overview

  • Credit value: 30 credits at Level 6
  • Convenor and tutor: to be confirmed
  • Assessment: a memoire (70%) and viva or oral examination (30%)

Module description

The mémoire is: (1) a critical study of a problem or phenomenon (cultural, artistic, literary, historical, political, social, economic…) in the French or francophone sphere, (2) a written account in French of this research. Under no circumstances can the mémoire be merely the description of a phenomenon or the compilation of information from books or other sources.

Procedure

You choose a topic for study and present it in June to a lecturer for approval. To assist with this process, there is a list of lecturers’ interests and competence. No subject for research will be accepted if it has not been endorsed by a lecturer. A list of the mémoires submitted in the French section in recent years may be obtained from the administrators' office.

Preparation

Apart from the sessions you have with your supervisor (to define the subject, establish a plan and a bibliography), you must attend assiduously the workshops organised at regular intervals in the course of the year. These workshops aim to: (1) improve your written and oral linguistic skills, (2) present research techniques, (3) set out academic discourse and the conventions for presentation of research in a university context.

Assessment

Two copies of the mémoire (7500 words), typed and bound, have to be handed in. You keep a third copy, with the same page numbering, and bring it to the viva or oral examination. The mémoire must normally be given to the administrators by the end of the first week of Term 3. The viva or oral generally takes place in the second half of May. The word limit excludes notes, appendices and bibliography.

Criteria for evaluation and marking

Marks for the mémoire are given on the basis of the originality of the subject, the clarity with which the issues are set out and debated, the quality of the written French and the standard of presentation on the whole, including the critical apparatus. NB a pass mark must be obtained on the mémoire in order for you to pass the module overall.

The viva or oral takes place exclusively in French and lasts 20 minutes. It gives you the opportunity to present your research while defending positions you have adopted and explaining how you have organised your work.

Except in special circumstances, students who fail to contact either a potential supervisor or the course convenor before the end of the summer term may be excluded from this course.