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A Few Ideas for Dealing with Late Work

August 4, 2019

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Most of my 9-week grading periods ended the same way: Me and one or two students, sitting in my quiet, empty classroom together, with me sitting at the computer, the students nearby in desks, methodically working through piles of make-up assignments. They would be focused, more focused than I’d seen them in months, and the speed with which they got through the piles was stunning. 

As they finished each assignment I took it, checked it for accuracy, then entered their scores—taking 50 percent off for being late—into my grading program. With every entry, I’d watch as their class grade went up and up: from a 37 percent to a 41, then to 45, then to 51, and eventually to something in the 60s or even low 70s, a number that constituted passing, at which point the process would end and we’d part ways, full of resolve that next marking period would be different.

And the whole time I thought to myself, This is pointless . They aren’t learning anything at all. But I wasn’t sure what else to do.

For as long as teachers have assigned tasks in exchange for grades, late work has been a problem. What do we do when a student turns in work late? Do we give some kind of consequence or accept assignments at any time with no penalty? Do we set up some kind of system that keeps students motivated while still holding them accountable? Is there a way to manage all of this without driving ourselves crazy?

To find answers, I went to Twitter and asked teachers to share what works for them. What follows is a summary of their responses. I wish I could give individual credit to each person who offered ideas, but that would take way too long, and I really want you to get these suggestions now! If you’ve been unsatisfied with your own approach to late work, you should find some fresh ideas here.

First, a Few Questions About Your Grades

Before we get into the ways teachers manage late work, let’s back up a bit and consider whether your overall program of assignments and grading is in a healthy place. Here are some questions to think about:  

• What do your grades represent? How much of your grades are truly based on academic growth, and how much are based mostly on compliance? If they lean more toward compliance, then what you’re doing when you try to manage late work is basically a lot of administrative paper pushing, rather than teaching your content. Although it’s important for kids to learn how to manage deadlines, do you really want an A in your course to primarily reflect the ability to follow instructions? If your grades are too compliance-based, consider how you might shift things so they more accurately represent learning. (For a deeper discussion of this issue, read How Accurate Are Your Grades? )
• Are you grading too many things? If you spend a lot of time chasing down missing assignments in order to get more scores in your gradebook, it could be that you’re grading too much. Some teachers only enter grades for major, summative tasks, like projects, major writing assignments, or exams. Everything else is considered formative and is either ungraded or given a very low point value for completion, not graded for accuracy; it’s practice . For teachers who are used to collecting lots of grades over a marking period, this will be a big shift, and if you work in a school where you’re expected to enter grades into your system frequently, that shift will be even more difficult. Convincing your students that ungraded practice is worthwhile because it will help their performance on the big things will be another hurdle. With all of that said, reducing the number of scored items will make your grades more meaningful and cut way down on the time you spend grading and managing late work.
• What assumptions do you make when students don’t turn in work? I’m embarrassed to admit that when I first started teaching, I assumed most students with missing work were just unmotivated. Although this might be true for a small portion of students, I no longer see this as the most likely reason. Students may have issues with executive function and could use some help developing systems for managing their time and responsibilities. They may struggle with anxiety. Or they may not have the resources—like time, space, and technology—to consistently complete work at home. More attention has been paid lately to the fact that homework is an equity issue , and our policies around homework should reflect an understanding that all students don’t have access to the same resources once they leave school for the day. Punitive policies that are meant to “motivate” students don’t take any of these other issues into consideration, so if your late work penalties don’t seem to be working, it’s likely that the root cause is something other than a lack of motivation.
• What kind of grading system is realistic for you ? Any system you put in place requires YOU to stay on top of grading. It would be much harder to assign penalties, send home reminders, or track lateness if you are behind on marking papers by a week, two weeks, even a month. So whatever you do, create a plan that you can actually keep up with.

Possible Solutions

1. penalties.

Many teachers give some sort of penalty to students for late work. The thinking behind this is that without some sort of negative consequence, too many students would wait until the end of the marking period to turn work in, or in some cases, not turn it in at all. When work is turned in weeks or even months late, it can lose its value as a learning opportunity because it is no longer aligned with what’s happening in class. On top of that, teachers can end up with massive piles of assignments to grade in the last few days of a marking period. This not only places a heavy burden on teachers, it is far from an ideal condition for giving students the good quality feedback they should be getting on these assignments.

Several types of penalties are most common:

Point Deductions In many cases, teachers simply reduce the grade as a result of the lateness. Some teachers will take off a certain number of points per day until they reach a cutoff date after which the work will no longer be accepted. One teacher who responded said he takes off 10 percent for up to three days late, then 30 percent for work submitted up to a week late; he says most students turn their work in before the first three days are over. Others have a standard amount that comes off for any late work (like 10 percent), regardless of when it is turned in. This policy still rewards students for on-time work without completely de-motivating those who are late, builds in some accountability for lateness, and prevents the teacher from having to do a lot of mathematical juggling with a more complex system. 

Parent Contact Some teachers keep track of late work and contact parents if it is not turned in. This treats the late work as more of a conduct issue; the parent contact may be in addition to or instead of taking points away. 

No Feedback, No Re-Dos The real value of homework and other smaller assignments should be the opportunity for feedback: Students do an assignment, they get timely teacher feedback, and they use that feedback to improve. In many cases, teachers allow students to re-do and resubmit assignments based on that feedback. So a logical consequence of late work could be the loss of that opportunity: Several teachers mentioned that their policy is to accept late work for full credit, but only students who submit work on time will receive feedback or the chance to re-do it for a higher grade. Those who hand in late work must accept whatever score they get the first time around. 

2. A Separate Work Habits Grade

In a lot of schools, especially those that use standards-based grading, a student’s grade on an assignment is a pure representation of their academic mastery; it does not reflect compliance in any way. So in these classrooms, if a student turns in good work, it’s going to get a good grade even if it’s handed in a month late. 

But students still need to learn how to manage their time. For that reason, many schools assign a separate grade for work habits. This might measure factors like adherence to deadlines, neatness, and following non-academic guidelines like font sizes or using the correct heading on a paper. 

• Although most teachers whose schools use this type of system will admit that students and parents don’t take the work habits grade as seriously as the academic grade, they report being satisfied that student grades only reflect mastery of the content.
• One school calls their work habits grade a “behavior” grade, and although it doesn’t impact GPA, students who don’t have a certain behavior grade can’t make honor roll, despite their actual GPA.
• Several teachers mentioned looking for patterns and using the separate grade as a basis for conferences with parents, counselors, or other stakeholders. For most students, there’s probably a strong correlation between work habits and academic achievement, so separating the two could help students see that connection.
• Some learning management systems will flag assignments as late without necessarily taking points off. Although this does not automatically translate to a work habits grade, it indicates the lateness to students and parents without misrepresenting the academic achievement.

3. Homework Passes

Because things happen in real life that can throw anyone off course every now and then, some teachers offer passes students can use to replace a missed assignment.

• Most teachers only offer these passes to replace low-point assignments, not major ones, and they generally only offer 1 to 3 passes per marking period. Homework passes can usually only recover 5 to 10 percent of a student’s overall course grade. 
• Other teachers have a policy of allowing students to drop one or two of their lowest scores in the gradebook. Again, this is typically done for smaller assignments and has the same net effect as a homework pass by allowing everyone to have a bad day or two.
• One teacher gives “Next Class Passes” which allow students one extra day to turn in work. At the end of every marking period she gives extra credit points to students who still have unused passes. She says that since she started doing this, she has had the lowest rate ever of late work. 

4. Extension Requests

Quite a few teachers require students to submit a written request for a deadline extension rather than taking points off. With a system like this, every student turns something in on the due date, whether it’s the assignment itself or an extension request.

• Most extension requests ask students to explain why they were unable to complete the assignment on time. This not only gives the students a chance to reflect on their habits, it also invites the teacher to help students solve larger problems that might be getting in the way of their academic success. 
• Having students submit their requests via Google Forms reduces the need for paper and routes all requests to a single spreadsheet, which makes it easier for teachers to keep track of work that is late or needs to be regraded.  
• Other teachers use a similar system for times when students want to resubmit work for a new grade. 

5. Floating Deadlines

Rather than choosing a single deadline for an assignment, some teachers assign a range of dates for students to submit work. This flexibility allows students to plan their work around other life activities and responsibilities.

• Some teachers offer an incentive to turn in work in the early part of the time frame, such as extra credit or faster feedback, and this helps to spread out the submissions more evenly. 
• Another variation on this approach is to assign a batch of work for a whole week and ask students to get it in by Friday. This way, students get to manage when they get it done. 
• Other names mentioned for this strategy were flexible deadlines , soft deadlines , and due windows .

6. Let Students Submit Work in Progress

Some digital platforms, like Google Classroom, allow students to “submit” assignments while they are still working on them. This allows teachers to see how far the student has gotten and address any problems that might be coming up. If your classroom is mostly paper-based, it’s certainly possible to do this kind of thing with paper as well, letting students turn in partially completed work to demonstrate that an effort has been made and show you where they might be stuck.

7. Give Late Work Full Credit

Some teachers accept all late work with no penalty. Most of them agree that if the work is important, and if we want students to do it, we should let them hand it in whenever they get it done. 

• Some teachers fear this approach will cause more students to stop doing the work or delay submission until the end of a marking period, but teachers who like this approach say they were surprised by how little things changed when they stopped giving penalties: Most students continued to turn work in more or less on time, and the same ones who were late under the old system were still late under the new one. The big difference was that the teacher no longer had to spend time calculating deductions or determining whether students had valid excuses; the work was simply graded for mastery.
• To give students an incentive to actually turn the work in before the marking period is over, some teachers will put a temporary zero in the gradebook as a placeholder until the assignment is turned in, at which point the zero is replaced with a grade.
• Here’s a twist on the “no penalty” option: Some teachers don’t take points off for late work, but they limit the time frame when students can turn it in. Some will not accept late work after they have graded and returned an assignment; at that point it would be too easy for students to copy off of the returned papers. Others will only accept late work up until the assessment for the unit, because the work leading up to that is meant to prepare for that assessment. 

8. Other Preventative Measures

These strategies aren’t necessarily a way to manage late work as much as they are meant to prevent it in the first place.

• Include students in setting deadlines. When it comes to major assignments, have students help you determine due dates. They may have a better idea than you do about other big events that are happening and assignments that have been given in other classes.
• Stop assigning homework. Some teachers have stopped assigning homework entirely, recognizing that disparities at home make it an unfair measurement of academic mastery. Instead, all meaningful work is done in class, where the teacher can monitor progress and give feedback as needed. Long-term projects are done in class as well, so the teacher is aware of which students need more time and why. 
• Make homework optional or self-selected. Not all students need the same amount of practice. You may be able to get your students to assess their own need for additional practice and assign that practice to themselves. Although this may sound far-fetched, in some classes, like this self-paced classroom , it actually works, because students know they will be graded on a final assessment, they get good at determining when they need extra practice.

With so many different approaches to late work, what’s clear is that there are a lot of different schools of thought on grading and assessment, so it’s not a surprise that we don’t always land on the best solution on the first try. Experiment with different systems, talk to your colleagues, and be willing to try something new until you find something that works for you. 

Further Reading

20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half This free e-book is full of ideas that can help with grading in general.

On Your Mark: Challenging the Conventions of Grading and Reporting Thomas R. Guskey This book came highly recommended by a number of teachers.

Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School Starr Sackstein

Come back for more. Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. You’ll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half , the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 teachers have already joined—come on in.

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Categories: Classroom Management , Instruction , Podcast

Tags: assessment , organization

51 Comments

I teach high school science (mine is a course that does not have an “end of course” test so the stakes are not as high) and I teach mostly juniors and seniors. Last year I decided not to accept any late work whatsoever unless a student is absent the day it is assigned or due (or if they have an accomodation in a 504 or IEP – and I may have had one or two students with real/documented emergencies that I let turn in late.) This makes it so much easier on me because I don’t have to keep up with how many days/points to deduct – that’s a nightmare. It also forces them to be more responsible. They usually have had time to do it in class so there’s no reason for it to be late. Also, I was very frustrated with homework not being completed and I hated having to grade it and keep up with absent work. So I don’t “require” homework (and rarely assign it any more) but if students do ALL (no partial credit) of it they get a 100% (small point value grade), if they are absent or they don’t do it they are exempt. So it ends up being a sort of extra credit grade but it does not really penalize students who don’t do it. When students ask me for extra credit (which I don’t usually give), the first thing I ask is if they’ve done all the homework assigned. That usually shuts down any further discussion. I’ve decided I’m not going to spend tons of time chasing and calculating grades on small point values that do not make a big difference in an overall grade. 🙂

Do I understand correctly….

Homework is not required. If a student fully completes the HW, they will earn full points. If the student is absent or doesn’t do it, they are excused. Students who do complete the HW will benefit a little bit in their overall grade, but students who don’t compete the work will not be penalized. Did I understand it correctly?

Do you stipulate that a student must earn a certain % on the assignment to get the full points? What about a student who completed an assignment but completes the entire thing incorrectly? Still full credit? Or an opportunity to re-do?

Thank you in advance.

From reading this blog post I was thinking the same thing. When not penalizing students for homework do you have students who do turn it in getting extra points in class?

From what I have seen, if there is a benefit for turning in homework and students see this benefit more will try to accomplish what the homework is asking. So avoid penalization is okay, but make sure the ones turning it in are getting rewarded in some way.

The other question regarding what to do with students who may not be completing the assignments correctly, you could use this almost as a formative assessment. You could still give them the credit but use this as a time for you to focus on that student a little more and see where he/she isn’t understanding the content.

Our school has a system called Catch Up Cafe. Students with missing work report to a specific teacher during the first 15 minutes of lunch to work on missing work. Students upgrade to a Wednesday after school time if they have accumulated 4 or more missing assignments on any Monday. They do not have to serve if they can clear ALL missing work by the end of the day Wednesday. Since work is not dragging out for a long period of time, most teachers do not take off points.

How do you manage the logistics of who has missing and how many assignments are needed to be completed-to make sure they are attending the Catch up Cafe or Wednesday after school? How do you manage the communication with parents?

When a student has missing work it can be very difficult to see what he/she is missing. I always keep a running record of all of their assignments that quarter and if they miss that assigement I keep it blank to remind myself there was never a submission. Once I know that this student is missing this assignment I give them their own copy and write at the top late. So once they do turn it in I know that it’s late and makes grading it easier.

There are a lot of different programs that schools use but I’ve always kept a paper copy so I have a back-up.

I find that the worst part of tracking make-up work is keeping tabs on who was absent for a school activity, illness or other excused absence, and who just didn’t turn in the assignment. I obviously have to accept work turned in “late” due to an excused absence, but I can handle the truly late work however I wish. Any advice on simplifying tracking for this?

I tell my students to simply write “Absent (day/s)” at the top of the paper. I remind them of this fairly regularly. That way, if they were absent, it’s their responsibility to notify me, and it’s all together. If you create your own worksheets, etc., you could add a line to the top as an additional reminder.

It might be worth checking out Evernote .

In order to keep track of what type of missing assignments, I put a 0 in as a grade so students and parents know an assignment was never submitted. If a student was here on the due date and day assignment was given then it is a 0 in the grade book. If a student was absent the day the assignment was given or when it was due, I put a 00 in the grade book. This way I know if it was because of an absence or actual no work completed.

This is exactly what I do. Homework can only count 10% in our district. Claims that kids fail due to zeros for homework are specious.

This is SUCH a difficult issue and I have tried a few of the suggested ways in years past. My questions is… how do we properly prepare kids for college while still being mindful of the inequities at home? We need to be sure that we are giving kids opportunity, resources, and support, but at the same time if we don’t introduce them to some of the challenges they will be faced with in college (hours of studying and research and writing regardless of the hours you might have to spend working to pay that tuition), are we truly preparing them? I get the idea of mastery of content without penalty for late work and honestly that is typically what I go with, but I constantly struggle with this and now that I will be moving from middle to high school, I worry even more about the right way to handle late work and homework. I don’t want to hold students back in my class by being too much of a stickler about seemingly little things, but I don’t want to send them to college unprepared to experience a slap in the face, either. I don’t want to provide extra hurdles, but how do I best help them learn how to push through the hurdles and rigor if they aren’t held accountable? I always provide extra time after school, at lunch, etc., and have also experienced that end of term box checking of assignments in place of a true learning experience, but how do we teach them the importance of using resources, asking for help, allowing for mistakes while holding them to standards and learning work habits that will be helpful to them when they will be on their own? I just don’t know where the line is between helping students learn the value of good work habits and keeping them from experiencing certain challenges they need to understand in order to truly get ahead.

Thanks for sharing – I can tell how much you care for your students, wanting them to be confident independent learners. What I think I’m hearing is perhaps the struggle between that fine line of enabling and supporting. When supporting kids, whether academically or behaviorally, we’re doing something that assists or facilitates their growth. So, for example, a student that has anxiety or who doesn’t have the resources at home to complete an assignment, we can assist by giving that student extra time or an alternative place to complete the assignment. This doesn’t lower expectations, it just offers support to help them succeed.

Enabling on the other hand, puts systems in place that don’t involve consequences, which in turn allow the behaviors to continue. It involves excuses and solving problems for others. It may be about lowering expectations and letting people get by with patterns of behavior.

Late work is tricky. The article does mention the importance of time management, which is why separating academic grades from work habits is something a lot of schools are doing. Sometimes real life happens and kids need a “pass.” If whatever you’re doing seems to be helping to support a student rather than enabling patterns, then that might help you distinguish between that fine line. Hope this helps!

Thank you again for such a great post. Always high-quality, relevant, and helpful. I so appreciate you and the work you do!

So glad to hear you enjoyed the post, Liz! I’ll make sure Jenn sees this.

I thought that these points brought up about receiving late work were extremely helpful and I hope that every classroom understands how beneficial these strategies could be.

When reading the penalties section under point deductions it brought up the idea of taking points off slowly as time goes by. Currently in my classroom the only point deduction I take off is 30% of the total grade after it is received late. No matter how much time has gone by in that grading period it will have 30% off the total.

I’m curious if changing this technique to something that would increase the percentage off as time goes by will make students turn in their work on time.

My question to everyone is which grading technique would be more beneficial for the students? Do you believe that just taking off 30% for late work would help students more when turning in their work or do you think that as time goes by penalizing their final score will have students turn in their work more?

If anyone has any answers it would be extremely beneficial.

Thank you, Kirby

When I was in school my school did 1/3 of a grade each day it was like. So 1 day late A >A-. Two days late: A->>B+ so on and so forth. This worked really well for me because I knew that I could still receive a good grade if I worked hard on an assignment, even if it was a day or two late.

I dread it when I have missing work or unsubmitted work. I would try to get a last-minute effort to chase those needed pieces of work which could be done from those students housed in dorms on campus. It is better than not failing them for lacking to turn in graded submissions or taking scheduled quizzes. I dread this not for the students, sadly, but for likely call to explain why I did not keep physical evidence of students’ supposed learning. In my part of the globe, we have a yearly “quality assurance” audit by the country’s educational authorities or their representatives.

I am a pre-service teacher and I am in the process of developing my personal philosophies in education, including the topic of late work. I will be certified as a secondary social studies teacher and would like to teach in a high school. Your post brought my attention to some important insights about the subject. For example, before this post I had not thought to use feedback as a way to incentivize homework submission on time. This action coupled with the ability to re-do assignments is a great way to emphasize the importance of turning work in on time. I do have a follow-up question, how do you adequately manage grading re-do’s and feedback on all assignments? What kinds of organizational and time-management strategies do you use as a teacher? Further, how much homework do you assign when providing this as an option?

Additionally, have you administered or seen the no penalty and homework acceptance time limit in practice (for example, all homework must be turned in by the unit test)? I was curious if providing a deadline to accept all homework until the unit test may result in an access of papers I need to grade. From your experience, what practice(s) have you seen work well in the classroom?

My goal is to prepare students for life beyond high school and to support their intellectual, social, and emotional development during their high school learning experience. Similar to a previous commenter (Kate), I am also trying to define a balance between holding students accountable in order to best prepare them for their future lives and providing opportunities to raise their grade if they are willing to do the work.

Hey Jessica, you have some great questions. I’d recommend checking out the following blog posts from Jenn that will help you learn more about keeping track of assessments, differentiation, and other aspects of grading: Kiddom: Standards-based Grading Made Wonderful , Could You Teach Without Grades , Boost Your Assessment Power with GradeCam , and Four Research-Based Strategies Every Teacher Should be Using . I hope this helps you find answers to your questions!

Overall I found this article extremely helpful and it actually reinforced many ideas I already had about homework and deadlines. One of my favorite teachers I had in high school was always asking for our input on when we felt assignments should be due based on what extra curricular activities were taking place in a given time period. We were all extremely grateful for his consideration and worked that much harder on the given assignments.

While it is important to think about our own well-being when grading papers, I think it is just as important (if not more) to be conscious of how much work students might have in other classes or what students schedules are like outside of school. If we really want students to do their best work, we need to give them enough time to do the work. This will in turn, help them care more about the subject matter and help them dive deeper. Obviously there still needs to be deadlines, but it does not hurt to give students some autonomy and say in the classroom.

Thanks for your comment Zach. I appreciate your point about considering students’ involvement in extracurricular activities and other responsibilities they may have outside the school day. It’s definitely an important consideration. The only homework my son seemed to have in 8th grade was for his history class. I agree that there’s a need for teachers to maintain more of a balance across classes when it comes to the amount of homework they give to students.

Thank you for an important, thought-provoking post! As a veteran teacher of 20+ years, I have some strong opinions about this topic. I have always questioned the model of ‘taking points off’ for late work. I do not see how this presents an accurate picture of what the student knows or can do. Shouldn’t he be able to prove his knowledge regardless of WHEN? Why does WHEN he shows you what he knows determine WHAT he knows?

Putting kids up against a common calendar with due dates and timelines, regardless of their ability to learn the material at the same rate is perhaps not fair. There are so many different situations facing our students – some students have challenges and difficulty with deadlines for a plethora of potential reasons, and some have nothing but support, structure, and time. When it comes to deadlines – Some students need more time. Other students may need less time. Shouldn’t all students have a chance to learn at a pace that is right for them? Shouldn’t we measure student success by demonstrations of learning instead of how much time it takes to turn in work? Shouldn’t students feel comfortable when it is time to show me what they’ve learned, and when they can demonstrate they’ve learned it, I want their grade to reflect that.

Of course we want to teach students how to manage their time. I am not advocating for a lax wishy-washy system that allows for students to ‘get to it when they get to it’. I do believe in promoting work-study habits, and using a separate system to assign a grade for responsibility, respect, management, etc is a potential solution. I understand that when introducing this type of system, it may be tough to get buy-in from parents and older students who have traditionally only looked at an academic grade because it is the only piece of the puzzle that impacts GPA. Adopting a separate work-study grading system would involve encouraging the entire school community – starting at the youngest level – to see its value. It would be crucial for the school to promote the importance of high level work-study habits right along side academic grades.

I teach a specials course to inner city middle schoolers at a charter school. All students have to take my class since it is one of the core pillars of the school’s culture and mission. Therefore it is a double edge sword. Some students and parents think it is irrelevant like an art or music class but will get upset to find out it isn’t just an easy A class. Other students and parents love it because they come to our charter school just to be in this class that isn’t offered anywhere else in the state, except at the college level.

As you may have already guessed, I see a lot of students who don’t do the work. So much that I no longer assign homework, which the majority would not be able to do independently anyways or may develop the wrong way of learning the material, due to the nature of the subject. So everything is done in the classroom together as a class. And then we grade together to reinforce the learning. This is why I absolutely do not accept missing work and there is no reason for late work. Absent students make up the work by staying after school upon their return or they can print it off of Google classroom at home and turn in by the end of the day of their return. Late and missing work is a big issue at our school. I’ve had whole classrooms not do the work even as I implemented the new routine. Students will sit there and mark their papers as we do it in the classroom but by the end they are not handing it in because they claim not to have anything to hand in. Or when they do it appears they were doing very little. I’d have to micromanage all 32 students every 5 minutes to make sure they were actually doing the work, which I believe core teachers do. But that sets a very bad precedent because I noticed our students expect to be handheld every minute or they claim they can’t do the work. I know this to be the case since before this class I was teaching a computer class and the students expected me to sit right next to them and give them step-by-step instructions of where to click on the screen. They simply could not follow along as I demonstrated on the Aquos board. So I do think part of the problem is the administrators’ encouraging poor work ethics. They’re too focused on meeting proficient standard to the point they want teachers to handhold students. They also want teachers to accept late and missing work all the way until the end of each quarter. Well that’s easy if you only have a few students but when you have classrooms full of them, that means trying to grade 300+ students multiplied by “x” amount of late/missing work the week before report card rolls out – to which we still have to write comments for C- or below students. Some of us teach all the grade levels 6-8th. And that has actually had negative effects because students no longer hold themselves accountable.

To be honest, I really do think this is why there is such a high turnover rate and teachers who started giving busy work only. In the inner city, administrators only care about putting out the illusion of proficiency while students and parents don’t want any accountability for their performance. As soon as a student fails because they have to actually try to learn (which is a risk for failing), the parent comes in screaming.

Yea, being an Art teacher you lost me at “ irrelevant like an art or music .”

I teach middle school in the inner city where missing and late work is a chronic issue so the suggestions and ideas above do not work. Students and parents have become complacent with failing grades so penalizing work isn’t going to motivate them to do better the next time. The secret to teaching in the inner city is to give them a way out without it becoming massive work for you. Because trust me, if you give them an inch they will always want a mile at your expense. Depending on which subject you teach, it might be easier to just do everything in class. That way it becomes an all or nothing grade. They either did or didn’t do the work. No excuses, no chasing down half the school through number of calls to disconnected phone numbers and out of date emails, no explaining to parents why Johnny has to stay after school to finish assignments when mom needs him home to babysit or because she works second shift and can’t pick him up, etc. Students have no reason for late work or for missing work when they were supposed to do it right there in class. Absent students can catch up with work when they return.

Milton, I agree with all of what you are saying and have experienced. Not to say that that is for all students I have had, but it is a slow progression as to what is happening with students and parents as years go by. I understand that there are areas outside of the classroom we cannot control and some students do not have certain necessities needed to help them but they need to start learning what can they do to help themselves. I make sure the students know they can come and talk to me if needing help or extra time, tutor after school and even a phone number to contact along with email if needing to ask questions or get help. But parents and students do not use these opportunities given until the week before school ends and are now wanting their student to pass and what can be done. It is frustrating and sad. I let students and parents know my expectation up front and if they do not take the opportunity to talk to me then the grade they earned is the result.

I am a special education resource teacher and late work/missing work happens quite a lot. After reading this article, I want to try a few different things to help minimize this issue. However, I am not the one making the grades or putting the grades in. I am just giving the work to the students in small group settings and giving them more access to the resources they need to help them be successful on these assignments based on their current IEP. I use a make-up folder, and usually I will pull these students to work on their work during a different time than when I regularly pull them. That way they do not miss the delivery of instruction they get from me and it does not punish my other students either if there is make-up work that needs to be completed. I try to give my students ample time to complete their work, so there is no excuse for them not to complete it. If they are absent, then I pull them at a time that they can make it up.

I too agree with that there’s a need for teachers to maintain more of a balance across classes when it comes to the amount of homework they give to students.

I had a few teachers who were willing to tolerate lateness in favor of getting it/understanding the material. Lastly, my favorite teacher was the one who gave me many chances to do rewrites of a ‘bad essay’ and gave me as much time as needed (of course still within like the semester or even month but I never took more than two weeks) because he wanted me to do well. I ended up with a 4 in AP exam though so that’s good.

Late work has a whole new meaning with virtual learning. I am drowning in late work (via Google Classroom). I don’t want to penalize students for late work as every home situation is different. I grade and provide feedback timely (to those who submitted on time). However, I am being penalized every weekend and evening as I try to grade and provide feedback during this time. I would love some ideas.

Hi Susan! I’m in the same place–I have students who (after numerous reminders) still haven’t submitted work due days…weeks ago, and I’m either taking time to remind them again or give feedback on “old” work over my nights and weekends. So, while it’s not specific to online learning, Jenn’s A Few Ideas for Dealing with Late Work is a post I’ve been trying to put into practice the last few days. I hope this helps!

Graded assignment flexibility is essential to the process of learning in general but especially in our new world of digital divide

It is difficult to determine who is doing the work at home. Follow up videos on seesaw help to see if the student has gained the knowledge or is being given the answers.

This is some good information. This is a difficult subject.

I love the idea of a catch-up cafe! I think I will try to implement this in my school. It’s in the same place every day, yes? And the teachers take turns monitoring? I’m just trying to get a handle on the logistics – I know those will be the first questions I get.

I really enjoyed this post. I think it provides a lot of perspective on a topic that teachers get way too strict about. I just wonder: wouldn’t it be inevitable for students to become lazy and care less about their understanding if there wasn’t any homework (or even if it was optional)? I know students don’t like it, and it can get redundant if they understand the content, but it truly is good practice.

Hi Shannon,

Glad the post helped! Homework is one of those hot educational topics, but I can’t say I’ve personally come across a situation or found any research where kids become lazy or unmotivated if not assigned homework. In fact, research indicates that homework doesn’t really have much impact on learning until high school. I just think that if homework is going to be assigned, it needs to be intentional and purposeful. (If students have already mastered a skill, I’m not sure how homework would provide them much benefit.) Here’s an article that I think is worth checking out. See what you think.

I like how you brought up how homework needs to be given with the understanding that not all kids have the same resources at home. Some kids don’t have computers or their parents won’t let them use it. There is no way of knowing this so teachers should give homework that requires barely any utensils or technology.

I think having students help determine the due dates for major assignments is a great idea. This works well with online schools too. Remote jobs are the future so helping students learn how to set their own due dates and to get homework done from home will prepare them for the future.

This year I am trying something new. After reading this article, I noticed that I have used a combination of some of these strategies to combat late work and encourage students to turn work in on time. I only record a letter grade in the grade book: A, B, C, D, F. If a student turns in an assignment late, I flag it as late, but it does not affect their “grade”.

If a student wants to redo an assignment, they must turn something in. If they miss the due date, they can still turn it in, but lose the opportunity to redo the assignment. Students will meet with me one last time before they turn it in to get final feedback.

At the end of the grading period, I conference with the student about their final grade, looking at how many times they have handed work in on-time or late. This will determine if the student has earned an A or an A+ .

I really appreciate how your post incorporates a lot of suggestions for the way that teachers can think about and grade homework. Thank you for mentioning how different students have different resources available as well. As teachers, we need to be aware of the different resources our students have and tailor our approach to homework to match. I like the idea of grading homework based on completion and accepting late work for full credit at any time (substituting a zero in the grade book until it is turned in). This is definitely a strategy that I’ll be using!

So glad the article was helpful for you! I will be sure to pass on your comments to Jenn.

I also have been teaching for a long time and I have found that providing an END OF WEEK (Friday at 11:59) due date for assignments allows students to get the work completed by that time. It helps with athletes, and others involved in extra curricular activities. I feel this is fair. I give my tests/quizzes on the days assigned and the supplemental work on Fridays.

I personally, as a special education teach, would allow my SPED students extra time to complete the work they have missed. This is in alignment with their IEP accommodations. I would work with each one independently and have remediation with the content that they are having difficulty. This setting would be in a small group and separate classroom.

I really like the idea of a work habits grade. I struggle with students who turn things in late regularly earning the same grade as those who always turn things in on time. A work habits grade could really motivate some learners.

I’ve been in education for 37 years and in all manner of positions. I share this only to also say that things have changed quite a bit. When I started teaching I only had one, maybe two students in a class of 34 elementary students that would not have homework or classwork finished. Now, I have two classes of about 15 each. One group is often half the class on a regular basis not having homework or not finishing classwork on a regular basis- so far. Additionally parents will pull students out to go to amusement parks, etc and expect all work to be made up and at full credit. I believe that the idea of homework is clearly twofold- to teach accountability and to reengage a learner. Classwork is critical to working with the content and, learning objective. We can all grade various ways; however, at some point, the learner has to step up. Learning is not passive, nor is it all on the teacher. I have been called “mean” because I make students do their work in class, refocusing them, etc. I find that is my duty. Late work should be simply dealt with consistently and with understanding to circumstance IMO. You were out or it was late because mom and dad were upset, ok versus we went to Disney for three days and I was too tired. hmm- used to be easy with excused/unexcused absences, now there is no difference. Late with no absence? That can be a problem and I reach out to home and handle it individually at my level.

Hi Jennifer! I really like your sharing about this topic! Late work is a problem that every teacher encounters. Thank you for your consideration of this issue and the many wise ideas you have provided. Your ideas also remind me to reflect on whether my overall program of assignments and grading is in a healthy place. I was inspired by the preventative measures you listed in this post. I want to try to include my students in setting deadlines, especially for some big projects. Students will feel respected by teachers and will be more willing to complete the assignments before deadlines! As you mentioned, some teachers have made homework optional or self-selected, or even stopped assigning homework. I partially agree with that opinion. I indeed try to reduce the amount of students’ homework or even stop assigning homework sometime, but doing related practice in class instead. I believe that the purpose of homework is to aid pupils in mastering the knowledge; it is not a necessary thing.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Yang. Jenn will be glad to know that you found the post inspiring!

Thanks so much for all your insights on giving assignments or homework. All are very helpful as I prepare to return to work after an extended medical leave. It is good to refresh! Anything we require of our students should be purposeful and meaningful to them, so they will give their best to meet whatever deadlines we set. I also like asking our students when is the best time they can turn work in; this is meeting them halfway. And if one strategy does not work, there are more to try; just read this post. Thanks a bunch!!

Jenn will be glad to know the post was helpful for you, Jo!

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Exams and assessment

Late or non-submission of work

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Guidance on penalties for late and non-submission of work for assessment.

The University has a uniform policy for the late submission penalty for a piece of summative assessed work.

Assessment deadlines

The deadline for submitted work is on the hour, for example, where the deadline is 12.00pm, work submitted at 12:00:01 is considered late.

This is to ensure clarity and consistency for students, and the continued effective management of the University's academic standards. Applying discretion beyond the deadline does not constitute a fair and transparent approach.

Students are advised to submit their work at least 1 hour before the deadline.

Penalties for late or non-submitted work

The penalty for late submission of an assessment marked on a pass/fail basis is a failure. Failures in pass/fail modules cannot be condoned or compensated but can normally be reassessed if failed at first attempt, except where the programme or module specification does not automatically permit a reassessment, for example PGCE placement reassessment.

Penalties applied for a first attempt

Use the dropdown below to see details of situations where the following penalties are applied for an assessment first attempt.

Please note that:

• '24 hours' runs for the 24 hour period following the deadline. For example, for a submission on Friday at 12.00pm noon the 24 hour period is until 12.00pm noon on Saturday.
• A 'working day' runs from 12.00pm noon to 12.00pm noon, excluding weekends, bank holidays, and University closure days at Christmas, but including Monday to Friday through vacation periods.

In the following cases, an assessment component will receive no penalty and will be eligible for a full mark:

• Work submitted by the published deadline for submission, or approved extension deadline – i.e. through the exceptional circumstances or LSP processes.

In the following cases, an assessment component will be deducted 5 marks, or applied a capped pass if deducting 5 marks reduces a passing mark to a failure mark. If the raw mark is a failure, then a late penalty is not applied.

• Work submitted after the assessment deadline but within 1 hour of the published deadline or approved extension deadline.

In the following cases, an assessment component will be deducted 10 marks, or applied a capped pass if deducting 10 marks reduces a passing mark to a failure mark. If the raw mark is a failure, then a late penalty is not applied.

• Work submitted between 1 hour and 24 hours after the assessment deadline or approved extension deadline.
• Arriving up to 1 hour late for a scheduled assessment without exceptional circumstances. For example, attending a presentation, viva or so on, on the same day after the allotted time. This does not apply to examinations. Note: it may not always be possible to reschedule an assessment if a student is late.
• Work for a 'timed assessment' submitted after the assessment deadline but within 1 hour of the published deadline.

In the following cases, an assessment component will be eligible for a maximum of a capped pass. If the raw mark is a failure, then a late penalty is not applied.

• Work submitted 24 hours after the assessment deadline but within 5 working days of the published deadline or approved extension deadline.
• Work for a 'timed assessment' submitted after the assessment deadline but within 1 to 3 hours of the published deadline.

In the following cases, an assessment component will receive a mark of zero:

• Work submitted after 5 working days of the published deadline or approved extension deadline.
• Work not submitted after 5 working days of the published deadline or approved extension deadline.
• Work not submitted, or submitted after 3 hours of the published deadline for a 'timed assessment'.
• Non-attendance for an examination without approved exceptional circumstances.
• Non-attendance for a scheduled assessment without exceptional circumstances, for example a presentation, viva and so on.

Penalties applied for a reassessment attempt

Use the dropdown below to see details of situations where the following penalties are applied for a reassessment attempt.

In the following cases, a reassessment component receives no penalty, but the reassessment capping rule applies, so the maximum module mark that can be achieved is a pass mark.

• Work resubmitted by the published reassessment deadline or approved extended deadline.

In the following cases, a reassessment component receives a mark of zero.

• Work resubmitted after a published deadline or approved extended deadline. Reassessments submitted late are not eligible for capped marks.
• Work not resubmitted after a published deadline or approved extended deadline.
• Work not resubmitted for a 'timed assessment' after the published deadline.
• Non-attendance for a resit examination without approved exceptional circumstances.
• Non-attendance or lateness for a scheduled reassessment without exceptional circumstances, for example a presentation, viva and so on.

Penalty examples

An undergraduate or postgraduate first-attempt submission submitted at 12.45pm on the submission date given a raw mark of 64, would have 5 marks deducted.

An undergraduate or postgraduate first attempt submission submitted at 4.00pm on the submission date and given a raw mark of 64 would have a penalty of 10 marks deducted, giving a final mark of 54 for the assessment.

An undergraduate first attempt submission submitted at 4.00pm on the submission date and given a raw mark of 44 would have a penalty of 10 marks deducted, but as the work is of passing standard the penalty applied is a capped final mark of 40 for the assessment (rather than a failure mark of 34).

A postgraduate first attempt submission submitted at 4.00pm on the submission date and given a raw mark of 56 would have a penalty of 10 marks deducted, but as the work is of passing standard the penalty applied is a capped final mark of 50 for the assessment (rather than a failure mark of 46).

An undergraduate first-attempt submission submitted 32 hours after the submission date given a raw mark of 48, would have a penalty of 10 marks deducted, but as the work is of passing standard the penalty applied is a capped final mark of 40 for the assessment (rather than a failure mark of 38).

A resubmission resubmitted at 12.01pm would be given a final mark of zero for the assessment.

If you have any queries, please contact the Assessment team: [email protected] .

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Methods for Managing Late Work

Examining the reasoning behind your assessments can help shape your approach to tardy work, says Jennifer Gonzalez.

When she was teaching, Jennifer Gonzalez used to plod through a “pointless” exercise at the end of the term: allowing a few students to complete late assignments and then docking their scores by 50 percent for tardiness. In her recent blog post , she reflects on why that practice didn’t help her students and offers suggestions from other educators on how cope with late work. 

The first step, Gonzalez says, is to examine your assessment procedures as a whole. Ask, “What do your grades represent?” The emphasis should be on learning and growth, not compliance. “If your grades are too compliance-based,” Gonzalez says, “consider how you might shift things so they more accurately represent learning.” Look also at the quantity of what you grade, she advises. Many assignments function as practice, not assessment. Shift to fewer graded assignments, she says, even if it is a challenge to “convince your students that ungraded practice is worthwhile because it will help their performance on the big things.” 

The final step for evaluating your grading system is asking yourself, “What do I assume late work means?” Gonzalez confesses, “I’m embarrassed to admit that when I first started teaching, I assumed most students with missing work were just unmotivated.” But lack of motivation is rarely the cause; many students don’t complete homework because they don’t have the resources of their peers. 

The most important factor in your grading system? Creating a plan you can actually keep up with, Gonzalez says. Once you establish a system, you can develop a strategy for late work. She offers a range of possible options, curated from other teachers through social media, ranging from penalties to the elimination of deadlines. 

Many teachers still opt for penalties, and there’s a reason: “When work is turned in weeks or even months late, it can lose its value as a learning opportunity because it is no longer aligned with what’s happening in class.” If you choose penalization for tardy assignments, a reduction in points can motivate students to complete the work, even if it is late. “This policy still rewards students for on-time work without completely de-motivating those who are late, builds in some accountability for lateness, and prevents the teacher from having to do a lot of mathematical juggling with a more complex system.”

Other teachers implement a policy that rewards students who turn things in on time by allowing them to resubmit their assignments for improved grades; if the work is late the student can’t retake the assessment for more points or receive feedback. 

Punitive policies don't always work as motivators, Gonzalez says, because sometimes the reason for late work isn't related to a lack of motivation. As a result, many teachers are abandoning the practice. "Students may have issues with executive function and could use some help developing systems for managing their time and responsibilities. They may struggle with anxiety. Or they may not have the resources—like time, space, and technology—to consistently complete work at home," she writes. 

Separate Mastery From Deadlines

Some teachers use a separate assessment  to “measure factors like adherence to deadlines, neatness, and following non-academic guidelines like font sizes or using the correct heading on a paper.” Completing assignments on-time, in other words, is part of a separate evaluation from the mastery assessment--and students receive grades for both. 

“Although most teachers whose schools use this type of system will admit that students and parents don’t take the work habits grade as seriously as the academic grade,” Gonzalez writes, “they report being satisfied that student grades only reflect mastery of the content.” Because better work habits can yield better academic results, having this type of “work habits” score can be used to show students the importance of staying on top of deadlines.

Issue Selective ‘Passes’ or Use Floating Deadlines

Another popular option for late work is to anticipate it and offer a pass the student can elect to use instead. “Most teachers only offer these passes to replace low-point assignments, not major ones, and they generally only offer 1 to 3 passes per marking period.” A “next day pass” serves a similar purpose; students can use them to extend the deadline by a day. One teacher reports that the introduction of the pass gave her “the lowest rate ever of late work.” Some teachers use extension requests so students can anticipate when they might be late and write a proposal about why their tardiness should be excused. 

A floating deadline can help avoid the question of how to address late work altogether. Giving students a flexible range of dates when they can submit work allows them to take ownership in their work. “Some teachers offer an incentive to turn in work in the early part of the time frame, such as extra credit or faster feedback, and this helps to spread out the submissions more evenly,” Gonzalez writes. A variation on the flexible deadline allows students to turn in work that’s in process. Teachers then have the chance to review work and give feedback before the final grade. Students can also take responsibility by weighing in on when work should be due. “They may have a better idea than you do about other big events that are happening and assignments that have been given in other classes.”

What is the best policy on late work? The system that actually works for you. Gonzalez encourages teachers to experiment with different approaches and settle on the process that suits you and your students.

Understanding Assignments

What this handout is about.

The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.

Basic beginnings

Regardless of the assignment, department, or instructor, adopting these two habits will serve you well :

• Read the assignment carefully as soon as you receive it. Do not put this task off—reading the assignment at the beginning will save you time, stress, and problems later. An assignment can look pretty straightforward at first, particularly if the instructor has provided lots of information. That does not mean it will not take time and effort to complete; you may even have to learn a new skill to complete the assignment.
• Ask the instructor about anything you do not understand. Do not hesitate to approach your instructor. Instructors would prefer to set you straight before you hand the paper in. That’s also when you will find their feedback most useful.

Assignment formats

Many assignments follow a basic format. Assignments often begin with an overview of the topic, include a central verb or verbs that describe the task, and offer some additional suggestions, questions, or prompts to get you started.

An Overview of Some Kind

The instructor might set the stage with some general discussion of the subject of the assignment, introduce the topic, or remind you of something pertinent that you have discussed in class. For example:

“Throughout history, gerbils have played a key role in politics,” or “In the last few weeks of class, we have focused on the evening wear of the housefly …”

The Task of the Assignment

Pay attention; this part tells you what to do when you write the paper. Look for the key verb or verbs in the sentence. Words like analyze, summarize, or compare direct you to think about your topic in a certain way. Also pay attention to words such as how, what, when, where, and why; these words guide your attention toward specific information. (See the section in this handout titled “Key Terms” for more information.)

“Analyze the effect that gerbils had on the Russian Revolution”, or “Suggest an interpretation of housefly undergarments that differs from Darwin’s.”

Additional Material to Think about

Here you will find some questions to use as springboards as you begin to think about the topic. Instructors usually include these questions as suggestions rather than requirements. Do not feel compelled to answer every question unless the instructor asks you to do so. Pay attention to the order of the questions. Sometimes they suggest the thinking process your instructor imagines you will need to follow to begin thinking about the topic.

“You may wish to consider the differing views held by Communist gerbils vs. Monarchist gerbils, or Can there be such a thing as ‘the housefly garment industry’ or is it just a home-based craft?”

These are the instructor’s comments about writing expectations:

“Be concise”, “Write effectively”, or “Argue furiously.”

Technical Details

These instructions usually indicate format rules or guidelines.

“Your paper must be typed in Palatino font on gray paper and must not exceed 600 pages. It is due on the anniversary of Mao Tse-tung’s death.”

The assignment’s parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do.

Interpreting the assignment

Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:

Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task?

Who is your audience.

• What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas?

What kind of writing style is acceptable?

• What are the absolute rules of the paper?

Try to look at the question from the point of view of the instructor. Recognize that your instructor has a reason for giving you this assignment and for giving it to you at a particular point in the semester. In every assignment, the instructor has a challenge for you. This challenge could be anything from demonstrating an ability to think clearly to demonstrating an ability to use the library. See the assignment not as a vague suggestion of what to do but as an opportunity to show that you can handle the course material as directed. Paper assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic. Keep reminding yourself of that. Be careful to avoid the other extreme as well: do not read more into the assignment than what is there.

Of course, your instructor has given you an assignment so that he or she will be able to assess your understanding of the course material and give you an appropriate grade. But there is more to it than that. Your instructor has tried to design a learning experience of some kind. Your instructor wants you to think about something in a particular way for a particular reason. If you read the course description at the beginning of your syllabus, review the assigned readings, and consider the assignment itself, you may begin to see the plan, purpose, or approach to the subject matter that your instructor has created for you. If you still aren’t sure of the assignment’s goals, try asking the instructor. For help with this, see our handout on getting feedback .

Given your instructor’s efforts, it helps to answer the question: What is my purpose in completing this assignment? Is it to gather research from a variety of outside sources and present a coherent picture? Is it to take material I have been learning in class and apply it to a new situation? Is it to prove a point one way or another? Key words from the assignment can help you figure this out. Look for key terms in the form of active verbs that tell you what to do.

Key Terms: Finding Those Active Verbs

Here are some common key words and definitions to help you think about assignment terms:

Information words Ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why.

• define —give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning
• describe —provide details about the subject by answering question words (such as who, what, when, where, how, and why); you might also give details related to the five senses (what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell)
• explain —give reasons why or examples of how something happened
• illustrate —give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject
• summarize —briefly list the important ideas you learned about the subject
• trace —outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form
• research —gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you have found

Relation words Ask you to demonstrate how things are connected.

• compare —show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different)
• contrast —show how two or more things are dissimilar
• apply—use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation
• cause —show how one event or series of events made something else happen
• relate —show or describe the connections between things

Interpretation words Ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Do not see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation.

• assess —summarize your opinion of the subject and measure it against something
• prove, justify —give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth
• evaluate, respond —state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons
• support —give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe)
• synthesize —put two or more things together that have not been put together in class or in your readings before; do not just summarize one and then the other and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together that runs all the way through the paper
• analyze —determine how individual parts create or relate to the whole, figure out how something works, what it might mean, or why it is important
• argue —take a side and defend it with evidence against the other side

More Clues to Your Purpose As you read the assignment, think about what the teacher does in class:

• What kinds of textbooks or coursepack did your instructor choose for the course—ones that provide background information, explain theories or perspectives, or argue a point of view?
• In lecture, does your instructor ask your opinion, try to prove her point of view, or use keywords that show up again in the assignment?
• What kinds of assignments are typical in this discipline? Social science classes often expect more research. Humanities classes thrive on interpretation and analysis.
• How do the assignments, readings, and lectures work together in the course? Instructors spend time designing courses, sometimes even arguing with their peers about the most effective course materials. Figuring out the overall design to the course will help you understand what each assignment is meant to achieve.

Now, what about your reader? Most undergraduates think of their audience as the instructor. True, your instructor is a good person to keep in mind as you write. But for the purposes of a good paper, think of your audience as someone like your roommate: smart enough to understand a clear, logical argument, but not someone who already knows exactly what is going on in your particular paper. Remember, even if the instructor knows everything there is to know about your paper topic, he or she still has to read your paper and assess your understanding. In other words, teach the material to your reader.

Aiming a paper at your audience happens in two ways: you make decisions about the tone and the level of information you want to convey.

• Tone means the “voice” of your paper. Should you be chatty, formal, or objective? Usually you will find some happy medium—you do not want to alienate your reader by sounding condescending or superior, but you do not want to, um, like, totally wig on the man, you know? Eschew ostentatious erudition: some students think the way to sound academic is to use big words. Be careful—you can sound ridiculous, especially if you use the wrong big words.
• The level of information you use depends on who you think your audience is. If you imagine your audience as your instructor and she already knows everything you have to say, you may find yourself leaving out key information that can cause your argument to be unconvincing and illogical. But you do not have to explain every single word or issue. If you are telling your roommate what happened on your favorite science fiction TV show last night, you do not say, “First a dark-haired white man of average height, wearing a suit and carrying a flashlight, walked into the room. Then a purple alien with fifteen arms and at least three eyes turned around. Then the man smiled slightly. In the background, you could hear a clock ticking. The room was fairly dark and had at least two windows that I saw.” You also do not say, “This guy found some aliens. The end.” Find some balance of useful details that support your main point.

You’ll find a much more detailed discussion of these concepts in our handout on audience .

The Grim Truth

With a few exceptions (including some lab and ethnography reports), you are probably being asked to make an argument. You must convince your audience. It is easy to forget this aim when you are researching and writing; as you become involved in your subject matter, you may become enmeshed in the details and focus on learning or simply telling the information you have found. You need to do more than just repeat what you have read. Your writing should have a point, and you should be able to say it in a sentence. Sometimes instructors call this sentence a “thesis” or a “claim.”

So, if your instructor tells you to write about some aspect of oral hygiene, you do not want to just list: “First, you brush your teeth with a soft brush and some peanut butter. Then, you floss with unwaxed, bologna-flavored string. Finally, gargle with bourbon.” Instead, you could say, “Of all the oral cleaning methods, sandblasting removes the most plaque. Therefore it should be recommended by the American Dental Association.” Or, “From an aesthetic perspective, moldy teeth can be quite charming. However, their joys are short-lived.”

Convincing the reader of your argument is the goal of academic writing. It doesn’t have to say “argument” anywhere in the assignment for you to need one. Look at the assignment and think about what kind of argument you could make about it instead of just seeing it as a checklist of information you have to present. For help with understanding the role of argument in academic writing, see our handout on argument .

What kind of evidence do you need?

There are many kinds of evidence, and what type of evidence will work for your assignment can depend on several factors–the discipline, the parameters of the assignment, and your instructor’s preference. Should you use statistics? Historical examples? Do you need to conduct your own experiment? Can you rely on personal experience? See our handout on evidence for suggestions on how to use evidence appropriately.

Make sure you are clear about this part of the assignment, because your use of evidence will be crucial in writing a successful paper. You are not just learning how to argue; you are learning how to argue with specific types of materials and ideas. Ask your instructor what counts as acceptable evidence. You can also ask a librarian for help. No matter what kind of evidence you use, be sure to cite it correctly—see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial .

You cannot always tell from the assignment just what sort of writing style your instructor expects. The instructor may be really laid back in class but still expect you to sound formal in writing. Or the instructor may be fairly formal in class and ask you to write a reflection paper where you need to use “I” and speak from your own experience.

Try to avoid false associations of a particular field with a style (“art historians like wacky creativity,” or “political scientists are boring and just give facts”) and look instead to the types of readings you have been given in class. No one expects you to write like Plato—just use the readings as a guide for what is standard or preferable to your instructor. When in doubt, ask your instructor about the level of formality she or he expects.

No matter what field you are writing for or what facts you are including, if you do not write so that your reader can understand your main idea, you have wasted your time. So make clarity your main goal. For specific help with style, see our handout on style .

Technical details about the assignment

The technical information you are given in an assignment always seems like the easy part. This section can actually give you lots of little hints about approaching the task. Find out if elements such as page length and citation format (see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial ) are negotiable. Some professors do not have strong preferences as long as you are consistent and fully answer the assignment. Some professors are very specific and will deduct big points for deviations.

Usually, the page length tells you something important: The instructor thinks the size of the paper is appropriate to the assignment’s parameters. In plain English, your instructor is telling you how many pages it should take for you to answer the question as fully as you are expected to. So if an assignment is two pages long, you cannot pad your paper with examples or reword your main idea several times. Hit your one point early, defend it with the clearest example, and finish quickly. If an assignment is ten pages long, you can be more complex in your main points and examples—and if you can only produce five pages for that assignment, you need to see someone for help—as soon as possible.

Tricks that don’t work

Your instructors are not fooled when you:

• spend more time on the cover page than the essay —graphics, cool binders, and cute titles are no replacement for a well-written paper.
• use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to pad the page length —these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye. Most instructors use the same word processor you do. They know what’s possible. Such tactics are especially damning when the instructor has a stack of 60 papers to grade and yours is the only one that low-flying airplane pilots could read.
• use a paper from another class that covered “sort of similar” material . Again, the instructor has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other paper may not cover this material, and turning in the same paper for more than one course may constitute an Honor Code violation . Ask the instructor—it can’t hurt.
• get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question . Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your instructor. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of papers, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.

Critical reading of assignments leads to skills in other types of reading and writing. If you get good at figuring out what the real goals of assignments are, you are going to be better at understanding the goals of all of your classes and fields of study.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Insights from a study on non-submission of assignments: How can students best be supported?

• Samantha King University of Northampton

Non-submission of summative assignments has an impact on a significant minority of students but is not well understood (Prinsloo, 2019). At the University of Northampton, 70% of Integrated Foundation Year (IFY) students have a non-submission on their academic profile as they enter Level 4 and nearly 10% of all student assignments overall are not submitted (Coulson and Loddick, 2021). Students who fail to submit initially are offered a second submission point, but their grade is capped at 40%: data suggests that addressing this could close 50% of the GEM (Global Ethnic Majority) attainment gap.

A study was initiated in partnership with IFY academic staff to research into the experience and implications of non-submission of assignments for GEM and non-GEM students in IFY. The project aimed to understand the long-term implications in terms of academic outcomes through understanding why students fail to submit and how they recover from this. Data on student outcomes in recent years was interrogated and interviews were planned with current and former IFY students who had failed to submit at least one assignment. These interviews were conducted by existing IFY students to encourage an open dialogue.  Following low levels of participation in the research, the project was widened by inviting all undergraduates who had failed to submit at least one assignment to complete a survey with open-ended questions exploring the non-submission. Insights from this study will be reported, which will inform the practice of both Learning Developers and lecturers. If we can offer timely and appropriate support, we may be able to promote assignment submission, which in turn could improve student retention. This would allow more students to achieve their goals and contribute to a sustainable model of higher education.

Author Biographies

Samantha king, university of northampton.

Samantha King has been a Learning Development tutor at the University of Northampton since 2018. Prior to this, she gained several years’ experience as an EAP lecturer in higher education. She is an ALDinHE Certified Practitioner and a Fellow of AdvanceHE. Her research interests include supporting widening participation in the HE sector and the development of academic writing skills among students. Bourdieu, P. (1997) 'The Forms of Capital', in Halsey, A.H., Lauder, H., Brown, P. and Wells, A.S. (eds.) Education, Culture, and Society (pp. 241 – 258). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Alison Loddick, University of Northampton

Alison Loddick is a Maths and Statistics Learning Development tutor at the University of Northampton. Her research focuses on why university students engage and disengage with their studies.

Tim Curtis, University of Northampton

Tim Curtis is an associate professor in social innovation, systems thinking and sustainability. He is Programme Leader for the Integrated Foundation Year at the University of Northampton and has extensive experience of developing high impact learning and teaching strategies in higher education.

Deepak Bhachu, University of Northampton

Deepak Bhachu is a Senior Lecturer and Cognate Leader in Business, Management and Marketing for the Integrated Foundation Year at the University of Northampton. A lecturer with 14 years of experience and a background in Sociology, he is passionate about supporting students in their academic journey, with a specific focus on removing barriers to achievement in higher education.

Coulson, K. and Loddick, A. (2021) ‘Non-submission of assessments – the impact on the BAME attainment gap’, Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE) Conference. Online 7-9 April.

Prinsloo, P. (2019) ‘Tracking (un) belonging: at the intersections of human-algorithmic student support’, Pan-Commonwealth Forum. Edinburgh 9-12 September.

Thomas, L. (2012) Building student engagement and belonging in higher education at a time of change: final report of the What Works? Retention and Success Programme. Available at: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/retention/what_works_final_report.pdf (Accessed: 9 September 2022).

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• Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access ).

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JLDHE is an open-access peer-reviewed journal that provides a forum for researchers writing about educational practices and theoretical and methodological approaches to learning in higher education.

We are indexed by the  DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) and Google Scholar, as well as linked to CrossRef.

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Student Handbook 2023/24

12. extenuating circumstances, 12.6. late submission policy, important to note.

• No extensions are permitted under any circumstances for any assessment.
• Essays and dissertations can be submitted up to 7 days after the specified deadline, but will be recorded as late, and a late penalty will be applied – see the Mark Deduction section below.
• No late submissions are permitted under any circumstances for online exams or FAEs.  

Late Submission EC claim

(For essays and dissertations only)

If you have extenuating circumstances to explain your late submission of an essay or dissertation, you should submit an EC claim in line with the following procedure to request for the late penalty to be revoked.

When submitting your EC claim in MySIS, please select ' late submission ' as the EC Impact and include the date you submitted work as the Late Date. Although you may see the option to request an extension in MySIS, you must still select ‘late submission’ as  the School does not permit extensions .

If you wish to submit a late submission EC claim, you must first submit your work up to 7 days late, then submit your EC claim before the EC deadline. The School cannot process your late submission EC claim until we know when you have submitted your work late.   If you submit a late submission EC claim before you have submitted your work late, your claim will be declined - you can submit another claim once you have submitted your work late.

Mark Deduction

If an essay or dissertation is submitted up to 7 days after the specified deadline, it will be recorded as late, and a late penalty will be applied. For every period of 24 hours or part thereof that an essay or dissertation is overdue, there shall be a deduction of 5% of the total marks available (i.e. 5 marks for an assessment marked out of 100).

A late penalty may be revoked where a student provides good reason for the late submission under the extenuating circumstances policy. A student must submit a l ate submission EC claim with supporting evidence in line with that policy in order for the circumstances to be considered.

A student may submit work of passing standard but fail the module because of the late submission penalty. Where the student is eligible for a resit attempt in such a case, the student shall not be required to resubmit the assessment; instead, the minimum pass mark of 50 will be entered for the resit. Where a student is not eligible for a resit, this provision does not apply.

If a student does not submit their work within the 7-day late submission period, they will receive a mark of 0-NS (Non Submission) and will have to resit at the next opportunity. However, extenuating circumstances may apply for non-submission – please refer to the non-submission EC claim guidance for further information if appropriate.

Certain assessments may cease to be a valid measure of a module’s learning outcomes prior to the seven working day cut-off. For example, where feedback has been provided to the class, any submission made after that point would not be an accurate measure of attainment. In such cases, the late submission policy shall apply as normal up to the day on which feedback is given; at that point, a mark of zero (0FL) shall be applied, even if this is within seven calendar days of the deadline. Schools and Institutes must make clear to students in advance where this variant policy applies, or else the general policy shall be applied.

• Teaching and Learning Delivery

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Guidance on late submission (to accompany the Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment)

Please note : this Guidance was updated in November 2023 to clarify the example scenarios relating to the procedure for cases where a student receives a pass mark for an assignment (including dissertations) but then fails the unit due to the deduction of marks as a penalty of late submission. New wording has been added under paragraph B 9 in the revised document, with example scenarios 9.2 and 9.3 being slightly revised to provide clarification. A new paragraph (A 5) has also been provided to confirm the aims of the Guidance.

This Guidance accompanies the Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment.

For a full PDF version of the Guidance, please see below:

• Guidance on late submission (PDF)

A. Background

B. Guidance

C. Communications to students

A.      Background

• The Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment was revised and approved in June 2015 for implementation from September 2015. It sets out the University’s policy on the process of submission and sets out the penalties associated with late submission. Updates were also made to the Policy in February 2019 for implementation from September 2019.
• As noted in paragraph 4.5 of the Policy, there is a standard University penalty for all work that is submitted late. This must be used by Schools in relation to large pieces of work (e.g. dissertations/projects) [1] ). It is also the default penalty for all other pieces of work, unless alternative arrangements are agreed by the relevant Faculty. Schools are required to make a case to their Faculty for any exceptions to the standard penalty and, if agreed, any variation must be made clear on each piece of assessment. Faculties should review any variations annually.
• For small pieces of work, in exceptional circumstances a Unit Lead may decide not to accept late submission of assessed summative work. These circumstances must be approved by the Faculty and be detailed within Unit Specifications, and the rationale and consequences must also be clearly articulated in Assignment briefs (see paragraph 4.10 in the Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment).
• The following guidance is provided for Schools to assist in their implementation of these aspects of the Policy. Reference should also be made to the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Degree Regulations , which provide more information in relation to assessment and progression, including compensation and referrals.
• This guidance aims to avoid unnecessary resits/referrals where that is appropriate. The application of the guidance should not lead to exclusion/early exit of students on the basis of a single assessment attempt being subject to a late penalty, unless the student’s total resit allowance has been exceeded.

B.      Guidance

6. Definition of late submission

Any work that has been submitted after a deadline has passed is classed as late except in cases where an extension has already been agreed via mitigating circumstances procedures and DASS extensions.  There should be no discretionary periods or periods of grace.  A student who submits work at 1 minute past a deadline or later will therefore be subject to a penalty for late submission.

This guidance relates to first attempts/first sits only (including deferrals).  Students who submit referral assignments (including carried forward failed credit) after the deadline will be automatically subject to a mark of zero. There should be no sliding scale in operations for resits/referrals and there are no further resit opportunities for referred assignments that are submitted late.

7. Application of penalties for late submission

In cases where a piece of work does not represent an entire assessment or unit, the penalty applies to the individual piece of work , not the total assessment or unit.

No calculations should be made for part-days.  Any work submitted at any time within the first 24 hours following the published submission deadline will receive a penalty of 10% of the maximum amount of marks available.  Any work submitted at any time between 24 hours and up to 48 hours late will receive a deduction of 20% of the marks available, and so on, at the rate of an additional 10% of available marks deducted per 24 hours, until the assignment is submitted, or no marks remain.

If a piece of work is not marked out of 100, the deduction per day is proportional to that for work marked out of 100. For example, for a piece of work marked out of 60, the deduction would be 6 marks per day/24 hours. The reduction is therefore 10% of the total assessment value , rather than 10% of the mark awarded for the piece of work. 

The Policy relates to 24 hours/ calendar days , so includes weekends and weekdays, as well as bank holidays and University closure days. If an assessment deadline is at noon on a Friday and the student submits it just before noon on the following Monday, their penalty would be a 30% mark deduction, based on being late by three days/72 hours.  Schools are therefore advised to consider the implications of deadlines (particularly for hard copy submissions) and are encouraged to avoid deadlines on a Friday.

Schools must make it clear to students that submission dates and times are in UK local time and it is the responsibility of students to ensure that they check the relevant time zone. (This may be of particular relevance to distance learning students).  

Should Schools require both online and hard copy submission of an assignment, the late submission penalty would apply to the piece of work with the earliest submission date.

8. Professionally accredited programmes

The requirements of Professional and Statutory Bodies can take precedence over the requirements of the Policy. Therefore, PSRB accredited programmes which have a deadline/time related Intended Learning Outcome (ILO), for example related to professionalism, are permitted to apply a zero tolerance approach and issue a penalty of zero marks for late submission.

Conversely, in areas where students need a mark/credit for PSRB purposes, they should still be given a mark for work submitted late, if that is a PSRB requirement.

9. Procedure for the handling of cases where a student receives a pass mark for an assignment (including dissertations) but then fails the unit due to the deduction of marks as a penalty of late submission

Students whose assignment mark falls below a pass as a result of a late penalty should not be asked to resubmit the assignment; instead, the original assignment will be used in lieu of a referral, and normal resit/referral procedures will apply*, with unit marks receiving a suffix of ‘C’ or ‘R’, as described below.  If a student’s original unit mark before the application of the penalty was a pass , the mark recorded for the unit will not fall below the minimum compensatable pass mark for the programme.

*If a student has exhausted all their resit credit allowance, the standard regulations (as contained within the Degree Regulations) will apply, in terms of students being required to repeat the level, be issued with an exit award, etc., as appropriate. For students in the final year (level 6) of a UG programme, as reassessment is not permitted in the final year other than for PSRB requirements, if a student’s original mark was a pass before the application of a late penalty, arrangements for dealing with the reduced mark would be carried out via the standard regulations for special compensation in final year.

Example scenarios :

9.1          In cases where a student’s overall unit mark is in the compensation zone (following application of a late submission penalty) and the student has compensation credit remaining, normal compensation procedures will apply. For example, UG marks after the penalty of between 30 and 39 are recorded as 30-39C. PGT marks after the penalty of between 40 and 49 are recorded as 40-49C.

9.2          In cases where a student’s overall unit mark is in the compensation zone (following application of a late submission penalty) but the student has exhausted all their compensation allowance or the unit is a core/compulsory unit which does not permit compensation , the original assignment submission is treated as a referral and the mark is capped, with the final unit mark recorded with a suffix of ‘R’ to denote its treatment as a referral.*

9.3          In cases where a student’s overall unit mark falls below the compensation zone , (following application of a late submission penalty), and has resit allowance remaining the original assignment submission is treated as a referral and the mark is capped, with the final unit mark recorded with a suffix of ‘R’ to denote its treatment as a referral. For example, UG course unit marks that were pass marks before the penalty but that after the penalty fell to below 30 are recorded as 30R (i.e. the minimum compensatable pass mark). PGT course unit marks that were pass marks before the penalty but that after the penalty fell to below 40 are recorded as 40R.

Programmes with minimum compensatable pass marks that are different from the above should adopt an approach that is equivalent but that reflects their pass mark.

10. Procedure for the handling of cases where a student’s original mark was in the compensation zone before the deduction of marks as a penalty of late submission

Students whose assignment mark was in the compensation zone should not be routinely asked to resubmit the assignment*; instead the student’s original mark will be used in lieu of a referral with the students’ unit marks being capped at the lowest compensatable mark (normally 30 for UG and 40 for PGT programmes) and the mark receiving a suffix of ‘R’ to signify that it is being used in lieu of a referral. For example, a UG student whose assignment makes up 100% of the unit and whose original assignment mark was 35, and receives a mark of 5 for the unit as a result of late submission penalties, would have their unit mark recorded as 30R.

*However, if the student has exhausted all their compensation allowance or the unit is a core/compulsory unit which does not permit compensation , the student would need to take a referral of the unit for progression purposes, and would receive an ‘R’ suffix.

11.    Shared units/students undertaking units from another School

In the case of shared units/students undertaking units from another School, it would be good practice for the application of any late submission penalties to be clearly communicated to the student’s programme owning School.

12.    Work submitted more than 9 calendar days late

If work is submitted more than 9 but less than 10 calendar days late, this is considered as a  late submission and a penalty will be applied that results in the mark being reduced to zero. The work should still be marked and feedback given.

If the work is submitted more than 10 calendar days late, then it is considered as a non-submission and a mark of zero applied.

13.   Providing feedback in relation to work submitted late

Work submitted within 10 calendar days of the deadline should be marked and feedback provided; the feedback should reflect the mark achieved before the penalty was imposed. If a student submits work more than 10 calendar days late, there is not a requirement for the work to be marked or feedback provided. However, Schools may choose to mark and provide feedback.

C.      Communications to students

14. Schools should ensure that they make clear to students the deadlines for submission of work and how the students are expected to submit (i.e. the format – online or hard copy, etc.)  Students should be advised via the handbook of the penalties that will be applied if they submit late and the implications for feedback. 

15. Students should also be advised that if they submit referred assignments late, a mark of zero will automatically be given.

[1] Large pieces of work, for this purpose, are defined as being single pieces of assessed work carrying a credit weighting of 30 credits or more.

Version 1.5, November 2023

• Policy and guidance
• Assessment and feedback
• Policy on Marking
• Guidance on Moderation, Fairness and Consistency in Marking
• Policy on Submission of Work for Summative Assessment
• Guidance on late submission
• Policy on Feedback to Students
• Grade Descriptors
• Retention of Teaching and Learning Materials
• Policy on Alternative Assessments
• Assessment for Disabled Students
• Policy on Religious Observance
• Guidance for the presentation of Taught Dissertations
• Ethical Approval of research on human subjects

• Help & FAQ

Understanding why students don’t submit assignments

• Loddick, A. (Author)
• King, S. (Author)
• Tim Curtis (Author)
• Deepak Bhachu (Author)
• LLSS - Learning Development
• Foundation Study Framework
• Centre for Education and Research

Activity : Academic Talks or Presentations › Conference Presentation

Description

• non-submission
• assessments

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Related content

“tell me what you want, what you really, really want…” – what students want after non-submission of an assignment, understanding why students don't submit assignments., research outputs, insights from a study on non-submission of assignments: how can students best be supported.

Research output : Contribution to Journal › Article › peer-review

• Learning Tips
• Exam Guides
• School Life

 Penalty for Late Submission of Assignment: Full Guide

• by Judy Jeni
• February 21, 2024

Late submission of academic assignments is common in most institutions of higher learning. All learners cannot be able to submit their assignments on time because of various reasons.

Some are unable to complete because of genuine reasons while others are simply lazy and careless. Even if the assignment has been done correctly, late submission attracts a punishment.                                                                                                                               

Penalty for Late Submission of Assignment

Penalizing students for late submission has its fair share of advantages. Universities take specific actions to instill discipline among students so that they can know the value of timely submission. 

Nonetheless, the penalty needs to apply after a specific university body has done its investigation. This is necessary to establish the root cause of the late submission. 

Uncontrollable circumstances such as illness should be forgivable as long as the student has submitted the assignment and it is done correctly. However, all universities have their own rule and regulations regarding the late submission of assignments.

Penalty for Late Submission in Different Universities

Why universities penalize late submission           , 1. enhancing student responsibility.

Universities instill tough punitive measures for late submission to make students more responsible.

Knowing the repercussion of late submission or plagiarism makes you work hard and complete it before the deadline day.

In many ways, it will make you more passionate about the assignment and develop a sense of stewardship in your entire learning.

If universities condone late submission, there is a higher likelihood of students becoming irresponsible. 

2. Learners Will Maximize Their Studies

Punitive measures such as getting a zero are very demoralizing. As such, a student will maximize and exploit his or her potential to ensure there is no late submission.

If you are doing your assignment amidst the fear of getting a zero, there is no doubt that you will rush to finish your work and ensure it is done correctly. 

However, the rush to complete the work can compromise the quality. Most students tend to put more emphasis on beating the deadline but not on the quality of the work.

If universities permit late submission as long as the student has genuine reasons , there will be more concentration on quality. 

3. Good Assignment Completion Rates

No professor enjoys frequent late completion of assignments from students. To avoid this, universities punish students to improve the assignment completion rate.

Deadlines that prohibit late submission will propel students to complete their assignments on time.

It makes it easy for professors to determine the true academic ability of these students. 

4. Preparing Students for a Real-World Situation

Universities do not only focus on the academic achievements of the students. They also want them to be ready for the already competitive job market in the real world. In reality, real-life has deadlines.

The current job market is very competitive. Workers have a penalty to pay if they miss a deadline which can cost the company. There is even the risk of dismissal for frequently missing out on deadlines. 

Accepting late assignments in universities will make students lack the preparedness of fitting into real-world situations. School assignment deadlines are a good way of mimicking what is taking place in the real world. 

5. Promoting Fairness

As usual, late submission of the assignment is not for all students. There are still those who struggle to complete in time despite their busy schedule of life. That is to say, accepting late submission is unfair to students who made it within the deadline time.

It will be a discouraging sign for the efforts they put to finish their assignment in time. Penalties for late submission will be fair for students who rush to complete their work.

6. Course Pacing

Current university courses are very compressed and tight. It takes hard work and sheer commitment from the professors and students to complete a course on time.

To achieve successive pacing of these courses, universities can deter late submission by instilling punitive measures. 

A typical university course has a lot of work. Moreover, the available time for completion of these courses is minimal because of a higher number of intakes.

Professors have to put deadlines to keep the pace so that students can complete the course in time.

Allowing late submission only makes it difficult to complete available work. Through harsh penalties, universities can minimize the cases of late submissions that drag others behind. 

7. Inconveniencing the Lecturers

Instructors have a lot of work to do so that students complete and graduate. Late work only means instructors will have to work extra hard to be able to grade all the students.

They have to mark and grade all assignments before moving to a different subject or topic. If several students turn in their assignments later, this will be difficult to achieve. 

8. Lose of the Assignment Value

Long time delay of assignments by students is likely to reduce their value. The academic work will no longer align with the current activities of the class. Even more importantly, if you submit your assignment late, there are chances the corrections have already been done.

Your professor may already be preparing the students for a new topic by the time you make your submission. In this case, the professor has the option of giving you a zero.

How To Write an Email For Submission Of Assignment

Welcome to this informative article that will guide you on how to write an effective email for the submission of your assignment. If you’re unsure about how to draft an email for submitting your assignment, this article is here to help you!

Table of Contents

What To Do Before Writing the Email

Before you start writing the actual email, it’s important to take a few preparatory steps to ensure that your email is clear, concise, and professional:

• Gather all necessary information related to your assignment, such as the due date, submission guidelines, and any specific instructions given by your instructor.
• Review your assignment to ensure it meets the requirements and makes sense.
• If your instructor has provided a specific email address or subject line to use, make note of it.
• Consider attaching your assignment in the appropriate format if required.

What to Include In the Email

When composing your email for assignment submission, it’s important to include the following parts:

Subject Line

Choose a subject line that clearly indicates the purpose of your email. For example, “Assignment Submission – [Course Name]”. This helps the recipient identify the email’s content quickly.

Begin your email with a polite and professional greeting, such as “Dear Professor [Last Name],” or “Hi [Instructor’s Name],”. Use the appropriate salutation based on your relationship with the recipient.

Introduction

Introduce yourself briefly and mention the course or assignment you are submitting. This provides context for the recipient.

In the body of the email, mention any relevant details or specific instructions provided by your instructor. Clearly state that you are submitting your assignment and acknowledge the due date. If there are any additional comments or questions related to the assignment, include them here.

End your email with a courteous closing, such as “Thank you,” or “Best regards,” followed by your full name and contact information. This shows professionalism and makes it easy for the recipient to respond if necessary.

Email Template – Assignment Submission

Subject: Assignment Submission – [Course Name] Dear Professor/Instructor [Last Name], I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to submit my assignment for the [Course Name]. The assignment is attached in the required format. I have completed the assignment as per the given guidelines and it is ready for submission. The due date for the assignment is [Due Date]. If you have any further instructions or clarifications, please let me know. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Best regards, [Your Full Name] [Your Contact Information]

Writing an effective email for the submission of an assignment is essential to ensure clarity and professionalism. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can confidently compose your email and increase the likelihood of a positive response. Remember to always be polite, concise, and include all necessary information. Good luck with your assignment!

Additional tips:

• Double-check all the information before sending the email to avoid any errors or omissions.
• Use a professional email address and avoid using casual or inappropriate language.
• If there is a specific email format recommended by your institution, consult it for guidance.

How To Handle A Student Who Doesn’t Do Homework?

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If you’ve been teaching for any length of time, you know that there are students who don’t do their homework.

This is not always a sign of laziness, apathy, or lack of interest in the subject matter. It may just be that they didn’t understand the assignment and/or were too busy to complete it.

Regardless of the reason, these students will need some extra attention and guidance if you want them to succeed academically.

A personal touch is usually the best approach. In other words, don’t hesitate to talk to your students face-to-face about their homework problems. They will appreciate your interest and show a willingness to improve because you care enough about them as an individual to find a solution.

If these students want to improve their grades, your guidance will simplify the learning process and help them experience the satisfaction of doing well in school.

I hope this article helps you manage your students who don’t do homework!

Why Some Students Don’t Do Their Homework?

This is a question often asked by young and veteran teachers alike. The following list contains common reasons why students don’t complete their homework, as well as ideas on how to make sure that such situations never occur in your classroom.

1) What’s the Point?  

Sometimes, students simply don’t see a point in doing their homework. This may be because the subject is boring, or monotonous – or it could be because it’s impossible to comprehend. Ensuring that students have a solid understanding of the material before moving on to the next topic will help eliminate this issue. In addition, if you find yourself instructing something that lacks value, it may be time to rethink your approach.

2) Too Many Homework Assignments  

This is often the most common issue students face. Teachers who fail to recognize that their students are carrying too much of a workload can create unbearable conditions that lead to laziness and failure.  If you’re finding yourself sending home a large amount of work every night, you should strongly consider revising your approach. It’s much better to focus on a small number of assignments and ensure they’re completed correctly, rather than overwhelming students with too many tasks.

3) Lack of Self-Motivation  

Many students don’t do their homework because they lack motivation and self-discipline. In situations such as these, it’s important to remember that you can’t force a student to complete their work – but there are ways for you to motivate them. The key is making the endeavor rewarding and worth their time – this could be through rewards or points systems.

4) Intellectual Disability  

Sometimes students don’t do their homework because they’re struggling to keep up. This can be due to a variety of reasons (e.g., medical conditions, learning disabilities, etc.) If you suspect that your students are facing issues like these, you must take immediate action at the appropriate time.

5) Lack of Parental Involvement  

Sometimes, parents fail to support their child’s education. This lack of involvement can significantly affect the student, who may then find it difficult to complete homework tasks without parental guidance. You should give students enough space to do their work, but you should also be supportive in helping them when they need help.

6) Poor Planning   

Students can underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete their homework. When this happens, they might put off starting work until the last minute – or simply give up altogether. You should always keep an eye on how much time has passed since your students were given their task, so you can notify them if it’s becoming overdue. In addition, you should encourage your students to start work early, so they have sufficient time to complete it.

7) Illness   

When students become ill, they may struggle to control their behavior and focus on homework. If your class falls victim to a bug, you should allow individuals to take the necessary time off without anxiety or pressure. The same goes for injuries – any situations where students are bedridden should be handled with appropriate care.

8) Bad Timing  

Sometimes, students don’t do their homework due to bad timing. This could be because they’ve only just returned home from school and haven’t had enough time to rest. It’s important that you give your students ample time to unwind before starting any work, so they can retain their focus.

9) Distractions at Home   

Modern homes contain a multitude of distractions that can affect the way students work. In addition to these, students may also have distracted siblings or relatives – making it hard for them to concentrate on tasks given by the teacher. You should always provide plenty of space and seclusion when working on academic tasks.

10) The Task is Too Challenging   

It’s possible that students are attempting to complete assignments that are just too difficult for them. If this happens, you should consider revising the difficulty of your work until all of your students feel comfortable completing it.

11) Poorly Organized  

Similar to planning issues, poorly organized students can struggle when it comes to completing their homework. You should work closely with your students to ensure they have the best tools for completing assignments.

12) Disinterest  

There are some students who just aren’t interested in what you’re teaching them. This could mean that they refuse to complete their work or it may prevent them from retaining information. You should try and engage all of your students in your lessons so they remain interested and invested.

In conclusion, there are several reasons why some students don’t do their homework. The main causes include a lack of planning, ill health, and excessive or poorly organized tasks. You should always monitor your classes to make sure they’re completing work effectively and without difficulty.

How Should Handle Students Who Don’t Do Their Homework?

For a new teacher, handling a student who doesn’t do their homework can be a difficult task. It could throw off the rest of your lesson plans that you have been working on all day or week. You have to find a way to deal with it without showing favoritism and giving out punishments for those who don’t complete their work.

This can be a very delicate situation especially if several children don’t complete their homework.

1. Let them know the importance of doing their work

One of the first steps to take when a student does not complete their work is letting them know the importance of doing so. You can tell students that it is important to do their work, so they will be prepared for the next school day.

2. Give them a warning

Giving out a simple warning would be an ideal approach when handling students who have not completed their work. This means letting them know of any consequences or possible punishments that can be given if they do not complete their homework.

3. Let them know what your role is as a teacher

Another very effective way to deal with students who don’t do their work is by informing them of what the teacher’s role is in the classroom. By explaining this, you are letting them know that you are not responsible for their education. You are there to help them when needed and direct them in the right direction.

4. Give students who don’t do their work another opportunity

After letting students know what consequences they will face if they don’t complete their work, you can give them an opportunity to turn it in the next day or the following class period. This is a very effective way of dealing with students who did not complete their homework because it lets them have another chance to do so.

5. Give consequences for students who don’t complete their work

The most common consequence that you can give out when a student does not do their schoolwork is giving them detention or some other form of punishment. This can be a difficult thing to do because you have to find a way of disciplining students without jeopardizing your relationship with students or other teachers.

6. Have the parent call the student’s teacher

If a student does not turn in homework more than two times and they continue to not complete their work for several weeks, you can give the student’s parent a call. This can be an effective way of notifying parents about their child’s lack of schoolwork and lack of studying at home.

7. Talk to the student after class or during lunch

If you feel as if it is appropriate, you can talk to the student outside of the classroom setting, during lunch, or after school. This is an approach you can take when dealing with students who continuously do not complete their homework. By talking to them outside of the classroom, it makes it easier to handle situations that may arise during class periods.

8. Give student work to another classmate

Another successful way of handling students who don’t do their work is to give them school work that is given to other students. For example, you can give out extra credit questions or assignments that are completed by other students if they do not complete their work.

9. Make an announcement about the homework policy

Announcing what your classroom’s policy for homework is can be helpful because it lets everyone know what to expect for the upcoming weeks or months. You can also use this chance to remind students of your classroom rules and procedures.

10. Make sure homework is not repeatedly an issue

Make sure that you are aware of how often homework becomes an issue in your classroom. If it happens all the time, then there may be something wrong with how you are handing out homework. It may be a good idea to have students complete homework during the first week of school so you can see if there becomes an issue or not.

Final Thought

It can be frustrating when students don’t do their homework. There are a variety of approaches for handling this issue, but the most important thing is to identify what will work best with your personality and teaching style. In this blog post, we’ve provided ten different ways you can address students who consistently turn in incomplete schoolwork or neglect it altogether. Don’t forget that it may take some time before you find out which approach works best for both you and your students! Check out more articles here.

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How have PMC requests changed and why would you need one?

Posted by: The University of Salford

December 17, 2021

If you feel you are unable to meet your submission deadlines or attend an exam/presentation due to personal circumstances, you may be able to postpone your hand in and/or attendance to a later date by completing a Personal Mitigating Circumstances (PMC) request as a last resort .

If you are struggling with an assessment, contact your tutor, your module leader, your programme leader or the Library. We’ve outlined lots of academic support on the Student Hub .

Were you a student here during the 2020-21 academic year? You could be used to the old rules as part of our Covid-19 adjustments. The guidance on PMCs has reverted back to its original rules , so be sure to become familiar with these rules, which include only being able to self-certify once per academic year, by becoming familiar with what a PMC is and when to submit one on the askUS website .

What is a PMC request?

If you are experiencing circumstances such as medical or personal issues that have seriously affected your ability to complete an assessment, you can submit a PMC request. Circumstances could include a serious short-term illness, eviction, jury service, an emergency or a crisis. For a full list, please visit the askUS website .

Your circumstances must have affected:

• Your attendance at a timed assessment e.g., exam (absence)
• Your ability to submit an assessment (non-submission)
• Your ability to submit an assessment on time, but you can submit within 7 days after the deadline (late submission)

Submitting a PMC

You can submit a PMC request through the self-service portal , but we recommend reading the full rules on the askUS website first.

You need to clearly explain what your circumstances are, as well as the length of time you’ve been affected. Your PMC request could be rejected without this information. You can only submit one PMC per year. This means your circumstances must be one-off and not ongoing situations. If you are experiencing ongoing problems, speak to askUS or someone in your School such as a tutor for advice.

You must submit your PMC request within 10 working days of the submission date mentioned in your PMC request. You can submit your PMC earlier than 10 days before your assessment is due, but it should not be done too far in advance. You need to show that you are still committed to completing your assignment.

The University aims to review PMC requests within three working days of receipt. You will be informed of the decision through your University email address.

If your PMC request is rejected , you can submit further evidence to support your case within five working days.  Details of how to do this will be included in the outcome email.

If your PMC request is accepted :

• Absence: If you can’t attend an exam, you will be offered a replacement attempt at the next available opportunity
• Non-Submission: If you can’t submit an assessment, you will be offered a replacement attempt at the next available opportunity
• Late Submission: If you can submit an assessment within the Late Submission period, i.e. 7 days after the original deadline, your grade will not be capped at 40%

More support

If you have specific questions around PMCs and you can’t find the answers on the askUS website , try reaching out to your school through your tutor, your module leader or through a Student Progression Administrator or by contacting the School Office:

• Salford Business School:  [email protected]  
• School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology:  [email protected]  
• School of Health & Society:  [email protected]
• School of Science, Engineering & Environment:   [email protected]
• Salford Languages:  [email protected]

Finding support early is the most important thing. Find suggestions on the Student Hub .

Posted in: Campus Life

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What’s new.

Introduction

UWE Bristol defines “coursework” as a piece of work that you would normally complete outside of the classroom. The following are all types of coursework (so the information on this page applies to them):

• dissertations
• pieces of group work
• laboratory reports
• oral presentations
• research reports
• final projects
• portfolios.

Microsoft Office (Office 365) is available free for students. You are allowed to download and install the software on up to five devices. You need to login to your university email account to access the Microsoft Office download.

Assessment content limit

An assessment content limit gives you a clear indication of the maximum number of words you can use in an assessed piece of written work. You can find information on the maximum word count limit for all your assessments in the module handbook. View the Assessment Content Limits Policy.

Coursework deadlines

The deadline for the submission of all assessed work is normally 14:00, on a date specified at the start of each module.

You are expected to plan your workload to avoid being impacted upon by a minor illness or other cause. However, there is normally a  late submission window  of 48 hours following the original hand-in deadline during which you can submit your assignment without penalty if you experience a problem meaning that you cannot meet the deadline.

An assignment cannot be submitted after the late submission window has ended. Failure to submit the assignment within the late submission window will result in a non-submission being recorded.

In some circumstances a late submission window will not be available for an assignment, please see  assessment support options  for further details.

If you are unable to meet the original hand-in deadline you do not need to provide a reason or evidence indicating why you need to use the late submission window. 

See marks and feedback for further information.

If you're unable to meet a deadline or have a problem with an assessment

UWE Bristol provides a range of support processes to help students who are encountering situations which impact on their ability to submit work or to attend assessments.

How to submit

Online submission.

When submitting your coursework online, this will normally be through either the Blackboard or Pebble Pad, these are virtual learning environment platforms that have been designed and created for digital accessibility. View the  guidance for using Blackboard .

To submit coursework via Blackboard:

• Log in, click the three lines icon in the top left hand corner of the screen and select the Coursework tab. You can submit your coursework by clicking on the link.
• you may submit to the coursework as many times as you wish, but only the last submission you make will be assessed.
• If your last submission is after the deadline but within the 48-hour  late submission window , this submission will be the one marked and not any earlier versions.
• The date and time of your submission is taken from the Blackboard server and is recorded when your submission is complete, not when you click submit. With this in mind, make sure you leave plenty of time to allow your work to upload.

If your coursework is not received by the deadline, or within the  late submission window , you will see a non-submission (ns) on your record. 

What happens if I can’t submit my work due to a critical systems failure?

The following actions will only be considered in cases where there is a malfunction that means students can’t access critical systems (defined as Blackboard, MYUWE and UWE Bristol networks) for more than five minutes in the final two hours before submission.

If there is a temporary loss of access to online coursework submission caused by a critical systems failure, the University may decide to take the following action:

• all deadlines for work submitted online will be extended by an additional 24 hours
• all deadlines for assessments that are not submitted online will be extended by an additional 24 hours (due to the potential for losing access to Blackboard materials)
• all deadlines where students have already been given an extension under Reasonable Adjustments will be extended by an additional 24 hours
• if the extension falls on a Saturday or a public holiday then it will last until 14:00 on the next working day.

This response has been created to ensure that students are not negatively impacted, in the case of a critical systems failure.

Students will be advised of the extended deadlines via messages on Blackboard, MYUWE, the information screens and posters around the Coursework Hub. Make sure you also check the University’s and The Students’ Union social media accounts for updates in the event of a critical systems failure.

Please note that this process does not cover interruptions to:

• other UWE Bristol services
• residency networks
• equipment and services not supplied by UWE Bristol (for example students' domestic network access or personal computers).

Interruptions or system failures limited to student computer labs are not covered.

The responsibility to submit on time remains with students.

What to do if you notice a problem

• If you are unable to submit or have experienced an issue, please call the IT Service Desk on  +44 (0)117 32 83612  as soon as possible before the submission point closes.
• If you have noticed a mistake with your submission after the coursework submission point has closed (after the late submission window), please contact an  Information Point  to review potential options that might be available.

Submission of hard copies

It is anticipated that the majority of your assessments will be submitted online. However, where there is a professional body requirement for coursework to be submitted as a hard copy, this is usually done via submission boxes located at your campus:

• Frenchay Campus : the submission boxes are located at the Coursework Hub, Level 1 of A Block (underpass area)
• Bower Ashton Campus : students should go to the C block corridor (or will be given alternative instructions where appropriate)
• Glenside Campus : the submission boxes are located in A block behind the Information Point.

Some items of coursework (for example, posters or dissertations) are not submitted via a submission box, your lecturer will be able to tell you more about this and the arrangements for submitting your work, during your module.

In the event of adverse weather conditions and University closure, hard copy coursework should be submitted by 14:00 on the next day that the University is open. 

Balancing your assessment load

The benefits to submitting your assignment for the first deadline can be significant.

Module assessment deadlines are usually during or just after the run of the module and have been designed to take place at the ideal time for your learning.

You are encouraged to submit to the first deadline as it gives you the opportunity to: 

• apply knowledge when it is fresh
• spread your assessment across the year
• receive feedback on drafts and ideas
• act on feedback from staff and peers during the module
• receive module specific support from your module and programme leader while undertaking the assignment
• utilise an uncapped re-sit later in the year if you fail the first try.

There may be times when you are experiencing difficult personal circumstances or have multiple deadlines within a short time. We strongly recommend speaking to a Student Support Advisor  about your options and support available to you. 

Find out more about the risks and consequences of uncapped resits.

Resits and retake information

Submitting your coursework

You should receive specific instructions either online or in your module handbook on how you submit coursework at the start of each individual module.

Some modules may require you to submit your coursework online. If this is the case, you will receive detailed instructions at the start of your module.

Information about your coursework and submission methods is also given in the MYUWE Learning tab. You can also view the guidance for using Blackboard .

Please note that you may not submit coursework by email.

Resit coursework

Module leaders are responsible for providing you with details of resit coursework on Blackboard.

If you have not received details of your coursework within 14 days of the publication of your results, you must contact your Student and Programme Support team  immediately.

Reasonable adjustment for a resit deadline

For a resit, a reasonable adjustment to the deadline will give an additional five days from the original deadline. This does not include assessments contributing to the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship, which are eligible for a three-day reasonable adjustment.

What are assessment offences?

Please see the assessment offences policy for more information on what constitutes an assessment offence, and the processes and penalties applied.

Assessment offences

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Support to help you study, including referencing, academic writing, research skills, time management, reading, plagiarism advice, and IT.

Prepare for assessments

Advice to help you prepare for assignments and exams.

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