The points listed here are intended

Archaeology,
ARCH8309a THESIS EXAMINATION FORM
Name of candidate:
Degree:
Instructions:
1) Please provide a 1500 word review of the thesis using the headings below. The points
listed here are intended to help guide your review, so keep them in mind as you write.
Please simply remove the bullet points below and enter your responses there. This
document is ~1000 words to begin with, so your word count should be ~2500 words once
you are finished. We want 1500 of your words. Please note, the bullet points below are to
guide you—there may (or will be) other issues that come up in the thesis you have been
allocated since every one is different. The rubric on pages 2 and 3 will help you to
unpack the various elements of the thesis and decide how to assess them.
2) Once you have read the thesis, complete the table below.
Recommendation
Class 1 HD 85 — 100%
Final numeric
mark =
/ 100
Class 2A D 75 — 84%
Class 2B C 65 — 74%
Class 3 P 50 — 64%
Fail N <50%

ARCHAEOLOGY
MASTERS BY COURSEWORK THESIS ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST
The assessment elements below are some of those that should be considered in the examination
of the thesis. As an examiner you are at liberty to vary these to suit the thesis you are examining,
but please clearly indicate any changes in your report. A tick in a column indicates your rating
of the elements of the thesis; column headers indicate a sliding scale from 1 to 5 where 1
indicates the lowest level (i.e. the candidate does this poorly) and 5 the highest level (i.e. the
candidate does this well). Please tick the boxes where appropriate indicate a numeric score. A
copy of this checklist will be provided to the candidate with a copy of your written examiners'
report.
Research question and aims 1 2 3 4 5 N/A
Is there a clear and well developed research question? 
Are the aims of the thesis realistic and achievable? 
Do the aims of the thesis allow the research question to be
addressed? 
Are key terms clearly explained? 
How well does the thesis deal with any problems or constraints
in relation to the development of the research question/aims? 
Does the first chapter clearly set out for the reader what to
expect in the rest of the thesis? 
Is the significance of the study clearly justified and defensible? 
Poor examples would be complicated questions that are difficult to understand or confusing, aims
that are really methods, significance that is poorly argued, etc.
Literature review 1 2 3 4 5 N/A
Is the literature used in the thesis relevant and appropriate to
the research? 
Is the literature used in the thesis comprehensive and up-to-
date? 
Does the thesis present a critique (critical review) of this
literature that justifies the research being undertaken?

Does the literature review demonstrate the relevance of the
literature cited to the research question and aims?
Poor examples would be a chapter that simply described the literature, didn’t guide the reader or
construct an argument from the points in the relevant literature. If you didn’t know why you were
reading something, then this would be a clue
Methods 1 2 3 4 5 N/A
Are all of the methods fully described clearly? 
Are the methods appropriate? 
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Is there appropriate justification for the choice of methods
used? 
Are the limitations of the methods/data/study recognised and
clearly articulated? 
Poor examples of this would be missing methods or methods that you couldn’t replicate because
they weren’t sufficiently detailed, or a lack of critical attention to the limitations created by any of
these methods.
Data and results 1 2 3 4 5 N/A
Does the data collected allow the aims and research question to
be adequately addressed? 
Is the results section clearly distinguished from the
interpretation/discussion section of the thesis?

Are the data/results fully described in a clear and informative
manner? 
Is supporting data presented clearly and accurately, using
appendices where necessary? 
Have tables and/or figures been used where appropriate to
present results? 
Poor examples of this would be bad graphs (poor visual literacy), confusing descriptions, or
insufficient description for you to understand the complete dataset.
Interpretation and Discussion 1 2 3 4 5 N/A
Are results interpreted appropriately and clearly? 
Are the results interpreted in the context of the original
research question and aims?

Does the interpretation engage both with the data/results
presented in the thesis, as well as with the literature reviewed? 
Are the results compared with those of other similar studies? 
Is there an argument presented? 
Is the argument well supported by the evidence? 
Poor examples of this would be interpretation that doesn’t connect back to the literature reviewed
or the ideas raised in the literature review, data that only described rather than interpreted, or
partial interpretation.
Conclusion 1 2 3 4 5 N/A
Are the conclusions justified?
Does the conclusion provide a summary of the overall
argument advanced in the thesis? 
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Does the conclusion return to the original aims and research
question adequately? 
Where necessary, does the conclusion reconsider the
methodology and limitations of the study? 
Has the thesis advanced our understanding of the area of study? 
Does the candidate make useful suggestions for future work? 
Has the candidate demonstrated capacity for independent
research? 
Poor examples of this would be a conclusion that just repeats material from other parts of the
thesis or that has nothing new to say
Overall style, quality and accuracy of the thesis 1 2 3 4 5 N/A
Does the title adequately describe the content of the thesis? 
How well does the abstract describe the complete contents of
thesis? 
Has assistance from others being adequately acknowledged? 
Are there sufficient headings and are they well chosen and
positioned? 
If used, are figures relevant? 
If used, are figures of a suitable quality? 
If used, are figures adequately referenced? 
If used, are tables relevant? 
If used, are tables of a suitable quality? 
If used, are tables adequately referenced? 
Are maps/graphs/tables fully and clearly labelled and
captioned? 
Is the thesis well-structured? 
Does the thesis follow the table of contents? 
Is the thesis writing well-structured and easy to understand? 
Is the language appropriate and does the candidate demonstrate
their understanding of key concepts? 
Is the thesis reasonably free of spelling, grammatical and
typographical errors? 
Are pages numbered sequentially? 
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Does the thesis use an appropriate system of referencing
literature consistently within the text? 
Have all of the sources cited in the text been included in the
reference list? 
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