ASSESSMENT TASK 1: DESCRIPTION Analyzing the Business Decision or Problem In this section you should write in your own words a brief description of the business and the decision or problem that needs...

ASSESSMENT TASK 1: DESCRIPTION
Analyzing the Business Decision or Problem
In this section you should write in your own words a brief description of the business and the decision or problem that needs to be addressed.  You should then describe your analysis of the decision or problem (you may use a diagram to assist in this explanation) and identify and describe the information that you would need to address it.   You should finish with a set of three general research questions that you would need to answer to get this information.  (500 words)


What is Already Known about the Decision or Problem
Here you should report on the steps you have taken to search for existing information about the decision or problem.  These should include a formal academic literature review of academic papers and reports available through internet search engines.  For each step, summarize the type of information found and any key conclusions that you can draw relevant to the decision or problem.  At the end you should have a section summarizing the gaps and limitations in the information found and a few sentences describing your overall conclusions and what these mean for conducting further research to answer the questions listed in the previous section.  Clear and logical links between the summarized information and three overall research questions should also be provided (1000 words).



The Overall Research Design – Evaluating Options
In this section you should assess some major research designs in terms of how well they fit your research questions. At the end of the section you should use this assessment to decide on the design that you would use to address your research questions and why you think this is the best option.  (500 words)


What are the Key Variables and How Will you Measure Them?
Here you will use the information and conclusions from all previous sections to identify and describe the main variables that you need to include or consider in the proposed research. Then take each of these variables and describe how you will measure them and explain their interrelationships.  (500 words)



Sample Requirements & Sampling Options

In this section you must describe the details of the sample that you require to answer the research questions and describe options for accessing this sample. Explain your decisions in detail.  Where appropriate, discuss what sample size might be needed and why – use of the appropriate formula must be explained and justified.  (500 words)


Ethical Issues
Here, identify and discuss the ethical issues associated with research design and sampling procedure you have chosen for your proposed research. You should also suggest options for dealing with these issues. You must explain your decisions in detail (500 words)


References
You must list here any references in APA style that you have used in the body of the proposal to support your statements.  References are not included in the word count.


Appendices
Keep appendices to a minimum making sure that they are the same format as the main body of text.  Appendices are not dumping grounds for supplementary materials you could not fit into the main body of the report. Appendices contain materials that are not essential but interesting to know and perhaps add something to the main narrative.  A useful way to decide what should be deemed ‘appendix-worthy’ is to ask yourself whether the material detracts from the main message and flow of the report and does not really add anything essential.  If it does not, then it should become an appendix with clear signposting in the main narrative.  Appendices are not included in the word count.