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Module code and title: Academic Research and Writing Module leader: Stephen Basdeo Assignment No. and type: Portfolio of Work, comprised of Report (1000 words) Reflective Writing and Personal Development Plan (500 words) Assessment weighting: Portfolio of Work (100%), comprised of: Report 80% Reflective Writing and Personal Development Plan 20% Submission time and date: Monday 14th November at 23:59 Target feedback time and date: Three weeks from the date of final submission Assignment task The summative assessment requires you to produce a Portfolio of work, comprised of three components: (1) a Report on a contemporary business issue that demonstrates use of evidence-based writing’ (2) a piece of Reflective Writing that discusses what you learnt during the module and how your academic skills have improved, and (3) a Personal Development Plan that describes how you will develop and further improve these skills. This assignment has been designed to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your achievement of the following module learning outcomes: LO1 Reflect on personal achievement and continuous improvement. LO2 Prepare a personal development plan. LO3 Demonstrate awareness and the use of evidence-based writing to support conclusions and recommendations. LO4 Understand good academic writing and referencing. Task requirements Overview Prepare a Portfolio of work that includes a Report that applies the academic skills from the module to a business issue (LO1 and LO4); a piece of Reflective Writing that discusses what you have learnt during the module and how your academic skills have improved (LO1); and a Personal Development Plan that describes how you will develop and further improve these skills (LO2). PART 1 – REPORT (Evidence-based writing) (1,000 words) Throughout the module we will be examining the theme of environmental sustainability and how businesses respond to it. You must produce an evidence-based Report of 1000 words that answers the following question: How can businesses benefit from adopting environmentally sustainable business practices? Your Report must include: a) Evidence of research. All sources of information used must be cited within the main body of your writing, as well as included as references in the Reference List using Harvard referencing. b) Include both direct and indirect citations from a wide variety of sources (including at least one academic journal article). c) Make use of the relevant research items from within the module. You must demonstrate evidence of wider research, real world application and reading of core textbooks, learning materials on Moodle and academic scholarly work through Harvard referencing. The word count excludes the cover page, table of contents, financials, references, and appendices. PART 2 – REFLECTIVE WRITING (300 words) Using the skills you have acquired in the module (e.g. your academic skills) and the work you have produced for Part 1 Report, produce a short piece of Reflective Writing that reflects on what you have learnt during the module, how your academic skills have improved, and how these will support your studies as you progress through the degree. Your Reflective Writing must explain: a) What you have learnt from the module - this should be personal to you and not a list of all the topics covered in the module. b) Why the learning may be important – what can you achieve with the new knowledge? c) How is the learning going to be of use to you in your future studies as you progress through the degree? You will need to include direct and indirect citations and a Reference List. A suggested format would be to briefly introduce the reflective piece and create one paragraph for each point above. PART 3 - PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN (200 words) Create a Personal Development Plan that focuses on the academic skills from within the module you wish to further develop and improve. The plan needs to highlight: a)Three skills you would like to develop. b)How you plan to develop them. A template has been provided for you to complete – see attached. Referencing and research requirements Please reference your work according to the Harvard style; you can access guidance on this here: https://libguides.uos.ac.uk/academic/referencing/Harvard How your work will be assessed Your work will be assessed on the extent to which it demonstrates your achievement of the stated learning outcomes for this assignment (see above) and against other key criteria, as defined in the University’s grading descriptors. This assignment will be marked according to the grading descriptors for Level 3. Submission details This assignment should be submitted electronically via Moodle (module tutors will discuss this process with you during class time). · Please ensure that you include your essay, reflection, and development plan on one single document and that you save it in an appropriate file format such as Microsoft Word only. DO NOT upload your assignment in pages format. Your file must also contain at least 20 words of text, consist of fewer than 400 pages and be less than 40MB in size. · You can submit your work as many times as you like before the submission date. If you do submit your work more than once, your earlier submission will be replaced by the most recent version. · Once you have submitted your work, you will receive a digital receipt as proof of submission, which will be sent to your forwarded e-mail address (provided you have set this up). Please keep this receipt for future reference, along with the original electronic copy of your assignment · You are reminded of the University’s regulations on academic misconduct, which can be viewed on the University website: https://www.uos.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Academic-Misconduct-Policy.pdf. In Submitting your assignment, you are acknowledging that you have read and understood these regulations Submission date and time This assignment should be submitted to Moodle before 23:59 on Monday 14th November 2022. You should submit all work for summative assessments by the above deadline. Work submitted up to three working days after the deadline will be accepted and marked, but the mark will be capped at the pass mark (40%) unless there is a valid reason for the late submission (i.e. having been granted an extension to the deadline or a deferral under the terms of the Extenuating Circumstances Policy). Work submitted more than three working days after the deadline without a valid reason will not be accepted and will be recorded as 0% RN (refer, no work submitted). For more information please refer to: http://studenthandbook.uos.ac.uk/index.php/studentguides/assessment-the-basics-undergraduate Feedback and marks for this assignment will be available in three weeks from the deadline. Assignment Brief Academic Year 20 20 - 21 Assignment Brief Academic Year 20 20 - 21 Assignment Brief Academic Year 20 22- 23 1 Academic Research and Writing 1 Academic Research and Writing Criteria Scales 1st: 70%-100% 2nd: 60%-69% 2.2: 50%-59% 3rd: 40%-49% 35%-39% 21%-34% ≤20% Max Grade 100.00 69.00 59.00 49.00 39.00 34.00 20.00 Portfolio on Chosen Topic (30) A well-written report on a business issue, with very few if any mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation, which employs a wide range of different sources in evidence of its points. Cites from required readings. Report contains a clear thesis statement/statement of aims in the introduction and is divided into clear subsections. Report on business issue is well-written though there may be a few errors in spelling, grammar, referencing, and punctuation. Student employs a reasonably range of sources to support their points but there may be some flaws in reasoning. Cites from required readings. Good comprehension of business issue. Report on business issue contains several errors in spelling, grammar, referencing, and punctuation. Student employs a limited range of sources to support their points but there may be some flaws in reasoning. Student displays adequate comprehension of business issue but the whole paper is poorly articulated. Student resorts to writing mainly bullet points instead of full paragraphs. Numerous errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation. Sources cited are mainly from websites with no academic texts. Some understanding of business issue discussed but report is highly generalised and does not reference specific facts or figures. Lots of information contained in vague bullet points instead of coherent paragraphs. Little evidence that student has understood the specified topic or the assignment brief. Little evidence of research. Information in the report is incoherent, poorly written, and badly presented. 1000 words report outlining the advantages and disadvantages of one of three business issues: Adapting to new technology; environmental sustainability; and workforce planning. Reflective Writing (20) Student references relevant academic scholarship on the importance of reflection (e.g. Gibbs or some other reflective model). The reflection discusses at least two academic writing skills learnt and is accompanied with a personal development plan. Well-written and with very few, if any, errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Student references relevant academic scholarship on the importance of reflection (e.g. Gibbs or another reflective model). Reflection discusses at least two academic writing skills which correspond to those listed on the development plan. Some errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Student displays some understanding of the purpose of reflection but does not support this with reference to scholarship. Skills learnt in the module are listed but not discussed in depth. Reflection contains several errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Basic understanding of the meaning of reflection. Basic summary of the purpose of reflection but no references to scholarship on the subject. Some skills are discussed but not in great depth. Numerous errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Poor understanding of the purpose of reflection. Some skills are listed but their discussion is incoherent and vague. The student may have simply continued writing about a business issue from the preceding report. Very poor understanding what reflection is. Poorly written and incoherent, likely a list of bullet points which do not discuss how the specified skills will help them in their career. Does not reference any scholarship on importance of reflection. Composed mainly of bullet points which are at times vague and incoherent. 300 words