Exponential Training & Assessment: Student Information Guide to Completing your Assignment

Transcription

1 Guide to Completing your Assignment Exponential Training & Assessment Limited

2 Contents Section Page A. Learning Outcomes & Assessment Criteria 3 B. Understanding the Question 4 C. What to Include 5 D. Linking Theory with Practice 7 E. Plagiarism 8 F. Writing style & Layout 8 G. Word Counts 9 H. Confidentiality 9 I. Diagrams and Tables 10 J. Reflective Statements 10 K. Referencing 10 L. Bibliographies 13 M. Appendices 14 N. Drafts and Feedback 14 Exponential Training & Assessment Limited

3 A. Learning Outcomes & Assessment Criteria Most assignments will include a number of learning outcomes. In order to successfully pass an assignment, your work will need to have covered every learning outcome. Below each learning outcome, there will be a series of bullet points, which provide more information on how you are expected to meet the learning outcome. These are the assessment criteria and you must cover every one of these in your assignment. The assessment criteria will usually be expressed as instructions or questions. Here is an example from Unit 5001: Part 1: By completing this unit, you should now be able to assess and plan for personal professional development (Learning Outcome 1) Explain why it is important for you to continually develop yourself at work in relation to achieving organisational objectives. Describe ways available to you for assessing your current skills and competencies against your defined role requirements and organisational objectives. What development opportunities are available to you to meet current and future needs? Construct a personal development plan for yourself which contains SMART objectives. The sentence which is written first and in bold, is the learning outcome The bullet points are the assessment criteria By answering all of the assessment criteria (bullet points) you will cover the learning outcome. By answering all of the learning outcomes in the assignment you will then be able to pass the assignment. Exponential Training & Assessment Limited

4 B. Understanding the Question It is important to read the assessment criteria carefully as these are your instructions about what you must write in your assignment. If there is anything that you do not understand, please ask your assessor or tutor. Here is an explanation of what is meant by some of the most commonly used words: Word Explanation what you need to do Account for Explain or give reasons for Analyse Show what something means by breaking it down into parts and writing about each part in detail Assess Consider the value or importance of something, paying attention to positive, negative and disputable aspects, and listing the judgements of others as well as yourself Comment on See Assess Compare Look for similarities and differences between items Construct Design, produce or write Contrast Explain the differences and similarities between two items Criticise Give your opinion about something and back this up by discussing the evidence and how you came to have this opinion Define Explain the precise meaning of a word or phrase Describe Give a detailed account of the characteristics of something Differentiate Show the difference between two things by explaining how they are different Discuss Give the reasons for and against something Evaluate Explain how useful or worthwhile something is. Include your personal opinion, supported by evidence Examine Describe in depth and consider the implications Explain Tell how things work or how they came to be the way they are. Also describe and analyse Explore Thoroughly consider a subject by examining and analysing every aspect of it Identify Select and list Illustrate Explain and make clear by the use of examples or diagrams Interpret Make a subject clear and explicit by describing your understanding of it Investigate Research, study and carefully consider all areas of the subject Justify Give valid reasons for decisions or conclusions Outline Give the main points or general principles of a subject, leaving out minor details, and emphasising structure and relationship Prove Demonstrate that something is valid or invalid by presenting evidence Relate Show how things are connected to each other and to what extent they are alike or affect each other Review Make a survey of, examining the subject critically State Give details fully and clearly Summarise Give a concise account of the main points or substance of a matter, leaving out details and examples Exponential Training & Assessment Limited

5 C. What to Include Most assignments will already have been broken down into Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria, providing you with a clear structure for your assignment. If the assignment has been broken down for you in this way, do write your answer as per the structure that has been provided for you. Here is a step by step guide that you can use to help you to include the correct information in your answers: 1. Read the instructions provided at the beginning of the assignment 2. Look at each assessment criteria and highlight the key words this will provide you with a checklist of what should be included Here is an example from Unit 5001: Part 1: By completing this unit, you should now be able to assess and plan for personal professional development (Learning Outcome 1) Explain why it is important for you to continually develop yourself at work in relation to achieving organisational objectives. Describe ways available to you for assessing your current skills and competencies against your defined role requirements and organisational objectives. What development opportunities are available to you to meet current and future needs? Construct a personal development plan for yourself which contains SMART objectives. 3. Once you have highlighted the key words, you must ensure that your answer makes reference to each of these words. 4. Ensure that you understand what the question is asking. For example, if it asks what development opportunities are available to you, do not write about development opportunities are available to your team. If the question asks you about your organisation s disciplinary and grievance procedures, ensure that you cover both sets of procedures, not just one. 5. Identify which words are the instructions, if there are any. Exponential Training & Assessment Limited

6 Here is an example from Unit 5001: Part 1: By completing this unit, you should now be able to assess and plan for personal professional development (Learning Outcome 1) Explain why it is important for you to continually develop yourself at work in relation to achieving organisational objectives. Describe ways available to you for assessing your current skills and competencies against your defined role requirements and organisational objectives. What development opportunities are available to you to meet current and future needs? Construct a personal development plan for yourself which contains SMART objectives. 6. Look at Section B: Understanding the Assessment Criteria to ensure that you understand what these instructions mean. Assessment criteria without an instruction will be phrased as questions to be answered, as in the third bullet point in the example above. 7. Check if any additional instructions are given. Most assignments will ask you to Illustrate your answers with examples from your own workplace where possible. If you are unable to think of any examples from your own workplace, consider if you can think of any examples from other organisations that you know something about. 8. At this point, you can brainstorm a list of the points that you can include in your answer, considering both the key words and the instruction words. These should include theories, models or the work of others which you feel are relevant. 9. You can then assemble these points into a logical order. In many cases, each point could be the focus of one paragraph. 10. Brainstorm a list of diagrams that you could include. 11. Brainstorm any examples that you could use to illustrate your answer. 12. Identify any quotes which will support your answer. 13. Always keep in mind the suggested word count as this will give you an idea of how much depth you are expected to go into. If you have too much to include, mark each item with an M, S or C according to whether you MUST include it, SHOULD include it or COULD include it. This will help you to prioritise which items to include. Exponential Training & Assessment Limited

7 D. Linking Theory with Practice During your qualification programme you will probably have been introduced to theories, models and concepts. The assignment questions have been written to give you the opportunity to demonstrate that you are aware of these theories, models and concepts and can relate them to what happens in your own workplace or another organisation that you are familiar with. Here is an example from Unit 5001: Part 1: By completing this unit, you should now be able to assess and plan for personal professional development (Learning Outcome 1) Explain why it is important for you to continually develop yourself at work in relation to achieving organisational objectives. Describe ways available to you for assessing your current skills and competencies against your defined role requirements and organisational objectives. What development opportunities are available to you to meet current and future needs? Construct a personal development plan for yourself which contains SMART objectives. When answering the second question above, you could make reference to 360 degree assessment, training needs analysis, appraisals and development reviews. You could refer to the Conscious/Unconscious Learning Model and provide examples of the stages that you or someone in your workplace is at with different skills and the implications of this. When describing the development opportunities available to you, it might be useful to refer to Honey and Mumford s Preferred Learning Styles, explain what your preferred learning style is and how this then has an effect on the type of learning opportunity which is likely to be most effective for you. Exponential Training & Assessment Limited

8 E. Plagiarism During your qualification programme, you will benefit from reading widely around the subject area that you have been studying, particularly using Management Direct and learning resources supplied by your training provider. As mentioned previously, when answering the questions, you should make reference to what you have read, to models, theories and concepts that you have learned about and to other people s views of these. It is essential however, that you do not copy words, sentences, paragraphs or more from documents written by other people. This is called plagiarism and if the person assessing your assignments can identify the work of other people in your assignment, then your assignment will not pass, regardless of how well the questions have been answered. Plagiarism is defined as the unauthorised use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work. It is possible to quote or cite from a document produced by someone else, using exactly their own words. Information is provided about this in Section K: Referencing. F. Writing Style and Layout Although you will be assessed on the content of your assignment, the writing style and layout are important as they will affect how easy it is for your assignment to be assessed and will contribute to the overall impression. Here is a list of tips: 1. Your assignment should be submitted electronically, using Microsoft Word 2. If you have been provided with a template in which to write your answer, use this template 3. If you have not been provided with a template, use a modern, businesslike font such as Arial, Tahoma or Verdana in font size Use paragraphs to structure your assignment 5. Use headings, sub headings and bullet points to make your assignment easier to read 6. Consider the use of additional formatting such as underlining and bold text to provide emphasis 7. Ensure that you use consistent formatting throughout your assignment the same font, font size, line and paragraph spacing for each type of text, for example body text, titles and headings 8. It is a good idea to start each part of your assignment on a new page Exponential Training & Assessment Limited

9 9. Use formal, business like language 10. Use your computer s spellchecker and grammar checker 11. If you intend to use an abbreviation, you must provide the full wording the first time, followed by the abbreviation afterwards in brackets. After this you can use the abbreviation with no further explanation. For example: The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) 12. Look at your assignment and consider if it appears business like and easy to read. If not, make some changes using the tips above 13. Finally, read through the whole assignment to ensure that the spellchecker and grammar checker have not missed anything and that everything makes sense. It is sometimes a good idea to ask someone else to read what you have written. G. Word Count You will be provided with an indicative word count range for the whole assignment and/or for each part of the assignment. This is a guide to how much depth you are expected to go into. Your assignment should be within this word count and should definitely not be more than 10 per cent above or below this word count. Word count can be checked within most word processing software. H. Confidentiality When providing examples from your workplace, it is important that you consider confidentiality, particularly if you are writing about a matter which is sensitive, such as discipline. Here are some tips: 1. Do not refer to people by name, or change their names if this is easier for you 2. Individuals can also be referred to by their job titles 3. Do not refer to the organisation by name if you are writing something which the organisation would not want to be made public. A brief description of the type of company will suffice instead, to provide the context if appropriate Exponential Training & Assessment Limited

10 I. Diagrams and Tables Diagrams and tables can be used to relay a large amount of information without using up your word count, as unless your assignment guidance says to the contrary, they do not contribute to the word count. They can also improve the look of your assignment. Here are some tips for using diagrams and tables: 1. Ensure that formatting of diagrams and tables is consistent with the rest of the document 2. If you have copied diagrams or tables from other sources, you must reference them in the same way as quotes. See Section E: Plagiarism. 3. Do not use poor quality images copied and pasted from other sources. Recreate them yourself instead. 4. Diagrams and tables must have titles. 5. You must refer to any diagrams or tables that you include in your assignment. It is important that you explain why you have included them. J. Reflective Statements Reflective statements should be used to demonstrate to the person assessing your assignment: what you have learned from completing the Unit how you will be able to use this new knowledge in the future Although the content of your reflective statement will not be assessed, completing the reflective statement is a mandatory part of your assignment and your assignment will not pass unless you have completed the reflective statement. K. Referencing It is important that in your assignment, you demonstrate that you are aware of and understand models, theories and concepts and that you have read about the subject of your assignment. References are used to: Enable the assessor to locate the sources you have used Help support your arguments and provide your work with credibility Show the scope and breadth of your research Acknowledge the source of an argument or idea. Failure to do so could result in a charge of plagiarism Whenever you refer to something that has been written by someone else, you must acknowledge where that idea or in the case of a quote, or citation, where the exact words have come from. Exponential Training & Assessment Limited

11 There are two stages to this process: Stage 1: Providing information in the text, at the foot of the page, or at the end of the section about who wrote what you are referring to, and in what year Stage 2: Providing full details of the source of the information at the end of your assignment in an alphabetical list of references, so that the assessor, if they wanted to, could go to the source themselves Stage 1: Providing Author s Surname and Year Published Quotes/Citations 1. You must make it absolutely clear where the words have come from, who wrote them and when they were written. You must make it possible for the person assessing your assignment to locate the quote in its original location, should they wish to do so. 2. The usual way of doing this is to put inverted commas or speech marks around the text. Here is an example: To be or not to be 3. Either before or after the quote you must give the surname of the author and the year the words were published, or a reference number which provides that information at the foot of the page (footnotes) or the end of a section (endnotes). So the previous example could be referenced in any of the following ways: In 1600, Shakespeare wrote the words To be or not to be To be or not to be (Shakespeare, 1600) To be or not to be 1 1 Shakespeare, When using an up to date version of Microsoft Word, it is possible to insert footnotes or endnotes automatically, by looking in the Referencing tab. This facility can also be used to automatically compile your Reference List (referred to in Microsoft Word as the bibliography), thus saving you a lot of work. 5. Remember that in the reference list at the end of your assignment, you will then need to provide full details of the source of the quote. Exponential Training & Assessment Limited

12 Using your Own Words 1. If you use your own words to explain someone else s idea, model, or theory, you must still make it clear in the text, whose idea, model or theory you are describing and when they published it. 2. You must also ensure that you use words which are sufficiently different from the published words. This does not mean just changing the order of them or leaving a few out. 3. The author s details can be given in exactly the same way as with quotes, but as the words will be your own, there is no need to use quotation or speech marks. Here are some examples: Kolb (1984) suggests that people learn as a result of the experiences that they have. People learn as a result of what they experience. (Kolb, 1984) Stage 2: Reference List The reference list should appear at the end of your assignment, before the appendices. It should be alphabetical by author surname. Here is a guide on what to include in your reference list for books, articles and websites: 1. Books You will need to include: Author's surname (family name) and initials Year of publication Title Edition (if not the first)/place of publication Publisher Here is an example: Walcoff.P, 1999, The Fast Forward MBA in Business Planning for Growth, Canada, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Exponential Training & Assessment Limited

13 2. Journal articles You will need to include: Author (surname (family name), initials) Year of publication Title of article (in single quotation marks) Title of magazine (italics or underlined) Volume number (if applicable) Issue number (if applicable) Page number/s (if applicable) Here is an example: Choi, C 2003, 'Cleaner living' Scientific American, vol. 289, no. 5, p Websites You will need to include: Author/editor (if identified) (surname (family name), initials) Last update (if identified) Title of article (italics or underlined) Name of sponsor Date it was viewed by you URL (within < >) Here is an example: Coghlan, A 2003, 'GM crops can be worse for environment' ScientificAmerican.com, viewed 9 January 2004 < L. Bibliographies A bibliography is a listing all the materials that have been consulted while writing your assignment that you have not included in your reference list. Although you may have consulted a range of books, articles and websites whilst preparing to write your assignment, the content of these might not have been included in the actual text. The bibliography should be compiled in the same way as the reference list and should appear after the reference list. Exponential Training & Assessment Limited

14 M. Appendices Appendices should be used when you want to include a document or part of a document to support your answer. Here is a step by step guide to using appendices: 1. Appendices should always be numbered in the order that they are referred to in your assignment. 2. Appendices must always be referred to in the body of the assignment. 3. Examples of how to refer to an appendix include: Appendix 1 shows that Appendix 1 is a copy of A copy of XYZ document can be found in Appendix 1 XYZ document (see Appendix 1) 4. Wherever possible, appendices should appear at the end of the main assignment document, rather than being sent to the assessor as separate documents. 5. Appendices should appear in the correct order 6. The word Appendix followed by the relevant appendix number should actually appear on each appendix. 7. Care should be taken not to include appendices which are overly long. 8. Care should be taken not to include too many appendices. Ask yourself how relevant each appendix actually is and what it adds to your answer, before including it. N. Drafts and Feedback You will usually have the opportunity to submit a draft for your assignment to your assessor for feedback and will be given a date by which this must be submitted. Here are some tips for how to get the most out of submitting a draft assignment: 1. Do not waste the opportunity of submitting an draft assignment and receiving feedback from your assessor. Receiving and acting on feedback from your assessor is the best possible way to ensure that your assignment passes. 2. Plan for the draft deadline date, rather than the final assignment deadline. 3. Even if you do not manage to answer all of the questions, still submit a draft of what you have managed to complete. 4. You can also ask your assessor for clarification on any aspect of your assignment prior to the draft deadline. 5. Act on all of the feedback that your assessor provides. Exponential Training & Assessment Limited