______________________________________________________________________

2nd EDITION

THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

UQ BUSINESS SCHOOL

Assignment

Writing Handbook

Kashonia L. Carnegie

PhD, MSc, MA, BA (Hons)

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

First Edition – 1997

Second Edition – 2001

© Kashonia L. Carnegie, 1997; 2001

UQ Business School The University of Queensland Qld 4072 Brisbane Australia

2nd EDITION – ISBN 0-9578967-0-0

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION ............................................................................ 1 HOW TO USE THIS HANDBOOK ............................................................................. 2 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 4 2. PREPARATION..................................................................................................... 4

2.1. Motivation.................................................................................................................... 5 2.2. Time Management ....................................................................................................... 5

3. REPORT OR ESSAY FORMAT.......................................................................... 7 3.1. Report Format .............................................................................................................. 8 3.2. Essay Format ............................................................................................................... 8

4. RESEARCHING YOUR ASSIGNMENT............................................................ 9 4.1. Analyse the Question ................................................................................................. 10 4.2. Designing a Structure................................................................................................. 13 4.3. Research and the Library ........................................................................................... 35

4.3.1 Research on the Internet ..........................................................................................................36 4.4. Critical Reading ......................................................................................................... 37

5. STYLE – MECHANICS OF ASSIGNMENT WRITING ................................ 41 5.1. The Basics.................................................................................................................. 41 5.2. Tables and Figures ..................................................................................................... 50 5.3. Non-Discriminatory Language .................................................................................. 51

6. DEVELOPING A PERSUASIVE ARGUMENT .............................................. 52 6.1. Critical Analysis ........................................................................................................ 53 6.2. The Art of Integration ................................................................................................ 60 6.3. Applying the Theory and Data to a Case Study......................................................... 67 6.4. Using Paragraphs as ‘Building Blocks’ ..................................................................... 68 6.5. SWOT Analysis ........................................................................................................ 69

7. REFERENCING................................................................................................... 70 7.1. Plagiarism .................................................................................................................. 71 7.2. When and How to Reference ..................................................................................... 71 7.3. Reference List versus Bibliography........................................................................... 80 7.4. Reference List Format ............................................................................................... 80

8. EDITING YOUR ASSIGNMENT ...................................................................... 85 9. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 91 10. APPENDICES...................................................................................................... 93

Appendix 10.1 – Summary of Main Recommendations........................................................ 93 Appendix 10.2 – Assignment Chart....................................................................................... 94 Appendix 10.3 – Glossary of Directive Words...................................................................... 96 Appendix 10.4 – List of Common Mistakes .......................................................................... 98 Appendix 10.5 – Further Reading........................................................................................ 100 Appendix 10.6 – General Information ................................................................................. 102 Appendix 10.7 – Acknowledgments.................................................................................... 104

REFERENCE LIST ................................................................................................... 105

SOME KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER ................................................... 110

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

1

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

The Assignment Writing Handbook is a special project funded by the UQ Business

School, at The University of Queensland, to support the academic growth of both

undergraduate and postgraduate students. Since the first edition of this handbook was

written in 1997, over 10,000 copies have been published.

At the beginning of each semester, the UQ Business School runs an Assignment

Writing Seminar at which some of the concepts in the first edition are explained in more

detail. The models, templates, and extra information presented in those face-to-face

seminars have been integrated into this second edition of the Assignment Writing

Handbook.

All UQ Business School students have access to this book. Not all choose to read it,

and even fewer follow the guidelines it contains. In speaking with many hundreds of

students over the past few years, I believe that one of the reasons that many students

don’t take a greater interest in improving their assignment writing skills is that they

don’t appreciate the importance of writing well. A student once said to me that they

weren’t interested in knowing if their writing style was appropriate, instead they just

wanted to know if the content of their work was “right”. At university level, especially

in social sciences, it is generally not a matter of having the right or the wrong answers –

rarely are there any right or wrong answers. It is all about how well you argue your

case for the answers or position that you have chosen to support. The better your

writing skills, the more persuasive your argument will be, and in turn, the better your

grades.

Having a resource such as this just sitting on your desk is of no value. However, those

students who do choose to read and be guided by the contents of this handbook, are

generally the students who receive top grades.

Finally, it should be noted that there are many approaches that can be taken when

writing academic assignments, and many different styles of presentation. Just as there

are no right answers, there is no one method or style that can be considered the right

approach for writing assignments. For many different reasons, some lecturers like their

students to follow a style of writing or presentation that is different to the suggestions in

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

2

this book. Should you encounter such a lecturer, then their wishes should be followed

for their particular subject. Where your lecturer expresses no such preferences, the UQ

Business School recommends that the contents of this handbook be used as your guide.

HOW TO USE THIS HANDBOOK

Sometimes students, especially mature age students new to academic study, tend to go

into ‘overwhelm’ when they are first introduced to the concepts that are outlined in this

book. I have heard comments such as, “I can never learn to do all of this”, or “do you

mean we have to know all of this before we even get into the content of the subjects in

which we are enrolled?”. Whether you are in that category or not, I can assure you that

the handbook has been designed to help you get the most out of your academic journey.

And so I suggest you approach the handbook in the following manner.

1. Assuming you have reached this section of the book, don’t read any further – at this

stage.

2. If you haven’t already done so, read the “preface to the second edition”, above.

3. Go back to the table of contents and take a minute or so to look at, and reflect on,

the various chapters and sections that the book contains and the order in which they

are presented. You will see that the chapters build on each other as they take you

step-by-step through the process of writing your assignments.

4. Go through the book page-by-page, just looking quickly at each the page, without

stopping to read anything at this stage – just look over each page and then turn to the

next one.

5. Having looked right through the book, you will have a pretty good feel for what the

book contains. You will have noticed that there are sections of written explanation,

there are sections of step-by-step examples, checklists, and so forth.

6. Now that you have seen what the book contains, go to Appendix 10.4 – Common

Mistakes, at the end of the book. Here you will see a brief list of the common

mistakes that markers continually find in student’s papers, despite them having a

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

3

copy of this handbook to guide them. All items in that list thwart the attainment of

top grades.

7. Now, if you have time, skim/read through the book. However, if you don’t have

time, at least you have an idea of where to go to find things when you need them.

8. Ideally, before semester starts you will make the time to skim through the book.

There is no need to read the book, cover-to-cover in a detailed manner. It is better

to just skim/read it a couple of times and then, as you start working on your

assignment you can read carefully through the book, one section at a time, to

correspond with the various stages of researching and writing your paper. Finally,

use the book as an overall checklist to ensure that you have addressed all issues

before you submit your assignment.

9. Based on feedback that I have received from many students, I often say in the

Assignment Writing Seminars, if you want to get a 4 grade average, skim the book

once. If you want a 5 grade, read it two or three times. If you want a 6 grade, read

through the book many times. If you want a 7 grade, then continually read through

the various sections as they write each paper, and use it as an overall checklist

before each submission.

As one former MBA student, who regularly received grades of 7, said to me: “Of all the

books I used during my studies, the Assignment Writing Handbook is the most battered

and used book of the lot”.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

4

1. INTRODUCTION

Writing a good assignment is a skill. And like any skill, it can be learned. To that end,

this handbook will outline the major components required in an academic assignment

for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. This handbook has been designed to

guide you, progressively, through each stage of your assignment from the preparation,

on to your research, and the mechanics of writing your paper, through to developing an

argument, referencing, and editing. As much as possible, the book is designed to reflect

the guidelines that are discussed throughout. The format of the handbook is loosely

based on a compilation of essay and assignment writing guides from various

departments and universities (see the acknowledgments in Appendix 10.7 and the

reference list). The content too has been drawn from many areas. However, one of the

major sources was a reflection on the common mistakes I have found during the

marking of assignments.

As this is purely a guide to refer to when writing your assignments, it is recommended

that you also attend some of the many assignment writing skills and research skills

development courses that are regularly held by different service departments

throughout the university. Some of these, and other student support resources and

services have been listed in Appendix 10.6. Finally, even though the are many, many

different writing styles and formats, which are quite acceptable when writing social

science papers, it is recommended that the formats presented in this handbook be

used for UQ Business School assignments, unless otherwise instructed.

2. PREPARATION

No matter what task you undertake, the degree of success you finally enjoy will depend

greatly on the initial preparation. There are three key issues that need to be considered

in the preparation of any assignment, or even an exam: motivation, time management,

and analysing the question. Motivation and time management will now be discussed,

and analysing the question will be covered in Chapter 4.1.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

5

2.1. Motivation Generally, the only way you’ll get top grades is to put in the time and the effort. The

greater your overall effort, the better the grade. However, the greater your motivation

the easier and more enjoyable it is to put in that time and effort. Cloake and Noad

(nd:2) suggest that motivation can be helped by working at the times that are best for

you; and by keeping aspects of your work that you enjoy for times when you become

“tired or jaded”. As an example, in writing this book there were sections that I

intuitively thought would be easy, other sections that I thought would be fun to write,

and yet other sections again that I knew would require a lot more effort and thought. So

I wrote the less enjoyable sections at the beginning of my work sessions when I was

fresh. Then, when I began to tire I changed to one of the easier or fun sections and

worked on that for a short time before returning to, and completing, the original section.

In addition, it is important to take a 5-10 minute break every hour or so.

However, the thing that will motivate you the most is to keep the reason you are doing

the course uppermost in your thoughts and the vision of that goal, and your life after you

have attained that goal, in your mind’s eye. Therefore, it is recommended that at the

beginning of your university studies you write a list of all the reasons that you have

for doing a university degree and the benefits that will come to you as a result of

you completing your degree. Then throughout your time at university keep adding to

the list. As a result, at 4 am, when you are finishing off that paper that has to be in later

that same morning; or at 10 o’clock at night when you are still in the library standing at

the photocopier after having been at Uni all day, and you ask yourself, “is this all worth

it?” just visualise all the benefits that are on your list. If your list is long enough the

answer will always be “yes”. The more reasons you can give yourself for doing

something, the more compelling that future will become, and consequently, the more

motivated you will be to complete the task.

2.2. Time Management Whether you are a full-time student or a part-time student involved with other activities,

your most valuable resource will be your time. So it is essential to plan your time well

at the beginning of each semester.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

6

Normally, by the end of the first week of the new semester you will know how many

assignments are required for each subject that you are taking, plus the amount of work

involved, and the due date. As soon as that information is available, it is

recommended that you prepare an Assignment Chart (see Appendix 10.2) and stick

to it. An Assignment Chart is a time management tool to help you plan your semester

to ensure that all assignments can be completed on time.

Whilst you may not plan to work on a specific assignment until a couple of weeks prior

to the due date, it is essential to decide on the question you will work on as soon as

possible. Once this decision has been made, see if you need to do any primary research

that involves collecting written information from organisations other than the library or

the Internet. If you do require outside information, make the necessary requests to the

organisations concerned immediately, so that you will have the information ready and

waiting when the date arrives that you have allocated to start on that particular

assignment. Admittedly, these days most of the information that was once only

obtainable physically from an organisation is now available on their Web site.

Nevertheless, there might be other activities, such as interviews, that need to be

organised prior to the dates that you have allocated to writing the assignment.

Just one final word of warning. In adhering to your Assignment Chart you will

complete several assignments each semester well before their due date. It is

recommended that you hold onto the completed assignments until the due date, as

quite often lecturers will continue to give added pieces of information on the

assignment up to the lecture before the due date. By holding onto the assignment

you are able to make an adjustment if necessary. After all, a small adjustment to a

couple of papers due in the same week is a lot better than trying to write two or three, or

even more, complete assignments from the beginning – and then finding you need to try

and get an extension that may not necessarily be granted.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

7

3. REPORT OR ESSAY FORMAT

A major aspect of the assignment to note on your time management assignment chart is

the format. Frequently, at the beginning of semester, you are required to complete a

small assignment. This could be anything from a brief literature review, an annotated

bibliography, a library exercise where you have to do some library searches and report

on your findings, to a substantiated piece of reflective writing. One of the aims of this

initial assignment is to get you moving – to get you thinking about the subject. Due to

the varied nature of those early assignments, it might not be necessary, or practical, to

follow all of the guidelines in the next two chapters. As an example, if you are asked to

write an annotated bibliography, your assignment will not have the same components as

a report or an essay. And you will not go through the “designing a structure” processes

detailed in Chapter 4. You will, however, still need to follow the guidelines in Chapter

4.1 – Analysing the Question; Chapter 5 – Mechanics of Style; Chapter 7 –

Referencing; and Chapter 8 – Editing. When writing up those early, oft times unusual,

assignments you must use some common sense as to the processes to follow, and as

always, when it doubt check it out – ask your lecturer or tutor what, specifically, they

want you to do.

The guidelines in this handbook, and especially in the next two chapters, are to guide

you when writing your major term paper – the main assignment that you are required to

submit for the subject.

The major assignment will usually be in the form of a report or an essay. If the lecturer

wants the assignment written in report style, which is the most common style at the UQ

Business School, it will be specifically stated. As an example, ‘Write a report on XYZ’.

If the format style has not been specifically stated in the assignment details, it can

normally be assumed that your assignment is to be written in an essay style. However,

always check with the lecturer if there is any doubt as to the format required.

The following sections, 3.1 and 3.2, contain an overview of the components of a report

style and essay style format, highlighting the main differences between the two. This is

to help you become familiar with the two styles in preparation for Chapter 4. In

Chapter 4, each of the sections of the report will be explained in some detail as I take

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

8

you through a step-by-step exercise that will demonstrate how to write up these various

sections and design a useable structure on which to base your report.

3.1. Report Format A report follows a very structured format containing the following sections, generally

presented in the following order:

• Title Page

• Letter of Transmittal

• Table of Contents

• Executive Summary

• Introduction

• The Body

• Conclusion

• Recommendations

• Appendices

• Reference List

It is sometimes suggested that the Table of Contents should be placed after the

Executive Summary, and the Reference List before the Appendices. The reason for the

placement of the Table of Contents before the Executive Summary and the Reference

List at the very end of the report after the Appendices is explained in Chapter 4.2, under

the respective sub-headings, Table of Contents and Reference List.

3.2. Essay Format Compared to the report format, an essay is not as formally formatted and is written in

more of a flowing style. Therefore, dot points and numbered paragraphs are rarely used

in an essay, and if they are used, justification must be given for doing so. The executive

summary is called an abstract, or occasionally a synopsis, in an essay and is quite often

limited to 150-300 words. Instead of numbered sections and sub-sections, an essay uses

headings and sub-headings that are generally not numbered, as information is not as

frequently cross-referenced as it might be in a report. Further, an essay does not contain

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

9

a letter of transmittal, or recommendations. Otherwise, the various sections of your

essay will contain, and be structured, in virtually the same manner as for a report, as

discussed in Chapter 4.2, keeping in mind the above exceptions. As such, most of the

references and examples throughout this book are of reports, and so if you are required

to write an essay instead of a report all you have to do is transpose the information for

the relevant report sections into your essay, again, keeping in mind the above

differences. In summary, an essay usually contains the following sections.

• Title Page

• Table of Contents (rarely used in short essays)

• Abstract or Synopsis (instead of the term Executive Summary)

• Introduction

• Body

• Conclusion

• Appendices (if appropriate)

• Reference List

Now that you are familiar with these two main formats, it is time to begin the processes

necessary to get your assignment together.

4. RESEARCHING YOUR ASSIGNMENT

In this chapter, you will be guided through the process of preparing, researching, and

structuring your assignment in a step-by-step fashion. I suggest that you take a moment

to skim through this entire chapter, then come back and study one section at a time, as

you are working on the corresponding section of your assignment.

Normally during the first week of semester, you will receive details of the assignments

you are required to submit for your assessment. As soon as you have the details of all

the assignments you will have to complete for the semester, set up your Assignment

Chart as discussed in Chapter 2.2 and detailed in Appendix 10.2. At the same time as

you set up your Assignment Chart, if you have been given a choice of the topic or

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

10

question, decide which specific question in each assignment you intend working on and

contact any external organisations from which you require information, as discussed in

Chapter 2.2. By the time you come to work on your assignment you should be familiar

with the topic and the approach you are going to take in answering the question. This

familiarity with the topic will come from attending the lectures and tutorials, reading

your text book, and general reading and discussion on the topic. Once you have a rough

idea of the approach you intend to take, your research really begins. In this section four

main research aspects will be explored: analysing the question; designing a structure;

research and the library; and critical reading.

4.1. Analyse the Question When preparing to work on your assignment it is not enough to just read the question.

The question, and all the instructions, must be fully studied and analysed. It is

surprising how often a student submits an excellent assignment that has not addressed

the question asked and; thus, barely rates a passing grade. I cannot stress strongly

enough how often this happens and, as a result, how important it is to make sure that

you have studied the question – and answered the question asked. If you can’t read

an assignment question accurately, how are you going to read a client’s brief, or tender

requirements, accurately. Analysing the question involves the following:

• Highlight, with a highlighter pen, all the action oriented directive words in the set

assignment piece. These are words such as discuss, examine, review, analyse (see

Appendix 10.3 for a list of directive words and their definitions). What do they

mean? What specifically are they asking you to do?

• Highlight the content oriented directive words that are linked to the action words.

As an example; discuss (action/directive) a particular HRM issue (content/directive).

Or review (action/directive) the effectiveness (content/direction) of that HRM issue.

Normally I shall just refer to both the action and the content words as directive

words.

• Analyse the main points in any general instructions that support the question, such

as: ‘you are not required to describe and discuss the theory, however, you must

discuss the relevance and application of the theory to your case study’. Both

relevance and application are directive words. Ask yourself; ‘What does that

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

11

instruction actually mean?’ ‘What, specifically, am I being asked to do, and not to

do?’

• Ask your lecturer what the marking criteria are so you can get an idea of the

percentage weighting of the various parts of the question so that you can devote the

space and time to each section of the question that is appropriate to the marks it can

attract. In addition, your lecturer might provide you with a list of the features that

they expect you to include in the assignment. If the lecturer does provide such a list,

make sure all features have been included if you want to receive reasonable marks.

• Some key questions that need to be answered as part of your question analysis are:

• What do I have to demonstrate to the marker? In other words, if the question is

on change management, then you must demonstrate to the marker that you

clearly understand what change management is all about and that you have read

the literature on change management extensively. You demonstrate extensive

reading by discussing many different points of view and, in turn, citing

numerous references.

• What kind of task is being set? For instance, are you being asked to draw a

relationship between two arguments, differentiate between two concepts,

demonstrate an understanding of the theory and apply it to a case study, or

something else.

• How many elements or parts are involved in the question?

• Which concepts or distinctions covered in this subject are relevant to the

question?

• What are the key concepts needed to answer the question and do I need to define

them?

• Which quotations, examples, and/or pieces of theory can I use to show

familiarity with the topic and to support my argument?

As with so many of the techniques that you will learn at the UQ Business School, the

exercise of analysing an assignment question, as described above, is also of great

_____________________________________________________________________

benefit to your non-academic activities. I strongly recommend that you use the same

process when preparing to reply to a job advertisement, or a business tender, or brief.

NOTE WELL

As a university student, it is vital that you are able to demonstrate; (1) that you have a

clear and solid understanding of the topic on which you are writing; and (2) that you

fully understand and comply with the ‘brief’. In other words, you must do what you

are being asked to do.

Major Research Report, 5000 words, 70%, due Tuesday 2nd June

The assessment item is a report on an organisation in which you work, have worked or can gain access to. The report will identify a particular HRM issue or practice in this organisation, review its effectiveness, and make recommendations about how to improve performance in this area. The report should demonstrate a capacity to identify, read and comprehend the literature on the specific HRM area identified, as well as to apply the theoretical insights gained from the literature to the ‘real life’ operations of the organisation.

The report should include the following features:

• Clear identification of the issue or function chosen, and why it was chosen;

• A review of the relevant literature;

• Discussion of how you went about gathering information about your chosen organisation;

• An analysis of the information;

• Recommendations, based on your reading, observation, and analysis, on how the organisation could go about improving its performance in the HRM area considered.

The report must include a reference list. Standard rules for academic writing and referencing apply.

The assessment items will be discussed in much greater detail during the subject. If you are unsure about any aspect of the assessment please contact me as soon as possible and seek clarification.

You should keep copies of any written work which you submit in case the original is misplaced.

Figure 1: Example of an Assignment Question

_____________________________________________________________________

12

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

13

You will lose marks if you do not follow the instructions and answer the question

asked. If you are not sure of what is required, ask your lecturer.

When in doubt, check it out!

In the box above, is a copy of an assignment question. Go through it and highlight all

of the directive words. The directive words in this question are listed in the next section

in the box headed List 2 – Directive Words – Figure 3.

Once you have analysed the question and highlighted all of the directive words, and

before you begin your research, you need to decide how your paper will be structured.

Based on the question below, I shall now go through a step-by-step structure building

exercise for your assignment.

4.2. Designing a Structure If you have to drive from one side of a strange city to the other for the first time, it is

unlikely that you will take the most efficient and effective route without consulting a

road map; and a builder would never start work on a house without a blueprint or plan

of some sort to follow; so it is with assignment writing. Before you start working on

your essay or report you must prepare a plan or structure to follow.

The following steps can be used as a template to help you design a structure for your

report or essay that will ensure that you include all of the requirements set down on

your assignment question sheet. As you read through this section on structural design,

you will note that I have used a number of different fonts and cases in the lists. This is

so that when the various lists are combined, you will be able to quickly identify which

list they originally came from.

You will recall that at the beginning of Chapter 3.1 – Report Format – there was a list of

the sections that are to be included, when appropriate, in your reports. A copy of that

list appears below as List 1 – Figure 2.

_____________________________________________________________________

STEP ONE

_____________________________________________________________________

14

The first step in designing a

structure for your report is to keep

a list of all those components at

hand, ready for step two.

STEP TWO

List 1

BASIC COMPONENTS

Title Page Letter of Transmittal Table of Contents Executive Summary Introduction Body Conclusion Recommendations

- Implications - Limitations - Implementations Appendices Reference List

Figure 2: List 1 – Basic Components of a Report

STEP TWO

For step two, go back to your assignment question and write a list of all the directive

words that you highlighted. Figure 3, below lists all of the directive words contained on

the example question above – Figure 1. How many did you find when you went

through the assignment sheet?

You will notice on list 2 – Figure 3, below, that I have written the action/directive

words in capitals, and beside these are the associated content/directive words. As an

example, IDENTIFY. What did you have to identify? An HRM issue and why it was

chosen. DEMONSTRATE: What did you have to demonstrate? A capacity or ability

to IDENTIFY, READ, and COMPREHEND. What? Literature on the HRM issue

including theory, examples, and data. And so your list goes on.

_____________________________________________________________________

List 2 - DIRECTIVE WORDS

IDENTIFY – HRM Issue// Why Chosen

REVIEW – its effectiveness

MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS

– on how to improve

DEMONSTRATE – capacity/ability

– IDENTIFY }literature on

– READ }HRM issue

– COMPREHEND }theory, data

examples

APPLY (to the Case) – theoretical insights gained from literature + examples + data

DISCUSS – how information was gathered

ANALYSIS – of all information

The terms examples and data can

mean different things to different

people. For the purpose of this

exercise, and throughout this book,

the term data will refer to

qualitative and quantitative data

that has been collected and

recorded. And the term examples,

refers to the anecdotal case study

examples that are so prevalent

throughout management literature.

Figure 3: List 2 – Directive Words

Once you have completed that second list, you can be sure that all the requirements of

the assignment will be included in your report. Provided, of course, that you haven’t

missed any of the directive words on your question sheet. That is why it is so important

to really analyse the question, not just read through it. Now to step three.

STEP THREE

In list 2, you just wrote down the directive words in the order that they appeared on the

question sheet. Obviously, you are not going to write about them in that order, yet all

the items on list 2 have to go somewhere in your report.

List 1 contains all of the possible places that you can put the items from list 2. So, you

have to decide where, on list 1, that you will place the various items from list 2. In step

three, you integrate list 2 into list 1 as demonstrated below (Figure 4). You will notice

_____________________________________________________________________

15

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

16

LISTS 1 & 2 COMBINED Title Page/Title Letter of Transmittal Table of Contents Executive Summary ------------------------------------------------- Introduction (See Book) - Set Up

IDENTIFY Issue (1 or 2 sentences) Why Chosen DISCUSS How Information Was Gathered

----------------------------------------------------------------- Body

DISCUSS CASE/SITUATION FULLY REVIEW HRM issue’s effectiveness – pluses & minuses

Integrate the following: LITERATURE REVIEW

IDENTIFY } READ } For & Against COMPREHEND }

APPLY (To Case) – theory + examples + data ANALYSE

---------------------------------------------------------------- Conclusions Recommendations – RECOMENDATIONS – Implications + Limitations + Implementations Appendices Reference List

Figure 4: Lists 1 and 2 Combined

that the different font styles reflect the two different lists – the Comic Sans font is list 1

and Times New Roman is copied from list 2.

Notice too that the list 1 items remain unchanged down to Introduction. In the

introduction section, the three items from list 2 are inserted, as shown. The balance of

the items on list 2 are in the body section of list 1, except for recommendations, which

naturally go into the recommendations section at the end. The items from Conclusions

down to Reference List are, again, straight out of list 1.

_____________________________________________________________________

Before moving onto Step Four, I shall include another list by way of explanation of the

term Literature Review. As the term implies, a literature review is exactly that – a

review of the literature on the topic, whatever topic you happen to be writing on. I shall

talk more about the contents of this list at various stages throughout this handbook. At

this stage, however, the following list will give you some suggestions as to what you

can include in your literature review.

_____________________________________________________________________

17

When you do your library searches,

or search the data bases, these

‘literature review suggestions’ are

the things that you will be

searching for to include in your

report, or essay.

These categories will also give you

the background information that

you will need to ensure that you

ask the right questions in any field

interviews that you might do.

LITERATURE REVIEW SUGGESTIONS

History/ Background

Definition

Characteristics

Arguments for [supported by

theory, data, examples – evidence] Arguments against [supported by

theory, data, examples – evidence] Overcome the arguments against

Figure 5: Literature Review Suggestions

STEP FOUR

Whilst you can have a section in your report or essay headed “Introduction”, it is not

appropriate to have a section headed “The Body”, unless the assignment is on Elle

Macpherson. So you will now have to decide how to refine your structure even more,

by deciding on appropriate headings and sub-headings for the various sections of the

body of your paper. In step four you also decide on a title for your paper. Below is an

example of how you can transpose all of the items on the combined lists 1 and 2, onto a

third sheet of paper, and by creating appropriate headings and sub-headings, arrive at a

completed structure for the assignment question that we’ve been working on.

_____________________________________________________________________

Smith and Company as a Learning OrganisationLetter of Transmittal Table of Contents Executive Summary 1.0. Introduction

IDENTIFY ISSUE (1 or 2 sentences) Why Chosen DISCUSS How Information Was Gathered Also include your proposition – what you are going to argue for

2.0. The Learning Organisation Concept History – Definition – Characteristics (per Literature Review Sheet)

3.0. The Learning Organisation at Smith & Co 3.1. Background to Smith & Co

Tell the reader in one paragraph what section 3 contains – a mini introduction

Who/What is Smith & Co – History – Characteristics 3.2. The Learning Organisation in Action Integrate-Application Of Theory + Examples + Data DISCUSS THE CASE/SITUATION FULLY REVIEW LEARNING ORGANISATION EFFECTIVENESS – +/- Theoretical Arguments for and how/if applies to Smith & Co – data, examples Theoretical Arguments against and how/if applies to Smith & Co – data,

examples Using the literature, plus data and examples, you must overcome the ‘againsts’ ANALYSE the situation – develop a persuasive argument to support your thesis

statement. This analysis will lead to a conclusion, from which will come some recommendations

4.0. Conclusions 5.0. Recommendations

Recommendations – each stated in one succinct sentence Rationale that links back to arguments in the body, section 3.2, above; and the

conclusion Implications + Limitations + Implementations

6.0. Appendices 7.0. Reference List

Figure 6: Example of a completed structure for your report – Note the different fonts and upper,

lower and title cases representing the different lists that have been combined in the figure above.

_____________________________________________________________________

18

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

19

You should be able to recognise where the items from the Combined Lists 1 & 2, have

been positioned on the above example of a report structure.

Shortly, I shall go through each of the components in the above assignment structure –

line-by-line – and explain the sort of things that you will be expected to write in each

section.

Before proceeding, however, I shall briefly explain a little bit about the topic that has

been used in the example above. As you will recall, the question asked, in part, that you

identify an HRM (human resources management) issue, or topic. The topic I have

arbitrarily chosen is that of the so-called learning organisation. Broadly based on

systems theory and double-loop learning, the learning organisation is one that

encourages staff to learn, especially from feedback, and as a result grow and move to

higher and higher levels of competency and creativity. This, in turn, results in the

organisation doing the same. The results of an ABI-Inform data base search on the

learning organisation will provide you with a greater understanding of the concept.

Just as there is no one ‘right’ way to write an assignment, so too there is no one right

way to structure an essay or report. You might be the sort of person who prefers to

mind-map your report design. And that is fine. The report structure above is but one

form of design structure. However, it is an effective structure and provides a good

template if you have no better alternative. Remember however, that whilst the overall

framework will probably remain the same, the detailed topic/content of the various

sections are likely to change slightly, or even substantially, as you continue to research

your topic. But you need to have a starting point. This structure will give you that

starting point with which to work.

I shall now go through the components of Figure 6 – the example of the completed

structure of the report – piece-by-piece, and explain what the structural components are

all about (as per list 1 – Figure 1), and what is required for the content pieces (as per list

2 – Figure 2).

Title Page: Although not highlighted on the above design structure (Figure 6), on list 1

– Figure 1 – the first component of the report is the title page. As the name suggests,

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

20

the title page displays the title that has been given to the report, typed in a large font

(see the title page of this book). Frequently, it will also state for whom the report has

been prepared, who has prepared the report (plus your student number for academic

assignments), the date, and a sentence expanding on the title. In an academic

assignment that sentence expanding on the title might be a brief adaptation of the

question you are answering. In a business report, the title might still be “Smith and

Company as a Learning Organisation”; and the sentence expanding on the title might be

something like: ‘A report prepared for the Board of Directors of Smith and Company on

the HRM division of the Brisbane Office.’ Remember that even though you have

included a title page you still need to attach a departmental cover sheet on top of your

title page.

Before you can write up your title page, naturally you must think up an appropriate title.

In our example, the title I am using is:

Smith and Company as a Learning Organisation

Keep your title simple, straightforward, and a reflection of the content of the paper. If

you have an uncontrollable emotional need to use a cutesy title such as “Spinning at

Ever Higher Evolutions” or the like, then keep that as a sub-title. The main words in

your title should immediately tell the reader what the paper is all about. In the example

I have been using, we were asked to write a report on an organisation. The chosen

organisation is Smith and Company. We had to write about an HRM issue. The chosen

HRM issue is the learning organisation. Hence, “Smith and Company as a Learning

Organisation”. Simple, descriptive, and straight to the point.

Letter of Transmittal

This letter or memorandum is an official, yet almost personal, letter from the author of

the report, or the Chair of the committee who wrote the report, to the person who

commissioned or authorised the report. Written in a normal business letter format, it is

merely a formality stating that the commissioned report is now complete and attached.

The letter would normally contain a brief paragraph highlighting what the report was

about. You might acknowledge any significant people or groups of people who helped

with the report. And you would close with an invitation to be contacted if the

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

21

commissioner of the report has any questions. Although a good habit to get into, a letter

of transmittal is not always a vital inclusion for your academic assignments, unless your

lecturer specifically requests that you do so. This is another of those occasions when it

would be a good idea to ask your lecturer if they would like you to include a letter of

transmittal.

Table of Contents

A table of contents is a very important inclusion. Not only does it facilitate easy access

to the various sections of your report, but also, more importantly, it is like a mini

abstract or synopsis. It tells the reader exactly what they can expect to find in the report

and so helps to familiarise them with the content.

The table of contents lists the sections and sub-sections, all of which should be

numbered, complete with the corresponding page number on which the section begins.

The section numbers appear against the left-hand margin, and the sub-sections are

indented one tab space. Similarly, sub-sub-sections are indented two tab spaces.

Generally, essays, especially short essays, don’t have a table of contents.

The easiest way to create a able of contents is using Word’s Style window to insert

Headings, and then go to your Insert Menu, then to Index and Tables, choose the table

of contents tab, and within a couple of seconds you will have your table of contents

appropriately set out, and complete with accurate page numbers. This can be updated at

any time by pressing F9. The very last thing you do before printing is to put your cursor

anywhere on the table and press F9 so that you have the very latest update of contents.

Executive Summary

In a report, the abstract or synopsis is called an Executive Summary and contains a brief

overview of the entire report, complete with a summary of the key findings and

recommendations.

The executive summary is usually not more than about one page in length, it should not

contain any sub-headings, or any new, extra, or unnecessary descriptive information. It

should simply contain very brief statements of the following:

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

22

• The purpose and scope of the report.

• The type of analysis conducted.

• How that analysis was conducted.

• The most important and significant findings.

• The most important and significant recommendations.

The executive summary is not counted in your word or page count and should be the

last thing you write, once you have completed your report and you know what you did

and how you did it.

In addition to the sentence or two on the key recommendations in your executive

summary, an extra section can be included listing all the recommendations in summary

form. This Summary of Recommendations list will appear on a new page following

the executive summary and will contain a numbered list (R1; R2; R3 …) of all of the

recommendations contained in the report. In this section, the recommendations will be

presented in the briefest possible form with no supporting evidence. At the end of each

recommendation you should include the page number or section of the report where the

recommendation is presented in full. As will be discussed later, this summary of

recommendations list can, alternatively, be placed at the end of the report or in the

appendix (see an example in Appendix 10.1).

1.0 Introduction

As with essays, all reports should have three major sections: the introduction, in which

you tell the reader what you are going to tell them; the body, in which you tell the

reader what the report is all about; and the conclusion, in which you tell the reader what

you have just told them in the body.

As a general guide, for an average term paper, the introduction should be around 10% of

your word limit. So for a 3000 word paper the introduction will be about 300 words

and should contain:

• The aim of the report – what you want to achieve by writing the report. This

should be stated within the first one or two sentences.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

23

• A brief explanation of how the report is structured and the scope of the

report – the topics or issues that the report covers.

• A brief explanation of how you went about your research – where and how

you obtained your information, data, examples. Remember that the

introduction is just briefly telling the reader what you are about to tell them.

A further explanation of what goes into the introduction, from a slightly

different perspective, is presented below as I discuss the elements asked for

in the example question introduction.

It is important to note that by this stage in your report the reader has been introduced to

your material three times, in three different ways: in the table of contents; the executive

summary; and now in the introduction – four times if you include the overview in the

letter of transmittal. Further, with each introduction the information has been expanded

upon or presented from a slightly different perspective, or both. It is because of this

progressively expanding introduction to the report and its contents that the Table of

Contents is placed before the Executive Summary. As a result, by the time the reader

has read the introduction component they are becoming very familiar with what they are

about to read and so the body of the report, which is the ultimate expansion of the

previous introductions, will be a lot easier to read and comprehend.

The three items below, listed for inclusion in this introduction section, are included

because they were specifically asked for on the example assignment question sheet.

Nevertheless, they would normally be covered in your introduction in a very brief

fashion, even if they hadn’t been specifically asked for, as evidenced by the dot point

guidelines above.

• IDENTIFY ISSUE (1 or 2 sentences maximum)

This is straightforward. Initially, you have to decide on the actual topic that you want to

write on. In this example, I have selected the HRM issue of the learning organisation.

• Why Chosen

This explanation of why you selected that particular topic need take no more than a

couple of sentences.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

24

• DISCUSS How Information Gathered

Again, this need be no more than a sentence or two at the most, giving a brief overview

of the processes involved in gathering the information for the report. As an example;

‘The information in this report is based on two interviews, one with the staff and the

second with the executives of Smith and Company; an archival search of company

records on the Internet; and “real-world” examples and theory obtained from library and

data base searches.’ That is all that is required for a term paper report. You are not to

go into great detail about how you conducted your library search, or that you took the

third book off the fourth shelf, or the like. It happens! If you obtained theoretical

information from the library and data bases, then as the example sentence above

indicates, you need say no more than ‘theory obtained from library and data base

searches.’ Any more than that is too much, unless you have been specifically asked for

more detail.

• Also include your proposition – what you are going to argue for

Although not specifically stated in the example question, you should always include in

the introduction, in a clear and succinct statement, what it is that you are going to argue

for. This is often called your thesis statement. Using this “Smith and Company as a

Learning Organisation” example, your thesis statement might be something like: ‘In this

report, I shall argue for the benefits of the learning organisation concept, however, I

shall demonstrate that this concept is not working effectively in Smith and Company

due to their prevailing corporate culture.” Once you have that statement, you have the

backbone, or the prevailing theme, for your report. You then know that everything that

you write should be arguing for, and supporting, that thesis statement. If it is not, then

you have wondered off track and you had better get back on track quickly.

One final word on your thesis statement. It could be that you set out arguing for a

certain position, however, your research demonstrates to you that the position is not

valid. For a coursework term paper you can then either change your thesis statement,

your position, so that it corresponds to your research findings, or explain that you

originally held one position, however your research has demonstrated otherwise.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

25

2.0. The Learning Organisation Concept

This is the first heading for the body of your report, and so before examining this

specific example, I shall briefly discuss what the body of a report contains from a

structural perspective.

The body is where you tell the reader, in full, what it is they have come to find out and

so it should be written in a way that the reader will fully understand what you are trying

to say and the position you are arguing for. The body should include the following

points.

• The body should cover all aspects of the question you are required to

address. This might include identifying and analysing the problem –

whatever it might be. In other words, what is wrong and why is it a

problem?

• It should cover the points required to achieve the aim of the report.

• It will contain sections and sub-sections, all of which have numbered

headings.

• Unlike an essay, it is generally acceptable, and sometimes very beneficial to

use dot points, at times, in your report. Dot points are commonly used for

clarity and brevity where there is a lot of data being presented.

• Apart from that, the body of the report will contain structurally complete and

grammatically correct paragraphs. Each paragraph should contain a separate

idea and all paragraphs should be logically sequenced.

• The body contains your critical analysis of the situation, as such all ideas and

opinions must be supported by theoretical evidence and or your research

findings. This will be discussed in a lot more detail in Chapter 5, under the

sub-heading “Substantiation” and Chapter 6 on Critical Analysis.

• Never assume that the reader has read all the same literature that you have

read. As such, always state why you have included, or excluded, certain

information. As a rule of thumb, give your paper to someone to read who

does not know the subject and ask them if it makes sense.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

26

Whether you are writing a report or an essay always keep in mind your audience. Who

is it that you are writing the paper for, and consequently, how do you have to word the

paper so that the reader will fully understand what the paper is all about. In addition, as

you write always keep in mind your aim and/or the central argument or point that you

are trying to make (your thesis) and continually link your writing back to that aim

and cental argument/thesis. As such, newly introduced ideas and concepts, in each

section, should be subtly linked back to the aim and thesis. Remember that new ideas

and concepts should also provide another piece of the jig-saw that answers the questions

associated with the aim. Your aim and central argument is like a thread which should

run through your entire paper joining all the sections together in to one coherent whole.

Again, this will be discussed in more depth in Chapter 6 on Critical Analysis.

Now back to the Smith and Company design structure example. Just as the overall title

of the paper, “Smith and Company as a Learning Organisation” is simple and yet

descriptive; the various headings and sub-headings for the body of your paper should

also be simple and reflect the content of that particular section. Thus, you shouldn’t

have any problems understanding my reasons for using the headings and sub-headings

that I have chosen to use.

• History – Definition – Characteristics (of the Learning Organisation Concept)

In this section, you are just setting the scene, and explaining to the reader what the

concept of the learning organisation is all about. You will recognise that the three areas

covered – history, definition, and characteristics – are from the literature review

suggestions list. Again, as this will be mainly descriptive, it should also be kept to a

minimum.

3.0. The Learning Organisation at Smith and Company • Tell the reader in one brief paragraph what section 3 contains – a mini

introduction – see Chapter 5.1 under the sub-heading ‘Linking and Flagging’

Every new section should begin with a mini introduction ‘flagging’, or giving a very

brief overview, of what the section contains. No more than 1 or 2 sentences.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

27

3.1. Background to Smith & Co • Who/What is Smith & Company – History – Characteristics Just as you provided the reader with a brief overview of the learning organisation

concept in section 2.0 of this design structure example, in this section you need to

provide the reader with a very brief overview of the background, history, and

characteristics of Smith and Company.

It is at this point that many students fall into a major trap – especially mature age

students who are in the work force. Suddenly you are asked to write about something

that you know a lot about. Perhaps the organisation is dear to your heart. The result is

that there is a tendency to write pages and pages and pages on this one section.

Don’t ! Your marker is not interested.

As with section 2.0 of this structure example – The Learning Organisation Concept –

the descriptive information in this section is, again, merely to set the stage. All the

marker/reader wants to know are the basic facts about the organisation. No matter how

big or small, no matter how unusual or commonplace the organisation is that you are

going to write about, for a 3000-5000 word report, if you have taken any more than

about a quarter to half a page to write up this section, then you have written too much.

You will have an opportunity later on to discuss further aspects of the organisation that

are relevant to your topic.

3.2. The Learning Organisation in Action

• Integrate – Application Of Theory + Examples + Data

• DISCUSS The Case/Situation Fully

• REVIEW Learning Organisation’s Effectiveness – +/-

• Theoretical Arguments for and how/if applies to Smith & Co – data, examples

• Theoretical Arguments against and how/if applies to Smith & Co – data, examples

• Using the literature, plus data and examples, you must overcome the ‘againsts’

• ANALYSE the situation – develop a persuasive argument to support your thesis statement. This analysis will lead to a conclusion, from which will come some recommendations

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

28

This is arguably the most important section of your report. It is the section that will

attract the most marks and, in turn, the largest percentage of words will be allocated to

this section. This is your opportunity to write about, in this case how the learning

organisation is operating at Smith and Company. What is working, and why? What is

not working, and why? It is in this section that you will be critically analysing the

concept of the learning organisation, or whatever topic you have chosen, and critically

analysing the effectiveness of the learning organisation concept at Smith and Company,

in preparation for a conclusion that will lead to a series of recommendations. When

working on this section of your report it is important that you read Chapter 6, of this

handbook, very carefully for a detailed discussion on developing a persuasive argument,

integrating theory and practice, and critical analyses.

Due to the volume of work in this sub-section, you might find it appropriate to divide

this sub-section into several sub-sub-sections.

4.0. Conclusion

The conclusion is where you tell the reader what you have just told them. The

conclusion is a roundup of all you have just written. It pulls together all the sections in

the body in to one comprehensive whole to demonstrate to the reader that you have

accomplished what you set out to do. In essence, the conclusion must demonstrate that

you have answered fully the chosen question. Thus, the conclusion should contain:

• A re-cap of your aim and the outcomes which were stated in the introduction

and then tell the reader how you fulfilled your aim and those outcomes.

• A very brief paragraph to reinforce, in the reader’s mind, how you fulfilled

all the instructions and directions given in the question.

• An integrated overview of the different sections and how they all lead to

your findings.

• And the conclusion should contain a conclusion. Normally, this will be a

one or two sentence answer to the original question asked, or your aim.

Alternatively, it will be a confirmation or denial of your original thesis or

position.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

29

5.0. Recommendations

Recommendations – each stated in one succinct sentence Rationale that links back to arguments in the body, section 3.2, above;

and the conclusion Implications + Limitations + Implementations

The recommendations flow out of the conclusion and tell the reader what actions need

to be taken. There are several ways in which the recommendations can be presented in

a report.

1. In a short report, especially if the report is focussing on only one topic, such as staff

training, or innovation, or product promotion, or whatever, the recommendations are

usually placed in a single section after the conclusion.

2. In longer, or more complex, reports each section of the report might have its own

conclusion. In this case, based on that conclusion and the supporting evidence

presented in the discussion in that section, the recommendations can be listed at the

end of each section.

3. A third method, of integrating your recommendations into the body of your report,

will be discussed shortly.

But first, whatever method is used the following points must be noted.

• Recommendations must logically follow on from the conclusion.

• They must be clearly and succinctly stated in one sentence in which the words

are used “it is recommended that …”. Or if your report has been written using

1st person, “I (we) recommend that …”. There is no point is making

recommendations which begin with things like: “I suggest you do…” ; or “You

could possibly try …”. Presenting firm recommendations in those weak ways

indicates that, either it is not necessarily important, or that you are not very

confident in the action you are recommending. And if you are not confident

about your own recommendation, why should anyone else have confidence in

the recommendations. If you don’t believe that your recommendation is sound,

then don’t make that recommendation.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

30

• Recommendations must be accompanied by a rationale – a reason that you are

making the recommendation. In other words, you must sell to the reader of the

report the benefit of taking the recommended action.

• To have credibility, all recommendations must be supported by evidence that

you have argued for in the body of your report. Generally, this evidence is to be

in the form of theory from the literature, or data collected, or ideally both.

Without credible supporting evidence your recommendations are no more than

an intuitive wish list.

• The recommendation, rationale, and the supporting evidence must clearly link

back to discussions in the body of your report or related section, otherwise there

has been no point in your previous discussions. The whole point of the body of

your report, or section just completed, is to argue a case for the recommendation

you are about to present.

• As a result, whether your recommendations have been placed at the end of a

section, or the end of the entire report, the logical sequence is as follows:

1. in the body discuss the situation;

2. argue your case, supported by evidence based on theory, data, and

examples which will lead to;

3. a conclusion, which will lead to;

4. the recommendations.

5. Each recommendation is stated clearly and succinctly in a single

sentence.

6. Another sentence contains the rationale which is linked back to the

evidence argued for in the body of the report.

Remember, recommendations not supported by a rationale and evidence are

merely a wish list and are of no academic or business merit.

The third way of presenting recommendations, as mentioned above, is to sprinkle them

throughout a section after each specific point is argued for. However, if

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

31

recommendations are presented in that manner there are a few extra guidelines that must

be remembered.

• All the points listed above still apply, and must be adhered to.

• The specific recommendation must be clearly stated and be visually obvious.

Something that blends, both verbally and visually, into a sea of writing is of no

value at all. To ensure that that does not occur, and that there is no confusion as

to what is, or is not, a recommendation:

It is recommended that the recommendation be typed in bold type, and, if

appropriate, written on its own as a self-contained, single sentence paragraph

which contain the key identifying words “It is recommended that …” or

“Therefore, it is recommended that …”.

Whenever this method is used, a separate recommendation summary section must be

included in the report. This Summary of Recommendations can be placed after the

Executive Summary, as previously mentioned, or it can go after the conclusion or in an

appendix. It should contain a numbered list of the recommendations only, just as they

were presented throughout the report, without any supporting evidence. At the end of

the recommendation insert the page number or section where the recommendation

appeared so that the reader can have a look at the supporting evidence in the body when

the recommendation was originally presented. See an example summary list of

recommendations in Appendix 10.1.

The credibility of your recommendations will be significantly enhanced if three final

features are included. They are the implications, limitations, and implementation of

your recommendations.

Implications: Discussing the implications will demonstrate that you have fully

considered the ramification of your recommendations, both if they are implemented and

also if the recommendations are not implemented. Keeping in mind the interdependent

nature of an organisation, the implications sub-section will answer questions such as:

how will the implementation of your recommendations affect the other sections in the

organisation that may not be directly involved? What may occur if the

recommendations are not implemented, and so on?

_____________________________________________________________________

MODEL FOR WRITING RECOMMENDATIONS

The following model will help you with your recommendations. It is adapted from what is known as the 4Mat system. The 4 Mat System is based on research from many fields including, right and left brain dominance theory, creativity, management, and the learning style model of David Kolb (McCarthy, 1980). The system was developed by educationalist, Bernice McCarthy, who explains it fully in her book, The 4Mat System: Teaching to Learning Styles with Right/Left Mode Techniques (McCarthy, 1980). McCarthy claims that there are four main styles of learning, and people generally have a preference for one of these four methods. Whether writing a book, giving a talk, or designing a training program, to accommodate the entire audience, all four learning styles need to be included. This is done by ensuring that the questions, why, what, how, and what else/what if are answered. These same questions need to be addressed when we are attempting to demonstrate the credibility of our recommendations. In other words, these four questions need to be addressed when we are writing recommendations.

First of all, state the recommendation up front, clearly and succinctly in one sentence. Then answer the four questions, why, what, how, and what else/what if. As an example:

• Why do they need to do this? Give the rationale behind your recommendation, linking it to the analysis, arguments, evidence, and discussion in the body of your report.

• What do the experts say about this recommendation? This is where you demonstrate your understanding of the relevant theory. This is where you present the theory justifying, or supporting, your recommendation. Ideally, present the theory for and against, comparing and contrasting. See the section on critical analysis – Chapter 6.1.

• How does it work, how do they do it? How is this recommendation to be implemented? Explain exactly how the organisation will go about doing what it is that you are recommending that they do – the physical processes and activities involved; the details of what is required to fulfil the recommendation’s requirements; the time-line for completing the recommendations; and so forth.

• What else, what if –

• What else can they do with these new skills, these new learnings, this new process or way of doing things? What else do I need to add – for example, what are the broader implications of implementing this recommendation. What else might occur, in the way of added benefits, other than those already linked to the discussion in the body? Sell the added benefits of adopting the recommendation.

• What if "X" happens. What are the limitations of the proposed recommendation? What if the recommendations are not implemented – what are the implications?

Figure 7: Model for writing up recommendations

_____________________________________________________________________

32

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

33

Limitations: In a similar vein to the implications, the limitation sub-section

demonstrates that you have thoroughly considered the reality of implementing your

recommendations. In the limitations section examine the barriers to the implementation

of your recommendations. No matter how sound, according to the theory, your

recommendations might be, if they cannot be applied in a ‘real life’ situation then the

best theory in the world means nothing. As such, in this section consider what would

prevent the organisation from implementing your recommendations? And what

recommendations would you make to overcome those obstacles, or would you have to

change your original recommendations?

A very brief and simplistic example might be that, based on the theoretical evidence,

you want to recommend that the organisation introduce a flatter structure and a more

open form of communication. However, if the organisation currently has a very

hierarchical structure, and conservative and inflexible form of corporate culture, it

would be highly unlikely that your recommendations would be realistic. Accordingly,

you might first have to recommend some major attitudinal intervention that would result

in a change in the corporate culture and a long term change management program which

would eventually lead to the introduction of the flatter structure and more open

communication.

Implementation: A final sub-section that can follow the limitations or be included in

the appendix is a brief overview of how your recommendations will be implemented. In

this section, issues such as who will do what, and how, and when it will be done, are

explored.

The model in the box above (Figure 7), should help you to write comprehensive

recommendations that incorporate the most important aspects discussed above.

6.0. Appendices

Appendices contain information that might be of interest to the reader, which expands

upon the information that has already been discussed in the body of the report or essay.

Unless otherwise stated, appendices do not count in the word or page count. There are a

few points that are important to note regarding appendices.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

34

• Appendices are usually used for information such as charts, maps, tables,

extracts, questionnaires, and details of responses that have been summarised

in the body of the report.

• Never introduce new material in the appendix, unless it can be linked to

some reference in the body of the report.

• The same rules for referencing that apply to the body of the report apply to

the appendix.

• Each new appendix should start on a new page and have its own heading.

• Use a separate appendix for each major piece of information.

• Within reason, there is no limit to the number of appendices that you can

include. However, keep in mind that appendices are rarely read.

7.0. Reference List

Reference lists can either be placed between the conclusion and the appendices or at the

end of the paper, after the appendices, as the very last section. However, there are two

main reasons for recommending that the reference list be located in the latter position, at

the very end of the paper. The first is that the reference list is one of the first things the

reader should skim through prior to reading the paper, and is often referred to during the

reading of the paper. Hence, it is a lot quicker and easier to find if it is placed at the

very end of the paper instead of the reader having to continually rummage through

appendices to find the reference list. The other reason is that normally the appendices

will contain references that have to be included in the reference list and so it is more

logical to have the reference list follow all reference citations than to follow some and

come before others.

All further details, including examples, of Referencing and the Reference List and

Bibliographies are contained in Chapter 7.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

35

STEP FIVE

Having written up a structure, a final task is to note, against each section, roughly how

many words you have available to devote to each section and sub-section so that your

paper will be the length required, plus or minus 10%.

By now, it is possible that you are in complete overwhelm, and are wondering if this

studying at university business is worth while. Let me assure you that it is. Also, let me

assure you that if you take the above guidelines, one step at a time, they won’t seem

nearly as onerous. I suggest that you read through this section a couple of times, and

with each step picture in your mind’s eye what it is that you might be doing at each

step; what it is that you might be planning for each step; what it is that you might be

writing at each step. You will then need to work completely through the above process

to develop your initial structure. Then after completing your research, you will need to

work through the above process again, section by section, one step at a time, as you

write each section.

With this basic structure in place, you now have a foundation on which to begin your

research.

4.3. Research and the Library As stated previously, writing an assignment takes time and effort. And part of that time

must be spent in the library and using associated IT research facilities. No assignment

should be written without completing a thorough search of the library catalogue for

books and reports available on the topic and the data bases for journal articles and

sundry other information. An assignment based on the views of just one or two

different authors will be very superficial and, as a result, will usually only attract a poor

grade. The only way to get a good understanding of your topic, and add depth and

credibility to your argument and recommendations or conclusions, is to read widely, yet

with a narrow focus. In other words, read whatever you can find but only on the areas

that are relevant to the specific aspects that you have listed in your assignment plan.

The most efficient way to do this is to focus your attention on several classic books on

the topic and as many journal articles as you can – within reason. Normally journal

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

36

articles contain information that is a lot more current than books and, if it is a refereed

journal is a very credible source to support your argument.

4.3.1 Research on the Internet

The Internet is another source of information, but a source which should be used with

great care as there is no guarantee that it is accurate or has any credibility, with one

exception. The Internet is an invaluable source of organisational archival information,

such as Annual Reports, company history, product information, and the like. As long as

the site you visit is the official site of the organisation that you are researching, it can be

a real gold mine. When it comes to theoretical information, however, you must evaluate

Internet information very carefully before using it. Check the author. Is it a commercial

site? Are they selling something? Is it an education/research site? Check for any

affiliations and the objectivity of the information. To whom is the information directed?

Where is the site located and how current is the information and so on. If you do include

a reference of any kind from the Internet save a hardcopy of the information you are

citing, because if you or your lecturer want to check on the reference at a later stage, it

might have been removed by the time you go back there. See Chapter 7.2.1 and 7.4 for

information on how to reference Internet citations.

The library runs a number of invaluable courses of varying lengths on research skills.

These courses include general library tours, usually at the beginning of each semester,

and a range of courses covering topics such as computer search facilities, research

information skills, and Internet skills. It is strongly recommended that you attend as

many of these courses as possible. See Appendix 10.6 for more information on these

and other computer skills courses.

A SPECIAL NOTE, ESPECIALLY FOR MATURE AGE STUDENTS

Many students, especially mature age students, believe that their life-experience skills

and knowledge will make up for a lack of research. As such, they fill their papers with

example, after example, of their life’s work and then wonder why they are receiving

poor grades. No matter how successful you are in business, and no matter how

impressive your CV might be, you are here to learn NEW things. You are here to

expand your current knowledge and skills, not just regurgitate your daily routine

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

37

because it is familiar to you, and so the easiest thing to do, or perhaps because you want

to impress the reader of your paper. Your practical life experiences can be an

invaluable resource for providing a practical context in which to assess the academic

theory. However, as this is an academic institution, you are here to learn about, and

assess, a range of academic theories, relating to whatever subject you are working on.

Consequently, you must demonstrate to the marker that you have read widely, and have

a deep understanding of the topic on which you are writing, from an academic

perspective. That requires research and reading academic based literature. The more

research, the more reading, the more you’ll grow.

4.4. Critical Reading Locating the appropriate books and journals for your assignment is the easy part. For

many, the effort comes in reading through all the information and comprehending its

contents.

There are a number of different types of reading in which we can engage including

reading for pleasure, reading to learn about a hobby, and reading to prepare for an

assignment. Each type of reading requires different skills, focus, and time. Obviously,

you will read at a much more leisurely pace when reading for pleasure than you will

when reading material in preparation for an assignment. Correspondingly, just as your

research was done in a specific way, with a specific purpose, so too reading for an

assignment must be reading with a purpose – critical reading.

Critical Reading: The volume of reading during any academic study is substantial, as

such you must learn to read critically – read with a purpose – because you will not have

time to read every word. The following points can be used as a guideline to critical

reading.

Reading with a purpose, or critical reading, involves searching the paper for:

• the main arguments and themes in the paper. With that in mind, at the end of each

section and/or chapter ask yourself; ‘What does this mean?’ ‘What is the point that

the author is trying to make?’ ‘What is the author actually saying?’ If you clearly

understand what you have read, you will be able to answer those questions in your

own words.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

38

• Search for sections that will answer your questions. Ask yourself; ‘How am I going

to use this information?’

• Search for sections that support and/or oppose your argument; and

• sections that demonstrate strengths and/or weaknesses associated with the topic.

As a result, before reading each section of the paper, or chapter of a book, get a clear

answer to the following three questions:

1. Why am I reading this?

2. What, specifically, am I looking for?

3. What is my thesis, or position, that I am taking in my paper that I need to challenge

and defend?

Speed Reading: Putting some basic speed reading techniques into action will help you

get through your reading requirements in a more efficient and effective manner. The

following speed reading techniques will also assist you in finding the information you

are after as quickly as possible. The speed reading process is divided into two main

sections. The first part is to familiarise yourself with the book or paper.

Initially, it is essential to get to know the book or paper on a friendly, but not yet

intimate basis. Now I know that that might sound a little trivial or even silly.

Nevertheless, as a great deal of the speed reading process occurs on a non-conscious

level, ‘getting to know’ your book or paper is a very important part of the speed reading

process that assists your reading at that non-conscious level. To that end, the following

steps should be followed.

1. Any time you go to read a brand new book that has never been read before you must

‘break the book in’. This is done by opening the front cover and running your

finger, very gently but firmly, down the spine, between the cover and the first page.

Then go to the back cover and repeat the process. Then proceed a few pages at a

time opening them up and running your finger gently down the spine, alternating, a

few pages from the front and then a few more from the back of the book until you

reach the centre of the book. This process is especially important with paperback

books as, on a non-conscious level, it is very uninviting, to the point of almost being

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

39

a non-conscious struggle, to read the pages of a paperback book that are constantly

trying to close on you because the book has not been well broken in.

2. Flick through the book/paper to gain familiarity with the format – have they used

tables or diagrams; are there any pictures; is it broken up with headings and sub-

headings or divided into sections; is the print large or small; and so on.

3. Always check the date of publication of the journal or book so you can put the

information you read into a context related to the time in which it was written.

4. If the author is not known to you, read their background details to determine their

credibility and possible perspective they may be presenting. How biased will a

paper from this author be?

5. If the paper has a contents page, read through that to familiarise yourself with the

information you are about to read.

6. Skim through the reference list to get a feel for the literature on which the

paper/book is based.

7. Read the abstract, or if a book, the blurb on the dust cover, to find out what the

paper/book is about.

All that should only take two to five minutes, depending on the size of the book or

paper.

Now, having made friends with the book it is time to gain a more intimate knowledge of

the contents by reading the pages in the following manner.

1. If possible, read with the book or paper at an upright angle so that you are not

looking down at the paper but instead looking straight ahead. Reading with your

book at an angle is less tiring, helps you to read more quickly, and also facilitates

the retention of the information. To keep your book or paper at an angle rest it

against some stacked books, or better still, purchase a reading easel. The University

of Queensland Bookshop usually has Easy Reader book stands for sale designed for

just this purpose.

2. Read the introduction and the conclusion or summation.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

40

3. Skim through the paper until you find the relevant parts, as mentioned in the points

on critical reading above.

4. As you find pieces of relevant information read a little more slowly and, if

appropriate, put a pencil mark in the margin so you can come back to it. If the book

is not yours, do not write on it, instead note down the page number. However, if

you are overwhelmed by the uncontrollable need to mark books such as library

books, then only do so with a yellow highlighter pen. A yellow highlighter pen

fades over time and doesn’t show up if the page has to be photocopied.

5. After skimming the paper go back to the pencil marks and read those sections very

carefully and critically (as per the critical reading points above) taking down notes

that can be used in your assignment.

6. Whenever you take down any notes from any sources at all – books, journals,

reports, brochures, Internet – always take down full bibliographic details, including

page numbers, so that you can find that source again at any time.

7. By the time you have finished your reading you should have a pile of notes that will

then form the basis of your assignment.

NOTE:

It is recommended that if you start to fall asleep reading – take a break.

Often, you only need to break the trance-state that has been induced by your

concentration on the page. So if you find it hard to stay awake, stop, because in that

condition the work you are doing is totally unproductive. Get up and do some exercises

for 5-10 minutes. Go for a walk. Play with the dog. Take a walk around the block.

Spend 5-10 minutes in the garden. Do some exercises. Brain Gym exercises are ideal

See the Further Reading list in Appendix 10.5 for books on Brain Gym. Do some

cooking. Anything is better than continuing in that sleepy trance-state. If you are the

type of person who can take a catnap that only lasts 10-15 minutes, and not 2-3 hours,

then give in to the sleepy state and have a catnap. However, when you awake spend a

few minutes doing some physical activity. Any active change from the reading, that

you choose, will break the trance-state. After that 10 minutes change in activity you

will return to your reading refreshed and alert.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

41

When you are at the stage of working through this book step-by-step, by now, you

would have designed your assignment structure, done your research including the

reading of the literature that you’ve gathered, and you have a pile of notes, and are now

ready to begin writing. You will now find out how to write up your assignment from a

presentation perspective, and in Chapter 6, how to write up a persuasive argument.

5. STYLE – MECHANICS OF ASSIGNMENT WRITING

It should go without saying that if one of your aims is to receive high marks then you

will make your assignment as easy and as enjoyable as possible for the marker to read.

The guidelines below are designed to do just that – make your paper as easy as possible

to read and mark. Remember that your marker will sit down with a big bundle of

papers, of which yours is one. Let me assure you that marking papers is a very onerous

task. Your marker can easily tell that you have used 10 point, or even 11 point, font,

when you have been asked to use 12 point font. Your marker can easily tell if you have

used single line spacing instead of 1.5 or double line spacing. And no matter what

technical tricks are used, your marker can tell if you have gone excessively over the

word limit. Now setting aside the fact that there are normally marks allocated for

presentation, if your paper is hard to read, for whatever reason, or is not presented in an

appropriate fashion, it is quite possible that the marker will non-consciously be far more

critical of your arguments. Keep in mind the little saying: a happy marker is a good

marker; a sad marker is a bad marker. Therefore, one of your aims should be to make

the marker as happy as possible. So style and presentation are important, ignore it at

your own peril.

5.1. The Basics Different writers, different journals, different universities, different departments, and

even different lecturers within the one department might advocate slightly different

variations in writing style. As an example, it is stated in this section that you should

double line-space your assignments. Yet many lecturers these days are happy for you to

use 1.5 spacing, in which case they will normally say so, and so you use 1.5. However,

the guidelines contained in this chapter should be followed unless you have been given

specific instructions to the contrary. No matter how petty you might think some of the

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

42

following guidelines are, they all have a reason. The major reason is that they make

your paper easier to read and mark.

It is strongly recommended that you read through this section before you submit

every assignment.

General Points

• All pages are to be consecutively numbered.

• Unless otherwise requested, include your name on each page with the page number.

• Use one side only of A4 paper.

• Do not put your individual assignment pages into plastic pockets.

• Assignments must be typed or word processed – not handwritten.

• Ensure that your print-out is clear, easy to read, and that the printer ribbon or

cartridge has not been overused or is not empty.

• All pages should be secured with a staple in the top left-hand corner. Do not use

paper clips or pins.

• Ensure that you keep a copy of your assignment in case the original is misplaced.

• Make sure you use the format stated in your assignment details – essay format or

report format.

• When sticking tables and graphs onto pages of typed text, photocopy the completed

page and submit that copy – it looks better.

• Remember to spell check your paper, before you print.

• Make sure your spell checker is set to the Australian English dictionary.

• A hyphen looks like this -

• A dash is usually twice the length of a hyphen and looks like -- or –

Plagiarism

Everything that is not your own original idea must be referenced (see Chapter 7).

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

43

Substantiation

Just as everything that is not your own original idea must be referenced, so too even

your own ideas must be substantiated in some way.

Through out my undergraduate and my postgraduate studies, lecturers used to have this

mantra “students don’t have opinions”. As a mature age student with a lot of opinions, I

initially took offence at that comment. But what they were really saying was that every

statement, proposition, or point of view had to be supported by some credible authority.

My opinion on its own, as a student writing academic term papers, was not sufficient.

Now there are two main ways to give credibility to what you are saying. (1) Go out into

the field and do some solid empirical research to demonstrate that what you are stating

is credible. Alternatively, (2) find some credible authority figure, through the literature,

who has come up with the same opinion. The latter is obviously the easiest option for

non-research students, and that is all that is required for most, albeit not all, course work

subjects.

But what about if you are asked for your own opinion, as will happen in some subjects.

Unless your lecturer has instructed you otherwise, that opinion still needs to be

substantiated. In other words, state your opinion, then you need to give a reason for

holding that opinion. There must be some reason for you to believe what you do. Tell

the reader what it is. If you can’t offer an academic reference, because it is just not that

sort of belief, then perhaps you can offer an example.

To illustrate; I have seen many papers that will state something like; ‘I think that the

structure that XYZ company use is efficient’. Then they move onto the next point.

The students that get high marks tell me why they thought the structure was efficient.

For instance; ‘I think that the structure that XYZ company use is efficient because of

XXX’ Or ‘the structure that XYZ company use is efficient as evidenced by XXX’. It

only takes an extra line or two to substantiate a comment and it will make all the

difference to the credibility of your statement, and in turn, your marks. That applies to

all assignments that you write, as well as any reports you write in the course of your

work activities for ‘real world’ organisations.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

44

Style

• Unless specifically asked to do differently, always use double line-space, or 1.5 as

a minimum, for all your assignment with the following exceptions: block quotes are

single spaced; the reference list is single-spaced with a double line of spacing

between each reference; and the abstract can be single-spaced or 1.5 spaced.

• Use a minimum of 12 point font and a maximum of 14 point font with the

exception of headings and footnotes and so on.

• After a full stop, use 2 spaces before starting the next sentence.

• Traditionally, academic writing for the social sciences was written in a formal 3rd

person style. By contrast, some other disciplines, such as philosophy, traditionally

use 1st person in academic writing. These days the more natural and friendly 1st

person style is gaining popularity with social scientists and is arguably the preferred

style. Nevertheless, if in doubt as to whether you should use a 1st or 3rd person style,

check with the lecturer in that particular subject.

• In an academic paper do not use abbreviations like ‘e.g.’ or ‘i.e.’ or ‘&’ or ‘etc.’

unless it is placed inside a bracket. Outside a bracket, in the main body of text,

write everything out in full: ‘for example’, ‘that is’, ‘et cetera’.

• In an academic paper, numbers consisting of one or two words like one, ten, twenty

two should be written out in full. Never start a sentence with a numeral. To

illustrate:

1026 cats roamed the park… should be written as One thousand and twenty six cats

roamed the park…

• Numerals are used when the number is more than two words; for tabulation;

statistical discussion; sums of money; addresses; dates; time; and page, chapter, and

volume numbers (Teitelbaum, 1982: 46).

• Be consistent in all you do. For instance, the citation in the body of your report

must correspond with the citation in the reference list; the form of citation used must

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

45

be the same throughout your paper; and the style of headings must be consistent

throughout your paper.

• Whenever possible include page numbers in your citations. As an example: Smith

(1997: 289).

• Vary the language you use as much as possible. Particular attention should be paid

to varying the words you use to begin paragraphs. This is discussed a little more

fully in Chapter 8 on editing.

Quotes

• Whenever you are using a direct quote, the quote must be placed in quotation marks

(unless it is a block quote) and written exactly as it appears in the original text. If

there are obvious mistakes or discriminatory language in the quote, you should

indicate that you are aware of the error by using the term [sic] placed in square

brackets, as demonstrated, immediately after the inappropriate language. The term

sic is Latin for thus.

• Block quotes are used whenever a direct quote is more than three lines long. A

block quote is indented, typed in single spacing, with no quotation marks at each

end. Below are some examples of block quotes showing various ways to begin

them, and as such, various placements of the citation.

• Whenever possible paraphrase information in preference to using direct quotes.

Direct quotes should always be kept to a minimum. All that a direct quote

demonstrates is that you are able to copy words from a page, they normally do not

demonstrate that you understand what those words mean. Often a marker will

interpret the use of a direct quote as evidence that you do not fully understand the

concept.

• Put another way; don’t just add quotes and paraphrases in an attempt to make your

paper look good. You must fully understand what an author is trying to convey

before citing any of their ideas. Your marker will have a pretty good idea of how

well you understand the concept, by the way you have used the quotes, or

paraphrased the material.

_____________________________________________________________________

EXAMPLES OF BLOCK QUOTESIn a survey completed among 1400 business managers in the 1980s, truthfulness was cited as the major ethical issue. It was stated that

... false or deceptive communications can undermine the trust of customers, employees and shareholders. ... To strengthen trust and instil confidence ... corporate cultures must be characterised by open and honest communications (Serpa, 1985: 425).

In a similar vein, Willis Harman (1993: 285) poses the question: In the days of the Holy Roman Empire the Church, as the dominant institution in society, took major responsibilities for the wellbeing of the whole. [As] business is the dominant institution in modern society; does it need to accept a similar responsibility?

In the mid 1970s, Rosemary Radford Ruether (1975: 204) wrote:

Women must see that there can be no liberation for them and no solution to the ecological crisis within a society whose fundamental model of relationships continue to be one of domination. They must unite the demands of the women’s movement with the demands of the ecological movement ...

Figure 8: Examples of Block Quotes

• I’d just like to highlight a couple of points in the above examples of block quotes.

You will notice that the first example begins with three little dots (...). This is called

an ellipsis and indicates that some words from the original text have been left out. In

this example, the ellipsis is required to indicate that the actual quote begins in the

middle of the original sentence. As a result, the first word begins with a lower case

letter. In the middle of the quotation, there are two more ellipses. Again, this

indicates that some of the actual words from the original text have been omitted.

The second example begins with a capital letter as it begins where the original

sentence begins. Also, in the second example you will see the word As enclosed in

square brackets. This is to indicate that I inserted the word to help the quote make

grammatical sense in this new location. Finally, the last example ends in an ellipsis,

again, to indicate that the sentence in the original text continues on. Whilst block

quotes should be kept to an absolute minimum, if you do have a very good reason

_____________________________________________________________________

46

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

47

for using a number of block quotes, try and vary the lead in to the quote as

demonstrated above.

Clarity

• For a clearer meaning, and a more direct and persuasive argument, use what is

known as active voice, instead of passive voice. Compare the following two

sentences. The ball was caught by Warne (Passive voice). Warne caught the ball

(Active voice).

• Never assume that the reader will know what the letters in an acronym stand for.

The first time an acronym is used it must be enclosed in a bracket and follow the

term it represents, which is written out in full. As an example: Modern managers

realise the importance of Human Resources Management (HRM). According to

Jeffrey Pfeffer (1994) HRM provides an organisation with a major competitive

advantage … .

• If English is not your first language it is recommended that you get someone to read

through your paper to check your English expression before submission. The

University of Queensland Student Support Services offer a range of assignment

skills support services for students. See Appendix 10.6 for further information.

Frequently Misused Words

There are a number of words in the English language that are frequently used in an

inappropriate fashion. Below are just some of the more frequently misused words.

• The most common mistake occurs with the use of its and it’s. The apostrophe s is

used to indicate possession in all words except its. Its without the apostrophe is for

ownership or possession. It’s with the apostrophe is the contraction of the two

words it is. The apostrophe is used to indicate that the letter i has been removed.

• Their, there, and they’re: Their, indicates ownership – their house, or their car.

There indicates location. It’s over there. There is a bottle of milk on the table. Or,

there’s a bottle of milk on the table. They’re – is a contraction of the two words

they are. They are playing in the park. They’re playing in the park.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

48

• Affect and effect: We affect an effect. Affect is the verb, something that we do that

results in an effect. So effect is a noun and refers to the results of an action. The

soggy effect was the result of being affected by rain.

• Practice and practise: Practice, with the letter c is the noun. Practise, with an s is

the verb. As an example: The dental practice was opened last July. I practise

dentistry. I practise the piano twice a day.

• The use of two other words can sometimes cause confusion. The two words are but

and however. Both words indicate that you are about to present an opposing point

of view. The most common practice is to use the word but as a conjunction joining

two contrary views contained in the one sentence, and however in a sentence that

just has a single point of view, that is contradicting the view expressed in the

previous sentence. As an example. It is best to paint the roof of your house white,

as it reflects the sun, but a silver roof can be equally as effective. Or, It is best to

paint the roof of your house white, as it reflects the sun and keeps the house cooler.

However, it could be argued that a silver roof is equally as effective. Although not

as common, words like however, nevertheless, thus, therefore, and accordingly can

also be used in the middle of a sentence to join two opposing views, but if used, they

must be preceded by a semi colon. For instance: They painted the roof black;

however, a white roof is a lot cooler. The car is twenty years old; nevertheless, it

looks like new.

Linking and flagging your intentions – mini introductions and conclusions

• Mini introductions: Just as you flagged the overall aims and intentions for your

entire essay or report in your Title, Table of Contents, Executive Summary or

Abstract, and your Introduction, so too you need to continually let the reader know

what you are going to do next, right throughout the essay or report. At the

beginning of every section and sub-section you need to write a mini introduction.

No matter what you write about, the key is to make it as easy as possible for the

reader to read. Academic writing is not like writing a mystery novel. You need to

explain what you are going to do, by way of a brief introduction, each step of the

way.

_____________________________________________________________________

• If you change direction, or introduce a new concept, or move from one section to the

next, warn the reader what you are going to do and why, by way of a mini

introduction.

•

EXAMPLES OF LINKING AND FLAGGING

Following are two examples of what I mean by linking and flagging. Following the extract example, which is in a different font, I shall comment on what has been written and why.

... If the organization chooses the later then, prior to making a final policy decision, they can proceed with stage two – the transformational journey. It is the inclusion of this second stage that transforms applied ethics into action ethics. Stage Two – The Transformational Journey The transformational journey (stage two) commences with commitment – the ‘magic glue’ that binds someone to an act or decision.

In the above example, the concluding paragraph flags or prepares the reader for the next section by mentioning what the next section is about – “...they can proceed with stage two – the transformational journey. It is the inclusion of this second stage that transforms ...” . Then the next section is headed “Stage Two – The Transformational Journey”. Note also that first sentence of this next section restates what the section is all about – a mini introduction. It doesn’t start, “It commences

with commitment”, as I frequently see, but “The transformational journey commences

...”. In other words, that first sentence links back to the section heading, flagging or preparing the reader for what is ahead. In addition, it links back to the end of the previous paragraph, just as the last paragraph links forward to what is ahead. The second example was a little further down in the same section, of the same paper.

To facilitate these outcomes much of this second stage of the environmental ac ion ethics process will be presented as a metaphor.

t

Metaphor has been used to assist the learning process and the developing of new ideas for almost as long as history has been recorded (Bandler, 1978: xi). Again, note how the last sentence of the first paragraph and the first sentence of the next paragraph are linked with the common concept of metaphor. By that I mean that the last sentence of the first paragraph is introducing the next paragraph, which will be arguing a case for the use of metaphor.

Figure 9: Examples of Linking and Flagging

_____________________________________________________________________

49

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

50

• Never launch into a series of dot points in your reports without a mini introduction

explaining to the reader what the list of dot points is all about, otherwise the list will

have no meaning to the reader. Again, no matter what you write, but especially if

you are presenting a list of dot points, get into the habit of commencing with a very

brief introduction. This mini introduction need be no more than one or two

sentences.

• Mini Conclusions: Just as the first paragraph should tell the reader what you are

going to tell them in that section, and the first sentence in a paragraph should tell the

reader what you re going to tell them in that paragraph, so too, the final paragraph in

each section should be a mini conclusion telling the reader what you have just told

them. It should tie the contents of the section together just as the conclusion of the

overall paper draws everything in the paper together. One of the many examples of

this sort of summary paragraph used in this book can be seen at the end of this

chapter.

• Linking: Finally, just as the continual flagging of your intentions at the beginning

of sections and sub-sections helps to guide the reader through the paper, so too as

much as possible, paragraphs should also be linked from one to the next, to the

next, as demonstrated in Figure 8, above. By linking one paragraph to the next with

the first or the last sentence, or both, it is as if you are actually taking the reader by

the hand and walking them through the paper in a continuous flowing fashion,

explaining everything as you go along. This concept of linking paragraphs is

discussed, from a slightly different perspective, in Chapter 6.4.

To flag and link in a subtle and elegant fashion can take time and practice. So, like all

essay writing skills, the more papers you write, the easier and more proficient you will

become.

5.2. Tables and Figures Used appropriately, tables and figures can be a very efficient way to convey a lot of

qualitative, as well as quantitative, information in a clear and succinct way.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

51

5.2.1. Tables

Whilst tables are usually used for quantitative data they can also be very effectively

used for qualitative data, especially when comparing information. When using tables

ensure that:

• Every column has a heading

• Each table is numbered

• There is a brief but descriptive title

• The source of the table is cited if it is not your own original creation

• The table will fit on the page

• You have explained in the text what the table is all about and analysed the

information in the table, if appropriate

• The table is placed as close as possible to the reference in the text.

5.2.2. Figures

A figure is usually described as any type of illustration other than a table and includes

charts, graphs, photographs, or drawings (APA, 1994: 141). In addition to the above

points regarding Tables, where applicable when using figures, ensure that:

• The figure is accurate

• The figure is simple, clean, and free of unnecessary detail

• If the figure is to be reduced, that any lettering, or detail is still dark enough and

large enough to read.

The above points on tables and figures have been adapted from Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 1994: 140-141; 162).

5.3. Non-Discriminatory Language Great care must be taken not to use discriminatory language in academic writing.

Depending on the context, disparaging terms can occur in relation to race, age, culture,

religion, background, and disabilities. The most common, and yet normally

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

52

unintentional, form of discriminatory language is sexist language. It includes terms

such as his, him, or her when referring to a position that could be held by either a male

or female; mankind instead of humankind; or manned instead of staffed; air hostess

instead of flight attendant, and so on.

Further details about non-discriminatory language can be found in the Style Manual

(AGPS, 1994). In addition, The University of Queensland’s Office of Gender Equity

has produced a leaflet which is available to students and staff called “Gender Inclusive

Language” (OGE, 2000). In a similar vein, the Vice-Chancellor’s Committee Against

Racism (2001), has produced a leaflet called “A guide to using culturally inclusive

language: valuing diversity”. Both leaflets are available free of charge at the faculty’s

Student Resource Centre, level 1, Colin Clark building.

Incorporating all of the points and guidelines on the mechanics of style covered in this

chapter will ensure that your paper is presented in the most appropriate form for ease of

reading and marking. However, no matter how well presented the paper, the content and

your arguments must be persuasive.

6. DEVELOPING A PERSUASIVE ARGUMENT

So far, in working on your assignment you have analysed the question you are planning

to answer; designed an appropriate structure for your assignment; completed your

research and reading; and have a pile of notes which will form the basis of your

assignment. Also, you are aware of the basic mechanics of writing your paper. It is

now time to use the information you have collected and develop a persuasive argument.

Briefly, an argument is the presentation of the case for and against a particular

proposition – your point of view, your thesis. You argue your case in the body of the

report. As such, unless specifically instructed, the body of your essay or report must be

more than just a descriptive retelling of source material. In some cases, the descriptive

retelling of source material, alone, may not even get you a passing grade. An academic

assignment should contain a thesis or point of view that you will argue for by critically

analysing the theory – the academic literature on the subject – and any data that has

been collected. In management assignments, you will normally be expected to

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

53

demonstrate an understanding of the theory by integrating that theory with the collected

data and examples, then applying the theory and data to a case study, and finally

arguing for a series of recommendations. Put another way, you will be expected to

demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the literature by using the literature

to argue a case in support of your point of view. Generally, the better the argument, the

better the grade you will receive. Hence, in this section four essential elements in

developing a persuasive argument will be addressed: critical analysis; the art of

integration; applying theory and data to a case study; and using paragraphs as building

blocks. Finally, as SWOT analyses are often (mis)used in management assignments in

an attempt to enhance an argument, a section (6.4) on SWOT analyses is also included.

6.1. Critical Analysis A student once said to me that they weren’t interested in knowing if their writing style

was accurate, instead they just wanted to know if the content of their work was “right”.

At university level, especially in social sciences, when writing an essay or report it is

generally not a matter of having the right or the wrong answers – there rarely are any

right or wrong answers. It is all about how well you argue your case for the answers, or

position, that you have chosen to support – it is about how well you argue for your

thesis. And that is one major reason why your writing skills are so important. At the

heart of most academic assignments is an assessment of how well you can argue a case

for your particular point of view, or your thesis, using as evidence the theoretical

academic literature, and examples and data if appropriate, to support your case.

Just imagine that you are an attorney on The Practice or Law and Order, or if you go

back that far, Perry Mason. The marker or the reader of your paper is the jury. You

have to convince the reader/the jury that your position is the very best one to hold.

With academic writing, you do that by way of what is called critical analysis, not

description.

When I say description, I am referring to the practice of quoting from, and paraphrasing,

the paper under discussion – merely describing the situation that the paper under

discussion is talking about. Now it is true that you need to include some description to

set the stage, to provide context. However, most of your marks will be given for

critical analysis, not for description. Description merely demonstrates that you are

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

54

able to regurgitate something that someone else has written to support your case. You

are not telling the reader anything that they cannot find out for themselves by reading

the original paper. By contrast, critical analysis demonstrates your creativity, insights,

and ability to go further than just what one author/paper says. Critical analysis

demonstrates your ability to compare and contrast, or look at the commonalities or

similarities and the differences, the pluses and the minuses, of a number of different

positions in an attempt to convince the jury/the reader that the position you have chosen

is the best one on this occasion. The strength of your argument will be determined by

the persuasiveness of your evidence to an unbiased, clear-thinking person (Seech,

1993:2).

The first step in developing a persuasive argument is to decide on a point of view, the

position that you are going to argue for. Using the courtroom metaphor, you find a

client – a topic – and decide whether you will play the part of the defence attorney or

the prosecutor. In other words, what is your position, do you support the theory, or are

you against the theory. Your decision as to the position you will take generally comes

to you as you familiarise yourself with the various aspects of the topic through lectures,

reading your text book, tutorial preparation, general discussion, and general reading on

the topic.

The next step in developing a persuasive argument is to critically analyse the literature

on the topic. And a critical analysis involves more than just reading a couple of papers

that support your point of view. How would the people from Law and Order go if they

just went into the courtroom and said; ‘Our client is innocent because his/her Mum says

he’s a good boy, or she’s a good girl’. That is certainly not a strong enough case to

keep the defendant out of jail.

For every point of view there will normally be many writers who support it, and

normally many who oppose it – writing in great detail why they believe that point of

view is flawed. Consequently, your research must include the reading of just as many

papers written by people who object to your opinion, as those who support you. Within

reason, the more literature you read, covering a whole range of views relating to your

topic, the stronger your argument will become.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

55

However, the critical analysis does not come by just descriptively listing the views of

the various writers. Instead, you need to break down the various arguments. You must

look for the strengths and the weaknesses in each argument – just as each witness for

both the defence and the prosecution are cross examined to find the strengths and

weaknesses in their testimony. If you have read widely, many of those strengths and

weaknesses will be highlighted for you in the academic papers you read.

Whilst there are many ways you can structure your analysis, one way is to present it in

the following form:

1. You present your point of view, complete with a rationale, and then support that

opinion by citing one, two, or more authors with the same opinion, discussing all the

reasons why they believe that your thesis/position is valid. Putting it another way

by continuing with the courtroom metaphor, the defence attorney presents their case.

They deliver an opening statement to the jury stating that their client is innocent and

they give the reasons why they believe this to be so. They then call some witnesses

to support their case.

2. Next, you argue against your own opinion, by citing the work of people who object

to your thesis, giving the reasons that they proffer. In other words, you then either

play Devil’s advocate, or pretend you are the prosecutor and cross-examine the

witnesses for the defence in an attempt to find holes in their testimony.

3. Then, if you want to persuade the reader of your paper that your opinion has merit

you must overcome all the objections stated and any others that come to mind by

citing some more writers. Again, as defence attorney, if you want to get your client

a not-guilty verdict, you now must overcome all the objections the prosecutor raised.

You must be able to argue that the flaws that the prosecutor raised in your original

position are completely without foundation, or your client goes to jail.

4. To this point, all you have done is examine the arguments and debated your thesis.

To complete the analysis you have to answer the questions: “So what?”; “What does

all the evidence mean in relation to my point of view?” To answer those questions

you must think about the debate you’ve just presented – think about the analysis so

far – and based on that analysis make some logical conclusion/s. Without

presenting some logical conclusion – without answering the “so what?” question

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

56

– you have not completed your analysis. In the case of the courtroom metaphor,

after all the evidence has been presented the attorneys present their final summation

to the jury. The defence attorney ties all the pieces of evidence together, and

highlights how all this evidence demonstrates that their client is innocent. Thus, to

the defence attorney, the “so what?” at the end of all of the courtroom argument is

that their client is innocent.

No matter how you ultimately structure and write up your analysis, the four points

above are the basic components required to develop your argument. It is a bit like a

four-step dance. (1) You argue for a substantiated position; (2) find the flaws in that

position – argue against that position; (3) then overcome those objections using credible

evidence to substantiate your claims; and finally (4) tell the reader/marker/jury what all

this debate means. Tell them the conclusion that they should make as a result of

reading/hearing the debate.

This might all be done within one small paragraph, or this four-step process might be

extended over many pages, depending on the size of the paper, and the importance to

your thesis, of the argument in question.

Below, is a simple example of a small section from a short paper, demonstrating a

number of things that we have covered so far in this handbook. You should be able to

identify the introduction, the body, and the conclusion to this section, and examples of

linking and flagging. You should also be able to identify the four-step process

described above. However, to ensure that there are no misunderstandings, I shall

present the piece twice – once without comment for ease of reading, and then a second

time in which I shall comment on each of the processes. But first, see how many of the

above characteristics you can identify in the following unmarked piece of writing,

which commences about four pages into a 2000 word essay.

Why do Boards Fail?

John Pound (1995: 89) indicates that, what he refers to as the “managed corporation” is akin to the current new trends in corporate governance, as has been discussed above – characteristics similar to the recommendations found in the Cadbury Report. Further, he suggests that these changes, of merely moving the source of power from one party to another, are not the answer to successful corporate governance. He contends that poor corporate performance is due to a poor board decision-making process and uses the labels the “managed corporation”

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

57

versus the “governed corporation” to differentiate between the current new trends in corporate governance similar to the Cadbury style board, and the board which focuses on an effective decision-making policy. The “governed corporation” will be discussed shortly, however initially, it is important to address some of the superficialities of Pound’s argument.

For Pound’s argument to be sound, then the downfall of all corporations would have to be due to poor decisions. Yet as we are all too aware, with the cases such as Maxwell, Skase, et cetera, mentioned above, the demise of the company was due to the criminal intent of the CEO/Chairperson. As such, one must ask to what extent a strong board, with an independent NED as Chair, minimum executive involvement in the board, audit committees, and so on, would have been far more effective than a good decision-making policy.

But setting aside any criminal intent, boards can fail, due to numerous reasons as highlighted by Thain and Leighton (1995), who offer six key “signs and symptoms of problems in board effectiveness” – legitimacy and power; role definition; board culture; competence; board management; and board leadership. In addition, Sir Adrian Cadbury (1995: 58) suggests that failings are due to “ ignoring the interests of the shareholders, being self-perpetuating, … and drawing their membership from too narrow a section of society” as well as plain incompetence. Further, as previously stated, many boards just do not want to “rock the boat” (Patton & Baker, 1987). Now it could, rightly, be argued that at the heart of all these problems an original decision had to be made, and thus the decision-making process is the real problem. Nevertheless, it could also be equally submitted that many of these problems could be prevented, or at the very least curbed, by the new trends of an empowered board.

Consequently, as demonstrated, a good decision-making process is not necessarily the only answer to effective corporate governance. Many other issues are involved, all of which could be explored at great length. However, due to the word constraints, as the aim of the paper is to discuss Pound’s proposition concerning the differences between the “managed corporation” and the “governed corporation”, I shall move onto the issue of decision-making and Pound’s “governed corporation”.

Decision-Making and The Governed Corporation

Pound (1995) argues that the key to a successful corporation and good corporate governance is for the board to focus on a good decision-making process which he describes as the “‘governed corporation”.

I shall now repeat the section, and in a different font which is underlined, I shall

comment throughout.

Why do Boards Fail?

The introduction, the body, and the conclusion for the section are clearly identifiably. The introduction is contained in the first paragraph, where the

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

58

t

t

t

t .

t t

section is introduced or set up. It is giving you an idea of what John Pound’s argument is all about in prepara ion for the critical analysis of Pound’s argument, which is contained in the body of the piece. Paragraphstwo and three form the body and con ain the critical analysis. The final paragraph draws the argument together in a concluding paragraph and links that section to the following section. Now let’s look a paragraph one.

John Pound (1995: 89) indicates that, what he refers to as the “managed corporation” is akin to the current new trends in corporate governance, as has been discussed above – characteristics similar to the recommendations found in the Cadbury Report. Further, he suggests that these changes, of merely moving the source of power from one party to another, are not the answer to successful corporate governance. He contends that poor corporate performance is due to a poor board decision-making process and uses the labels the “managed corporation” versus the “governed corporation” to differentiate between the current new trends in corporate governance similar to the Cadbury style board, and the board which focuses on an effective decision-making policy. The “governed corporation” will be discussed shortly, however initially, it is important to address some of the superficialities of Pound’s argument.

In essence, Pound is arguing that poor corporate governance is due to poor decision-making processes. Using the four-step critical analysis process described above, I am now going to challenge that argument and suggest that there might be other things as well that should be considered.

For Pound’s argument to be sound, then the downfall of all corporations would have to be due to poor decisions. Yet as we are all too aware, with the cases such as Maxwell, Skase, et cetera, mentioned above, the demise of the company was due to the criminal intent of the CEO/Chairperson.

To challenge, or find a hole in Pound’s argument that poor corporate governance is due to poor decision-making, I have used two examples of very well known cases, at the time, which were discussed in greater detail in a previous sec ion

As such, one must ask to what extent a strong board, with an independent NED as Chair, minimum executive involvement in the board, audit committees, and so on, would have been far more effective than a good decision-making policy.

I have now offered a counter position to that of Pound – that “a strong board ...[e cetera] would be more effective ...”. In the next paragraph, I proceed to supply more evidence to support my position. We are still a step one, presenting and supporting my position.

But setting aside any criminal intent, (here I am saying, okay, in case you don’t like my criminal intent argument, I’ll presents some other evidence to support my claim) boards can fail, due to numerous reasons as highlighted by Thain and Leighton (1995), who offer six key “signs and symptoms of problems in

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

59

t t

t

r

t

I tt

.

tt

r

board effectiveness” – legitimacy and power; role definition; board culture; competence; board management; and board leadership.

I am now presenting my first piece of referenced theoretical evidence to suppor my claim tha there are many reasons for poor corporate governance, other than poor decision-making.

In addition, Sir Adrian Cadbury (1995: 58) suggests that failings are due to “ ignoring the interests of the shareholders, being self-perpetuating, … and drawing their membership from too narrow a section of society” as well as plain incompetence.

A second piece of referenced theory from the literature to suppor my position.

Further, as previously stated, many boards just do not want to “rock the boat” (Patton & Baker, 1987).

And a third piece of evidence supporting my position.

Now it could, rightly, be argued that at the heart of all these problems an original decision had to be made, and thus the decision-making process is the real problem.

This is step two of the four-step p ocess where I argue against my own arguments. I play Devil’s advocate and ask myself; ‘what would Pound sayat this s age in defence of his position that I am arguing against?’

Nevertheless, it could also be equally submitted that many of these problems could be prevented, or at the very least curbed, by the new trends of an empowered board.

The above sentence is step three in which have rebu ed the counter argument. I haven’t denied that the counter position might have some merit, but again I have raised other possibilities

Consequently, as demonstrated, a good decision-making process is not necessarily the only answer to effective corporate governance. Many other issues are involved, (step four – the conclusion. As long as there is a possibility that there are other reasons for poor performance, the decision-making position cannot stand-alone) all of which could be explored at great length. However, due to the word constraints, as the aim of the paper is to discuss Pound’s proposition concerning the differences between the “managed corporation” and the “governed corporation”, I shall move onto the issue of decision-making and Pound’s “governed corporation”.

In these las few lines I have done a number of things; (1) acknowledged that I have only presen ed a very superficial argument with regard to this aspect of the paper; that there is a lot more that could be said if I had more space to play with, but my challenge is just a side issue and so doesn’t war ant any more space. (2) I have linked back to the aim or

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

60

f , tt

.

theme o the paper which is decision-making and how i relates to Pound’s version of the governed corpora ion. (3) This is also the link flagging the next section

Decision-Making and The Governed Corporation

Pound (1995) argues that the key to a successful corporation and good corporate governance is for the board to focus on a good decision-making process which he describes as the “‘governed corporation”.

In beginning this next section, I haven’t just launched into a discussion, butI have used an introductory statement reiterating Pound’s position in preparation for what is to follow.

In this chapter – 6.1 – the first stage in developing a persuasive argument, the critical

analysis, has been explained in some detail. It should be noted, however, that the four-

step dance described above is the most basic form of critical analysis. You can

critically analyse any statement or proposition at ever deepening levels by taking into

account such things as the perspectives of a variety of stakeholders, and their

relationships to each other and to the proposition; by discussing the vast array of short-

and long-term consequences of actions that are associated with the statement or

proposition; and so forth. Whilst a simple analysis was performed in two paragraphs, in

the superficial demonstration example, above, it would be quite possible to devote 40,

50, or even 100+ pages to an in-depth analysis of the self-same proposition. But if you

can at least begin with the simple version, as above, I can assure you that you will

impress your marker. Then, with practice, you can continue to develop your skills

working at higher and higher levels of skill and deeper and deeper levels of analysis.

No matter whether your critical analysis is performed in a simple manner, or in some

depth, to increase the persuasiveness of your argument you need to develop the skill of

integrating your various pieces of theory, and the practical situation, like examples and

data.

6.2. The Art of Integration Unfortunately, all too often assignments are submitted with an isolated section

containing a descriptive list of disparate theoretical views. Then a second, separate

section is added, that is merely a retelling of examples or data material as it was told to

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

61

the student during their research. No matter how much work you have done, an

assignment like that usually receives a very poor grade.

Integrating or combining is just that; the two aspects, the various pieces of theory and

the data or the case information – the practical – must be combined. Although it is not

that common in management, but if for some reason you are writing a purely theoretical

piece, then you must integrate the various pieces of theory, not just list them one after

the other. It is a bit like making a cake. You don’t make a cake by placing the flour in

one section of the cake tin; and then the eggs in another corner; and then the milk in a

third corner; and the sugar in the fourth corner; and then go and put the tin full of

disparate ingredients in the oven. If you do, it will come out of the oven pretty much

the same way it went in – a heck of a mess. Instead, you get a big mixing bowl and stir

all the ingredients in together and then put that combined, integrated, mixture into the

cake tin; the cake tin in the oven; and when it comes out, it’s beautiful. You do the

same with your theory and practice. Especially in social sciences, like management

subjects, the theory and the practice must be woven together in your discussion

supporting your claims.

Just as a critical analysis, as described above, involves using the theoretical literature to

argue both sides of the case for you and also to overcome all objections, so too your

data is used to support and confirm, or contradict, the propositions in the theory. In so

doing, the strength of the theory is increased, which in turn increases the strength of

your argument. Or conversely, instead of the data supporting the theory, the theory can

be used to support the data and or the examples, in which case it is the theory that is

giving credibility to the practical aspects of your case study.

In other words, two of the most basic ways to integrate theory and practice is; (1) to

present the theoretical argument and then find some of the data or examples that you

have collected and discuss how those data support or contradict the theoretical evidence.

Alternatively, in a term paper (2) you might be use your theory to support your

examples, or the practical aspects of your case.

The integration of the theory and data – theory and practice – can be written up in many

different ways. Once again, there is no one ‘right’ way of doing it. However to give

you a bit of an idea of what a well written piece of theory/practical integration might

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

62

look like, I have included the following example, written by two teams of third year

undergraduate students working on an Ipswich subject called “Managing the Virtual

Organisation”. The example is part of a brief, 2-3 page, activity in which the students

were asked to perform the following task.

Module 6 – Activity 1: Trust Activity This activity has both a theoretical and a practical component. You are to link the results of your theoretical trust research to the practical activities set down in “Project Topic Task II” on page 71. The aim of this activity is: (1) to get you thinking about trust in relation to your team project; and (2) to give you some practise in using referenced theory (from your trust research) to support the proposed activities for Project Topic Task II (page 71). So, the emphasis is on integrating theory with practice. (2-3 pages max)

Figure 10: Integration Activity Question

Below I have taken the introduction from the SARJ 007 (2001) team1, and the practical

steps from the VIP (2001) team2, as an example of a very high 7 grade answer to the

above Trust Activity. Again, I have inserted the piece twice. The first time I have left it

clean, so that you can easily read it without distractions. In the second copy, I have

inserted comments throughout, using a different font, highlighting exactly what the

teams have done that makes this such an outstanding piece of work.

Module 6 – Activity 1: Trust Activity

Throughout the readings in this module, trust has been identified as a key factor in successful collaboration (Harringston & Ruppel, 1999; Lipnack & Stamps, 2000; Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1999; and Nandhakumar, 1999). For our recruiting company project to be successful, our aim should be to create an environment that harnesses compatible goals, strives for mutual gain, and promotes effective communication (Harringston & Ruppel, 1999; Lipnack & Stamps, 2000; Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1999; and Nandhakumar, 1999). To achieve this, our company needs to address the issue of trust.

1 The four members of the SARJ007 team were; Sarah Seckold, Anne-Maree Dowd, Renee Burgess, and Jessica Curtis. 2 The four members of the VIP team were; Clint Feuerherdt, Don Drane, Gloria McGreevy, and Ross Opperman.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

63

According to Fukuyama (1995), trust is a form of “Social Capital”. He states that “social capital arises with a community of regular, honest and cooperative behaviour, based on commonly shared norms” (Fukuyama, 1995: 65). Therefore, collaboration within our recruiting company needs to be recognised as a social group dependent on trust for the attainment of goals and objectives. The question our group now needs to address is – “what mechanisms are there to build and maintain team member trust” (Schwarz, 2001: 70)? ... [SARJ 007 Team]

Trust must be maintained throughout the team’s life (Lipnack & Stamps, 2000: 69-91). Therefore, VIP has identified the following mechanisms to build and maintain trust over the complete life cycle of our team.

Team members share the same goal, objective, vision and mission VIP believes that team members are more likely to trust each other if all members share the same goals, objectives, vision, and mission. This is evidenced in Duarte' and Snyder's (1999) research in the formation of virtual teams. Handy (1995: 46) builds on this theory by equating trust with confidence in other member’s competence, commitment to shared goals, and values. Members should create and agree on team communications, procedures, processes (Jackson, 1999: 313-32) and boundaries (Handy, 1995: 46) in order to facilitate open and honest communication.

Bonding Trust is also built on the group activities that VIP project members perform, as supported by the Jarvenpaa and Leidner (1999) theory. This ‘bonding’ is often achieved through common values and beliefs (Handy, 1995: 46). As a result, VIP will include a range of communications activities extending beyond just the basic project tasks, to foster such bonding.

Smaller more frequent tasks The VIP project plan will factor high-level outcomes into smaller tasks with shorter timeframes (Weber & Green, 2001). This will provide opportunities for our members to display competence and goal commitment. Handy (1995: 48) refers to this as “reciprocal loyalty”. Making these positive outcomes visible to the relevant participants earlier and more frequently will enhance trust building between members in our project scenario.

Regular reviews VIP will utilise regular reviews of team communication procedures and processes to maintain trust between our project members. Such a review process would also facilitate repeated interactions and shared experiences (Jarvenpaa and Leidner, 1999) between members. Allowing for feedback will not only allow us to grow as a team, but will increase our team’s effectiveness. Lipnack and Stamps (2000: 81) refer to this as having feedback through virtuous loops. ... [VIP Team]

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

64

VIP continued with a number of other points and a good conclusion, but that is

sufficient for you to see how they have integrated the theory with their practice. I shall

now repeat the activity with inserted comments in a different and underlined font.

Module 6 – Activity 1: Trust Activity

Note he clean, clear heading reflecting he heading of the activity as per the question.

t t

tr f r t

t, t tt t

r

t

tt t r

t ti j t . t

i

t

Throughout the readings in this module, trust has been identified as a key factor in successful collaboration (Harringston & Ruppel, 1999; Lipnack & Stamps, 2000; Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1999; and Nandhakumar, 1999).

Here they have made a statement – “... trust has been identified as a key factor ...” and they have supported tha claim with not one, but four e e ences. Even though a this stage of the course it was well known that

trust was a key concep but that doesn’t mean tha references were no required. When you make a sta ement of fact, i must be supported by credible sou ces. And they have done that.

For our recruiting company project to be successful, our aim should be to create an environment that harnesses compatible goals, strives for mutual gain, and promotes effective communication (Harringston & Ruppel, 1999; Lipnack & Stamps, 2000; Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1999; and Nandhakumar, 1999).

Now they have introduced the practical aspect with a comment on their project, and they have s ated a number of characteristics required to make their project a success. Sure we could all take a guess that those would be important characteristics. But SARJ007 is acknowledging that those ideas came from, again, four pieces of theory. And so they are s ating that those charac eristics tha we e taken from their reading of the theory are going o be used to make their prac cal pro ec a success They have beau ifully

integrated theory with practice.

To achieve this, our company needs to address the issue of trust.

According to Fukuyama (1995), trust is a form of “Social Capital”. He states that “social capital arises with a community of regular, honest and cooperative behaviour, based on commonly shared norms” (Fukuyama, 1995: 65).

It is true that they have used a d rect quote there, but (1) it is the only direct quote in the entire activity and (2) with the conclusion that follows, they are clearly demonstrating tha they understand what is being said.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

65

rt

t

Therefore, collaboration within our recruiting company needs to be recognised as a social group dependent on trust for the attainment of goals and objectives.

This is a concluding sentence. So in summary, they have put forwa d a proposal, a claim tha trust is a key issue, and supported that claim with references. They then showed how tha theory would work with their practical project. They added weight to the claim with a further piece of theoretical evidence from Fukuyama (1995). And now they are rounding it all off with this last concluding sentence.

The question our group now needs to address is – “what mechanisms are there to build and maintain team member trust” (Schwarz, 2001: 70)? ... [SARJ 007 Team]

This final sentence is a linking sentence (see “Flagging Your Inten ions” – Chapte 5.1) p eparing the reader for what is to follow

tr r .

,t

,t t

I

t

t

f

That is as good an introduction as you will find anywhere.

This is where VIP’s piece starts.

It begins with the following paragraph, which is a brief introductory paragraph as mentioned in Chapter 5.1 “mini introductions”, which introduces the dot points to follow. You might recall tha I said you can’t just launch into a list of dot points without explaining what they are all about. Well the two paragraphs above introduce the topic of trust in relation to this ac ivi y and the project. It is like a mini literature review. Then the following paragraph introduces the dot points and what is to come.

Trust must be maintained throughout the team’s life (Lipnack & Stamps, 2000:69-91).

Again, just like SARJ007, see how V P have made a claim, stated a fact, that “Trust must be maintained throughout the team’s life”. And they have acknowledged that tha concept was one that they read in Lipnack and Stamps.

Therefore, VIP has identified the following mechanisms to build and maintain trust over the complete life cycle of our team.

Now they have inserted a concluding sentence tha is linked to the following points. Note that each point is clearly identified with its own sub-heading.

As you read through each o these points see how skilfully VIP has woven the theory and practice together.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

66

r

t

r

, .

Team members share the same goal, objective, vision and mission VIP believes that team members are more likely to trust each other if all members share the same goals, objectives, vision, and mission.

They have just stated a belief that they hold. All beliefs have some foundation. The foundation for their belief is given in the next sentence (below) which, in essence, states: “This is evidenced” by some credible research carried out by Duarte and Snyder.

This is evidenced in Duarte' and Snyder's (1999) research in the formation of virtual teams. Handy (1995: 46) builds on this theory by equating trust with confidence in other member’s competence, commitment to shared goals, and values.

Now it is not only Duarte’ and Snyder’s work that they are using to supporttheir belief, their claim, but they a e also adding the support of Handy’s work. ‘And that’s no all, there’s more!’

Members should create and agree on team communications, procedures, processes (Jackson, 1999: 313-32) [they are making a furthe claim which has practical application to their project, however it is based on their research of the theory as so is duly referenced ] and boundaries (Handy, 1995: 46) [and yet another referenced source from their reading of the literature that they are able to use in practice for their project] in order to facilitate open and honest communication.

And how are all these things going to help their project – what is the rationale or the reason for using all these concepts? “In order to facilitate open and honest communication”.

That is an excellent example of integrating theory, or information that they have read in the literature, with their practical example. In other words,they are using the theory from the literature to support the actions that they are proposing/ the practical.

t

t

Bonding Trust is also built on the group activities that VIP project members perform, as supported by the Jarvenpaa and Leidner (1999) theory.

Again, they have made a claim – “Trust is also built on the group activi ies ...” and supported that claim with a reference.

This ‘bonding’ is often achieved through common values and beliefs (Handy, 1995: 46). How does this bonding occur? “...through common values and beliefs.” And wha makes them think that? Their research into Handy’s work, and so they have cited Handy.

As a result, VIP will include a range of communications activities extending beyond just the basic project tasks, to foster such bonding.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

67

t

ti t ,

Ano her concluding sentence to round off the paragraph. “As a result” of all these things relating to bonding that VIP have learned from their research (THE THEORY), “VIP will include a range of communication activities extending beyond just the basic project tasks, to foster such bonding.” (THE PRACTICE).

In each point, the same level of excellence in integrating theory with prac ce can be seen. Now tha you know what to look for see if you can pick up the same pattern of linking referenced theory with practice, a practical application, in the following paragraphs.

Smaller more frequent tasks The VIP project plan will factor high-level outcomes into smaller tasks with shorter timeframes (Weber & Green, 2001). This will provide opportunities for our members to display competence and goal commitment. Handy (1995: 48) refers to this as "reciprocal loyalty". Making these positive outcomes visible to the relevant participants earlier and more frequently will enhance trust building between members in our project scenario.

Regular reviews VIP will utilise regular reviews of team communication procedures and processes to maintain trust between our project members. Such a review process would also facilitate repeated interactions and shared experiences (Jarvenpaa and Leidner, 1999) between members. Allowing for feedback will not only allow us to grow as a team but will increase our team’s effectiveness. Lipnack and Stamps (2000: 81) refer to this as having feedback through virtuous loops. [VIP Team]

To present a piece of writing of the standard that SARJ007 (2001) and VIP (2001) have

demonstrated here takes a lot of practice. And to get that practice, you must first be

consciously aware of what is required. I hope that through these examples, you are

beginning to gain that awareness. Then it is just a matter of getting started and giving it

a go. And with each attempt, you will become more and more skilful. Practice,

practice, practice.

6.3. Applying the Theory and Data to a Case Study On most occasions your collected data will relate to the case study you are working on,

in which event if you have been integrating the data as described above, you will at the

same time be applying it to your case study. However, if for some reason the data are

external to the case, then the case must be integrated in a similar manner to the way you

have integrated the data. As a case in point: you are discussing the theory, you have

then discussed how the data support or contradict the theory, and you now must

comment on whether the theory and data are, or are not, being used in the ‘real life’

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

68

organisation you are studying. If it is not being applied, why not? Is the theory

supporting the case study, or the data, or both, or neither the case nor the data? Is it

possible that the data can be applied to the case, yet it contradicts the theory? If so, is

the theory unrealistic? Just because theory has been published does not mean that it

works on all occasions, in all situations. You must continue asking those sorts of

questions whilst systematically comparing and contrasting the case with the theory and

the theory with the data and the data with the case and so on. These questions are just a

small example of the many questions you will need to address as you continue to

analyse the data, the theory, and the case study in an integrated way. Finally, once

again, your analyses must lead to a logical conclusion. And as previously discussed,

in a report, those conclusions must then lead to some logical recommendations.

6.4. Using Paragraphs as ‘Building Blocks’ Now that the basic components of an integrated critical analysis have been explored, it

is pertinent to reflect briefly on the basic building blocks which are used to support your

analyses. These building blocks are your paragraphs. Paragraphs should contain a topic

sentence, supporting details and, as previously mentioned in Chapter 5.1, links or

transitions which can be used to make clear connections between paragraphs. These

transitions will facilitate the evolution of a coherent and logical argument.

Consider how the following transitions, linking one paragraph to the next, could be used

as the basis on which to build your argument.

Showing similarity likewise, similarly, in the same way

Showing contrast on the contrary, but, not only, however, although, nevertheless, in spite of, on the other hand, conversely, by contrast

Showing addition too, also, in addition, further, moreover

Showing illustration as an example, for instance, to illustrate

Showing sequence next, subsequently, after, finally, first, second or firstly, secondly

Showing conclusion therefore, consequently, as a result, so, accordingly

The above examples have been adapted from Environmental Audits and Risk Management (nd: 19) Study Skills Booklet.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

69

Get a little booklet, or use the spare pages at the end of this book, and keep adding to

the above list of key words as you come across examples of linking and flagging in your

readings.

To summarise this chapter so far, it has been stated that a persuasive argument is

developed in the following way: (1) present a point of view; (2) defend that point of

view with evidence in the form of a critical analysis of the theoretical literature; (3)

integrate the analysed theory with any supporting data; (4) apply the analysed theory

and data to your case study; and (5) the analysis that results from the application of the

theory and data to the case study should then lead to a logical conclusion from which

you make your recommendations, if required. Finally in this section, it has been

submitted that the basic building blocks used to build your argument are paragraphs that

have been linked together in a coherent and logical manner.

Before moving to the important aspect of referencing there is one form of analysis, the

SWOT analysis, which is frequently used in management assignments and so deserves

comment.

6.5. SWOT Analysis As most people are aware, the first step in a SWOT analysis is to identify the

organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. However, all too often

that first step is as far as the student goes with the analysis, in which case the SWOT is

purely a list of organisational characteristics that have been divided into four categories

and so contributes little to the paper. All that it does demonstrate to the reader is that

the student has heard of a SWOT analysis but does not understand what it is for, or what

to do with it, which is worse than not using it at all.

A SWOT analysis, if used correctly, can be a very powerful tool and can enhance an

argument greatly. However, like all other forms of analyses, the SWOT must move

beyond that first step and answer the questions, “So what?” “What does it all mean in

relation to my topic?”.

As mentioned, the first step is an analysis of the organisation’s activities to arrive at the

four categories. But the significant part of the analysis comes in the analysis of those

four categories and, correspondingly, an answer to the question, “what does it all

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

70

mean?” Like the analysis process described above, the analysis of the four categories

must lead to some conclusion, which in turn, should lead to some recommended action.

In other words, if presented at the beginning of your paper the SWOT analysis can

“identify a niche that the organisation can exploit” (Robbins, Bergman & Stagg, 1997:

251). And in so doing, the exploitation of that niche may be the position you decide to

argue for in your report. In which case you would be starting your argument from a

very strong position. Then again, the conclusion you reach after analysing the four

SWOT categories might provide you with the aim on which your paper will be based.

Similarly, if the aim and your thesis, or position, have both already been established,

after analysing the four SWOT categories you might conclude that the organisation has

some key challenges which need to be addressed before any of your other arguments

would be accepted. Or those key challenges, which you have identified as a result of

analysing the SWOT findings, may be the aspects of the organisation that you need to

focus the rest of your critical analyses on.

It doesn’t matter how you choose to use your SWOT analysis conclusions. However,

once the SWOT has been included in your paper then, like all other analyses as

discussed above, the SWOT, and the SWOT analysis conclusions must be continually

linked to the rest of the paper and to the aim or central theme of the paper. There is no

point in doing a SWOT analysis and then never mentioning it again. If you include a

SWOT analysis, you must use it to support or refute your arguments, not just have it

sitting there.

7. REFERENCING

Although not as creative as your critical analyses, complete and correct referencing is

equally as important in academic writing. There are three main reasons why full

referencing is essential.

1. The first is that when another writer’s work is used without being referenced the act

of plagiarism has been committed. This will be discussed a little more fully, shortly.

2. The second reason for referencing is so that anyone reading the paper can follow up

any ideas or concepts that have been presented. This is especially important in

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

71

academic writing where people involved in research may read the paper. One of the

main ways of researching a topic is to read what other people have written and then

follow up some of the references they have cited. Then, after those follow-up

papers have been read, the researcher can continue the search-trail by tracking down

more references cited in those follow-up papers, and so on. This is known as a

bibliographical chain. It is a bit like accessing deeper and deeper links on the

Internet. This research is impossible if papers are not fully and accurately

referenced.

3. A third reason why referencing is important is that it adds credibility to the

argument that you are presenting. As discussed in the previous section, if an

argument is to have any credibility it must be supported by evidence. That evidence

must be referenced.

The following sections will address the issues of plagiarism and then when and how to

reference your assignments and write up your reference list.

7.1. Plagiarism Plagiarism is the act of passing off as your own work another person’s writing, words,

or ideas. You commit plagiarism if you do not acknowledge the source of a direct

quote, or a specific piece of writing that you have paraphrased, or even if you describe

an idea or concept that you have heard or read somewhere without a reference or

acknowledgment. Under The University of Queensland Act statute 13, in conjunction

with Assessment Rules 18, 1, and 26 plagiarism is subject to disciplinary action and can

even result in exclusion from the University.

7.2. When and How to Reference As indicated in the section on plagiarism, above, everything that you put in your

assignment that is not your own creative idea or conclusion must be referenced. As a

general rule when in doubt, include a citation even if you have to search the literature

especially to find a particular reference that is applicable. If ever the reader of the paper

can read something that you have written and ask questions like: “Who says?” or “How

do you know that?” or “On what do you base that comment?” then what you have

written needs to be referenced. The following list contains a few examples of material

that must be referenced, but where students often erroneously omit those citations.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

72

• Commonly, a claim will be prefaced with something like “writers agree that …”.

The first thing your maker will say is “which writers”, “who are they”. If you use

an attribution such as “writers agree” you must include at least one or two

references. So your claim might read: “writers, such as (reference; reference), agree

that …”.

• If you think of a common concept that you want to include in your paper, such as

motivated staff are more productive, it must be referenced even though you

intuitively thought of it and didn’t actually read about it in the course of your

research. This is because it is a concept that is not based on your own original

creative thought and so, if you use it, you will have to search the literature for some

authority figure who has already said it. You can be assured that if you search, you

will find it there.

• Similarly, referencing is often erroneously omitted from very familiar material such

as a discussion on promotional issues or motivation. No matter how familiar the

topic is, in an academic assignment every idea and every concept must be

referenced. It is true that there is a concept known as assumed knowledge which

refers to information that is commonly known and rarely in dispute, as such it does

not need a reference. Assumed knowledge includes such things as the sun rises in

the east, and humans need fresh air, water, and food to survive. However, when

writing an assignment you are using your references, in part, to demonstrate that you

are not just making intuitive assumptions; that you know who the authority figures

are on whom your ideas are based; and you have read widely. So you might even

choose to reference what is considered to be common, or assumed knowledge.

Once again, when in doubt, include a reference.

• All tables, or figures, or graphs that are not original but have come from another

source must be referenced, complete with a page number, whether they are in the

body of the paper or in the appendices.

• It is not sufficient to say that the information in your case study has come from

numerous brochures, leaflets, reports and interviews with staff and management.

They all must be individually referenced if they are used. As an example, if you

take information about the company from their annual report then the annual report

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

73

must be cited against that piece of information and then listed in the reference list.

Likewise, if you get some figures about the company from a publicity leaflet, then

that leaflet must be cited and listed in the reference list. Yet again, if you discuss

some information that you obtained during an interview, the interviewee’s name

must be cited and listed in the reference list.

• With regard to citing interviewees: if for reasons of confidentiality the interviewee

does not want to be named, cite the comment as (anonymous, 1997) or (interviewee

A, 1997; or interviewee B, 1997) and include a footnote saying why you have done

this.

The sub-section headed “Substantiation”, in Chapter 5.1, is also related to this issue of

when to reference. I suggest that you turn back and review that piece before

proceeding.

Remember to continually ask yourself: ‘Have I answered the “says who?” question.

7.2.1. Referencing Systems: The two main forms of referencing are the footnote or

endnote form, and the author-date method, sometimes called the Harvard system.

Nevertheless, within these two forms there are literally hundreds of variations as

evidenced by the claim that the “End Note 2 plus” referencing software package

“includes more than 300 styles” (Nile, 1997: 135). Unless specifically instructed to do

so, you are not to use an endnote or footnoting reference system in your UQ Business

School assignments. Unless otherwise instructed, the UQ Business School prefers that

you use the Academy of Management form of author-date reference style shown

throughout this handbook, although the author-date APA (American Psychological

Association) style is also quite acceptable. Both of these styles are included on the later

versions of the End Note referencing software package.

When using the recommended author-date referencing style, footnotes or endnotes can

also be used sparingly to expand points within the text.

Following is a list of the most common times when you will reference your work. The

in-text citation examples all follow the above Academy of Management author-date

style. Note the placement of commas, semi-colons, colons, full stops, and so on. Also,

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

74

whenever possible, you need to include the page numbers in the citation, especially if

you are using a direct quote.

Direct quotation from a single author from any source – book, journal, newspaper:

• Ohmae (1990: 248) states that “Boeing has become the global champion of

commercial aircraft”.

• “Boeing has become the global champion of commercial aircraft” (Ohmae, 1990:

248).

Direct quote from an interview:

• “We [Legal and General] believe that companies who are environmentally sensitive

have indications of being forward looking companies (Fallick, 1995).

See 7.4 for an example of how this citation will appear in the reference list.

Combined paraphrase and direct quote from the Internet:

• Ericsson, with 70,000 employees in over 100 countries have stated that one of their

visions “is the learning organisation, where learning is an integrated part of the daily

work” (Ericsson, 1997).

See chapter 7.4 for an example of how this citation will appear in the reference list.

Remember, there is no guarantee that theoretical information on the Internet is accurate

or credible. And if you do include a reference from the Internet save a hardcopy of the

information you are citing, because if you or your lecturer want to check on the

reference at a later stage, it might have been removed by the time you go back there.

Paraphrasing:

• To be successful the learning organisation must be integrated into the organisation’s

culture (Garvin, 1993: 81).

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

75

Citing three or more authors for the one paper: Note that the names appear in the

order that they appear on the book title page, or the paper. They are not put into

alphabetical order. For the first citation, insert the names of all of the authors:

• Tichy, Fombrun and Devanna (1982) or (Tichy, Fombrun & Devanna,1982)

For the second and subsequent citations, you only need mention the name of the first

author followed by et al. – et al. means and others:

• Tichy et al. (1982) or (Tichy et al., 1982)

A paraphrase when a number of different authors, in different papers or books,

have said the same thing. Cite the names in alphabetical order separated by a semi-

colon.

• A major component of any business strategy is the management of their human

resources (Armstrong, 1992: 53-57; Purcell, 1995: 63; Rothwell, 1995: 167).

When different authors have the same last name include their initials for

differentiation in the in-text citation:

• It is a manager’s responsibility to rethink their business strategy on a regular basis

(Smith, P.T., 1994: 24).

• Global companies must be concerned with universal values (Smith, A.D, 1989:

319).

When the one sentence is made up of two or more ideas from different authors:

Note that each citation is placed at the end of the concept to which it refers.

• A major human resource challenge of the multinational company is international

placements (Brett & Stroh, 1995: 412) and the “seven Cs of international human

resources management” as described by Derek Torrington (1994: 106).

Secondary source:

Let’s say that you are reading a paper by, as an example, Johnson (1999). And Johnson

has cited the work of another author, say Parker (1996). If you also want to cite

Parker’s work, you can do one of two things. (1) You can follow the bibliographic

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

76

chain by looking up Parker’s bibliographic details in Johnson’s reference list, and then

go to the library and see if you can find the original paper by Parker; read it; find the

information that you want; and then cite that original paper. You too then put Parker’s

bibliographic details in your reference list. That is known as going to the original

source. Alternatively, (2) you can just extract Parker’s ideas from Johnson’s paper and

use the ideas that way, without ever viewing Parker’s original document. Using

Johnson’s paper instead of going to the original Parker paper is known as using a

secondary source of Parker’s ideas.

There is some discussion about the manner in which secondary sources should be cited

and referenced. Research students are generally advised not to use secondary sources.

Instead, they are expected to seek out the original source and read and reference that.

Using a few secondary sources at undergraduate level and for course-work students,

however, is normally acceptable, although some lecturers might still expect you to

search out the original primary source, or publication. As I keep on saying, when in

doubt, check it out – ask your lecturer or tutor. Nonetheless, when using a secondary

source it is commonly advised that you acknowledge that you have done so. It is true

that the option exists of using a secondary source without acknowledging that you have

done so, by just copying the citation from the secondary publication and also copying

the bibliographic details from the reference list of that secondary source. However,

those who do that, need to consider a number of issues.

1. First of all, there is the ethical issue of inferring that you have done the added

research and have, in fact, read a publication that you have not read at all.

Therefore, inferring that your knowledge base is broader than it actually is.

2. If the ethical argument is not persuasive to you, then this second issue, related to

self-interest, might be more of a concern. What if Johnson (1999) has taken Parker

out of context, or totally misinterpreted Parker’s message. This is not an uncommon

thing to see in literature that is well known to a reader. So, assuming that Johnson

has misinterpreted Parker’s piece, and you are going to cite Parker directly from

Johnson’s paper. If you do not acknowledge that you have used the secondary

source, the reader, or marker, might know the literature well enough to realise that,

by falling into the same trap as Johnson, you have;

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

77

(a) not gone to the original Parker paper at all, but are wanting the marking to

believe that you have – an arguably unethical act; or

(b) you have gone to the original source and you have not understood the

information well enough and so have made the same mistake, out of ignorance, as

Johnson did. Either way, it does not reflect well on you.

Consequently, by acknowledging that you are using a secondary source you are

protecting yourself by saying, in essence, this is what Parker said as it has been

interpreted by Johnson, and I am going to take Johnson’s word that it is a correct

interpretation.

3. A third reason for acknowledging that you are using a secondary source is for

bibliographic chain research purposes. Say I read your paper and I really love

Parker’s idea. But instead of it being Parker (1996), it is Parker (1956). You have

not acknowledged that you have used a secondary source. You have just cited and

referenced Parker as an original source. I start a search for the original Parker paper

so that I can read more about the topic. As the paper is getting on to 50 years old,

the document is not available. I have now come to a dead end. At this point I might

become very suspicious at your ability to access the document, but I’ll set that aside.

If you had referenced the document as a secondary source, then I could go to the

easily accessible Johnson paper and find out a lot more about what must be a similar

topic to that on which Parker had originally written. I am also able to use Johnson’s

reference list to further my research on that topic, and so the bibliographic chain can

continue.

4. Finally, as page numbers should be included in your in-text citation, after the year of

publication, especially if you are using a direct quotation, it is not always possible to

know the page number if you are not acknowledging the use of a secondary source.

Remember too, that your marker will frequently check the references and so will know

if you have attempted to do something unethical. Therefore, unless your lecturer

specifically says that you are not required to acknowledge secondary sources, you are

advised to do so.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

78

So, how do we cite and reference these secondary sources?

• Organisations are concentrating more on “the attitudinal and behavioural

characteristics of employees” (Parker, 1996, as cited by Johnson, 1999: 216). or

• According to Parker (1996, as cited by Johnson, 1999: 216) organisations are

concentrating more on “the attitudinal and behavioural characteristics of

employees”.

Then in the reference list, you just list Johnson’s bibliographic details. You do not

include Parker in the reference list because you did not read Parker’s work. You just

read Johnson’s interpretation of Parker’s work.

Personal communication:

This is similar to an interview however usually less formal.

As David Suzuki (1992: pers. comm.) said …

See chapter 7.4 for an example of how this citation will appear in the reference list.

An organisation with a long name as the stated author:

As an example: World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). This

is cited as:

• The Brundtland Report, Our Common Future (WCED, 1987) detailed in a simple

and yet dramatic way …

See chapter 7.4 .for an example of how this citation will appear in the reference list.

When no publication date is available cite as ‘nd’ for no date:

• The Officecare program has been designed to raise environmental awareness

amongst Australian office workers (Fuji Xerox, nd: 3)

See chapter 7.4 for an example of how this citation will appear in the reference list.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

79

A block quote is used when a direct quote is longer than three lines.

Note that the quote is single spaced, indented on both sides, and has no quotation marks.

See other examples in Chapter 5.1.

In the days of the Holy Roman Empire the Church, as the dominant institution in society, took major responsibility for the wellbeing of the whole. As business is the dominant institution in modern society; does it need to accept a similar responsibility? (Harman, 1993: 285).

When the beginning of the original sentence is omitted from the beginning of the block

quote this is indicated with three full stops [...], known as an ellipsis. Similarly, if you

end the block quote before the end of the sentence, then finish with an ellipsis to

indicate that the original text continued on.

As an example:

… companies will have to recognise that no one part of their business operates independently. It is this recognition that will be necessary if companies are to find new ways to compete … (Taylor, 1992: 670).

If an entire section is based on the one source you can footnote this fact by stating:

• Unless otherwise stated, this section is based on Smith (1996: 24-27).

An example of this can be seen in Chapter 8 of this handbook, which is based on Cloake &

Noad (nd).

This form of referencing, however, should be done very sparingly indeed, and will

rarely be appropriate in short, term-papers.

For a more detailed examination of referencing information, consult the Style Manual

for authors, editors and printers published by the Australian Government Printing

Service.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

80

7.3. Reference List versus Bibliography Whilst the terms reference list and bibliography are often used interchangeably they do

refer to different forms of lists and it is important to know the difference.

A Bibliography is the name given to a complete, alphabetical list of all the material you

have consulted in the preparation and writing of your assignment, whether you have

quoted the material or not (AGPS, 1994: 145; Marshall & Rowland, 1981: 180).

A Reference List is a complete list, in alphabetical order, only of the material actually

cited in the assignment (AGPS, 1994: 145).

In most cases, university assignments only use a reference list. The marker only wants

to see the actual references you have cited in your paper, not a list of everything you

have read on the topic. So, even if your question sheet states that you are to include a

bibliography, I strongly suggest that you check with your lecturer that they do in fact

want a bibliography and not a reference list. Generally, you will find that if they have

used the term bibliography, they have done so unthinkingly in a generic sense.

7.4. Reference List Format If the recommended Academy of Management, author-date in-text citation method is

used, the corresponding Academy of Management format, as detailed below, should

also be used for your reference list, unless otherwise instructed.

• Use single line spacing with a double line of space between references.

• Do not number the references or use dot points at the beginning of the reference.

• Indent the second and subsequent lines of the reference by one tab space.

• All references must be listed in alphabetical order by the author’s last name.

• Do not make a series of separate lists for journals, books, interviews and so on.

Combine all references in the one alphabetical list.

• When listing more than one reference by the same author list in date order.

• When listing more than one reference by the same author published in the same

year, differentiate by adding a,b,c, and so on after the year. To illustrate: 1997a;

1997b; 1997c.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

81

• All book titles and the titles of journals are to be either underlined or typed in bold

italics.

• All titles of journal articles are to be typed in normal font without any underlining.

• References must include the names of all listed authors, in the order in which they

appear in the publication.

• Books must include the names of all the authors, the year of publication, the book

title, the city of publication, and the publisher’s name.

• Following are two examples of how to reference the same book. The first example

has the title underlined. Prior to computers and the ease of using italics, all titles

were underlined. If for some reason you are unable to use italics, then the underline

method is normally acceptable. However, as previously stated, the UQ Business

School prefers that you follow the Academy of Management style of bold italics for

book and journal titles, as demonstrated in the second example. After this first

example, all further examples will use the Academy of Management Journal bold

italics style of writing titles.

Robbins, S.P., Bergman, R., & Stagg. I. 1997. Management. Sydney: Prentice Hall. Robbins, S.P., Bergman, R., & Stagg, I. 1997. Management. Sydney: Prentice Hall.

• A paper from an edited collection should be referenced as follows:

Nadler, D.A. & Tushman, M.L. 1992. Design organizations that have good fit: A

framework for understanding new architectures. In D.A. Nadler, M.S. Gerstein & R.B. Shaw (Eds.), Organizational architecture: Designs for changing organizations: 39-56. New York: Jossy-Bass Management Series.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

82

• All journal articles must include the names of all the authors, the year of

publication, the title of the article, the title of the journal, the volume number, issue

number if appropriate, and page numbers of the complete article.

Elliott, P. 1996. Power-changing people’s performance. Training and Development,

50 (12): 46–49 Schuler, R.S. & Jackson, S.E. 1987. Linking competitive strategies with human

resource management practices. Academy of Management Executive 1 (3): 207– 219

• Newspaper articles should be referenced in a similar manner to a journal with the

name of the journalist first, the year of publication, the heading of the article, name

of the newspaper, date of publication, and page on which the article appeared.

O’Brien, N. 1995. Director jailed over toxic waste dumping. The Australian

March 10: 3

• If the newspaper, magazine or journal article does not have the journalist’s by-line

then lead the reference with the name of the paper. The second example, below,

would be followed if the article has no journalist’s by-line and no article title.

Economist, The. 1994. Regulate us please. The Economist. January 8: 330: 65 Australian, The. 1997. July 7: 35

• The citation in the reference list must correspond with that in the paper. Therefore,

if an abbreviation or acronym has been used in the in-text citation, as an example,

(WCED, 1987: 213), then for consistency and to keep the reference list in

alphabetical order reference as follows:

WCED (World Commission on Environment and Development). 1987. Our common

future. The Brundtland Report. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

83

• Once again, the citation in the reference list must correspond with the in-text

citation. As a result, a personal communication reference would be listed as

follows:

Suzuki, D. 1992. Personal communication. May 21. Brisbane.

• When older books have been reprinted both the reprint year, as cited in your

assignment, and the original publication date put in square brackets should appear in

the reference list. All details, other than the original year, will relate to the reprint

edition from which your citation came.

Leopold, A. 1991 [1949]. A sand county almanac. New York: Ballantine Books.

• Following are a range of various Parliamentary and Government Publication

references that do not have specific authors. These examples have been adapted

from the Department of Government Essay Guide (Chenoweth & Tomkins, 1997:

14).

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). 1995. The labour force, Australia, June 1995.

Cat. No. 6203.0. Canberra: ABS. Australia, House of Representatives. 1962. Votes and proceedings 1: 639. Australia, House of Representatives. 1971. Debates, no. 10:219. Australia, Parliament. 1976. Department of Foreign Affairs Annual Report 1975.

parliamentary paper 142, Canberra. Australia, Senate. 1970. Journals, no.123:718. Commission of Inquiry into Poverty. 1975. Law and poverty in Australia. Second

Main Report (Prof. R. Sackville, Commissioner). Canberra: AGSP. Department of Foreign Affairs. 1975. Annual Report 1975. Canberra: AGPS.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

84

• All Internet sources must be referenced in a similar manner to newspaper articles

with the Internet site included, and the date stated on the site if it is there, plus the

date you visited the site. Remember to always keep a hard copy of any information

taken from a web site – see Chapter 4.3.1.

Ericsson. 1997. Using WWW within a world wide company to create a ‘learning

organisation’. http://tecfa.unige.ch/edu-ws95/contribution/andersson.hmtl February, 1997. Visited, April 25, 1997.

A more detailed list of suggested forms of Internet referencing can be found at the

following sites.

http://www.stedwards.edu/cfpages/stoll/internet.htm (Page, 1995).

http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/FARQ/netciteFARQ.html

• A publicity leaflet, brochure, or any publication without a publication date or

details.

Fuji Xerox. nd. Officecare resource saver guide. Officecare promotional booklet.

Fuji Xerox, Australia.

• Reference a video tape as follows. Note that as the tape has also been produced by

Fuji Xerox and has no stated production date, ‘nd’ is used again however the letter

‘a’ has been included to differentiate this reference from the previous reference.

Fuji Xerox. nd.a. Putting the future first. Environmental report on video tape. Fuji

Xerox, Australia.

• Interviews should include the name of the interviewee, their position, the company

they represent, and the date of the interview.

Fallick, L. 1995. Assistant Director of Investment Services, Legal and General. Phone

interview. February 28.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

85

For an example of a complete reference list, see the reference list at the end of this

handbook.

In this chapter, the notion of how, when, and why to reference has been addressed.

Three key points to remember when referencing are: (1) is your referencing style

consistent; (2) does your in-text citation correspond with the reference in the reference

list; and (3) are the details in your reference list sufficient to enable the referenced

publication to be located by someone unfamiliar with the topic.

8. EDITING YOUR ASSIGNMENT3

After you have researched and written your assignment and completed the reference list,

there is still one process to go before your paper is ready for submission. It is a major

process, which all too often is thought of as a minor add-on that will only take a few

extra minutes – an hour or two at best. Yet, this process is one of the most deceptive

processes with regard to time. The process is editing – your paper must be edited.

To many, meticulous editing seems like a tedious and unnecessary act. However, the

way you present your paper, which includes the care you have taken in editing the

paper, is a reflection of who you are. If you are putting in a submission for a major job,

and the decision gets down to two people/organisations – you and another tenderer.

Your submissions are equal in all respects, except that your submission is badly edited,

and the other is well edited. Who do you think will get the job? Most likely, the other

organisation. The rationale being that if you are happy to submit a sloppy tender

document paper, then there is a risk that your on-site working performance will also be

sloppy. Editing is another of those academic hoops that you have to get used to.

And so you must allow time to edit your paper, not once, but several times. This is

because there are many aspects of your paper that need to be checked before your

assignment is submitted, and it is impossible to focus on all of these things with the one

read-through. Cloake and Noad (nd:40-43) suggest that you edit the paper four times

starting with a macro focus on issues such as content and evidence, and then move

3 Unless otherwise stated, the material in this section on editing is based on Cloake and Noad (nd: 40-43)

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

86

logically down to a micro focus on aspects such as spelling and punctuation. However,

by beginning with a general, overall edit the time taken to do the subsequent, more

specific edits may be reduced. As such, the process described below will consist of five

edits. And whether you do the five edits as five separate processes, or combine several

edits is up to you. The main thing is that all editing processes listed are completed

before the submission of your paper. And that takes time.

The importance of allowing sufficient time to edit properly cannot be stressed strongly

enough. For an average 2500 word term paper you will need to allow approximately 9-

15 hours to complete the editing process. So if you are still typing your paper at 4 am to

meet a 9 am deadline the same day, you’re not going to make it. This is why good time

management is vital.

Editing time is just as much a part of the assignment writing process as is your research.

Consequently, if you are consciously well aware of what needs to be done then you can

add that time into your assignment writing schedule. In this section, an overview of the

different editing tasks has been presented as five separate processes. The approximate

times given for each edit are based on an average term paper that is about 2000-2500

words in length.

Edit Number 1

After you are satisfied that there is nothing more you need do to your paper print up that

first draft. Then read through the paper out aloud. This first read-through is to correct

anything obvious. Therefore, as you read aloud through your paper mark any obvious

mistakes in grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, sentence transitions, paragraph

and section sequencing, and anything else that is prominent. Having marked the

obvious mistakes make the changes required and print up a new draft and start on edit

number 2.

Edit Number 2

In your second edit you should check for the following:

• Have I answered the question asked? Go through the original question, and any

supplementary information, given to you by your lecturer. Study it. And go

through the question piece by piece checking that you have included all of the

information required.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

87

• Content, as it affects your argument and your choice of evidence. You may need to

add or delete evidence at this point.

• Balance: Check to ensure that the presentation of your argument is not one sided.

Do you have arguments both for and against your thesis? Have you overcome the

objections? Have you supported all arguments with evidence?

• Logical Order: Check that the sections and main points are in a logical order so

that the arguments flow.

• Have you answered the lecturer’s question? You must check that all the question

requirements and general instructions have been fulfilled. Have you critically

analysed, or discussed, or applied the theory, or whatever you are required to do?

Have you written the appropriate number of words for each aspect of the writing

task? Have the course objectives been taken into account along with any

appropriate tips or hints that were given out in lectures or tutorials?

• Accuracy of the references: Check that all of your references are complete and

have the correct information in terms of date and page. Are your references

relevant to the subject and your argument? Have you included something from your

assigned textbook, if appropriate?

The combined time to complete the first and second edit will be about 5-10 hours.

However, if you need to do any major re-writing or research new evidence it could even

take longer.

Edit Number 3

For this edit, allow 2-3 hours correction time plus the time it takes to organise and have

someone else read the paper.

• Topic Sentence: Check that each paragraph has a topic sentence by asking the

question: ‘What is the point of this paragraph and how does it fit into the writing

task?’

• Re-arrange Paragraphs: Where necessary rearrange your paragraphs so that they

are logical in their presentation.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

88

• Flagging: Have you lead the reader through the paper by continually telling them

what you are doing next and why you might have included or excluded certain

material but not other information. This includes mini introductions and

conclusions at the beginning and end of sections and, where appropriate, sub-

sections.

• Readability: Whilst this is especially important for students whose first language

is not English, it nevertheless applies to everyone. You may wish to get someone

else to read your work and bracket the sentences that don’t make sense to them –

either grammatically or logically. You need to plan the appropriate amount of time

for this; and give your reader clear directions of what you want them to do – what

you want them to look for. Choose a good reader and chances are that the sentences

they have trouble with would also be the ones that concern the marker. Correct

these unclear sentences by adding examples and explanations or re-wording for

clarity.

• Printing: If you are not going to print up the paper yourself make arrangements, or

bookings, if necessary.

Edit Number 4

Allow about 2 hours for this edit.

• Transition Words: Check the use and appropriateness of transitions words like:

afterwards, furthermore, in addition, however, nevertheless, therefore, and so on.

• Links: Check that whenever possible, but as appropriate, paragraphs are linked one

to another. Sometimes these links can be as simple as a good transition word. Other

times it might require an entire sentence. Check that sections are also linked and

that the entire paper is tied together by continually linking back to your aim or

theme.

• Strengthen verbs where appropriate by replacing passive voice with active voice.

• Sentences: Check that the topic sentences are short and to the point, whilst

sentences containing evidence are longer.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

89

• Jargon and ‘Buzz’ Words: Be careful of the over use, and the inappropriate use, of

jargon, ’buzz’ words or colloquialisms. Any special effect is destroyed with

overuse.

• Creative Sentence Beginnings: There is nothing worse than to read a paper where

every paragraph over a page or two, or even more, begins with: According to…”

According to…”. Or “This report…”; “This report …”. Try to start every

paragraph and as many sentences as possible on any one page with a different

beginning.

• Generalisations and Ambiguities: Check the paper for any gross generalisations or

ambiguities.

• Check Punctuation.

Edit Number 5

Allow approximately 1-2 hours for this final edit.

• Vocabulary: Check the dictionary for the precise use of vocabulary. Look for any

word that might be out of place.

• Formatting of Reference List: Ensure that the reference list has been properly

formatted.

• Visual Attractiveness: Check the layout and format of your paper, the margins,

double line spacing, sections, headings, consistency throughout, and that there are

no orphaned headings, and so on.

• Special Instructions: Check your assignment details to make sure that any specific

presentation instructions have been adhered to.

• Spell Check your paper.

• Do a Word Count

• Checklist Chapter 5 – Style: Go back to chapter 5 in this booklet and use that

chapter as a final, overall checklist.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

90

Final Read-Through

Having completed everything, if it is at all possible, set your paper aside for about a

week and then come back to it for another read-through. Unfortunately, I can almost

guarantee that when you come back to the paper you will find a whole range of mistakes

that you completely overlooked with all the previous edits. Obviously, if you have to

produce thirteen term papers in thirteen weeks this might be a luxury that you cannot

afford. However, if the paper you are writing is very important, or a dissertation, or

thesis, setting your paper aside for a day or two between the minor edits and at least a

week or more after the final edit is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.

Having made the final corrections and completed a final read-through:

you can now click on print for the last time

– and celebrate!

☺

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

91

9. CONCLUSION

This handbook had been designed to guide you through your assignment writing

experience, step-by-step. To that end, I have described some processes, used examples

where possible, and added little tips that have come my way, both as a marker of

assignments, and as a student. The style, structure, and format of the book reflects, as

much as possible, the style, structure, and format suggested throughout the book.

I recommend that you continue to review the various sections, as required, and integrate

the suggestions into your assignments. I can assure you that the more practice that you

get at writing assignments, the easier it all becomes. Those who are consistently

awarded high grades, are those who have discovered the key to assignment writing at

university level. They have locked into a format that works for them. They have good

introductions and conclusions throughout, and they have some good analyses in the

middle. Writing university assignments, no matter what subject, is all about jumping

through the hoops. Once you work out a workable formular, and unless your lecturer

asks you to do otherwise, the UQ Business School recommends that you use the

formulas outlined in this handbook, you can then use it over and over and over again, in

all subjects. Just change the content, and adjust what you are doing to suit the length,

but the process and basic structures are the same. Also, once you are comfortable with a

generic process and format, then you can pay more attention to gaining a deeper

understanding of the content of whatever subject you are learning about.

I wish you all the best as you travel on your academic journey in these exciting and

challenging times.

*****

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

92

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

93

10. APPENDICES

Appendix 10.1 – Summary of Main Recommendations R1. It is recommended that you attend some of the many assignment writing skills and

research skills development courses that are regularly held by different service

departments throughout the university (s.1.).

R2. It is recommended that the formats presented in this handbook be used for UQ

Business School assignments, unless otherwise instructed (s.1).

R3. It is recommended that at the beginning of your university studies you write a list

of all the reasons that you have for doing a university degree and the benefits that will

come to you as a result of you completing your degree (s.2.1.)

R.4. It is recommended that you prepare an Assignment Chart and stick to it. (s 2.2.)

R.5. It is recommended that you hold onto your completed assignments until the due

date, as quite often lecturers will continue to give added pieces of information on the

assignment up to the lecture before the due date (s 2.2.).

R.6. It is recommended that the recommendation be typed in bold type, and, if

appropriate, written on its own as a self-contained, single sentence paragraph which

contains the words “It is recommended that …” or “Therefore, it is recommended that

…” (s 3.1.7.).

R.7. It is strongly recommended that you attend as many of the [library’s research

skills] courses as possible (s. 4.2).

R.8. It is recommended that if you start to fall asleep reading – take a break (s.4.3.).

R.9. It is strongly recommended that you read through this chapter [5.1] before you

submit every assignment (s.5.1.).

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

94

Appendix 10.2 – Assignment Chart This chart is a time management tool to help you plan your semester to ensure that all

assignments can be completed on time. Note: The assignments listed below for the

various subjects are purely to demonstrate how to use the chart and do not necessarily

reflect the assignments set for those subjects.

1. As soon as you have been notified of the assignments required for each subject list

them, complete with their due date, word length and format as follows:

MGMT 7000 Essay 2000 15% Mon. 3rd March. Essay 1500 15% Mon. 24th March

Report 5000 35% Mon. 9th May Report 5000 35% Wed. 11th June

MGMT 7200 Essay 1500 10% Tues. 8th April Report 3000 40% Thurs. 29th May

Exam 50% June MGMT 7700 Report 5000 50% Thurs. 29th May

Exam 50% June MGMT 7201 Essay 2000 20% Tues. 18th March

Review 800 10% Tues. 8th April Report 5000 70% Tues. 3rd June

2. Transpose the above assignment details onto a table and allocate the dates that you

will work on each assignment. In the table below you will note that the smaller

assignments with a smaller % weighting have been allocated between 6 – 8 days to

complete, whilst the major assignments due later in the semester, with a heavier %

weighting, have been allocated approximately 2 weeks. You will also note that on

each occasion, the day of the week has been included. This is important because it

is easier to keep track of time when the date is supported by a conscious awareness

of the actual day of the week. Also, being aware of the day of the week makes it

easier to focus on the extra time you will have due to weekends, days off work, or

public holidays.

3. Finally, you must also take into account that during each period of time that you

have allocated to writing your assignments you will also be required to keep up with

your weekly readings for your other subjects and your day-to-day life activities.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

95

Assignment Chart

Allocation Date Assignment Details Due Date Sat. 1st March - - Sun. 9th March

MGMT 7000 – Essay – 2000w – 15%

Mon. 10th March

Mon. 10th March - - Sun. 16th March

MGMT 7201 – Essay – 2000w – 20%

Tues. 18th March

Mon. 17th March - - Sun. 23rd March

MGMT 7000 – Essay – 1500w – 15%

Mon. 24th March

Mon. 24th March - - Sat. 29th March

MGMT 7200 – Essay – 1500w – 10%

Tues. 8th April

Sun. 30th March - - Fri. 4th April

MGMT 7201 – Book Review – 800w – 10%

Tues. 8th April

Sat. 5th April - - Fri. 18th April

MGMT 7000 – Report – 000w – 35%

Fri. 9th May

Sat. 19th April - - Fri. 2nd May

MGMT 7700 – Report– 5000w – 50%

Thurs. 29th May

Sat. 3rd May - - Wed. 14th May

MGMT 7200 – Report– 3000w– 40%

Thurs. 29th May

Thurs. 15th May - - Fri. 30th May

MGMT 7201 – Report – 5000w– 70%

Tues. 3rd June

Sat. 31st May - - Tues. 10th June

MGMT 7000 – Report – 5000w– 35%

Wed. 11th June

To Be Set

MGMT 7200 – EXAM – 50%

MGMT 7700 – EXAM – 50%

June Exam Period

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

96

Appendix 10.3 – Glossary of Directive Words Analyse Show the essence of something, by breaking it down into its

component parts, and then examining each part in detail.

Argue Present the case for and against a particular proposition.

Comment Make critical observations which have been backed up by

evidence.

Compare Look for the similarities and the differences between

propositions.

Contrast Similar to ‘compare’ but with a concentration on the differences.

Critical Analysis Break a proposition into its component parts. Examine each part

in detail presenting a range of opinions both for and against the

original proposition. An analysis of this examination will lead

you to a conclusion, the rationale of which is supported by

evidence.

Criticise Give your judgement about the merits and detractions of a theory

or opinion. Your judgement must be supported by a discussion

of the evidence.

Define Give the precise meaning of a word or phrase. Show that the

distinctions implied in the definition are necessary.

Describe Give a detailed or graphic account without any explanation or

criticism.

Diagram Present an explanation in table or figure form.

Discuss Examine by argument giving reasons for and against which lead

to a conclusion.

Enumerate List or specify and describe, usually in numerical order.

Evaluate Present an appraisal of the worth of something, in the context of

its apparent truth and utility. Include your personal opinion,

however, support that opinion with evidence.

Evidence Material used to support an argument including theory from the

academic literature; data such as statistics, graphs, qualitative and

quantitative survey results; examples from case studies. Different

disciplines might require different forms of evidence.

Examine Present in depth and investigate the implications.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

97

Explain Clarify, interpret and account for in detail.

Illustrate Explain and make clear by the use of concrete examples, or by

the use of a figure or diagram.

Interpret Explain the meaning of something usually giving your own

opinion and a rationale for that opinion.

Justify Show adequate evidence for your position, conclusions,

decisions, and/or judgements.

List Give an itemised series or tabulation. Be concise.

Outline Give the main features or general principles of a subject, omitting

minor details, and emphasising the structure and relationships.

Prove Demonstrate truth or falsity by presenting relevant evidence.

Relate Describe how things are connected to each other and to what

extent they are alike or affect each other.

Review Survey the topic, examining the subject critically.

State Express points fully and critically.

Summarise Present a concise account of the main points, omitting details and

examples.

Trace Identify and describe the development or history of a topic from

some point or origin.

Adapted from Harry Maddox, 1967, How to Study as presented in Marshall and Rowland (1981: 61), and Cloak and Noad (ND: 17-18).

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

98

Appendix 10.4 – List of Common Mistakes I am reluctant to use the work mistake, however, (1) if you have access to a resource

such as this; and (2) you are aware that it demonstrates clearly what is expected of you

with regard to the writing of your assignments; and (3) for whatever reason you choose

not to follow the guidelines; and (4) as a result your grades suffer – I guess you have

made a mistake. Despite the fact that all UQ Business School students have access to

this handbook, only a relatively small percentage of students follow the writing

guidelines contained in the book. I can only assume that the students who don’t follow

the guidelines have either not bothered to read the handbook, and or do not realise the

importance of developing their writing skills. Needless to say, it is the students who do

follow the guidelines, and continue to develop their writing skills, who continually

receive high grades. Following is a brief list of the common mistakes that markers

continually see in student’s papers, despite them having a copy of these guidelines.

• In a large percentage of papers the basic mechanics of style are not followed; font

size, line spacing, page numbering, cover sheets, et cetera – see Chapter 5.

• Papers have not been edited carefully enough. You must read your papers out aloud

when editing – see Chapter 8.

• Students don’t seem to understand the importance of referencing and can suffer

significant penalties as a result – see Chapter 7. Also see the item on

“Substantiation” – Chapter 5.1

• This point might seem very hard to believe. I know I constantly find it very hard to

believe, but it is one of the most common mistakes, which results in very poor

grades no matter how much work and effort the student has put into the assignment.

Students do not address the specific aspects of the question asked. Even when

lecturers specifically prepare handouts explaining exactly what is required; not even

these sheets are followed – see Chapter 4.1 – 4.2.

• Brief introductions are rarely used in sections and sub-sections to flag your

intentions – let the read know what is ahead – see Chapter 5.1.

• Brief conclusions are rarely used in sections and sub-sections to tie your arguments

together and then link to the next section – see Chapter 5.1.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

99

• The level of integration of theory with theory, or the theory with the practical, is

frequently very poor. It takes practice to integrate material well. But practice

means at least having a go – see Chapter 6.2.

• More often than not, recommendations are merely a wish-list and are not connected

to the arguments in the body of your report – see Chapter 4.2.

• By far the most concerning aspect of most papers is the lack of critical analysis.

There is a big difference between descriptive writing, and analysis or critical

analysis. Whilst some description is always required, at university level, generally

speaking it is your ability to critically analyse that will attract the greatest marks.

This is also a skill that will develop with practice – see Chapter 6.

As you can see, all of these very common mistakes are discussed in some detail in this

handbook. I find it fascinating that students know that this handbook is normally used

as a guide by the markers of their papers, and yet even very basic things such as font

size and other fundamental presentation requirements are not adhered to.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

100

Appendix 10.5 – Further Reading In addition to the works cited in the reference list, the following books might be useful

in improving your study, communication, and assignment writing skills. However,

remember that suggested writing styles will differ from author to author. Therefore,

unless otherwise instructed, when writing assignments for the UQ Business School the

style and methods recommended in this Assignment Writing Handbook are to be used.

Academic Resources Corporation. 1987. Effective Study Strategies. Video recording (50 min). Hawthorne: Academic Resources Corporation.

Ballard, B., & Clanchy, J. 1984. Study abroad: A manual for Asian students.

Kuala Lumpur: Longman.

Barnet, S., & Bedau, H. 1987. Current issues and enduring questions: Methods and models of argument from Plato to the present. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Bell, A.H., & Smith, D.M. 1999. Management communication. Brisbane: John

Wiley & Sons, Inc. Betts, K., & Seitz A. 1986. Writing essays in the social sciences. Melbourne: Nelson. Clanchy, J., & Ballard, B. 1981. Essay writing for students: A guide for arts and

social science students. Melbourne: Cheshire Longman. Dwyer, J. 1999. Communication in business: Strategies and skills. Sydney: Prentice

Hall. McLaren, M., & Locker, K.O. 1995. Business and administrative communication.

1st Australasian Edition. Sydney: Irwin. Ober, S. 2001. Contemporary business communication (4th ed.). Boston: Houghton

Mifflin Company. Osland, D., Boyd, D., McKenna, W., & Salusinszky, I. 1991. Writing in Australia.

Marrickville: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Group. Roberts, J. 1985. Successful submission writing: … Projects development and

management of change. Melbourne: Information Australia – Margret Gee Media Group.

Stanton, H. 1991. Study skills. Audio cassette (60 min) and booklet. Presented by

Sandy McCutcheon. ABC Radio. Strunk Jr, W., & White, E.B. 1979. The Elements of Style (3rd ed.). London:

Collier Macmillan Publishers.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

101

The University of Queensland’s Student Support Services publish the following short

handouts. Preparing for Exams, Multiple Choice Exams, How to Study, Memory

Skills, Time Management, and Editing Checklist.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

102

Appendix 10.6 – General Information This section has been included as a brief resource directory of information and services

available that might be of assistance to you.

Further Reading: Appendix 10.5 contains a list of books on writing skills and related

topics that may be of further interest. In addition, you can discuss any issues relating to

your assignments with your lecturer, or tutor, or make use of the following services.

Study Skills: The University of Queensland Student Support Services offers an

extensive range of workshops, support groups, and individual sessions to help you with

your exams and assignments. Whilst they cannot do the work for you, they will tell you

if you are on the right track. Phone 3365 1704 (St Lucia Campus); and 3381 1011

(Ipswich Campus) for further information and appointments.

Research Material: For library advice related to Management topics ask to speak to the

library’s adviser for the UQ Business School at the Social Sciences and Humanities

Library.

Research and Library Skills: The Social Sciences and Humanities Library offers a

range of courses on research skills; researching on the Internet; and the use of library

facilities. Information can be obtained on the web < www.library.uq.edu.au/training/ >

or by contacting the reference desk (ph.3365. 6346).

Computer Skills: AskIT offers a large range of IT skills courses, including courses on

a variety of software packages. They are located on Level 2, Duhig building # 2

(SS&H library blg) St Lucia campus, or level 3, building 12, Ipswich campus. For

further information and the timetable of courses on offer phone 3365 8811 (St Lucia) or

3381 1293 (Ipswich) or go to the AskIT web site < http://askit.uq.edu.au >

Word-processors: There are a number of computer laboratories located around the

campus with personal computers available for students to use. At the St Lucia campus,

the AskIT Computer Labs are located in the Duhig building (blg 2). – the main student

lab is on level 2, however students can use the computers in the AskIT training rooms

when trainings are not in session. There is also a computer laboratory for the exclusive

use of management, economics, and commerce undergraduate and postgraduate

students. This is located in the Chamberlain Building – building 35. It is open between

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

103

the hours of 8am to 9pm. However, for 24 hour access you can obtain a pass from the

faculty’s Student Resource Centre, level 1 (ground floor), Colin Clark Building –

building 39. For students at the Ipswich campus computers are available for use in the

Library – building 1, and at the Self-Directed Learning Centre – building 12, level 3.

As none of the computer laboratories take bookings, you might have to join a queue

during semester times.

In addition to the do-it-yourself computer laboratories, the Student Union has an

extensive list of people who provide word-processing services. Contact the Student

Union Employment Officer (ph. 3377 2241) for details.

Non-Discriminatory Language Leaflets: “Gender inclusive language” (OGE, 2000)

and “A guide to using culturally inclusive language: Valuing diversity” (Vice

Chancellor’s committee against racism, 2001) are available free of charge from the

faculty’s Student Resource Centre, level 1 (ground floor), Colin Clark Building –

building 39.

UQ Business School Contact Details:

Phone: (07) 3365 6475

Fax: (07) 3365 6988

Email: enquiries@business.uq.edu.au

Web Site: http://www.business.uq.edu.au

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

104

Appendix 10.7 – Acknowledgments This handbook was based on a compilation of ideas and concepts adapted from

numerous sources including Chenoweth and Tomkins (1997); Summers and Pedersen

(1994); Cloake and Noad (nd); AGPS (1994); and the lecturers and tutors who provided

invaluable feedback on my own assignments over many years of academic study. In

addition, I would like to thank Dr Art Shulman, Dr. Bill Harley, and Dr Jessica

Kennedy for their time in reading the draft of this handbook and their suggestions and

comments; and Melissa Parker for formatting the final draft of the first edition.

In relation to this second edition: I thank Professor Victor Callan, Head of the UQ

Business School, for his continued support and funding of this project, and also for his

feedback after reading the final draft; Peter Noordink for his interest in the project and

for reading the final draft and his invaluable feedback; and Professor Neal Ashkanasy,

Dr Amanda Roan, and Malcolm Johnson for there suggestions and comments.

Whilst the Academy of Management referencing style is used throughout this book, the

Style manual for authors, editors, and printers (5th edition) published by the

Australian Government Publishing Service (AGPS, 1994) is the primary source of the

writing style guidelines. The AGPS (1994) publication should be referred to for a more

detailed exposition of appropriate writing styles in Australia.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

105

REFERENCE LIST

AGPS (Australian Government Publishing Service). 1994. Style manual for authors, editors and printers (5th ed.). Canberra: AGPS.

APA (American Psychological Association). 1994. Publication manual of the

American Psychological Association. Washington: APA Chenoweth, J & Tomkins M. 1997. Department of Government essay guide

Brisbane: The University of Queensland. Cloake, P., & Noad, P. nd. Academic writing skills. Unpublished workbook for the

Centre for Crime Policy and Public Safety, Faculty of Education. Mt Gravatt: Griffith University.

Environmental Audits and Risk Management. nd. Study skills booklet. Unpublished

booklet. Graduate School of Environmental Sciences and Engineering. Nathan: Griffith University.

Marshall, L. A., & Rowland F. 1981. A guide to learning independently. Melbourne:

Longman Cheshire. McCarthy, B. 1980. The 4Mat system: Teaching to learning styles with right/left

mode techniques. Arlington Heights: Excel. Niles & Associates, Inc. 1997. End Note 2 plus (3rd ed.). Berkley: Niles & Associates OGE (Office of Gender Equity). 1988. Gender inclusive language. Leaflet on gender

inclusive language. Office of Gender Equity. St Lucia: University of Queensland.

Page, M.E. 1995. A brief citation guide for Internet sources in history and the

humanities. http://www.stedwards.edu/cfpages/stoll/internet.htm October 30. Site visited July 1, 1997.

Robbins, S.P., Bergman, R & Stagg, I. 1997. Management. Sydney: Prentice Hall of

Australia. SARJ 007 (Seckold, S. Dowd, A-M. Burgess, R. & Curtis, J.) 2001. Student team

submission in the subject MGMT 3305 – Managing the Virtual Organisation. Ipswich Campus: UQ UQ Business School

Seech, Z. 1993. Writing philosophy papers. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing

Company. Summers, J., & Pedersen C. 1994. A guide to preparing and presenting written

assignments (2nd ed.), Department of Business Studies, Gatton College. Gatton: The University of Queensland.

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

106

Teitelbaum, H. 1982. How to write a thesis: A guide to the research paper. New

York: Prentice Hall Press. Vice Chancellor’s Committee Against Racism. 2001. A guide to using culturally

inclusive language: Valuing diversity. Leaflet on non-racist language. St Lucia: The University of Queensland.

VIP (Feuerherdt, C. Drane, D. McGreevy, G. & Opperman, R.) 2001. Student team

submission in the subject MGMT 3305 – Managing the Virtual Organisation. Ipswich Campus: UQ UQ Business School

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

107

For Your Notes & Lists of Directive Words

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

108

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

109

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

110

SOME KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER

I am here to learn NEW things

Use ‘the book’ as a writing role-model and checklist

STUDY the question – answer the question asked

Don’t read every word – I don’t have the time

Critically Analyse – I must not accept what is offered at face value

ALWAYS look for the opposing argument and then overcome it

Have I answered the “so what?” question

Recommendations not supported by a rationale and evidence are just a wish list

Have I answered the “says who?” question with a reference - reference EVERYTHING

When in doubt; Check it out! 2nd EDITION – ISBN 0-9578967-0-0

© Kashonia L. Carnegie, 1997, 2001