Purpose: This plan will form the basis for the Research Essay.
Value: 10%
Length and/or format: 1,500 words (+/- 10%) excluding references, headers and footers.
The Task: Students are required to submit a 1,000 word plan for the research essay. Your research
essay plan should be written in two main parts, as follows: This will include:
1. A plan of their research essay major essay
a. This section should describe the topic you have chosen and provide a brief
rationale for your choice; and
2. A brief annotated Bibliography of their selected peer reviewed academic journal
articles:
a. An annotated bibliography is a list of the sources that you used to research a
topic in preparation for writing your Research Essay.
b. The bibliography itself should present the full citation in Harvard Anglia
Referencing Style for each of eight journal articles references.
c. Each citation should be followed by a brief, accurate descriptive and evaluative
paragraph of 4-5 sentences (approx. 100 words), which can also include its
relevance to your Research Essay Topic.
d. An annotated bibliography should inform the reader by providing a clear
indication of each source's relevancy, accuracy and quality.
3. In conducting your bibliography:
a. You must choose the topic for your research paper from a list which will be
provided in Class. This assessment activity helps you to begin to develop the
central argument of your research essay. Please feel free to discuss your topic
with your lecturer if you are in any way unsure about its suitability.
b. These journal references must be your originally researched articles and MUST
NOT be taken from the Recommended Reading list in the MGT708 Subject
Guide.
c. The challenges in writing the bibliography are to identify the best possible set of
relevant journal articles, to read each article thoroughly and to identify the main
argument being presented. You must establish that the article makes an
important contribution to the topic, and write a concise and accurate summary of
its content. The skills required to complete these tasks are vitally important for
academic study and professional development.
d. You need to summarise five articles published from 2010 onwards and
submit the first page of each of them (and the abstract, if it is not on the front
page) with your paper. You will need to refer to databases in the library to
search for relevant material. During your tutorials in weeks 3 you will discuss
journal article research. You can also attend the library sessions run by the KOI
library staff. Do not under any circumstances use just an abstract obtained from
a web or CD ROM search – you must read the full text of every article that
you choose to use.
Purpose: This plan will form the basis for the Research Essay.