1. Returning to Study (Study Skills)
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

2. Returning to Study …. topics to be explored in induction
Library Resources – Library orientation
Critical Reading
Academic Writing
Academic Referencing
Using Feedback
Submitting Online – Turnitin orientation
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

3. All you need to do to pass is...
Undertake a certain number of assignments and projects within a timescale and to a set standard
Challenges:
You are asked questions to which you don’t know the answer
You are asked to write in a style that is more formal than normal
You are asked to do something called “referencing”
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

4. You are asked questions to which you don’t know the answer
Discuss the works of Shakespeare?
How to unblock a drain?
The best school in your town?
The theory of evolution?
Gravity?
Running a car retailer?
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

5. Finding answers to questions
Daily life
Existing knowledge – school, apprenticeship, other formal learning
Direct experiences – what we personally have done or seen
Indirect experiences – what other people have experienced
Group/community knowledge – ask your mates, colleagues, a policeman, Google, YouTube
When all else fails, read the instructions
Academic context ?
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

6. Finding answers to questions
Make sure you know what the source of belief/knowledge is
Don’t mix them up
There is no such thing as academic “belief”
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

7. School of Business and Economics Executive Education
Secondary information/sources – what other people have researched and written about
This will be your biggest source of answers for the first part of this programme
Reasons for obtaining and using:
help to define and refine the problem
secondary sources may have already solved the problem
researchers can tap into existing research communities
search costs are substantially lower than for primary data collection
adds credibility if the right sources are used
gaps in secondary information help you plan primary data collection
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

8. Primary – new research undertaken to look at a problem or issue
You will generate your own “primary” knowledge in the latter part of the programme, and therefore add to the secondary knowledge available to other people
Two main forms – for different areas of study and contexts (in social science)
“Qualitative” – smaller sample sizes, greater depth, seeks to explain details about events and experiences to gain general agreement/understanding
“Quantitative” – larger sample sizes, less depth/more specific, seeks to establish robust agreement
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

9. Ways to think about evidence to support your arguments
Causation - the action directly caused the outcome:
scientific cause – something will always happen
legal cause – something happened because
Correlation - two variables move together but do not cause the move
Coincidence – things happen without a relationship
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

10. You are asked to write in a style that is more formal than normal
Q. Critically evaluate the role that customer satisfaction plays in the retail automotive sector.
Q. Your CEO has concerns over the level of staff turnover in your organisation you are asked to come up with suggestions for improving this situation.
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

11. School of Business and Economics Executive Education
“Critically evaluate the role that customer satisfaction plays in the retail automotive sector”
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

12. Apply structure to your answering process
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

13. You are asked to write in a style that is more formal than normal
“Formal” with a defined and expected
purpose
scope
style
structure
content
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

14. Typical “report” structure
See hand out
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

15. You are asked to do something called “referencing”
Why you have said what you said?
Who said it first/who’s idea/who intellectual property?
What is their evidence/credibility?
How can the reader/marker/reviewer check?
How does the marker know you have read the source?
How does the marker know you work is current?
Answer – you “reference” your work (in a particular way)
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

16. School of Business and Economics Executive Education
How to reference
Use the “Harvard” style
In the text and in a list of references as an attachment to your work
See hand out
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

17. School of Business and Economics Executive Education
Plagiarism
“Plagiarism” covers:
passing off someone else’s work as your own
using someone else’s work without giving credit
using large tracts without adding anything to it
Taken very seriously
Do not do it and expect to get away with it!
Be careful not to do it by accident
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

18. All work submitted to the University goes through “Turnitin”
Turnitin is used by most major institutions worldwide
Compares what you submit with all other submissions
Gives a “score” – all medium and high scores get looked at
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

19. School of Business and Economics Executive Education
Marking standards
Your work is measured against general standards applicable for the academic standard of the programme
“Level 7 Generic band descriptors: These should be used alongside the specific marking criteria for each assignment or project”.
School of Business and Economics Executive Education

20. School of Business and Economics Executive Education

21. School of Business and Economics Executive Education

22. School of Business and Economics Executive Education
Q & A
School of Business and Economics Executive Education