INTRODUCTION
The following provides a recommended nine-step approach to writing assignments. It is strongly recommended that you follow these steps in sequential order in order to address your assignment requirements. 1. Read, understand and address the assignment question Carefully read the assignment question and make sure you understand clearly what is being asked. Your submission must be responsive to the assignment question.
This is the first and most important step. By doing this you will know what you need to do, how to do it and whether you need some form of assistance to finish the assignment. Furthermore, make sure you check the word count and make sure you understand what is required. The word count should be used as a guide as to the desired length of your written assignment. But, be mindful that submissions that exceed the word count guide by more than 10% ill have marks deducted. Then, consider the subject of the assignment and who will read it.
Do the assignment instructions suggest that the assignment should be aimed at a particular manager of a particular organization? If no particular manager is mentioned in the instructions, assume that the instructor will be Australian Institute of Business. 3 the audience. Whoever the reader is, aim the assignment at them and their requirements and knowledge. 2. Do background reading and jot down notes Do some brief background reading around the topic, starting with your textbook, toting down the main concepts and ideas that seem relevant. Is there any relevant history related to your topic?
Or is there any important detail that will be of high significance to the future? Are there any important people involved? Knowing such details will give you a better idea as to how to start and finish your assignment. 3. Organism your assignment Make a tentative, organized list of headings and some sub-headings and topics about important issues that will have to be addressed. Inform yourself as to how Table of Contents (TCO) fields are formatted in MS Word, or other word processing application you may e using; and how to update the page numbers for your Table of contents as your composition grows and evolves.
Fine-tune your listing of subject headings as you start gathering information about the assignment’s topics. Organization is always the key to a well-written assignment. It not only gives you direction as you write, but it also gives your paper a certain level of professionalism. 4. Collate information and note your sources for proper citation and referencing Gather information from articles and other credible sources (preferably from peer reviewed journal articles). Take notes and write down reference information about your sources (you may forget or lose them, otherwise).
The BIB Style Guide has details of what information is required for referencing in the assignment; make sure you collect all that information when you first have your hands on the source of information. Collecting all the necessary information for proper citation and referencing as soon as you encounter the source will save you precious time during the course of your writing. The list will also come in handy if you want to double check information. 5. Organism your notes bearing in mind the marking criteria Organize your notes and finalist the outline with its headings and sub-headings and topics.
Consult the Assignment Cover Sheet and Assessment Sheet and the marking criteria for your assignment with weightings for concepts, application of concepts and so on. Bear these in mind as you plan and write the assignment. Comparing your outline with the Assignment Cover Sheet and Assessment Sheet will let you know if you have covered everything that the assignment requires or if you have included something that is irrelevant. It will give you a chance to finalize your outline before proceeding with the actual rating. 6.
Start writing the assignment Then, and only then, start writing the assignment. The notes below about the format of an assignment have details of how each part of the assignment should be written (and include the recommended length of some sections). For your assignment writing, we recommend you use the Office Word Format/ Font command to set Times New Roman Regular 12 point font, and the Format/ Paragraph command to set 1. 5 line spacing – refer to the BIB Style Guide. 4 7. Re-read and re-write your assignment ensuring you adhere to the word count Re-writing is essential.
Make SUre you add or delete appropriate words or paragraphs and check the spelling and grammar. Prior to re-writing, read and re-read your draft. Check whether the flow of thoughts is clear and maintains continuity. Check for any grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and/or improper use of periods, commas or question marks. Make sure you read your assignment carefully to check for errors or omissions. Lastly, ensure that you adhere to the required word count, and add / delete words as necessary. 8. Write the Executive Summary Now write the Executive Summary.
This is the summary of the entire assignment. Include only salient points of your assignment. It is called a summary because it is supposed to be brief and comprehensive. 9. Write the References Add the References according the requirements of the BIB Style Guide, and submit the assignment to BIB, remembering to provide a word count which includes the Introduction section through to the beginning of the References section (that is, do not include the Executive Summary/Abstract, References or Appendices in the word count).
BASIC FORMAT OF AN ASSIGNMENT REPORT
This section will explain how you should develop the sections of your assignment. An example assignment that follows this format is provided at Appendix A. Title page Give your assignment a title and type out the main words from the assignment for the marker to know what the assignment is all about. Include the name of the business investigated if you are writing a case study. The title of the assignment should be comprehensive enough to give the reader an idea about the coverage of the assignment.
Also, you need to place the word count (which includes all text from the Introduction section to the end of the Conclusion section) here. Executive summary This tells your reader what the assignment is about because it describes the topics or issues discussed, as well as providing a summary of the conclusions and recommendations and reasons for them. Before going through the entire assignment, readers first want to see the summary. In fact in many busy business situations, sometimes decisions are often made solely on the basis of executive summary if it is persuasive.
Your executive summary should include what you did, how you did it, what your main findings were and what are your key recommendations. Although the executive summary appears as first section f the 5 assignment, it should be written last after completing the assignment. Do not include any sub headings in this section. It is usually one or two paragraphs and should not be more than 250 words. Remember to not include these words in the word count, except if you are asked to write a marketing plan.
As the executive summary is part of the marketing plan, it is included in the word count. After the title page and the executive summary, you should show a table of contents with a list of the numbered sections and subsections of the assignment, with their page numbers. Numbered appendices, tables and figures with their titles should also be presented in the table of contents. MS Word provides a function for inserting an automatic table of contents.
Please ensure the table of contents is updated before you submit the completed assignment. To update the page numbers in the contents table, when you have completed your assignment: left click on the table right click and select Update Field ensure “Update page numbers only’ is selected click K Introduction The introduction tells your reader what you are going to tell them in the body of your assignment. The first paragraph of your introduction gives the background to the assignment and why it is useful.
Then your second paragraph should say what the aim, purpose or objective of the assignment is, any limitations and a very brief summary of the sections (no more than about two lines for this summary of the sections). The whole Introduction section should not take more than about half a page or so. Discussion The sections after the Introduction are where you begin the discussion, outlining relevant facts and events. A rule of thumb is that there should be at least one section or subsection heading per page. These sections after the Introduction will follow a logical pattern of thought.
Make your headings longer than just one or two cryptic words, so that they also help the reader to quickly understand the sections and flow of the assignment. Present information in a logical order. Use information from a number of credible sources to support your findings and try not to include numeric calculations in the main body of the assignment. Instead, include these as an appendix to the assignment. This is to prevent interrupting the flow of the assignment. Acknowledge all sources using the Harvard ‘author- date’ style.
The start of each section should make obvious its link to previous sections; for example, ‘The previous sections discussed strengths; this section turns to weaknesses’. Transition words are especially useful for this linking of paragraphs; for example, ‘moreover, furthermore, in addition, consequently, so, on the other hand, in contrast, but, however, nevertheless’. After 6 this linkage has been established, the purpose of the section should be made clear in a theme sentence at the start of each paragraph, for example, ‘This section aims to discover those areas where threats could affect strategies’.
The main body of the report will include headings, sub-headings and topics such as in the example below: 1 Heading Under the primary level heading, the first paragraph of this section begins like this. 1. 1 Sub-heading topic Under the secondary level heading, the first paragraph of this section begins like this. 1. 1. 1 Sub- sub-heading topic. Following the tertiary level heading, the first paragraph of this section begins like this. 2 Heading 2. 1 Sub-heading topic this. 2. 1. Sub-sub-heading topic. Following this tertiary level heading, the first paragraph of this section begins like this. Tables and figures Tables and figures are an excellent way of illustrating and justifying your argument. However, they must complement the written words discussed in the sections above and should not replace that discussion. Make sure all the important points in your arguments are in your text and that the reader does not have to search in a table or figure for those points.
A figure such as a pie chart, a bar chart or a line chart is especially useful for showing relationships between variables. Each table and figure should have: a number and a title at the top – the title should be long enough to make the table or figure self-contained o that its conclusion can be grasped without referring back to the text of the assignment; for example, ‘Figure 3: plume path for a nuclear power plant incident based upon wind blowing from the top. No pollution extends beyond ten miles. A legend clearly showing what each line or symbol in a figure stands for axes titles and column headings that clearly describe the variables involved, including the scale used; for example, ‘sales revenue in $ass’ axes scales which are clearly marked, and which have a clear break if the scale is not continuous from zero. More details about tables and figures are in Appendix A. Conclusion The conclusion has two paragraphs or so, and takes up to three quarters of a page and no more. This conclusion should summaries and tie together the whole of the assignment, without introducing new material.
The conclusion should briefly describe the assignment’s recommendations that are detailed in the next section. A final sentence should demonstrate that the purpose of the assignment that was stated in the Introduction section has been achieved. Recommendations In some assignments, you may be asked to make some recommendations or you may think that you will get more marks if you do so, especially if the assignment is about an organizational strategy or a managerial decision. These recommendations are drawn from your conclusions above. Your recommendations outline the specific actions that are required.
When detailing your recommendations, you may also need to consider who will action them; how they will be measured; and the timeshare for the recommendations. The priority that you place on each recommendation may also be required. References A listing of all resources referred to in the assignment, assembled in author alphabetical order, should be provided. This is not included in the word count. Refer to Appendix A and the BIB Style Guide for details. Appendices The appendices include appropriate, related materials. They are not included in the word count.
These are optional for the reader, that is, the reader can choose whether they look at an appendix or not. So you should explicitly refer to an appendix in the text of the body of your assignment, with a very brief outline of its contents.
EXAMPLE ASSIGNMENT WITH ADDED COMMENTS
Title: Entrepreneurship and corporations Comment [AY]: Notice that the font is appropriately set to 12 point Times New Roman, with 1. 5 line spacing. Assignment topic Comment [AY]: The assignment topic is placed here just in case the marker did not have the assignment topic handy when he or she was marking the assignment.
The characteristics of a typical entrepreneur are irreconcilable with a corporate career. Large organizations are by their nature bureaucratic and as such promote an environment in which the entrepreneur cannot survive. Prepare a discussion paper in essay style in which you survey the arguments for and against the above quotation, and then justify your own position. In your answer, provide very many examples of entrepreneurs and corporate managers, room your reading and your own experience, to illustrate the points you are making.
When you refer to an example, provide enough details about the person so that a reader who does not know about the person, can understand the points about that person that you are trying to make. You will have to provide a definition of entrepreneurship in the introduction to your paper. Word count (from the start of the Introduction section to the end of the Conclusion section): 1 584 words Comment CA]: Please note that current word limit is 2500 words for every MBA assignment and 2000 words for ABA assignments.
Executive summary Entrepreneurship and corporate structures appear to be incompatible. This paper considers that apparent compatibility and concludes that entrepreneurship and corporate structures can be compatible in some cases. The paper first defines entrepreneurship and characteristics of entrepreneurs. It then looks at why these entrepreneurs may not fit into corporations. It then establishes that some corporations can incorporate entrepreneurs in what is called corporate entrepreneurship. Examples like Kerry Packer and Richard Brannon are used to illustrate the arguments.
