Research Methods

PLAGIARISM AND COLLUSION
“Plagiarism is the practice of presenting thoughts, writings or other output of another or others
as original, without acknowledgement of their source(s). All material used to support a piece of
work, whether a printed publication or from electronic media, should be appropriately identified
and referenced and should not normally be copied directly unless as an acknowledged quote.
Text translated into the words of the individual student should in all cases acknowledge the
source.” For further information please refer to the guidance at:
http://www4.rgu.ac.uk/energy/induction/page.cfm?pge=48530
Before submitting the work, you should check through it to ensure that:
 all material, that has been identified as originally from a previously published source, has
been properly attributed by the inclusion of an appropriate reference citation (in Harvard
format) in the text;
 direct quotations are marked as such (using “quotation marks” at the beginning and end of
the quoted text), and
 the full details of the reference citations have been included in the list of references (in
Harvard format).
This is an individual assignment and so you must not collude or copy the work of another student
(past or present).
A Turnitin Originality Report is required as part of your coursework submission. Please
check that your work meets originality requirements prior to submission of the final version of your
essay using the link provided on the CampusMoodle site for the module.
NOTE
The penalty for late submission of a piece of coursework is that the coursework is failed. If you
are unable to meet the submission date, please complete a Coursework Extension Form
(available from:
http://www4.rgu.ac.uk/academicaffairs/quality_assurance/page.cfm?pge=44250)
Send your completed form to your Year Tutor (not the Module Co-ordinator) before the
submission deadline.
You must include a statement on the front cover of your work that gives the word count. A
penalty will be made in the marking if the word count of the submitted work is outwith the limit
of the stated word count required for this assignment plus or minus 10%.
RESEARCH METHODS
COURSEWORK ASSIGNMENT 1 of 1
Submission Instructions: The essay assignment must be submitted by 1pm on the date
of submission, via the Coursework boxes on level 4 AND via
the Assignment Submission Drop-box link on CampusMoodle.
Please refer to the instructions below on submission of your
articles for approval prior to submission of the essay.
___________________________________________________________
ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
Write an essay of 2500 words, on:
The selection of appropriate data collection methods for management research.
Your essay must be a critical evaluation of the justification for selecting different data
collection methods used in 3 examples of research published in peer-reviewed academic
journals. The use of least 3 different data collection methods must be discussed in your
essay.
Please note that the articles you select as examples must be relevant to the
management discipline that you are studying but they do not all need to be on the same
topic. For example, if you are studying Management with Marketing, the journal articles
must each be on a marketing topic but they do not all have to be on the same topic
(e.g. branding). However, please note that your essay is about data collection methods
for research and not about the topic of the articles.
Before you start work on writing the essay you must submit your chosen articles for
approval so that the Module Tutor can check that they are suitable for the assignment.
Failure to submit your articles for approval by the due date may mean that you could
lose marks for factual content (worth 30% of the overall mark for the assignment).
Submission of your chosen journal articles for approval: You should submit a
reference list (in Harvard format) and upload the full-text of each article in the database
created for your submissions located in the Campus Moodle study area for this module.
In addition to at least 3 journal articles, you must make reference to academic text
books (or ebooks) on research methods to support your evaluation in the essay (see the
ASPIRE resource list for the module on CampusMoodle for a list of recommended texts
and ebooks).
Your essay should be structured (in paragraphs, without headings) as follows:
 Introduction – Introduce the content of the essay and the journal articles you
have selected. (Approximately 600 words)
 Discussion – With reference to your 3 chosen academic journal articles in your
subject discipline, discuss the justification for selection of the chosen data
collection methods and their value and limitations for meeting the researchers’
aims and objectives. You should also refer to research methods textbooks to
support your evaluation of the appropriateness of the methods used in the
articles. (Approximately 1300 words)
 Conclusion – Summarise your discussion, draw out the main conclusions about
the importance of selecting appropriate data collection methods for management
research. (Approximately 600 words)
 References (not included in the word count) – You should also include a list of
references and a bibliography at the end of your essay. The reference list must
contain all the references you have cited in the essay (including the journal
articles you are using as examples). The bibliography contains any additional
sources you used to create your essay but are not directly cited in it. All
references must be listed and cited in Harvard format. Guidelines on citation
according to the Harvard style are available in the How to Reference section on
the library webpage at: http://www.rgu.ac.uk/current-students/library/libraryhome
 Appendix (not included in the word count) – You must submit a copy of the
summary page of your Turnitin report (showing the percentage similarity score)
as an appendix to your essay. Please do not include your coversheet in the file
uploaded to Turnitin. A penalty of one grade point (i.e. 10 percentage marks)
deduction will be applied in the marking for submissions without a Turnitin report.
This coursework assignment is worth 100% of the overall mark for the module.
The allocation of marks in the Coursework assignment is:
Factual Content (including the selection of appropriate journal articles): 30%
Analysis, evaluation and synthesis: 40%
Structure and presentation of the essay: 10%
Clarity of expression: 10%
Research and resources: 10% (zero marks if no Turnitin report is submitted)
It is expected that you will carry out your own research and acknowledge fully all
source material that you use.
If you have any questions about the assignment, please contact the Module Coordinator
or use the discussion forum on the CampusMoodle site for the module. Please do not
confer with other students as this can result in misunderstandings.
Additional Information
This assignment assesses module Learning Outcomes 1-5 specified in the Module
Descriptor (available on the CampusMoodle site for the module).
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