support@essaywritingexpert.orgFaculty of Business and Law
ACADEMIC YEAR 2023/24
Assessment Brief
Submission and feedback dates
Submission deadline: Before 14:00 on 22 April 2024
Marks and Feedback due on: 20 working days a8er 24 April 2024
N.B. all ;mes are 24-hour clock, current local ;me (at ;me of submission) in the UK
Submit assessment
| Module Ftle and code: Component and type: | Economic Research Methods – UMED8N-15-2Course Work Assessment |
| Assessment Ftle: Assessment weighFng: Size or length or assessment1: | Individual Detailed Research Proposal75% of total module mark2500-word research proposal |
Module learning outcomes assessed by this task:
MO2: Evaluate and assess the roles and purposes of alterna;ve forms of enquiry and research.
MO3: Evaluate, select and pursue alterna;ve enquiry approaches, methods and methodologies in economics and related disciplines.
MO4: Apply and define an ethical framework to the process and management of a research project.
MO5: Interpret and evaluate published academic research and other evidence rela;ng to economics and related disciplines,
Comple4ng your assessment
What am I required to do on this assessment?
You need to design a detailed research project based on a mixed methods case study approach and then present that research design in a 2,500-word research proposal. The research theme is the same as was set for the groupwork assessed task:
• Why do students engage with the Student Union?
This assessed task is an individual task, but I hope you will build on the collec;ve work you completed as the groupwork tasks. You can work with the literature review work to which you contributed.
A detailed research proposal needs to address the following ques;ons:
• Is there a par;cular role/func;on of the Student Union you are interested in? Or are
you interested in the views of your research par;cipants in the round (the Union is a
single bundle of services)?
• Based on academic research you find, what do you expect to explain why people feel
more/less than abached to the Union than others? What is your strategic research
aim?
• Based on this expected explana;on how would you design a small research project
to demonstrate whether your explana;on is plausible/not proven – jus;fying your
choices rela;ve to your strategic research aims?
• Based on your research strategy (above), what combina;on of data collec;on
ac;vi;es (from the one covered on this module) would you expect to carry out and
why?
• What sampling strategy/strategies would you need to carry out in order to collect the
evidence you have iden;fied above?
• What are the ethical risks associated with your outline research design?
• Having piloted one of your data collec;on methods, what lessons do you draw in
order to improve your data collec;on plans?
• How would you analyse the data you would collect in order to establish an answer to
your research ques;on? This involves demonstra;ng how you move from raw data
to derived data to how you infer rela;onships between your bit of evidence.
In terms of presen;ng your research design you need to both propose appropriate/plausible choices (ie they need to be appropriate for the research ques;on) and you need to jus;fy your choices rela;ve to academic sources.
We expect your proposal to have the following headings:
1. Introduc;on and context
2. Literature Review
3. Problem Statement and Conceptual Framework
4. Research Strategy
5. Data collec;on, pilo;ng and ethics
6. Data analysis planning
You will lose marks if you do not use this set of sub-headings.
Where should I start?
We expect you to build on the conceptual/literature work to which you contributed in the first part of the assessed groupwork task.
What do I need to do to pass?
You need to follow the headings for the proposal. Failure to use these headings may result in gegng a score of zero.
Rela;ve to the marking criteria for this assessment, the table below gives you an idea of minimum standard of abainment we are looking for:
| Pass (>=4/10) | wt | ||
| MCCW2 | Ability to make appropriate and jus;fied research design choices | Choice of case study strategy is plausible, but you might not have given references for all the key decisions underlying your selec;on. Might not have worked out a mixed-method strategy | 15 |
| MCCW8 | Ability to plan and structure the analysis of data | Plausible selec;on of data analysis methods but not correct across the board – not referenced. Possibly missing either the qualita;ve or quan;ta;ve plan. Plan might be offered but no concrete examples are given. | 10 |
| MCCW3 | Ability to construct appropriate evidence that plausibly and logically links to a research ques;on | Aware of different data collec;on methods. Choice of method is plausible and jus;fied, but you might not have given references for all the key decisions underlying your selec;on. The method might be consistent with your choice or strategy or with the ques;on but not both. | 25 |
| MCCW4 | An ability to run and cri;cally evaluate a pilot data collec;on exercise for a research project | some reflec;ons on method piloted even if the evidence for actually doing a pilot is ‘spoby’ | 15 |
| MCCW5 | Ability to analyse a research design through an ethical risk management process demonstra;ng mi;ga;on strategies where required | Ethical review is par;al – but present. Informed consent is demonstrated but might be incomplete in minor aspects. Mi;ga;on is inappropriate in some aspects – but is appropriate in a general sense. | 10 |
| MCCW1 | Ability to present a research proposal as a coherent proposi;on | some of the sec;ons link together, some do not. Wri;ng style and argument is partly unclear. Referencing is not Harvard but there are references. There is a reference list but it might not include all things referenced. | 10 |
What do I need to do achieve higher marks this assessment?
Remember that failure to use the sub-headings we give you may result in your gegng a score of zero.
Rela;ve to the marking criteria for this assessment, the table below gives you an idea of minimum standard of abainment we are looking for to achieve a higher pass:
| MCCW6 | Ability to present a body of academic work within a conceptual framework to underpin a research ques;on | The ques;on might be descrip;ve but you have iden;fied something that suggests the ques;on could be interes;ng. You might offer some defini;ons but some of this might be inappropriate. The literature you use to frame the ques;on may be from non-academic sources (such as government reports) – you may have mis-interpreted some of the things you have reported on. | 10 |
| MCCW7 | Follows the assessment brief instruc;ons | the proposal par;ally follows some of the headings of the assessment brief | 5 |
| excellent (>=7/10) | wt | ||
| MCCW2 | Ability to make appropriate and jus;fied research design choices | Clear understanding of how mixed-method research strategies lead to high quality research answers in the case of the chosen research ques;ons – use of research method references. The outline research design will show a clear sampling strategy that is both jus;fied, referenced and appropriate for the ques;on that is asked. | 15 |
| MCCW8 | Ability to plan and structure the analysis of data | Data analysis methods consistent with the ques;on and the methods. Jus;fica;on of analy;cal method referenced – probably has structured this around the 5-stage plan outlined in class. Concrete examples given to illustrate how analysis will happen. | 10 |
| MCCW3 | Ability to construct appropriate evidence that plausibly and logically links to a research ques;on | Good understanding of what a data collec;on method is (as dis;nct from a research strategy). Clearly able to iden;fy and cri;que the use of research methods in the papers you have read – use of reference to jus;fy your choices. Able to demonstrate how chosen research methods generates evidence for your research ques;on. The data collec;on instrument is appended to proposal. | 25 |
How does the learning and teaching relate to the assessment?
See above
What addiFonal resources may help me complete this assessment?
• The blackboard site.
• Talking to teaching team
What do I do if I am concerned about compleFng this assessment?
UWE Bristol offer a range of Assessment Support Op;ons that you can explore through this
link, and both Academic Support and Wellbeing Support are available.
How do I avoid Assessment Offences (AO) on this module? 2
| MCCW4 | An ability to run and cri;cally evaluate a pilot data collec;on exercise for a research project | Pilo;ng done – evidence offered up for pilo;ng. Reflec;ons illustrate awareness of key issues and plausible solu;ons to any research problems encountered. | 15 |
| MCCW5 | Ability to analyse a research design through an ethical risk management process demonstra;ng mi;ga;on strategies where required | There is a review of the ethical risks of the research proposal – and that mi;ga;ve ac;ons have been proposed to face up to ethical challenges. Ethical procedures of informed consent are demonstrated in the data collec;on instruments | 10 |
| MCCW1 | Ability to present a research proposal as a coherent proposi;on | All parts of the design link together, arguments are referenced and jus;fied. Wri;ng style is clear, references are in Harvard style and given in a reference list at the end of the paper. | 10 |
| MCCW6 | Ability to present a body of academic work within a conceptual framework to underpin a research ques;on | A ques;on that clearly centres on explaining the rela;onship between concepts of interest. You clearly iden;fy the concepts and link them either to debates in the media or to debates in the academic literature. You illustrate the issue with some contextual sta;s;cs/ observa;ons. You will frame this ques;on with knowledge from exis;ng academic research. Will have a synthesis of literature. | 10 |
| MCCW7 | Follows the assessment brief instruc;ons | the proposal follows the structure given in the assessment brief | 5 |
Use the support above if you feel unable to submit your own work for this module. The most common form of AO on this module comes from students copying the work of other students. If you wish to avoid an AO, remember:
• Do not copy and paste proposals from the work of others – our AO so8ware has
access to work submibed by students across the University. If you are reading
through the work of others, remember to express yourself in your own words.
• Remember to use the sub-headings we give you – because failing to use them may
result in your being given a score of zero.
Marks and Feedback
Your assessment will be marked according to the marking criteria outlined above. You can use these to evaluate your own work before you submit.
1. In line with UWE Bristol’s Word Count Policy, the word count includes everything in
the main body of the text including headings, tables, cita;ons, quotes, lists, etc. It
does not include the ;tle, student number, references, bibliography and/or footnotes
(provided footnotes only include references). There is a 10% margin.
2. UWE Bristol’s UWE’s Assessment Offences Policy requires that you submit work that
is en;rely your own and reflects your own learning, so it is important to:
• Ensure you reference all sources used, using the UWE Harvard system and the
guidance available on UWE’s Study Skills referencing pages.
• Avoid copying and pas;ng any work into this assessment, including your own
previous assessments, work from other students or internet sources
• Develop your own style, arguments and wording, so avoid copying sources
and changing individual words but keeping, essen;ally, the same sentences
and/or structures from other sources
• Never give your work to others who may copy it
• If an individual assessment, develop your own work and prepara;on, and do
not allow anyone to make amends on your work (including proof-readers,
who may highlight issues but not edit the work) and
When submiVng your work, you will be required to confirm that the work is your own, and text-matching so8ware and other methods are rou;nely used to check submissions against other submissions to the university and internet sources. Details of what cons;tutes plagiarism and how to avoid it can be found on UWE’s Study Skills pages about avoiding plagiarism.