Assignment Number: One of two (75% of final mark)

Assignment Length: 10000 – 12000 Words

This assessment satisfies the learning outcomes as specified in your module guide. Specific Assessment Criteria

70%+: Your dissertation will be of excellent quality where you demonstrate excellent knowledge and understanding of academic models and concepts relating to your chosen academic subject area and excellent research skills and abilities. The analysis of relevant models and concepts will be of excellent quality. The dissertation structure, its
presentation, your written English and your referencing will all be of a very high standard.

60% – 69%: Your dissertation will be of good quality where you demonstrate a good knowledge and understanding of academic models and concepts relating to your chosen academic subject area and excellent research skills and abilities. The analysis of relevant models and concepts will be of good quality. The dissertation structure, its
presentation, your written English and your referencing will all be of a good standard. The academic content, the quality of discussion, referencing, and other elements will be likely to require some or limited development.

50 – 59%: Your dissertation will be of fairly good quality where you demonstrate an adequate knowledge and understanding of academic models and concepts relating to your chosen academic subject area and excellent research skills and abilities. The analysis of relevant models and concepts will be of adequate quality. The dissertation structure, its presentation, your written English and your referencing will all be of an adequate standard. The academic content, the quality of discussion, referencing, and other elements will be likely to require some development.

40% – 49%: Your dissertation will demonstrate a basic awareness of academic models and concepts relating to academic models and concepts relating to your chosen academic subject area and excellent research skills and abilities. There will be some omissions of expected content and the analysis of relevant models and concepts is likely
to be cursory. There will probably be significant problems with any combination of the dissertation structure, its presentation, your written English and your referencing. The academic content, the quality of discussion, referencing, and other elements will be likely to require extensive development.

Fail <40%: Your dissertation will demonstrate a lack of satisfactory awareness of academic models and concepts relating to your chosen academic subject area and a deficit of research skills and abilities. You are likely to offer little or no analysis of relevant models and concepts and there will probably be significant omissions of expected content. In addition, there will probably be very significant problems with any combination of the dissertation structure, its presentation, your written English and your referencing. The academic content, the quality of discussion,  referencing, and other elements will be likely to require very extensive development.

Dissertation Presentation Guidelines

The following guidelines should be used in preparing your written document in order that all dissertations conform to a similar style and structure.

Technical Specification

• The dissertation should be typed on A4 white paper, be double spaced, and on one side of the paper only.
• All pages should be numbered at the centre of the bottom of the page.
• Photographs and other illustrative material should be scanned – adhesive tape etc. is unacceptable.

Binding

The dissertation may be bound using either:

• Plastic spiral spine;
• Staple and tape;
• Hardbound.

Length

The dissertation should be 10,000 to 12,000 words in length (excluding tables, figures and appendices).

Word Count. You are expected to revise and edit your dissertation to remain within +/- 10% of the allocated word limit for that piece of work. In order to ensure that word counts can easily be checked you should include:

A note of the word count, as performed by your word processing package, should be included in the dissertation. A deduction is made for all tables, figures, appendices and bibliography, which DO NOT count towards the overall word limit.

It is likely to be an exceptional piece of work that covers the dissertation requirements fully in much less than the set word count less 10%.

Structure of the Dissertation
The dissertation should follow the structure below:

• Title page
• Abstract
• Acknowledgements
• Glossary
• Contents page
• List of tables
• List of figures
• List of appendices
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Findings and Analysis
• Conclusions and Recommendations
• Bibliography
• Word count
• Appendices