MPM732: Critical thinking – Assignment 1

Task: Critically analyse a famous speech (chosen from the list of speeches provided on CloudDeakin) and structurally compare it with a statement by the head of a company (chosen from the list of companies provided on CloudDeakin). Please be advised that for Assignment 1, you have to select any ONE letter/report/address in the annual report of your chosen company which may have been delivered by either the Chairman OR the CEO OR the Managing Director OR the President.

NOTE: Each student will have to work on a different combination of speech and company head’s statement. Please select your preferred combination from the lists provided on CloudDeakin and email your choice to the lecturer (michael.stewart@deakin.edu.au) no later than by 5PM AEST on Friday, 21/07/17. Please include your Deakin student ID number in your emails. In case there are several students who have coincidentally selected the same combination of speech and board statement then the lecturer may allocate a different combination on a ‘first come first served’ basis.

Please note that this is an individual assessment task which each student is expected to complete on his/her own. While students are encouraged to discuss their approach/ideas with classmates, the final output submitted for evaluation MUST solely consist of a student’s own work.

Suggested approach: The structures of the speech and the company head’s statement should be comparatively analysed using one or more critical thinking tools and methods discussed in the lectures that are appropriately applicable to such a discourse analysis task. A structural comparison means you have to compare the two pieces in terms of how well each of them succeeded in their objectives of getting their respective messages through to the intended target audiences. Please be aware that a structural comparison of the two doesn’t mean a comparison of their contents as the contents are inevitably expected to be quite different given their vastly different objectives and target audiences.

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Word limit: 2000 (with 10% variance).

Suggested format:

1. Introduction
2. Analysis of famous speech
3. Analysis of statement by the company President/Chairperson/CEO/Managing Director
4. Structural comparison of speech and statement
5. Conclusion
6. References

Mark: 30%

Criteria for marking:

1. Understanding the respective objectives of the two pieces and their intended target audiences – 10%
2. Critical thinking tools and methods used in structural comparison of the two pieces – 10%
3. Overall flow of paper, style, within word limits and appropriate use of external references – 10%

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