Ian Lewis Rogers Lecturer Strategic Planning & Project Management HOW TO STRUCTURE YOUR ASSIGNMENT Front Page

This should be provided by your subject tutor and will be attached to your assignment submission. It is important that information is entered in the appropriate sections Student Name Student ID Date Title Programme (MBA / MSc) Title Page This should come after the front sheet and should contain a clearly printed title of the report Terms of Reference This section will be closely related to the assessment task provided by the subject tutor. On some occasions the task will be limited / specific and the terms of reference will be the actual assessment task or its component parts. In other words the task in the assignment will literally be spelled out for you. On other occasions the task might require you to use your skills of interpretation to pull out the main elements of the assignment and to reproduce these elements as the key points you wish to make in your report.
THIS IS WHAT WE CALL ANALYSIS & EVALUATION AND FORMS THE CORNERSTONE OF ALL PROBLEM-SOLVING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD

Contents Page You should list all the main sections of the report in sequence with the page numbers they begin on. Numbering should be located at the bottom centre of each page. Ensure that each individual section and sub-section are numbered 1 1.1 1.1.2 etc If there are charts, diagrams or tables included in your report, these should be listed separately under a title such as List of Illustrations together with the page numbers on which they appear and titled Fig1 Fig1.2 Table1 Etc Executive summary This is a brief overview of the reports main points, including conclusions & recommendations. It will therefore be written AFTER the main body of your report and then placed at the beginning, after the Contents page. Its purpose is to provide the reader- who will usually be the Executive/Manager who commissioned the report- with a brief overview of the findings and recommendations in a format that can be readily and easily understood. It need not be longer than one page and is often presented in bullet point format. In the real business world a Senior Manager will read the executive summary first and then decide if the rest of the report is worth reading !

Therefore it is clearly an important part of the overall report format

Introduction
This should give the context and scope of the report and should include your terms of reference. State your objectives clearly, define the limits of the report, outline the method of enquiry, give a brief general background to the subject of the report and indicate the proposed development.

Procedure/Methodology In this section you should state how you carried out your enquiry. What form did your enquiry take ? Did you carry out interviews or questionnaires, how did you collect your data ? What measurements did you make ? How did you choose the subjects for your interviews ? Present this information logically and concisely. In other words there needs to be a clear and logical explanation of the method of investigation Findings This is the section that contains the main body of the report: the section that contains your analysis and arguments that links backs to the original assignment question and terms of reference, and anticipates your conclusions at the end of the report.

IT IS THE SECTION WHERE YOU ACTUALLY ANSWER THE QUESTION

Where you have encountered conflicting points of view in your assignment research you must present these alternative viewpoints in the form of a balanced and reasoned argument supported by data- NOT OPINION !! It might be appropriate in this section to include visual aids such as tables, graphs etc. However if you have a lot of visual information it might be better presented in the appendices section and merely alluded to in this section

Conclusions/ Recommendations This is the section of the report which draws together the main issues. It should be expressed clearly and should not present any new information. You may wish to list your recommendations in a separate section or include them with the conclusions. The conclusions should be presented to form a judgement that addresses the investigative requirements of the terms of reference. The conclusions should draw together key findings and provide a final view supported by previous sections References Throughout the report reference should be made to the source of published material used. This may include:Textbooks Academic Journals Specialist Research reports Trade magazines Newspapers Websites It is important that you give precise details of all the work by other authors which has been referred to within the report. Details should include:-

authors name and initials date of publication title of the book, paper or journal publisher place of publication page numbers details of the journal volume in which the article has appeared.

References should be listed in alphabetical order of the authors' names. Make sure that your references are accurate and comprehensive. LSBF uses the Harvard Referencing System for which there will be further guidance elsewhere on the course

Appendices An appendix contains additional information related to the report but which is not essential to the main findings. This can be consulted if the reader wishes but the report should not depend on this. You could include details of interview questions, statistical data, a glossary of terms, or other information which may be useful for the reader. The appendix will also include any supportive material that is too big to go in the main report. However if the material is crucial to the report then it would go in the main report body. An appendix is not a device for increasing the word count!! Visual data that you may wish to put in the appendix can be presented in a number of ways Here are a few: Tables Graphs Pie charts Bar charts Diagrams

Illustration checklist: Are all your diagrams / illustrations clearly labelled? Do they all have titles? Is the link between the text and the diagram clear? Are the headings precise? Are the axes of graphs clearly labelled? Can tables be easily interpreted? Have you abided by any copyright laws when including illustrations/tables from published documents? I Hope this makes the process clear !!

In Summary
Assignments that attract good marks will have the following somewhat obvious characteristics: Answers the question Develops a clear and sound argument Provides supporting evidence for arguments made Shows appropriate selection of information, theories and issues Shows relationships between different and sometimes conflicting information, theories and issues Demonstrates understanding of the subject by synthesising (pulling together) other peoples ideas and views Can use evidence and relevant examples Shows you can develop alternative explanations or proposals Shows reflection and thought Draws conclusions without simply repeating what has gone before Is well structured and has given consideration to the reader Is written with well-constructed sentences and paragraphs Selects appropriate quotations to back up ideas Uses referencing systems with accuracy.

GOOD LUCK IN YOUR ASSIGNMENT WRITING!