Reference no: EM133043817

MN7400 Academic Skills and Practice - University of Leicester

Assignment Brief

Academic Skills and Research In Context.

Introduction
The assignment consists on the production of a ‘first draft' for an essay. This is a speculative piece. You are not expected to produce a complete piece of research.

This exercise will provide an opportunity for you to practice, explore and reflect on how you approach and develop academic skills and research: from reading, through taking notes, writing, editing to keeping the reference list updated.

For the evaluation of this exercise, we will look at two elements.

The first element is a practical element. It consists in the structuring of the essay itself, paying attention to structure and using that structure to clarify the meaning of the content presented in the document.

The second element is a critical - analytical element. This will consist in the writing of the content. This content will respond to a theme of your choice (see 2.1 Themes). You will explore the literature available and outline a response to the problem presented in a theme of your choice.

There are three themes and you will need to choose one of these to address the general idea underpinning them: Academic Skills and Research In Context.

1. Practical element
This will be a simple exercise, and part of it will be produced during lectures.
For this exercise, you will create a template document in Word.
You will structure the document as a standard dissertation.
You will create the structure of the document using different tools. Some of these tools are available within Word.

We will also explore and incorporate the use of other software, all of which are accessible through the University's OneDrive portal. You are encouraged to incorporate some citation management software into your workflow to complete this task (EndNote, RefWorks, Zotero or other). In general, getting used to work with such software will be of great help in all your work during your course.
The intention of this exercise is to have a ready-made template or structure you can use during your course to collect notes, comments or ideas related to specific modules, answer assignment questions or even prepare your dissertation in the future.

1.1 Structure
The structure of the essay should include:
• Cover page
• Introduction and/or abstract (200 - 300 words).
• Body
- Literature review. This should include some description and analysis of literature used. In general, it should address and cite work that you have identified as relevant to approach the theme of your choice.It will not be an exhaustive exploration and analysis of the work but you should demonstrate some evidence of having read and understood the main ideas expressed in those texts.The texts explored should include at least 13 academic texts combining books and journal articles, 7 news articles and at least two examples of grey literature (900 - 1000 words).
- Research questions. Some questions may arise as you read and write about ideas, concepts, arguments and claims contained in the texts explored. The literature you read may not address an issue that you are interested in and feel that could be of interest to explore. In this section, you will be able to include one or two questions to suggest a possible way forward to conduct research based on that issue that you think is missing from the literature (100 - 200 words).
- Methodology. You will need to explore and name possible methods that are adequate to address the questions proposed in the previous section. Include at least 3 citations (100 - 200 words).
- Analysis.Methodology and Analysis will contain brief descriptions of potential approaches that you would consider for this speculative bit of research. While new data and evidence may be used in the analysis section, what you need to demonstrate here is some reflection on how you would plan steps prior to conducting the research (100 - 200 words).
• brief conclusion based on the material reviewed (100 - 200 words)
• List of references / Bibliography. This section needs to be produced using citation management software and it must follow our School's guidelines for referencing.

The word count for each section is an estimate. Consider the 10% +/- rule to apply here as well.

Because the assignment consists of the drafting of a 1st draft and an outline of plan, you should approach this exercise with an exploratory spirit. You are not expected to produce your ‘final word' on the matter at hand. But you will still need to structure and narrate ideas with clarity.

Critical - analytical element

The work will have to present evidence of the elaboration of an argument grounded on effective online research and reflection about articles and books explored. This is
To focus the research and writing and to make sense of the structure, practice its use and experience its benefits, you will choose and address one of three themes suggested below.
The word count may vary between 1500 to 2000 words excluding the References.

2.1 Themes

Choose one of the three themes below for your assignment:

Theme 1: Outline an argument exploring how Freire's ‘banking concept' of education relates to the context of UK HE.
To answer this, you will have to define Freire's ‘banking concept', explore its implications and present an account that demonstrates an understanding of the current conditions and challenges in UK HE. You may also approach this answer basing your account on shared interests and intersecting commonalities of studentsand academic staff.

OR

Theme 2: Outline an analysis that explores the intersection marketization of UK HE and a discipline or field of your choice (for eg. healthcare management).

To answer this, you will need to introduce a historical account of how and when fees were introduced in UK HE. Once this is established, you should focus on how such measures affected education of the discipline of your choice (management in health care). To complete this task, an outline of the circumstances and condition of the field you are interested in (health care in UK) and possible underlying commonalities with UK HE will be of great help.

OR

Theme 3: Outline an account centred on the concept of ‘student experience' in UK HE, since the emergence of the Covid19 pandemic.

The pandemic has presented several challenges to students, staff and the general operations of UK HE. This has had a serious impact in how UK HE operated and delivered on its promise of a positive and rich student experience. Perspectives may vary from technology and education provision, students' health care, international student experiences and their challenges. These are just a few potential perspectives or themes on which to ground your account.

Attachment:- Academic Skills and Practice.rar