Supervision and Management LCB Assignment 1

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Supervision and Management LCB Assignment 1

• Susanna Carter 2007

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This workshop

• Analyses the question
• Researching the essay appropriate resources
• Gives tips on reading, noting and planning your
  essay
• Essay structure a longer piece of writing
• Argument
• Referencing and avoiding plagiarism
• Time management

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Analysing the task

• Assignment 1 Essay 1250-1500 words
• Critically analyse and evaluate the
  opportunities and challenges of applying
  situational leadership techniques in a
  hospitality organisation. Cite examples and use
  the academic literature to support your ideas and
  argument.
• Weighting 20
• Due date 13/08/07 in tutorial

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Analysing the task

• Task critically analyse and evaluate
• Analysis and evaluation of what?
• Information opportunities and challenges of
  applying situational leadership techniques in a
  hospitality organisation
• Limits using resources to back up argument
• Length 1200-1500 words
• Time 13/08/09

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Time management

• Draw up a realistic timetable for the research
  and writing of this essay.
• You need to plan your time and get started on it
  immediately.
• Without a good time management plan it is easy to
  loose track of how much time you have and what
  needs to be done.
• Use the handy planners that can be downloaded
  from the Learning Connection website.
• Always leave time for revising and editing.

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Analysing the task

• Brainstorm situational leadership
• What type of leadership is this?
• What do the experts say it is?
• How does it differ from other types of
  leadership?
• Why might it be especially suited to the
  hospitality industry?
• What examples can I find?

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Analysing the task

• Define the situational leadership techniques you
  will be focussing on.
• Find examples from your readings and research of
  applying these techniques in the hospitality
  industry.
• What were the opportunities?
• What were the challenges faced?
• Which techniques have worked well and why? Where
  have these techniques not worked well? How
  appropriate are these techniques and what changes
  need to be made?

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Assessment criteria

• relevance of your answer to the question
• clarity of expression
• supporting documentation for arguments
• correct use of referencing
• logical planning and sequence
• use of inclusive language
• overall presentation, including correct grammar,
  spelling and punctuation
• comprehensive coverage reflecting engagement with
  set readings, texts and other relevant materials

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What is an argument?

• An argument starts with a premise and then
  presents the pros and cons for that premise with
  examples.
• An argument makes a case for a particular action,
  belief or point of view.
• The way you present your argument and the
  evidence you find is critical to being successful
  in this essay.

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What do you have to do?

• The argument should be convincing and well
  supported with examples from your research.
• There is no one standard correct answer to this
  question. You will be assessed on how well you
  argue your position.

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The argument

• The following are different ways to support your
  argument
• Facts - A powerful means of convincing, facts can
  come from your reading, observation, or personal
  experience.
• Note Do not confuse facts with truths. A
  "truth" is an idea believed by many people, but
  it cannot be proven.
• Statistics - These can provide excellent support.
  Be sure your statistics come from responsible
  sources. Always cite your sources.
• Quotes - Direct quotes from leading experts that
  support your position are invaluable.
• Examples - Examples enhance your meaning and make
  your ideas concrete. They are the proof.

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The evidence

• The information you choose as support or proof of
  your argument needs to be
• Relevant
• Convincing quote research in the field, or a
  real life business example or an expert
• Specific the examples should be directly on the
  point.

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Research

• Good evidence depends on the quality of your
  research.
• Look at the extensive list of resources in your
  course information.
• In your essay you need to show that you have
  consulted at least some of these resources.

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Research

• Use the information from your lectures and
  tutorials which cover the topic. (Do not refer to
  your lectures as one of your sources. They only
  give a brief introduction to the topic.)
• Use the online sources for this course.
• Use the prescribed databases as a source of
  information.

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Using academic journals and the library databases

• How to use academic journals
• http//www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/learn/LearningCon
  nection/?PATH/Resources/la/Findingandusingacad
  emicjournals/defaultFindingandusingacademic
  journals.htm
• How to search databases
• http//www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/learn/library/?PA
  TH/Resources/library2Dmodules/StrategiesforSea
  rchingDatabases/defaultIntroduction.htm
• Please look at these workshops if you are
  confused about journals, what they are and how to
  use them or you are still unsure about searching
  databases.

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Checking out the text

• Evaluate the resource is it worth reading?
• The author well known, newcomer, represents an
  business interest or organisation
• The credibility is this source a reliable one?
• The timeliness how old is the information?
  have the facts been tested? How new is it?
• The relevance is the information important,
  does it give you the answers you need?

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Preparing to read

• Reading for university study is different from
  reading you have done in the past.
• Read the abstract, introduction, conclusion
• Record new terminology
• Skim the headings, sub-headings, tables and
  diagrams
• Scan a section reading it in detail
• Highlight key points
• Read relevant sections in detail and make notes

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Reading and noting

• When you read
• Read only those sections which are relevant to
  the task of developing your argument.
• Keep your mind focussed on the task when reading
  so you dont waste time reading irrelevant
  material.

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Headings for reading and note taking

• Make a list of broad headings when you start your
  readings to guide your note-taking. For example
• Leadership technique 1 example
• Challenges
• Opportunities
• Evaluation
• Leadership technique 2 example
• Challenges
• Opportunities
• Evaluation

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Headings for reading and note taking

• Conclusions
• What conclusions can you make from your research?
  Are situational leadership techniques relevant to
  management in a hospitality organisation or not?
  What does the evidence show?

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Reading and noting

• As you read and note an initial plan will form
  in your mind for the body of the essay.
• Keep a note of these ideas and their
  interrelationships as they indicate how your
  argument is developing and this will help you to
  plan the essay.

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Reading and noting

• As you read think about the relevance of the
  ideas to your essay.
• Ask questions in your reading
• Is this author biased? Does he/she represent any
  group or industry?
• Is this examples/evidence relevant to my essay?
  How?
• How can I use this information to help me answer
  my question well?
• Evaluate the information
• Is it timely, relevant, credible, accurate,
  interesting etc.
• Is it an appropriate source for an academic
  essay?

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Reading and noting

• Always record the bibliographic details of any
  references you read and note i.e.
• author
• title
• date and place of publication
• and any other relevant information
• Date accessed and url
• Volume, number, journal and page number.

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Planning styles

• Dot points a set of headings and subheadings
• Concept maps a hierarchical plan linking ideas
  together http//www.graphic.org/concept.html
• Mind maps ideas developing from a central
  concept
• Mind map as a study tool

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Linking ideas together

• Once you have developed your essay plan, think
  about how the main points relate to each other.
  How are the ideas linked?
• Look at the QuickClicks link
• http//unisaquickclicks.blogspot.com/2007/04/linki
  ng-words.html

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Referencing and academic integrity

• The university has severe penalties for
  representing other peoples work as your own i.e.
  plagiarism.
• To avoid plagiarism it is important that you
  become familiar with the Harvard Referencing
  Guide and use it religiously.
• The Harvard Referencing Guide is downloadable
  from http//www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/learningco
  nnection/student/studying/referencing.asp

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When you should reference

• A reference is required if you
• quote (use someones exact words)
• copy (use their figures, table or structure)
• paraphrase (use their own idea in your own words)
• summarise (use a brief account of their ideas)
• You are required to acknowledge all ideas,
  information and research findings not just the
  words.

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The Harvard Referencing System

• Also known as the author date system.
• You reference in two ways
• The in-text reference this acknowledges the
  source of information used within the text.
• The reference list this lists all the sources
  cited in the text.

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In-text referencing

• To acknowledge a source within the text of an
  assignment, you should state the following
• Authors family name
• Year of publication
• Page numbers (when you quote or paraphrase
  particular passages, lists, figures or tables
  from your sources)

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The Reference List

• The Reference list
• is titled References
• is arranged alphabetically by authors family
  name
• includes the full details of your in-text
  references (author, date, title, publishing
• details)

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Quoting the text

• There are particular ways to quote in your
  assignments.
• Short quote (less than 30 words or 2 lines)
• A recent study concluded that society will not
  have to face the associated distasteful issues
  of euthanasia (Pollard Winton 1993, p. 429).

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Quoting the text

• Long quote
• A recent study concluded that
• while some doctors and nurses declare their
  willingness to act as medical killers, society is
  shielded form having to confront the reality of
  euthanasia when it does not have to find other
  candidates for the distasteful job (Pollard
  Winton 1993, p. 429).
• Note the formatting and the lack of quotation
  marks!

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Paraphrasing and quoting

• Drurie (1997, p. 30) remarks that museums have a
  long history as repositories for things
  concrete physical objects remaining from the
  past, which museums have assumed an obligation to
  collect, conserve, present and interpret for the
  benefit of the community, present and future. So
  conscientiously have they embraced this
  obligation that they have come to be seen as
  mausoleums mere storage spaces housing dusty
  glass cases filled with artefacts identified by
  fading, curling labels (Marovic 2003, p. 79).

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Writing your essay

• Your essay plan serves as a guide as to
• how the ideas in your argument hang together
• what the content of your essay is and
• how you will use that content to answer the
  question.

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A longer piece of writing

• Plan the task as a series of steps
• Divide the task into different stages
• write a separate section of the assignment for
  each part of the task.
• Any essay can be divided into three main parts
• Introduction (about 10 per cent of the overall
  assignment)
• Body (about 80 per cent of the overall
  assignment)
• Conclusion (about 10 per cent of the overall
  assignment)

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The introduction

• The introduction is approximately 10 of the word
  length (about 150 words) and may include
• A definition of the situational leadership
  techniques to be considered
• An outline the examples you will use
• How will you analyse and evaluate the techniques
  from the examples

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The body

• The body of the essay can also be divided into
  shorter parts
• One paragraph for each main idea of your
  argument
• In a 1,500 word essay the body section consists
  of 4-5 paragraphs

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The body

• The body of the essay is approximately 80 of the
  word length (1200 words) and contains
• The main content of your essay
• This is where you answer the question using your
  accumulated knowledge from your readings,
  lectures and tutorials
• Examples and references from your readings to
  support your argument

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The conclusion

• The conclusion is approximately 10 of the word
  length (about 150 words) and may include
• A summary of the main arguments presented in the
  body and how these relate to the essay question
• A restatement of the main point of view presented
  in the introduction in response to the topic
• Implications for this view.

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What is academic English?

• It is formal written English.
• Do not use contractions such as dont, wont,
  cant always use the full form of the word
• Do not use I, me, one, the author or the
  writer to refer to yourself and you to refer
  to the reader and we or us to refer to
  yourself and the reader.

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What is academic English?

• Academic English is a way of writing which
  creates a distance between yourself and the
  reader to show that you are being objective and
  persuading them through your argument or evidence
  rather than personal appeal.
• Look at examples of academic English in the
  material you are reading. This is the formality
  and style you are aiming for.

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What is academic English?

• Use objective language
• Avoid overgeneralising
• Keep your statements tentative i.e.
• this example would tend to show ,
• it appears from the research ,
• this paper attempts to demonstrate , etc.

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Sample texts

• Look at these examples.
• Can you see how the use of you and referring to
  the reader all of the time is informal? Can you
  see how the formal version of the journal extract
  distances the reader?
• This is the kind of style you are aiming for in
  your writing.

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Academic English

• Financial services organization (FSO) leadership
  has long searched for the one performance metric
  that best summarizes success. The metric most
  suitable for this central role is Risk-Adjusted
  Return on Capital (RAROC) because it
  strategically considers the full risk and return
  business equation. Capital assignment, which is
  integral to calculating RAROC, is a judgmental
  art that continues to evolve. This article
  provides practical insights into the capital
  assignment challenge. The reconcilement of
  aggregate assigned capital (economic capital) to
  reported book capital shouts an implicit message
  that can no longer be ignored by senior
  management and boards of directors in this
  post-Enron world of heightened standards of risk
  awareness and corporate governance (Hanselman
  2005).

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Informal English

• Whats the best thing to do, do you think to be
  successful? I think that the Risk Adjusted
  Return on Capital (RAROC) is the best way of
  finding out if you are going to be ok in
  business. It looks at whats good and bad in your
  finances. The way these people do this is just
  coming together. Hanselman (2005) in his article
  lets us know a bit about the problems of using
  money in your business. You cant ignore money
  and where you use it, or how important it is. We
  all know the mess that happened at Enron and so
  bosses and senior managers cant have the
  blinkers on anymore about whats going on in
  their corporations and what sort of problems are
  going to come up. Especially about where the
  money is going and if theyre at risk of losing
  it. They really need to get their act together
  these days.

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Editing your work - checklist

• Have you answered the question?
• Is you referencing correct?
• Have you engaged with the set readings, texts and
  other materials
• Have you used references to back up your
  statements and examples?
• IS your essay grammatical, correctly punctuated
  and easy to follow?
• Spell check is not enough. Check the meaning of
  words in context.
• Does the final draft meet the stated presentation
  requirements (word length, inclusive language,
  formatting etc)?
• Always give yourself a day before editing and
  redrafting.
• Check these requirements in your Course
  Information. Make sure you have complied with all
  of them.

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Conclusion

• In this presentation I have talked about
• Analysing the task
• An academic argument
• Reading and noting
• Referencing and academic integrity
• Essay structure
• Academic English
• Editing your work

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Still having problems?

• Learning Connection provides resources, sessions
  and appointments that can help you with your
  assignments.
• Resources can be found at
• http//www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/learningconnectio
  n/student/studying/default.asp
• If you are still having problems come to see a
  Learning Adviser for a drop in. There is no
  appointment necessary.
• Drop ins are scheduled at the following times
• http//www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/learningconnectio
  n/about/dropin.asp
• At the drop in a Learning Adviser will assess
  your problem and make an appointment for you if
  need be.
• Learning Advisers also provide an email service.
  Just email your problem and a Learning Adviser
  will respond within 24 hours.
• http//www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/learningconnectio
  n/about/teams/default.asp