MODULE HANDBOOK ADVANCES IN ACCOUNTING MODULE HANDBOOK 1 INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE 2 MODULE STRUCTURE AND OUTCOMES PERIOD 1 (WEEKS 1 – 3) WEEK 1
• the definition and boundaries of the topic It is expected that the effectiveness of this support session will be enhanced by constructive preliminary research by individual students. Students are free to share the fruits of their individual research with others or not i.e. there are no group components in the inputs or outputs of this module. The reason for the groupings of students into topics is to maximise the efficiency of staff support being offered. But all students should be aware that they will not have private access to tutors at any time in this module. And from week 4 , they will have no access to tutor support except for the feedback from their Interim Report (see below), and emailed questions to tutors which will have a public reply (see section - Tutor Support). Therefore, the more effort you put into quizzing the tutors the first three weeks the better prepared you will be. WEEK 3 PERIOD 2 (WEEKS 4 – 12) Students work on their reports in the period week 4 – week 12. Students are free to work with others in order to share data, but it is imperative that all text submitted in your report is each student’s own. Staff will be diligent in comparing the work of different students working on the same topic. In addition, all reports will be submitted to the plagiarism detection software, TURNITIN. Two separate submissions must be made. The first, called the INTERIM REPORT, should be submitted by email to the tutor concerned by 25 Aug 2010 (Wed). No hard copy should be submitted to the Student Centre. This should take the form of Chapter 1 of the final report and include an introduction, background to the topic, specific objectives as determined by each individual student, and the methodology being planned. There should also be an initial (short) list of references of the source material already accessed. Word length guidance is 1000 words excluding references. This report will be marked by your tutor, and this mark, along with comprehensive written feedback, will be provided to each student by email – by Early week 6. Students should ensure that their email address is included on the frontice piece of their Interim Report to ensure speedy delivery of feedback. Marks will be awarded out of 10 percentage points of the total for the module. Students can assume that they will be free to re-write their interim report when establishing Chapter 1 for the final report, i. e. they can improve Chapter 1 after receiving feedback.#p#分页标题#e# Secondly, the FINAL REPORT (including a revised Chapter 1, if necessary) should be submitted by Thursday 28 Oct 2010. This is week 14, deliberately set in advance of the Exam period. Submission comprises two components: • Two hard copies submitted to the Student Centre (and a receipt obtained). • An electronic version, containing the main body only of the report, submitted through the TURNITIN gateway on the Advances BREO site. The word length guidance is 5000 words. All submissions will be double blind marked. In line with University policy, borderline students will be invited to attend a recorded VIVA with the staff team. TUTOR SUPPORT
In addition, students should recognise that “chunking” must be minimised in order to avoid penalties. Chunking is where other peoples’ material is imported into your work in its entirety – even though referencing may have been properly executed. There is no room for such inclusion in a 5000-word report. Students will be pleased that they will be permitted to use the TURNITIN software in order to test different versions of their draft report for plagiarism and chunking – an overall percentage is displayed for each submission by the system. Students may submit their work in “draft” as many times as they wish before the deadline of 28 Oct 2010. At this time, all reports as lodged on TURNITIN will be deemed to become final. Any final reports with more than 10% non-original material (this includes both plagiarism and chunking) will not be marked and disciplinary charges may be initiated. Remember, any material submitted to TURNITIN as described above should not include Acknowledgements, Title Page, Contents, Reference lists, Bibliographies, Attachments or Appendices. You have been warned, but the solution lies in your own hands. Make sure you minimise chunking right from the start by paraphrasing any long passages of other peoples’ words which you feel should be included as essential to the development of your logic. Then test your work, either in whole or in part, using the draft facility on TURNITIN. If the reading is over 10%, then re-write! It is assumed students are familiar with the process of TURNITIN access through a module gateway.
Title Page A five-chapter structure gives you 1000 words per chapter as a guideline, but chapters need not be of the same length. Your chapters should be entitled as is appropriate for your particular study. Other structures may be suitable and any sensible structure is permitted. References should be made using the Harvard system (see Appendix 2). Font size should be 12-point Ariel with one and a half line spacing. Other tips to help the style and integrity of your report are also shown in Appendix 3. A sample title page is shown as Appendix 3.
The first sentence says what the paragraph is about. The second sentence expands on the first and explains it. The third sentence discusses the implications of the statements which have been made in the paragraph so far. The fourth (and possibly the fifth) sentence expands on the third either to introduce the next paragraph or to link to the overall report objectives. An example of good practice would look like this: “Peter Patrick (2006) claims that paragraphs are more persuasive if they are simple. This means that only one concept should be included in each paragraph. If two or more concepts are included the message to the reader from that paragraph can be confused or even obliterated. In the next paragraph but one there is an example of this confusion”. Another example of good practice: “Plagiarism should be excluded from your work. Thus, a direct quotation should be properly referenced and longer sources of information should be strictly paraphrased in your own words. If your work is shown to include plagiarism or chunking you will be penalised. In some cases, you could be given a zero mark and not permitted to re-present, thereby failing your degree”. An example of bad practice: “Students should use their own words in a simple paragraph structure. The source of any information supporting your arguments should be paraphrased by picking out the principle concepts and adding further sentences to make the point clear. Accordingly, each paragraph should add value to your overall arguments but you will not be accused of plagiarism. There is a similar argument to restrict chunking”. If you write paragraphs like the first two, you will be less tempted to try chunking.#p#分页标题#e#
KEY DATES
DAY Mon 26 July* Before HK Time 23:59 Email to Terence Start of week 1. Students register two (2) topics as their first choice and second choice (see email special format)
Week 13 22 Oct Email You may email questions any time up to this *email to Terence at [email protected]
• As your investigation is into current issues in accounting, it is unlikely that many of your references will be from before the year 2000.
In the text: Cormack (1994, pp32-33) states that “when writing for a professional readership, authors invariably make reference to already published works”.#p#分页标题#e# In the list of references: Cormack, Alistair, 1994. Good Essay Writing: A guide. Cambridge: Open University Press. The permitted variations on the above for journals, websites, and multiple authors etc can be found by googleing “Harvard Referencing System” and entering an appropriate site.
ADVANCES IN ACCOUNTING
Your topic title (in your own words)
Student Name & Number
A project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of
Date of submission ADVANCES IN ACCOUNTING KAP005 - 3 MARKING INDICATORS “A” GRADE “E/F” GRADE (10% weighting) Clear statement of historical or current background to the issues with justification for distinct, measurable objectives and associated, realistic methodology. Objectives unclear or confused and without justified connection to the topic. Inadequate or infeasible methodology. (30% weighting) Comprehensive and measured presentation of information from a wide range of sources and demonstrably relevant to objectives and outcomes. References properly incorporated into the text and listed after the text in alphabetical order (Harvard). Presentation of information limited in scope and relevance to the objectives being pursued. Weak or disconnected sequence of contents. Use of assertion rather than evidence. (25% weighting) Critical evaluation of how theory has been applied to practice and why. Identification of the significance of the practical realities which have been investigated and analysed – in respect to the report objectives. Failure to establish a body of relevant theory for the study and the absence of an examination of how this is being applied in practice. Failure to connect with objectives. Descriptive rather than analytical. (20% weighting) (15% weighting) |