Examine title brief:
Prepare a report evaluating how organisations introduce new products or services using social networking platforms. Illustrate your discussions with at least two product examples from two different companies (four in total).
Word count
1800 words. Main difficulty is having a sensible argument/discussion in 1800 words. The challenge is to make it concise and yet still have evaluative depth.
Can use visuals, charts, graphs, tables etc to help with the analysis etc. (in the main body) No appendices.
We don’t worry about reference list etc in word count.
Follow the brief:
Title page: This should include the following: your ID, course details, Module Title, Module Code, The Module leader’s name, deadline date and word count.
Contents page and page numbering
Introduction: a paragraph
10 easy marks available. You will lose marks for not following the brief.
Use academic report structure
• Introduction: Select 2 organisations and identify 2 products/services each
promote/launch. Introduce briefly your rationale and/or argument
• Research and Analysis of evidence: Investigate how your 2 companies use social media to promote their products/services. Examples of their practice, combined
with evidence of best practice/theory from the texts, journals, etc.
• Evaluation and conclusions: Discuss how well both organisations use social
using practical and theoretical evidence
• Conclusion: A clear statement of your own position (but in third person – ”It
appears from the evidence presented, that…) .
• References Standard Harvard references.
Use academic language
• Formal not casual (avoid slang, imprecision and informality)
o Use good grammar: the paragraphs should be flowing and well punctuated and
with correct spelling (ie use spell checkers and grammar checkers)
o It is report so you can have separate sections/ can be numbered or not/ can
use tables, images etc.
• Objective not subjective (especially 3rd person, not 1st)
• Precise and accurate, not vague and woffly
• Careful and responsible.
Avoid:
• It is my opinion that…….
• I think that……
• Obviously,……………..
• It is known that…..
• Most people think that………..
Avoid assertions:
• Most firms use Facebook
• Twitter makes losses all the time
Use evidence instead:
• Jenner(2012a) suggests that Facebook is …..
• Twitter, according to Marr (2016) has never made a ..
Use Harvard Referencing
An easy 5 marks for following the rules.
2 parts:
Citation in line. I.e. Jenner(2012a)
Reference, in reference list Jenner(2012a) Made Up Social Media Harlow Pearson
We sample these when marking!!
(Reference list should be in alphabetic order so we can do this easily…..)
We would expect a minimum of ten credible references – in social this will mean quite current but will depend on circumstances (number of users of Facebook has to be this year, a reference to Maslow could be from 30 years ago).
The findings and analysis section
You are investigating 2 organisations and looking at 2 products/services for each
• You have to show ability to explore the topic in sufficient depth and breadth
• Demonstrate a good understanding of the topic which you have gained from an extensive range of appropriate research and reading. Show evidence that you have fully researched the topic from academic sources and not just looked at Twitter and the other social networks etc. Use analytics evidence, quotes from social networks and relate it to the theory or examples of best practice from the texts etc. Ensure you perform sufficient research to fully understand the subject matter in depth rather
than demonstrate just a superficial level of knowledge
30% available and marked as always to the criteria that 60% is vg, 60% is excellent, 80% is outstanding.
The evaluation and conclusion section
In this you will discuss best and less good practice. It should be mainly evaluative backed up by evidence to get a good mark. Evaluation is about building a critical argument, backed by evidence, to support your conclusions.
The evidence itself will be from the networks, analytics and literature.
We are very flexible in the way this is presented and organised provided it does this.
Conclusion:
Come to a final conclusion about what is best practice based on your discussions in this section. You can recommend practices but don’t have to.
40% available and marked as always to the criteria that 60% is vg, 60% is excellent, 80% is outstanding etc. If there is little evidence of an argument and rather the work is more descriptive then the mark will usually be considered at best good.
Plagiarism
Your work must be original
You must quote your sources using Harvard referencing
