APM002 MSc Dissertation, CUL

Assignment Brief

• A dissertation of between 12,000 and 15,000 words (excluding references and appendices,  but including tables and figures); or 
• A manuscript in the format of a journal article, of between 7,000 and 8,000 words (excluding references, appendices and supplementary materials, but including tables and figures). The target journal should be appropriate to the chosen topic and agreed in writing with your supervisor. The article should conform to the target journal's Guidelines for Authors document, which must be included as an Appendix. You should follow the formatting and referencing instructions of your target journal APART FROM the word count (which must be  7,000-8,000 for the dissertation) and any instructions to authors to put tables, figures, etc. in appendices/at the end of the document; any tables, figures, etc. must appear within the main body of the dissertation.  

Your project will consist of original work in one of the following forms: 

• An empirical research project (either quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods) • A secondary data analysis (of an existing dataset or datasets) 
• A systematic review of the literature 
• A critical analysis of existing knowledge within your specialist field 
  You will be given information on the topics and methodological expertise of available supervisors, and, following the selection of your top choices, you will be matched with a supervisor. You will have the option to choose the form and topic of your dissertation, but the choice should be made in consultation with your supervisor and Programme Director and agreed in writing. You are encouraged to submit an abstract, proposal and dissertation drafts to your supervisor for formative feedback. 
• Please refer to the module’s homepage on Moodle for further information and guidance about this assessment. 
• The deadline for submission of this assessment (electronically, via the appropriate drop box) will be made available on Moodle. 

Marking Criteria 

• This piece of work will be marked by your supervisor, and independently by a double marker. It will not be marked anonymously. 
• Please find the marking criteria for the four forms of dissertation below. They are descriptions, based on the module’s learning outcomes, of the skills, knowledge or attributes you need to demonstrate in order to complete the assessment successfully. Your feedback will be based on them. 
• The marking criteria have a proportion of marks allocated to them. 
• The guidelines have been produced in line with current standards around research reporting. If you are writing a journal-style dissertation, please ensure you check their formatting requirements and any requirements for the use of a checklist when reporting your study. For the longer dissertation format, you are expected to elaborate your arguments further and contextualise your findings more extensively using relevant academic literature. 
• Please also consult the Grade-Related Criteria (below) for descriptions of the level of skills,  knowledge or attributes you need to demonstrate to achieve a certain grade or mark in an assessment.