SH4011 Research and Academic Practice Assessment Brief Sem 1, 2026 | LMU

SH4011 Assessment Brief (Sem 1)

DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY

By submitting this assignment I have completed, I declare that this work is my own and the work of others (including internet sources) is acknowledged by quotations and appropriate Harvard referencing. I declare that this work has not made use of the work of any other student(s) past or present at this or any other educational institution or from any other source. I confirm that this work has only made appropriate use of Generative AI tools such as Grammarly to help with proofreading or for brainstorming the topic at the start of the writing process and the work is my own and has not been generated or written with the assistance of AI. Please type your name, student ID and date to confirm the above statement:

NAME:

STUDENT ID:

DATE:

Name of assessment: Article summary and critical commentary

Short Description

Using academic databases, find a peer-reviewed study article on a topic of your choice. Summarise its contents: crucially, this means reporting on its research question, its methodology, and the results it finds. Then, provide a critical commentary on the article: does it answer the question effectively? Draw on other literature, and especially on methodological literature.

Then, upload the article you found to an LLM and ask for a summary. Use the ‘comment’ function on Microsoft Word to add comments to the AI summary discussing how it compares to your summary.

The word count is 1000 words for your summary: this excludes references, comments and the AI summary.

Weighting: 40

Formative submission deadline due date: Wednesday 28 January 2026 (Wk8)

Final Submission due date: Friday March 20, 2026

Feedback release date:  3 weeks after submission

Assessment Guidance

Suggested Structure

1. Introduction: introduce your assignment and remember to provide a sentence detailing which database was searched and which terms used.
2. An overall summary of the article: describe what question it was attempting to answer, what methods it used, and what results it found.
3. A critical commentary: analyse the article by addressing such issues as whether you think its method is sound, whether it has overlooked important issues, etc. Here is where you should draw on other research and methodological literature.
4. Conclusion: provide a short conclusion to your assignment.

Important Requirements

• You must find your article through searching an academic database.
• You must include the details of which database you searched and which terms you used.
• You must choose a peer-reviewed study: non-peer reviewed articles, and documents such as conference proceedings or letters to journals are not accepted. Within this scope, any kind of study is permitted: qualitative or quantitative design, primary or secondary methodology, etc.
• You must provide a correct reference for your chosen article; as well as anything else you use.
• You should draw on wider literature: your work should have more than one reference.
• You cannot use an article that we discuss in class.
• Must be word processed and submitted to Turnitin.

Top Tips

• Try to write in short, plain, sentences: it is more important to write clearly than to try to ‘sound clever’.
• There is no necessary reason to write in the same order as the work appears, as you can edit later. It may be helpful to write the summary of the article first; then the commentary; and only then the introduction and conclusion.
• Remember: you need both in-text and bibliography citations for sources you use.
• Try to find an article on a topic that you are genuinely interested in.
• Do not write about an article that you do not understand for example, do not choose an article with a complicated quantitative method if you do not know what this method consists of. How will you be able to understand and analyse it? HOWEVER, this does not mean that you should give up on an article when encountering something you do not understand look it up and see if you can work it out.

Marking Criteria

Marking Criteria Grid Undergraduate (see at the end of this document)

Source handling – This criterion refers to how well you identify and search an appropriate database and how well you reference and cite your chosen article and any other sources used.

Description – This criterion refers to how effectively you summarise and describe your chosen article. Considerations include accuracy, and how well you select which information to include and exclude.

Critical analysis – This criterion refers to how effective your critical analysis of your chosen paper is.

Structure and communication – This criterion refers to how well you structure your work, and how clearly you write and communicate your ideas.

Rationale For This Assessment Method

This method assesses student progress on the following learning outcomes:

1. Recognise and describe core conceptual distinctions in research (qualitative vs quantitative, primary vs secondary, etc)
2. Find, read and draw on academic and non-academic sources
3. Summarise core elements of a published research paper and their applicability to health and social practice
4. Reference research according to academic norms

Feedback

You will receive written constructive feedback via Turnitin.

Re-Assessment Information 

Reassessment will involve the submission of an edited or new piece of work following the same brief at the next assessment opportunity.

SH4011 Assessment Rubric

[1] In order to be graded 90% and above, the work must be of a publishable standard. Work graded between 80% and 89% is publishable but would require some editing

Research And Academic Practice: SH4011QA Assessment Guidance

Instruction

Please adhere to this assessment instruction (this assessment guidance MUST be used alongside  Assignment brief)

The word count is 1000 words for your summary: this excludes references, AI summary and comments and the cover page

Format

• Font size 12
• Line spacing: 1.5
• Cover page with title, module code and student ID
• References (Harvard referencing)

Formative submission deadline due date: Wednesday 28 January 2026 (Wk8)

Final Summative Submission due date: Friday March 20, 2026

PART A

1. Using academic databases, find a peer-reviewed study article on a topic of your choice. However, it must be in health and social care context.
2. Summarise its contents: crucially, this means reporting on its research question, its methodology, and the results it finds. (Remember, to summarise these 3 key areas before the next step 3)
3. Then, provide a critical commentary on the article: does it answer the question effectively? Draw on other literature, and especially on methodological literature (discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the paper) and draw on the literature to assess the methodology and whether the research question has been effectively answered.

Note: A critical commentary goes beyond description—it judges the quality,  relevance, and impact of the paper.

PART B

4. Then, upload the article you found to Copilot (QAHE official AI tool) and ask for a summary (prompt the AI to summarise the article based on the research question, methodology and key results)

AI summary

Include the summary of AI (arrange the summary logically with the research question, methodology and key results, ensure you use relevant prompts for the AI to give you good outputs.

5. Show how the AI summary compares to your summary

Suggested Structure

1. Introduction: introduce your assignment and remember to provide a sentence detailing which database was searched and which terms used.
2. An overall summary of the article: describe what question it was attempting to answer, what methods it used, and what results it found.
3. A critical commentary: analyse the article by addressing such issues as whether you think its method is sound, whether it has overlooked important issues, etc. Here is where you should draw on other research and methodological literature.
4. Conclusion: provide a short conclusion to your assignment.

Important Requirements

• You must find your article through searching an academic database (ONLY Databases can be used to search for the article)
• You must include the details of which database you searched, and which terms you used.
• You must choose a peer-reviewed study: non-peer reviewed articles, and documents such as conference proceedings or letters to journals are not accepted. Within this scope, any kind of study is permitted: qualitative or quantitative design, primary or secondary methodology, etc.
• You must provide a correct reference for your chosen article; as well as anything else you use.
• You should draw on wider literature: your work should have more than one reference.
• You cannot use an article that we discuss in class.
• Must be word processed and submitted to Turnitin.