Description/Paper Instructions
Individual Written Assessment Task Brief
In your Written Assessment Task you should:
Compare and contrast two leaders who can influence change in relation to the wicked problem you examined in your ePoster
Analyse and evaluate the actions of each leader in relation to this problem, making sure to address the following questions:
What are the challenges they face? What are the barriers to change?
What actions have leaders taken/are they taking? How effective have they been? (evaluate/analyse/compare)
What more could they do? What could they do differently?
Make recommendations for future action based on your analysis.
Your Individual Written Assessment Task should be no more than 1500 words. It should be fully referenced, using a recognised referencing system of your choice.
Individual Written Assessment Task – Suggested Structure
This is one suggestion for how you might structure your IWAT. It is meant to be a guide, not a strait-jacket. The structure set out below uses sub-headings. You can use sub-headings to help you organize your writing if you wish, but you don’t have to.
The word limit for this task is 1500 words. The suggested structure below includes suggested word counts for each section. Again, remember this is provided for guidance only; you don’t have to stick to it rigidly, as long as your final piece of work doesn’t exceed the word limit of 1500 words (+ 10% buffer).
Introduction (200 words approx.)
Your task is to compare and contrast two leaders who can influence change in relation to the wicked problem you examined in your ePoster. So, in the Introduction, you need to make clear exactly what/who it is you’re comparing/contrasting and why.
To do that you need to:
Mention the problem your leaders are addressing. This is the context for your comparison of the leaders’ actions. It needs to be clear, and brief.
The problem must be the one you examined in your ePoster.
You don’t need to repeat the content of your ePoster. Your reader/marker just needs to understand what the problem is and why it matters.
A couple of sentences will do.
Make sure any references provided are to the source material, and not your ePoster.
Introduce the two leaders whose responses to this problem you’re going to compare and justify your choice. Why have you chosen these two leaders out of all the leaders you might have chosen? Why are they good ones to compare? What might be learned from comparing them?
You can mention the range of different leaders who can influence change in relation to this problem, in order to help you justify why you’ve chosen to focus on these two in particular.
Leaders (800 words approx.)
This is the main body of your work. In it you need to address these parts of the task brief:
Analyse and evaluate the actions of each leader in relation to this problem, making sure to address the following questions:
What are the challenges they face? What are the barriers to change?
What actions have leaders taken/are they taking? How effective have they been? (evaluate/analyse/compare/contrast)
Traditionally, compare/contrast essays can be structured in one of two ways – by subject – in this case leaders – or by individual points. For this Assessment task, we recommend that you structure by leader, discussing first one and then the other, working through the questions above for each leader in turn. For example:
Leader A
Challenges/barriers
Actions/effectiveness
Leader B
Challenges/barriers
Actions/effectiveness
Remember that you need to analyse and evaluate the actions of each leader, and compare and contrast those actions, and the barriers/challenges they face as appropriate. As you write about Leader B you can draw attention to how Leader B is similar to/different from Leader A. You can signal this in the language you use. See additional resources section below for guidance on suitable phrases to use.
Conclusion (300 words approx.)
After you have analysed each leader, you need to bring the two together in a concluding paragraph, which should pull out the key similarities and differences between the two leaders. In this section you should also address this question from the task brief:
What more could they do? What could they do differently?
If appropriate, you could also:
Identify which leader has been most effective, and why
Identify what each leader could learn from the other
Identify ways in which the two leaders could collaborate to better address the problem in the future
Recommendations (200 words approx.)
To finish off your assignment, you need to address the final bullet point in the task description:
Make recommendations for future action based on your analysis
Your recommendations need to be rooted in your analysis of the two leaders, so there shouldn’t be anything that comes as a surprise to your reader.
Referencing
Your Individual Written Assessment Task must be fully and appropriately referenced throughout using a recognised referencing system. References and/or bibliography should be listed at the end of your finished piece of work.
Key Things to Remember:
All sources must be referenced
Direct quotations must be enclosed in speech marks
Whatever referencing system you use, it’s important to use it consistently
Make sure you are clear about the conventions of your chosen system before you start
If you reference a website, remember to include the date accessed
Keep a note of all sources used as you go along, recording all the details required for referencing purposes (the John Rylands webpage gives clear guidance on this). This is a horrible job to do retrospectively.
Further guidance on referencing can be found in the Academic Advice and Guidance section of Unit Information, which can be accessed via the link in the left hand course menu.
Please carefully read the mark scheme and the eposter I write, because this essay should base on the eposter I provided.
Quality of Response |
No Response |
Poor/Unsatisfactory |
Satisfactory |
Good |
Excellent |
Content (worth a maximum of 50% of the total points) |
Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper. |
20 points out of 50: The essay illustrates poor understanding of the relevant material by failing to address or incorrectly addressing the relevant content; failing to identify or inaccurately explaining/defining key concepts/ideas; ignoring or incorrectly explaining key points/claims and the reasoning behind them; and/or incorrectly or inappropriately using terminology; and elements of the response are lacking. |
30 points out of 50: The essay illustrates a rudimentary understanding of the relevant material by mentioning but not full explaining the relevant content; identifying some of the key concepts/ideas though failing to fully or accurately explain many of them; using terminology, though sometimes inaccurately or inappropriately; and/or incorporating some key claims/points but failing to explain the reasoning behind them or doing so inaccurately. Elements of the required response may also be lacking. |
40 points out of 50: The essay illustrates solid understanding of the relevant material by correctly addressing most of the relevant content; identifying and explaining most of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology; explaining the reasoning behind most of the key points/claims; and/or where necessary or useful, substantiating some points with accurate examples. The answer is complete. |
50 points: The essay illustrates exemplary understanding of the relevant material by thoroughly and correctly addressing the relevant content; identifying and explaining all of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology explaining the reasoning behind key points/claims and substantiating, as necessary/useful, points with several accurate and illuminating examples. No aspects of the required answer are missing. |
Use of Sources (worth a maximum of 20% of the total points). |
Zero points: Student failed to include citations and/or references. Or the student failed to submit a final paper. |
5 out 20 points: Sources are seldom cited to support statements and/or format of citations are not recognizable as APA 6th Edition format. There are major errors in the formation of the references and citations. And/or there is a major reliance on highly questionable. The Student fails to provide an adequate synthesis of research collected for the paper. |
10 out 20 points: References to scholarly sources are occasionally given; many statements seem unsubstantiated. Frequent errors in APA 6th Edition format, leaving the reader confused about the source of the information. There are significant errors of the formation in the references and citations. And/or there is a significant use of highly questionable sources. |
15 out 20 points: Credible Scholarly sources are used effectively support claims and are, for the most part, clear and fairly represented. APA 6th Edition is used with only a few minor errors. There are minor errors in reference and/or citations. And/or there is some use of questionable sources. |
20 points: Credible scholarly sources are used to give compelling evidence to support claims and are clearly and fairly represented. APA 6th Edition format is used accurately and consistently. The student uses above the maximum required references in the development of the assignment. |
Grammar (worth maximum of 20% of total points) |
Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper. |
5 points out of 20: The paper does not communicate ideas/points clearly due to inappropriate use of terminology and vague language; thoughts and sentences are disjointed or incomprehensible; organization lacking; and/or numerous grammatical, spelling/punctuation errors |
10 points out 20: The paper is often unclear and difficult to follow due to some inappropriate terminology and/or vague language; ideas may be fragmented, wandering and/or repetitive; poor organization; and/or some grammatical, spelling, punctuation errors |
15 points out of 20: The paper is mostly clear as a result of appropriate use of terminology and minimal vagueness; no tangents and no repetition; fairly good organization; almost perfect grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word usage. |
20 points: The paper is clear, concise, and a pleasure to read as a result of appropriate and precise use of terminology; total coherence of thoughts and presentation and logical organization; and the essay is error free. |
Structure of the Paper (worth 10% of total points) |
Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper. |
3 points out of 10: Student needs to develop better formatting skills. The paper omits significant structural elements required for and APA 6th edition paper. Formatting of the paper has major flaws. The paper does not conform to APA 6th edition requirements whatsoever. |
5 points out of 10: Appearance of final paper demonstrates the student’s limited ability to format the paper. There are significant errors in formatting and/or the total omission of major components of an APA 6th edition paper. The can include the omission of the cover page, abstract, and page numbers. Additionally the page has major formatting issues with spacing or paragraph formation. Font size might not conform to size requirements. The student also significantly writes too large or too short of and paper |
7 points out of 10: Research paper presents an above-average use of formatting skills. The paper has slight errors within the paper. This can include small errors or omissions with the cover page, abstract, page number, and headers. There could be also slight formatting issues with the document spacing or the font Additionally the paper might slightly exceed or undershoot the specific number of required written pages for the assignment. |
10 points: Student provides a high-caliber, formatted paper. This includes an APA 6th edition cover page, abstract, page number, headers and is double spaced in 12’ Times Roman Font. Additionally the paper conforms to the specific number of required written pages and neither goes over or under the specified length of the paper. |
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