• Basic of Executive Summaries

https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/assignments/executivesummaries

• Good and poor examples of executive summaries

https://unilearning.uow.edu.au/report/4bi1.html

3. Introduction

    Context setting/identifying the problem (approximately 800 words)

This section should contain an overview of the research context, leading to the problem identification and a clear set of aims and objectives. You also need to highlight the value of the proposed research and explain the structure of the following key sections of the scoping study. If appropriate this discussion should be located within the industry/organisational/business unit context (some detail may usefully be placed in your appendices).

4. Literature Review (approximately 4,000 words):

This section should present a critical review of the current state of knowledge in the area chosen or investigation, locating your project in its theoretical context. This includes a review of relevant models, concepts and theories that are brought together into a basic conceptual framework (key themes/issues) that will be used to guide your project. These must be underpinned by correct referencing, including an appropriate range and depth of citations to relevant and current literature.

So far, your group have reviewed at least 6 literature sources and presented these in the Assessment component 1 – Project Proposal Presentation.  You should now work individually to expand the range of sources and review the literature.

Conducting a critical literature review means combining knowledge and understanding on what has been written, evaluation and judgement skills, and an ability to structure these into a clear a logical argument (Sanders and Rojon, 2011). Mingers (2000) identifies four aspects of the critical approach:

• Critique of rhetoric: evaluating a problem with the use of effective language and making reasoned judgements.
• Critique of tradition. Challenging conventional wisdom.
• Critique of authority. Challenging dominant views.
• Critique of objectivity. Recognizing that the information being discussed is not value free.

Thus, a range of academic literature (and in some cases relevant policy documents and technical reports) detailing research findings in your chosen field of study should be discussed. The review should point towards areas of general agreement (or disagreement) among researchers, highlighting what different studies say about your chosen topic. The purpose is to identify gaps in the overall body of research and to outline the (modest) ways in which your research can fill those gaps and expand the larger body of knowledge. It is not simply a summary of everything written on a particular topic; rather, it is an attempt to locate your research within the broader array of knowledge on a particular subject. This, in turn, will provide a detailed justification for, and explanation of, the research questions or hypotheses around which your work will be structured.

A useful starting point for literature reviews is to read a small number of core texts, and then trace back the more detailed articles cited. You should make use library search facilities, in particular academic databases, to locate relevant material from academic journals.

It is important to remember that a literature review is not an annotated bibliography (i.e. a summary of each paper in turn), rather it is a critical discussion of the literature organised according to common themes. It should synthesise others’ work, highlighting the key themes to emerge from other studies and applying these to your own research. It is vital that you avoid plagiarism, whether unintentional or deliberate. If you take ideas or quote a short passage from others’ work – which is, of course, perfectly acceptable and what you should be doing in the review – you have to acknowledge the source by full and proper referencing.

The literature review also informs the remaining parts of your work.

You must use secondary data, it is recommended that for a good quality project research you should aim for approximately15 – 20 different sources throughout the whole project. Although many of your cited sources will appear in the Literature Review chapter, remember to cite relevant material throughout the whole of your project. Many of your sources should be academic journal articles as these are the most relevant to a student conducting research at Masters level. The remainder of your sources may be a mixture of textbooks, company reports, newspaper articles, websites, government publications and statistics etc. The exact mix will of course depend on the nature of your investigation.

A typical literature review chapter could be laid out as follows;

• A general introductory section that briefly explains the main themes that you will explore in this chapter
• A background discussion of historical work and any key concepts, theories, models, frameworks etc. that may have been developed and adopted in practice (this may go back many years or even decades)
• A discussion of the key theoretical issues as they apply today (the contemporary literature) and an examination of these in detail in appropriate thematic subsections
• Finally, and most importantly, you must discuss all this material that you have read in terms of how this relates to your own study

5. Research Method, Data analysis and Ethical implication (approximately 1,700 words)

A description of the methods used with justification for this choice, including recognition of constraints or limitations. It must be clear that all decisions are appropriate to the aim and objectives.  Any ethical implications of the research should be outlined.

This should be a fairly detailed account of your research design – how you are going to undertake your case study linked to the literature review by referring to methods textbooks as follows:

• Justification of research methods. What are the advantages and disadvantages of your chosen approach?
• What is your unit of analysis (division, organisation-wide?) for investigating the problem and making recommendations?
• Ethical issues: you should highlight any ethical issues in your research.
• Limitations of the study including a brief outline of research methods you would ideally use but cannot, due to limitations imposed on you by the project brief &/or other factors

However, as only secondary data must be undertaken, you should analyse secondary data as follows:

• The source of the data and who [individual(s) or an organisation] has published the data
• Where and when the data or information were collected or made available
• A description of the data available e.g. key variables or measures appropriate to your study. Reliable websites.
• Background to the data collection methods e.g. sampling approach or whether data systematically collected.

• Conclusion and Recommendations (approximately 1,500 words)

This is the final piece of written work that will be read by the markers. Therefore, you should make sure that it leaves a good impression.

• In theory anyone should be able to read just your final chapter/section and still have a good idea about what your whole research project is all about.

• Remember that the markers will directly compare your first chapter/section and your final chapter to make sure that you have been consistent in what you set out to discover. Therefore, it is important that your final chapter/section addresses everything you say you are going to look at (your objectives) in your first chapter/section.

• Re-state your overall motivation (i.e. aim and research objectives).

• Finally, you should make relevant recommendations for future research

• References

A single list in APA 6th Referencing style of all of the works cited in your text. If you have cited a source in your text, then there must be an associated reference. Similarly, if you have listed a reference in the Reference list, then there must be an associated citation in your text. The Reference list must not be in bullet- or numbered-list format and should be formatted at single-line spacing.

8. Appendices

Additional supporting material such as tables of statistics, strategic analysis graphs from websites and so on to justify your analysis. This material is seen as essential to the Research Project Report but would otherwise interrupt the flow of text and is therefore placed in Appendices. Ensure that you refer to each of your appendices at appropriate points in your research project.

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