Communication Skills and Professional Issues
Guide for Students
Notes on Teams
- Using a simple online team-allocation application, early on in the term you will organise yourself into one of 10 teams. Note that teams will be limited in size, and the choice of your team will determine how early or late in the term will be your presentation, allowing you to organise your time appropriately to spend on your individual report.
- You will then meet up with your team members, elect a leader, agree upon a team name, exchange email addresses, and plan further meetings to discuss your project.
- You must announce the topic of your presentation/report to the module coordinator (Nick Blundell) at least 3 weeks before your group is scheduled to present its lecture.
- Final marks for team members will be calculated based on individual weightings agreed by all (or in the worst case, a majority of) members of the team, so if you do not pull your weight in the team, you cannot expect to gain a good mark on the back of other team members.
Electronic Submission
In order to get started with the BOSS system you should visit BOSS login (If you want to do it from outside the school you may have to use a proxy server.)What should go in a report/essay?
- Introduction (explain the problem/question, what is part, what not, why is it relevant) [Less than 10% of the length]
- Main part(s): Explain approaches, compare them, stress advantages and drawbacks. Develop new ideas. The explanation should have a certain breadth and depth, should be sophisticated, factual.
- Conclusion: Summarise your contribution, give an outlook of possible trends. Here you may give an opinion (again balanced and well argued).
How will reports/essays be evaluated?
The criteria may slightly vary according to the topic but here are some guides:- Is the problem/question well explained, supported by good examples? (1/6)
- Is the argumentation and development sound/convincing/logical? (1/6)
- Are there any new ideas in the description? Are they clearly distinguished from ideas of others? (1/6)
- Is the report in depth? Does it show good understanding? (1/6)
- Do the references show good background reading? Is everything properly referenced and acknowledged? (1/6)
- Is the form of the essay appealing? Right length? Good layout, supported by good illustrations? Grammar and spelling okay? (1/6)
WARNING: We will use plagiarism detection software on your submission. If you are found plagiarising in this module we consider this as a particularly serious issue, since it brings our institution in disrepute with respect to our external speakers.
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