Assessment task details and instructions
You are required to investigate some previously published quantitative information (i.e. secondary data). The project will concentrate on the manipulation and presentation of data together with an appropriate analysis.
You should select your data from the Excel file provided to you by your lecturer. You do not need to analyse all of the data provided. Instead, you can choose a subset of the data to study and present. You can also generate more columns from the data given.
You should submit a single word-processed document consisting of the following:
1. A short research paper of no more than 2 pages. You should use the template provided on Blackboard.
This part of your submission is supposed to mimic the style of a published research paper, but in a much shorter form. It should contain the following:
(i) A Title. This must be worded as a question.
(ii) An Abstract of about 80-120 words summarizing your paper.
(iii) An Introduction consisting of one paragraph stating the focus of your analysis and the main goal of your study.
(iv) A Data and Methods section. In the first part of this section you should indicate the data that you are using, including any transformations or grouping of values and how you dealt with any missing values. The second part should describe the methods of analysis you have used.
(v) A Findings section. Here you should include what you found from your analysis. For example, what was remarkable, what was expected, what changes over time and what differences you discovered, etc. This should refer to relevant graphs and tables in your appendix (see below).
(vi) A Conclusion. This should briefly summarise the major findings from your study, identify any weaknesses of the analysis, and suggest future studies that might extend your current findings.
(vii) References (if any).
2. An appendix containing graphs, tables and statistical measures. These must be labelled and include technical comments and explanations where appropriate.
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