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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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