School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Assessment Brief
1
Module Code: 24CVA101/CVA134
Module Name: Professional skills
Assessment Title: Academic report
Assessment
Type:
Report Other:
Date Due: 20th Nov. 2024
10am
Date Returned: w/c 11th of Dec.
2024
Method of
Submission
Virtual only Feedback
delivery:
via Learn
Weighting: 25% Other:
Individual or
Group:
Individual
Word Length 2,000 Other:
Total number of hours expected to be spent on
assignment:
27
Introduction
A significant part of your professional working life will be concerned with the writing of reports. A
report is a formally structured collection of written information that a person or group wishes to
communicate. It is self‐contained, is about something specific, and is written for a particular reason.
There are many types of reports (for example, technical, investigation, laboratory, design or
feasibility). Whatever the type of report written, the aim is to present detailed information in a clear
and concise manner for the reader to quickly understand and draw conclusions from.
Assessment aim:
To demonstrate your ability to critically evaluate academic research and to produce a well‐written,
correctly referenced and informative report (see details below).
Task Description:
1. Choose one academic journal article from the list appended to this document and read it
carefully; this will be the basis for your report.
2. Produce a 700 word critique of the academic journal article that you have chosen.
The material covered in the Week 4 lectures, workshops and additional resources provide you with
a range of strategies of going about this. Perhaps the easiest way to start is to decide if you liked
the paper or not and then try to interrogate what it was that was good/bad (argument, theory,
methodology, convincing results etc.). It may also be worth looking at some of the papers the
authors reference to gain a deeper understanding of certain areas. You may also want to look at
Scopus or similar to see if the paper has been cited by other authors and in what manner it has
been used.
2
4. The length of your report should be 2,000 words (excluding abstract and references; see the
layout of the report below). The layout of the report must follow the following style (but feel free
to make use of sub-sections for components 3 and 4 and to use figures, equations and tables if
appropriate). If using equations, format them correctly using equation editor rather than including
screenshots.
1. Abstract (150‐200 words; not included in the word count)
2. Introduction to the report (approx. 250 words)
3. Paper critique (700 words; make sure that you provide the reference to the paper that
you are critiquing)
4. Specialised section as described above (approximately 800 words).
5. Conclusions (approximately 250 words)
6. List of references (not included in the word count)
7. Appendix containing just the screenshot of your Mendeley references (see below).
5. You must use Mendeley for citing references in the text and to create the reference list. Use a
variety of references if you wish but the primary focus should be on the use of journal articles.
Make sure your sources are relevant and reliable. A screenshot of relevant references on your
Mendeley DeskTop must be included in the Appendix. More information on Mendeley will be
provided in Week 5.
School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Assessment Brief
Make sure you make effective judgements about the value or reliability of the information it provides
and any interpretations that are made about this information.
3. Write a section of the report on a subject that is relevant to the academic journal paper you have
chosen; however, you can choose any aspect that is of interest to you. For instance, if a paper
discusses gender equality in construction, you may wish to pursue a direction relating to sex and
gender differences in the numbers studying particular degree programmes at University. Or the
paper may have used certain socio-theoretic concepts that you wish to find out more about, or you
might want to research a statistical method that was used. Try to choose papers that are closely
related to the journal paper that you chose for your critique – it will help you to compare the ideas
and reflect on these in your writing. You will need to undertake your own research on your selected
theme to underpin this component.
The purpose of the report is not just to provide descriptive information but also to explain how
things were done or why they were done, and therefore demonstrate an understanding of the
information you are presenting. Hence, this requires you to be able to perform a critical appraisal of
the information you are gathering and using.
Make use of a range of materials from Weeks 4 and 5 to help you understand what is being asked
of you, including an On Demand video on how to write a report, additional resources folders and
various materials discussed in lectures and workshops in these two weeks.
School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Assessment Brief
3
6. Prior to submitting the assignment, you must complete the Academic Integrity Test (the link
will be provided in the Assignments Area on CVA101/134 on LEARN). This will be made available
after the lecture on Academic Integrity in Week 6.
Assessment Criteria:
The breakdown of marks awarded will be distributed as follows:
Content An evaluation of the research effort, comprehension and interpretation of
the subject of the report as a whole:
• Has the student found the relevant, reliable and recent
literature/information?
• Has the student been able to produce a good synthesis of the literature?
• Is it clear what was learned from the literature?
• Is the topic of the specialised section relevant to the article
that the student has critiqued?
35%
Abstract Summary that is helpful in describing the report:
 Is the Abstract accessible and understandable, using short sentences and
simple language?
 Does it adequately summarise the report?
 Is it a ‘stand‐alone’ document?
 Is the length no more than 200 words?
5%
Organisation
and
explanation
The structure of the report should be logical, with a natural flow of
information linked in a logical way.
• Are the descriptions and explanation clear and thorough?
• Does the report include unnecessary information?
• Does the report show an appropriate structure?
• Do main sections and sub‐sections have clear relevant titles
10%
Presentation The quality of layout, figures, use of headings, abstract, content page, list of
tables and figures, page numbers, use of language; overall visual quality.
• Is the length of the report, excluding title page, contents list, appendices,
etc. within the range of 2,000 words?
• Do the language and style make the report easy to read?
• Are figures, equations and tables clear (if they are used) and do they give
added‐value?
5%
Referencing References and referencing style:
• Does the student use correct (Harvard) referencing within the text?
• Has the student placed primacy on academic journal articles in their
reading as required?
• Does the student use Mendeley for importing references (has the
screenshot to evidence this been provided)?
10%
Critical
review
component
The ability to critically compared, evaluate and critique ideas found:
• Is there evidence of an effective critical review of the primary reference
within this section?
• Is there evidence of originality in the approach the student has taken?
35%