for RizwaN

Part 2

What you have learned about doing projects in an academic context (40 marks)

· a.Project proposal

[Learning outcomes. To develop a self-awareness of the skills and activities needed to carry out a project by listing, describing and practically demonstrating them.A familiarity with the principles and conventions of project management and execution.To learn independently and reflect on what you have done.]

The journey to your final project proposal should have brought you a better understanding of the methods you used to develop a project. You need to consider them here. For example, why did you define your aims as you did? How did you evaluate them? Why were some activities better than others?

In particular, you need to discuss how you incorporated the different academic expectations of the module into your proposal.

(20 marks)

Study note

You will obtain a low score if you simply list things you would or would not do differently. For a good mark you must show an understanding of your working practices, analyse how you responded to both set-backs and successes.

· b.Literature review

By now, you will have reviewed a lot of relevant literature and you will probably continue to seek references. However, it is important now to consider the process. In TMA 01, you described the purpose and components of a literature review. Using that description and any comments that your tutor made, can you describe:

· i.how useful your review has been so far?

· ii.which aspects of the review have you found difficult and why?

· iii.how you would improve your reviewing in the future?

(10 marks)

Study note

You will again obtain a low score if you simply state what you have been doing. For a good mark you must show an understanding of your working practices, analyse what went well or went wrong – in other words, be self-critical.

· c.What skills are needed?

· i.List, with justification, the skills that you feel you will need in order to see your project through to completion; expand on the three most important for you.

· ii.Having identified the skills in part (i), say which aspects of your project are likely to prove to be the most personally challenging and how you intend to address the challenge(s).

(10 marks)

Study note

In part (i) you should pick out from your list three skills that you feel will be particularly important; these may relate to any aspect of your project work including those skills required to manage your project or produce an effective report. There is no need to try to be comprehensive but it is important to choose skills that have a significant bearing on your ability to bring your project to a successful conclusion. For a good mark in part (ii) you must again show self-awareness and be reflective.

You should produce about 500 words in total for Part 2. This is a rough guide to indicate the depth required and you will not be penalised directly for failing to keep under the word count

Tutor-marked assignment TMA T450 03

The cut off date for this assignment is midday on Thursday 2 July 2015.

This assignment is compulsory. If you do not submit it you will fail T450.

It contributes 37.5% towards the overall mark for the continuous assessment and requires a minimum mark of 30%.

Completing your assignment

Use the A4 paper size for your word-processed assignment, and put your name, your personal identifier, the module code and the assignment number at the top of every page.

Make sure that at the end of each part you add a statement of the number of words contained in that part. One of the purposes of this assignment is to help you plan your EMA and stay within the final word count.

Plagiarism

If you take material from an Open University module or elsewhere and incorporate it in your answer word for word, you must indicate where you have taken it from. Not to do so is termed ‘plagiarism’ and is regarded as an infringement of copyright. To attempt to pass off such work as your own is cheating.

You must therefore acknowledge all your sources of information. You will find further guidance at Referencing and plagiarism

[Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

On that page is a link to a guide on developing good academic practice.

There is also guidance in the subsection of the Technology project support material entitled ‘Conventions for References’ within the section Preparing a Report. The Technology project support material can be downloaded from the module website

The assignment

This assignment requires you to demonstrate that you have made enough progress to be able to submit a satisfactory final project report. For this you will need to refer to the Project Book and the requirements for the end-of-module assessment (EMA).

Part 1

Your report outline (20 marks)

[Learning outcomes. To produce a written final report of 4000–5000 words.]

This part of the assignment requires you to produce an outline of your project report. Look at the requirements given in the Project Book. In particular, treat the questions the marker will be using as a guide, but make sure you write it as a technical report. The format of the report can be based on the variants given in the ebook by Bowden (2011).

Your outline should give:

· a draft table of contents

· a clear indication of your report’s structure – the probable sections and subsections with their titles, and

· one or two sentences or bullet points about what you intend to discuss under the various section and subsection headings.

You might find it helpful to think in terms of your headings as providing a route-map for the reader of your report.

Study note

Your tutor will be looking for:

· meaningful titles for the sections of the report

· a clear indication that all the areas required for the main report will be covered using a suitable technical report format

· a logical order – it should be possible to see the ‘story’ of your work by looking at the titles of the sections, subsections and appendices.

Part 2

The ‘Background’ section of your report (40 marks)

[Learning outcomes. To gather, analyse, evaluate and use relevant material.]

Your task in this part of the assignment is to write about your project’s beginnings and how you decided on your project aims. This is a first draft of the introductory section to your project. It should set the scene with particular reference to the technical outcomes you are aiming for.

It should:

· focus on your research

· cover your literature review; you should evaluate your references and show how they shaped your project

· draft the part of your final report that addresses what you set out to do and why (see Question 1 in ‘General guidance for writing the project report’ in the Project Book supplementary material)

· be of a suitable length so that the final report does not exceed the word limit.

It is important to think seriously about the extra sections you’ll need to complete the full report to get an estimate of the lengths of Part 2 and Part 3.

Part 3

The ‘Technical’ section of your report (40 marks)

[Learning outcomes. An understanding of and ability to apply the relevant principles within the context of the body of knowledge appropriate to an honours degree level project.The ability to integrate engineering knowledge across traditional academic boundaries.]

Your task in this part of the assignment is to present a draft of the technical work that you have done up till now. The purpose of the technical work is to provide justification for your decisions and conclusions. It should include:

· examples of calculations you have undertaken

· technical assessments of methods

· any modelling you have undertaken.

You will be assessed on how effectively you have used the techniques and analysis from your chosen discipline. So, items such as accuracy, depth and complexity will be considered.

You therefore need to plan your accounts in Parts 2 and 3 with the requirements of your final project report in mind, particularly the requirements for ‘Question 1: What did you set out to do and why?’ and ‘Question 2: What did you do, how did you do it and why?’. Use what is said about these questions to guide you with your account in this TMA. In summary, you need to produce a narrative with supporting material.

In deciding how long to make your account for this TMA, please bear in mind that the subject-specific part of your final project report must be between 4000 and 5000 words in total, and that the report will have to cover all of Questions 1 to 4 described in subsection ‘What the report must cover’ in the Project Book.

Additional marking criteria

When your tutor and the internal examiner for TMA 01 assess your assignments, they will consider the work you are writing up and the report itself. In no particular order of importance, they will look for:

· awareness of context of work

· depth and substance of engineering in the project work

· independence while doing the work

· integration of ideas

· originality of work

· application of concepts from the related OU level-3 module.

Be aware that ‘independence while doing the work’ does not mean you should never contact your tutor – far from it (see ‘Subject-specific guidance’ below). There is, however, a difference between regularly consulting your tutor, and expecting him or her to supply you with ideas or prompt you when to do what.

The role of the literature review

The principal purpose of a literature review is to show that you are clear about the area you are working in. This means that you have to survey the published literature. The use of reference databases is essential. As you gather articles, you will establish your own criteria of usefulness, working out whether a particular reference will be valuable and also identifying its limitations.

You will be seeking to group references together to highlight or contrast different approaches and methods. The material you look at and then evaluate will allow you to define and limit the problem you are working on and the methods you adopt. It should prevent you ‘reinventing the wheel’ on the one hand and neglecting to do something important on the other.

The review itself will have a short introduction outlining the main topics. This will be followed by descriptions, evaluations and contributions of various references. In the review, you will seek to support the methods that you have chosen for your project. You must supply a clear link between your evaluations of the references and your method.

Finally, the review should extend your reader’s understanding of the problem you are tackling as well as providing a rationale of the project’s aims.

References

Bowden, J. (2011) Writing a Report: How to prepare, write and present powerful reports [online], Oxford, How to books Ltd, ebook of sixth edition available at EBSCO

[Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] (accessed 30 August 2012).