Refer to 5. Coursework structure and assessment criteria for full list of sections and chapters of your project
Contents
The process of ‘writing up’
Writing up should not be seen as something that happens at the end of the project. Rather, you should commit sections to paper as early as possible. This not only mitigates the chance of having to rush frantically to finish on time, but it also helps you to focus your thoughts and make them more precise.
The style of your project
Your project should be written in an appropriately impersonal, academic style (formal conversation). Refer to journal articles in your own discipline for good examples of formal academic style.
Writing your conclusion
Writing a conclusion can be quite a challenge as it is often tempting to simply summarise your key findings. While it may indeed be appropriate to provide the reader with a summary of your key findings, this is an opportunity to state what you can conclude from your research.
In doing this, you should link your findings to findings from previous research and you may wish to indicate how your research can be of practical use to practitioners in the field, for example. Your conclusion should also include a section stating the limitations of your research and a section which suggests areas for future research.
References
It is essential to keep track of your references. Enormous amounts of time are wasted in the final stages of the project chasing up references that were used and not properly recorded.
It is recommended that students make us of the RefWorks citation manager, which builds a reference section automatically (create an account here)
Different disciplines can adopt slightly different referencing practices. It is important to be consistent and make sure that all of the required information is given. The style used by the School of Communication is the Harvard style. A guide to Harvard referencing will be available on the module Blackboard page.