Assessment 1 : Individual Essay
This assessment requires you to write an individual essay on the topic “Can money buy happiness?”
Learning outcomes assessed in these tasks are listed below :
LO1: Effective management of yourself and your academic work
LO2: Integration of information from appropriate sources of literature to enhance and support your academic and reflective writing
Task 1: Conduct research on the question below:
Can money buy happiness?
Task 2: Having gathered the relevant and appropriate literature on the topic, write an individual essay presenting the research you have conducted and your views on the question based on this evidence.
Assessment 1: Guidance
You are expected to:
- Ensure you use a clear structure I.e. Introduction, Main Body (which should outline your arguments) and Conclusion.
- Use a variety of sources including academic articles and books, grey literature and relevant newspapers and magazines; you must reference the sources appropriately.
- Summarize and compare different views on the issue: present a rigorous and unbiased analysis of different perspectives on the issue.
- Present your conclusion based on the different arguments presented; clearly identify your position on the issue debated. You will need to justify your perspective.
- Reflect on your research performance and essay writing through the use of Kolb’s reflective framework.
- Provide examples to demonstrate your points and map the different skills discussed in your tutorials used to work on this project. Identify the lessons learnt during your planning, research and essay writing, and highlight any area for potential individual improvement.
Assessment 1: Criteria
The group project will be marked according to the following criteria.
- Understanding and Synthesis (45%): demonstrating adequate coverage of the subject area; the clarity and depth of the discussion, the ability to evaluate different perspectives, the ability to present a well-structured and balanced argument based on clear academic evidence
- Reflection (15%): the capacity to reflect on the individual project, identifying skills used and developed as well potential areas of improvement
- Presentation skills (25%): communicating effectively through the essay applying logical structure, demonstrating appropriate use of visual aids and clear response to the assessment question.
- Referencing and accuracy of language (15%): the use of a sufficient range of relevant materials and data, application of appropriate Harvard Referencing style, and accurate use of language (grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation).
