Assignment: Strategy and Competitive Advantage
DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING - one or two pages is plenty, single or double-spaced, your choice.
Describe your first impressions about the subjects of Strategy and Competitive Advantage.
Choose one or more of these sample questions (or create your own questions) and tell me what you think about what we discussed or you read about in the text or articles for this week:
o What surprised you?
o What was new or you hadn't thought about before?
o Is strategy something that you might be able to use in your future career, and if so, speculate about how? If not, that's okay, but tell me why not.
o How could strategy help you to solve problems and accomplish more?
This is not an opportunity for: I really like strategy and I think it will be really fun. Please. Find the value in the subject area and tell me why it could be important to you in the future, if you think so.
Include supporting material from any two or more of the following sources: class lectures, team exercises, class discussions, textbook and cases, or BB articles and videos.
Put anything you use verbatim in quotes with a brief source (Text, page 49) or (Porter article, page 3). This is to avoid plagiarism questions as the new Turnitin software compares your paper to everything, even other papers that are turned in at Drexel - and it reminds me where things are from.
In this paper, demonstrate to me that you have started reading the text and the material on BB Learn. The length is up to you, but my feeling is that one good, polished page is better than two just okay pages.
When you are finished, go to BB Learn and find Turnitin and look for Wk1Paper and follow the instructions on how to submit your Word format document.
For tips and suggestions on improving your papers, and getting better grades, see the next page >>
FIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR BETTER PAPERS AND BETTER GRADES
Think about - and figure out -- what you want to say before you start writing. What's your main point? What matters most in your paper? Then put your ideas down and start filling out the sections.
Review and edit and proof. Doing this can save you in this class - and in your future jobs many times. NEVER submit anything without checking it over carefully and fixing any errors.
Read your paper out loud. I know, this sounds crazy, but I learned this from a great writer I knew. He was right. You'll hear bad grammar, repeated words, poor sentence construction and spot mistakes more easily than reading it off your screen. Not kidding.
Don't wait until the last minute. Give yourself time to review, polish and correct your work. Papers submitted the last few hours before deadline are almost always the weakest.
What you probably don't know - Turnitin stacks the papers in the order they are turned in. I (and other instructors) always know who was in first and who is in right before the deadline or after. Each paper is time stamped.