Part 1: General Guidelines

I. Academic Writing

Academic writing is scholarly and scientific that is systematic that seeks to answer a question. Academic writing is based on the idea that conclusions can only be accepted when supported by evidence. An academic writer should be objective and NOT influenced by his or own opinion (except when the question encourages the author to give an opinion or a personal reflection), use the data collected to support a question or hypothesis. In short, Academic Writing has the following characteristics:
- Present facts in a systematic manner and in accordance with clear procedures.
- Writing must be accurate, truthful and not make assumptions.
- All views expressed are supported by evidence.
- Writing should not distort the facts or exaggerate things.
- Writing should be honest seeking only the truth.
- Statements should not cast any doubt.

II. Documentation requirements
Your essay must adhere to standard documentation requirements:

- Font : Times New Roman
- Font Size : 12
- Spacing: : 1.5

Part 2: Details about the assignment

I. Learning outcomes

This assignment will assess your ability to:
- Demonstrate the application of directed research methods
- Conduct primary and secondary researches
- Perform a literature search using various electronic/physical means available
- Understand the ethical implications of performing research
- Understand the problems of plagiarism and be able to demonstrate appropriate referencing to avoid such claims
- Critically review and select sources of information
- Present research findings

II. Instruction

- Conduct a cross analysis on factors influencing the choice of academic major among students based on the THREE (3) given journals ONLY;J15, J16 & J17.
- Make sure that you cite all the THREE (3) journals and all in-text citations MUST be from the THREE (3) journals.
- You must use the following headings ONLY and some details are provided as a guideline for you to respond to each of the heading.
- You must follow the given word limit.

1.0 Introduction
Research objectives
- Background of the researches
2.0 Literature Review
- Critical evaluation of previous researches, frameworks and other relevant elements pertinent to Literature Review
3.0 Methodology
- Compare and contrast the relevant concepts in all the three journals (eg. Sample population, sample size, setting, data collection methods etc.)
- Analyse the appropriateness of the selected concepts in the journals
- Highlight limitations
- Compare and contrast the findings of the three journals
- Analyse the outcomes of the researches
- Propose your recommendations for future researches about the given topic and explain its significance
5.0 Conclusion
- Brief summary of the findings
- Inference drawn from the journals

b) GROUP ASSIGNMENT - Questionnaire & Presentation - 4th December 2015 (Friday)

- Form a group of 5-6 members within your tutorial group

- Imagine that you are the coordinator of the Curriculum Unit of A.P.U. and you have been assigned the task of finding out students' preferences on choosing their college major. Design a questionnaire using Google Drive to find out about students' preferences in choosing their choice of undergraduate programme (e.g.: engineering, business, IT, etc.).

- Your questionnaire should consist of two sections; demographic profile of respondents and the variables on choosing their choice of major. You must have at least 6 - 8 variables and 5-6 items for each variable.

- Conduct a mini research using the instrument (questionnaire) that you have created. Select 30 students from APU and e-mail the survey to the selected respondents. These students must not be your classmates. You are highly recommended to send the survey to more than the target size as some may not respond or you may encounter invalid responses.

- Questionnaire can only be sent upon approve of module lecturer

Introduction - Background of your research
- Research objective/s
- Limitation

Literature Review - Previous researches
Methodology - Sample population
- Sample size
- Setting
- Data collection method
- Provide brief information about the questionnaire
- highlight the variables
- Advantages and challenges of using questionnaire within the context of your research
- Presentation on Demographic Profile
Results, Discussion & Conclusion - Results - use graphics (tables/pie chart etc.) generated by Google Drive
- Critical analysis and interpretation about the Results

References - Acknowledge ALL the sources used in the completion of the assignment using Harvard Referencing Style

c) Presentation Guideline
- Presentation should be done in a linear fashion whereby each presenter will only appear once to present
- Reading from the slides word for word is strictly not allowed. Eye contact with audience is compulsory.
- Individuals who are absent for presentation will be awarded "0" (ZERO) for all components except for Questionnaire section.
- Sample layout of a slide (applicable for Results & Discussion only)

Attachment:- Assignment.rar