Engagement with Literature Skills

Engagement with Literature Skills
Your work must be informed and supported by scholarly material that is relevant to and focused on the task(s)
set; you should make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources, where appropriate (for example, refereed
research articles and/or original materials appropriate to the discipline). You should provide evidence that
you have accessed a wide range of sources, which may be academic, governmental and industrial; these
sources may include academic journal articles, textbooks, current news articles, organisational documents,
and websites. You should consider the credibility of your sources; academic journals are normally highly
credible sources while websites require careful consideration/selection and should be used sparingly. Any
sources you use should be current and up-to-date, mostly published within the last five years or so, though
seminal/important works in the field may be older. You must provide evidence of your research/own reading
throughout your work, using a suitable referencing system, including in-text citations in the main body of your
work and a reference list at the end of your work.
Guidance specific to this assessment: Your work must focus on given research topic. Your work
must include articles published by peer reviewed journals, conference proceedings, books, and related
website (e.g. IEEE, ACM, Science direct). Information from website such as EHow, wiki, forums, etc.
will not be accepted. Marks will be awarded for:
 The extent of research undertaken into the selected areas
 Selection of credible sources
 Application of appropriate referencing conventions (numerical referencing)
2. Knowledge and Understanding Skills
At level 6, you should be able to demonstrate coherent and detailed knowledge and a systematic
understanding of the subject area, at least some of which is informed by the latest research and/or advanced
scholarship within the discipline. You should be aware of the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge.
Your work must demonstrate the growing extent of your knowledge and systematic understanding of
concepts and underlying principles associated with the subject area. Knowledge relates to the facts,
information and skills you have acquired through your learning. You demonstrate your understanding by
interpreting the meaning of the facts and information (knowledge). This means that you need to select and
include in your work the concepts, techniques, models, theories, etc. appropriate to the task(s) set. You
should be able to explain the theories, concepts, etc. meaningfully to show your understanding. Your
mark/grade will also depend upon the extent to which you demonstrate your knowledge and understanding;
ideally each should be complete and detailed, with comprehensive coverage.
Guidance specific to this assessment: Your work must demonstrate the basic understanding of concepts
and underlying principles. You should explain and analyse the chosen topic in a meaningful way.
3. Cognitive and Intellectual Skills
You should be able to: critically evaluate evidence, arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts and data
some of which are at the forefront of a discipline (and that may be incomplete) to devise and sustain
arguments, to make judgements and/or solve problems; describe and comment upon particular aspects of
current research, or equivalent advanced scholarship, in the discipline Your work must contain evidence of
logical, analytical thinking, evaluation and synthesis. For example, to examine and break information down
into parts, make inferences, compile, compare and contrast information. This means not just describing
what! But also justifying: Why? How? When? Who? Where? At what cost? At all times, you must provide
justification for your arguments and judgements. Evidence that you have reflected upon the ideas of others
within the subject area is crucial to you providing a reasoned and informed debate within your work.
Furthermore, you should provide evidence that you are able to make sound judgements and convincing
arguments using data and concepts. Sound, valid conclusions are necessary and must be derived from the
content of your work. Where relevant, alternative solutions and recommendations may be proposed.Page 4 of