Academic report

You are required to carry out secondary research on a specific topic for your award using the University’s Learning Centre resources, with the objective of writing a short report on your findings. Your sources must be correctly cited and referenced. You must select and write an INDIVIDUAL report on one of the topics below: 1. What can be done to improve usability of a website? 2. How does testing improve software quality? To do this you should: • Research your topic using secondary academic sources available from the UoW Learning Centre. • Analyse your findings from your secondary research to identify the issues relevant to your topic. • Discuss your findings in your own words in your report, explaining the relevance to your chosen topic. • Correctly reference and cite any sources used in your report using the Harvard Referencing System. The report should be 1200 words in length and it should be presented in report format. Please state your word count at the end of your report. The main objectives of this task is to demonstrate your ability to carry out effective secondary research using academic quality resources, to discuss the results of your findings in your own words and to properly reference your work. Your report should adequately demonstrate these skills. Your use of correctly referenced citations will have a major impact on your grade. It is expected that you will use the UoW Learning Centre Resources for your research. The range of sources available is considerable and you would be expected to include traditional ones, such as books, journals, newspapers and magazines, and other sources including electronic ones using the UoW Learning Centre online resources (e.g. databases, e-journals, e-books etc.). If appropriate, visual and audio sources should also be included. If necessary, you may also use the internet for your research. However research using sources entirely from the internet is not acceptable for this assignment and your work will be marked down accordingly. Please note you should concentrate your research on sources of Academic quality. You must not copy from your sources word for word, but interpret the information given and put it in your own words. You will not be marked down for poor background knowledge of the topic area. However, in order to complete this task effectively you are expected to carry out research using a wide range of resources to provide you with sufficient knowledge of the topic to enable you to complete the report. Harvard referencing must be correctly used throughout the report. You will be marked down for a purely descriptive approach in your report. Description is important in setting the scene, but even more important is your analysis and discussion of your secondary research findings. The report must include a full References List and a Bibliography. References You must use the Harvard Referencing system to correctly cite your sources in your report and to give full reference details of the sources in your Reference list.