CW2 Professional Report students will write on one of the following global challenges:
-Climate Change and Poverty
-Refugees and Humanitarian Action
-Impact of Covid-19 on structural inequalities (income, poverty, education, skills, intergenerational, young people)
-Gender-based Rights at work
The professional report should be written in the style of a background report published by NGOs (like ActionAid, Save the Children, CARE or Oxfam). You can base the selected topic in a specific country context. Through desk based of grey literature including reports, working papers, government documents, white papers and evaluations published by governmental and non governmental organizations online and empirical data, where possible you will explain the background and context of the selected challenge. You will also explain what are the programes conducted by NGOs operating there and what are the policy recommendations for governments and international organizations like UN. Please avoid newspapers, Wikipedia, Economist and unsolicited blogs as sources.
The recommended structure of the professional report could be as follows, and the word count is a rough guide. You can adapt the structure and word count as needed.:
Introduction (200 words) Explain the focus of the report, the approach and the outline. Remember each report should have a specific thematic focus and this must he explained here.
Background and Context (500 words) Explain the political, social and economiccauses of the selected challenge. Here you can describe the the nature of the challenge from local, national, regional and international levels, making connections with social, economic, political and environmental factors where possible. Also, you could reflect on the significance of addressing the challenge for global commitment to sustainable development futures.
Issues and Challenges (500 words) Explain the key issues and challenges faced by the local communities, covering for intra-community differences based on gender, income, age, occupation where possible.
Highlight of Current Programmes (300) Describe 1-2 programmes currently undertaken by NGOs or governments, which are relevant to the report’s thematic focus.
Policy Recommendations (300 words) Suggest clear policy recommendations here. Remember, the policies should tally with the thematic focus.
Conclusion and Future Steps (200 words)
Assessment criteria
Grading patterns
Essay assessment is a complex process that cannot be reduced to a simple formula. However, it is possible to articulate some of the features that your lecturers will expect to find in each of the marking categories.
First class essays (70-100%)will: address the question or title; follow a structured and signposted sequence; demonstrate familiarity with the relevant literature; present an analysis and evaluation of the ideas and theories discussed; reveal internal integration and coherence; use references and examples to support the claims and arguments made; provide detailed references and sources in the bibliography or reference section; be written in good and grammatically correct English. Differences within the range are usually attributable to differences in the quality of analysis and evaluation and internal integration and coherence.
Upper second class essays (60-69%) will: address the title; follow a structured sequence; demonstrate familiarity with relevant literature; use references and examples. The difference between essays in this class and a first class pieced of work is often the quality of the analysis and evaluation presented and the degree to which it is integrated around its central theme.
Lower second class work (50-59%) may show weaknesses with regard to a number of the features mentioned above. Generally, the analysis and evaluation may be poor, so that the work fails to convey an unified consideration of the topic under discussion. Often, for example, ideas and theories will be presented but not related to each other, so that the reader is left to draw his / her own conclusions. This may also mean that the material presented is not used to address the question but is simply included as vaguely relevant. Finally the sequential structure of essays in this category could usually be improved.
Third class essays (40-49%) tend to have weaknesses with regard to most of the features mentioned above. They tend not to address the question in a precise way, to be poorly structured and show little by way of analysis or evaluation of the ideas presented. This, of course, means that they are not well integrated. Finally, the grasp of the literature demonstrated in such an essay may not be good, though it will be adequate in the sense that there are no major misconceptions or obvious omissions.
Failed essays (30-39%) are, at best, manifestly failing with regard to a number of the features mentioned above. In particular, their demonstration of familiarity with the literature is usually poor and their structure difficult to discern.
Essays which are of extremely poor quality will receive marks that are under 30%. We use the full spectrum of marks.
