Contemporary Issues

(TH60102E)
Essay questions AY 2020/2021

Assessment 1
You are required to write an essay of 1,500 words on ONE of the following
essay questions. Please refer to your MSG distributed in class or via
Blackboard for further details including “General Advice on Essay Writing,”
the “Assessment Criteria”, the “Marking and Feedback Sheet”, “Harvard
Referencing & Plagiarism” as well as hand in date and procedures.

Question and Issue 1 (Tutor Liz Quick)

(Event delivery in a post Covid world).

With reference to specific examples critically evaluate how in a post Covid

world, events are shifting away from face to face to virtual or hybrid delivery.
What do you consider are the future implications of this change to the events
industry?

OR

Question and Issue 2 (Tutor Liz Quick)

(Event Policy and Regulation)

Recent changes in legislation mean that event venues and organisations need to
be more aware of regulations and implement them correctly to avoid potential
prosecution. Critically discuss with specific reference to one event policy or act.
 Essay Marking Criteria and Feedback Sheet
Assessment: 1 2 Date:

Student Number/Name:

Criteria Weighting 1st 2nd 2nd Marker’s comments

Research and Use of Literature 20

Content, Knowledge and Understanding 30

Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation 20

Organisation and Coherence 10

Clarity of Expression 10

Quality of Referencing 10

TOTAL 100

First Marker: Second Marker:

Agreed Mark: % Signature(s):

Useful Resources to help you:

Key Strengths: In The Library:

Library materials on research/ searching

Academic Journal Databases

Blackboard under Academic Skills:

Research Skills

Critical Thinking and Writing

Mind Mapping

Writing Essays and Academic Writing

Paraphrasing, Summarizing and Quoting

Referencing and Plagiarism

Key areas to work on: Other:

Please see the feedback comments below which will give more details on what to do to improve your work. If
there is a tick in the ‘work on this’ column this indicates what you need to work on most. The feedback
should be used to help you improve future assessments. Please see your tutor for individual feedback if you
have any queries or want to discuss any aspect of this feedback.

Research and Use of Literature Work

The study must demonstrate an appropriate use of academic literature/research, which is on
appropriate to the study. this

 The information should be from a range of sources (textbooks, research articles, websites)

 The sources used should be of sound academic quality

 The sources should be up to date

 Course notes should provide a foundation for the work but further research is required

Content, Knowledge and Understanding

The content must clearly and explicitly explore the issues required.

 The information included should be relevant to the title or question set

 The relevance of the information should be made explicit

 All terms should be clearly defined before any subsequent commentary or explanation

 The work should cover key points and demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the topic
area
The work should use examples to demonstrate application and understanding

Comments on research and content:

Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation

There should be a clear critical analysis of relevant issues, which are well integrated and evaluated, as appropriate
The evidence presented should be explained, questioned and commented on rather than just described

The academic arguments should be convincing and demonstrate ability to evaluate the evidence

There should be a comparison of differing viewpoints and a consideration of the evidence on which they are based,
leading you to form your own conclusions
Organisation and Coherence
The work should be clearly structured and presented
 A clear introduction outlining what will be discussed in the work should be included “This
essay will..”
 The work should not normally include lists, bullet points, headings, diagrams or appendices

 A new paragraph should indicate a change in direction and the discussion of new ideas with
a topic sentence to indicate what that paragraph is about
 There should be a line between paragraphs
  The average length of paragraphs should be 5-7 sentences

 Short (2/3 sentence) paragraphs should be avoided as they disrupt the flow of text and
prevent sufficient depth of explanation
 The topic of the work should be discussed in a logical manner so that sentences and
paragraphs build on from one another, rather than appear as a series of unconnected
sentences
 Repeating or returning to ideas should be avoided as this can cause confusion or imply that
the ideas being presented have not been fully understood
 Paragraphs should be connected via the use of linking words/phrases e.g. in addition,
however, conversely, therefore, arguably, on the other hand etc. to aid the flow of the text
 A conclusion summarising the key points and explicitly drawing conclusions on the
question/topic should be included. No new information should be included.
Clarity of Expression Work
Work should be clearly expressed, articulate and fluent with accurate spelling, grammar and punctuation on
this

 The use of the first and second person in an academic essay should be avoided and the
more formal third person should be used. e.g. avoid I, we, you, our, your, she etc
 A suitably formal writing style should be used as opposed to a conversational style

 Words such as because, but, and, whereas, etc are joining words and should only be used
to link parts of a sentence and not to start sentences
 Typing errors should be minimal – proofreading will detect these

 Sentence construction should result in the intended meaning being conveyed

 Recognised abbreviations should always be stated in full first time along with the
abbreviation in brackets e.g. World Health Organisation (WHO)
 Abbreviated forms of words should be avoided and written in full e.g. ‘didn’t’ should be ‘did
not’
 The spelling, grammar and punctuation should be correct

 The work should be concise and articulate

Quality of referencing
All key sources should be cited, and a consistent and accurate use of Harvard referencing system should be
maintained
 You should write in your own words by paraphrasing and summarising the published work
and not rely on ‘cut and paste’
 Quotations should be an exact copy of the original text

 Unnecessary use of quotations should be avoided – on average one or two short quotations
per page is sufficient – any more means that you are not writing enough in your own words
 Short quotations (less than two lines) should be in quotation marks, italicised and be
included in the text
 Longer quotations should be in quotation marks, italicised and be indented separately

 References should consist of the name of the author (surname, nor first names or initials) or
name of organisation and the year of publication. (DTI 2020) If a quotation is used, the page
number is also required (Brown 2021:23)
 Website addresses and URL’s should not appear in the text of your work

 Secondary references should be used sparingly and referenced appropriately e.g. Ellis and
Wood (2019 cited in Brown 2020)
 The use of brackets () in references should be used appropriately depending on whether or
not the author’s name is part of the sentence
 The references in the text should be an exact match of the entries in the bibliography
 The Reference list should:
 Be in the Harvard convention as specified in the Citations Handbook i.e.
 Have all relevant information
 be at the end of your work
 be a single listing and not be sub-divided into cited references and non-cited references
 be a single listing and not sub-divided into books, journals, Internet sources etc.
 be in alphabetical order of authors’ surnames
 be single spaced with a blank line between each reference
 not be numbered or have bullet points
 have all spellings correct, with appropriate use of spacing, commas, full stops and italics etc