develop the skills from previous assignments and class exercises into a full research proposal for a research project of your own choice.

Assignment two – individual research proposal
Assignment Task/Brief

You are expected to develop the skills from previous assignments and class exercises into a full research proposal for a research project of your own choice. This may, or may not be, the topic you decide on for your final year. You should think of it as a chance to explore planning and property development issues that interest you and to demonstrate and improve the critical reading, reasoning, and research skills we have been working on throughout the module. You will also have to demonstrate academic writing and referencing skills, hopefully to an improved level from Assignment 1.

Further instructions – what is the output?
In terms of content, your assignment should contain:
a) Title – should be short and sharp setting out the research question

b) Short Rationale – This should be a short paragraph describing the main issue that you are examining. If someone were to ask you what you are doing for your dissertation, this would be the answer.

c) Literature review – Think of it as the context or scene setting for your research. It should summarize ‘current thinking’ on the issue and contain the majority of references for this assignment. You are advised to source and read widely and try to improve upon your skills and work undertaken in Assignment 1. As a guide this section should be approximately 750- Oxford Brookes University 7 850 words. You should use an academic style of writing; developing arguments using your sources and using reasoning and inference to make clear points.

d) The research aim and a set of objectives with a working hypothesis (if appropriate) for your dissertation.

e) Your research approach and methods – this should specify: what approach you think is appropriate for your research and why; the methods you intend to use to collect information – your reasoning should connect your chosen methods and your research questions. As a guide this section should be between 750-850 words. You should use an academic style of writing and reference your sources.

f) A list of references at the end in the Harvard style which sets out all the sources you have cited in the text.

Support and feedback on your preparations for the assignment is via small group tutorials.

You will be assigned a tutor who will support you with this assignment. Bring drafts of work with you to discuss in your tutorial session – the more work you do in advance the more useful the feedback will be!

How will it be assessed?
The Assessment Criteria are:
Significance and clarity of the problem definition (rationale for the research)
Evidence of review of literature on the state-of-the-art and the degree of critical appraisal of the literature
Clarity of the aim, objectives, and research question and hypothesis (if applicable) Research design and appropriateness of chosen research methods Presentation including referencing

Presenting coursework for assessment
Your assignment must be presented in the following format:
❑ It must be word-processed in 11 point Arial font
❑ All pages must be numbered
❑ Margins must be as follows: Top: 1 inch, Bottom: 1 inch (2.5 cm), Left: 1.25 inches, Right: 1.25 inches (3.2 cm)
❑ It should not contain your name

Assignment length
The length of an assignment is limited by a set number of words to contribute towards the development of writing skills and to ensure all work is assessed equitably. We therefore require you to complete your assignments within the number of words specified in the assignment brief.
The specified word count refers to the main body of the report and does not include front cover, title page, contents page, executive summary, reference list, bibliography or
appendices.
The word count does include headings, tables and in-text citations, but not equations or diagrams.
Appendices themselves will not be marked. However, inappropriate use of appendices will be taken into consideration when awarding the final mark.
Words that exceed the maximum allowed will not be marked. If in doubt, you should discuss this with the Module Leader before submission.