Review of Financial Performance Business Paper

1. there are 2 main parts [A] The portfolio of research – what you need to doYou need to convince the marker that you have undertaken a Masters level amount of independent study into the corporate governance of a premium listed UK company. To do this you need to complete a portfolio of research for a FTSE 350 company of your choice. Full details of what the portfolio of research needs to contain are in an Excel file called “Portfolio of Research Requirement”. Please study this Excel file carefully – it is in the “Assessment” folder of the BlackBoard site. An example of how to set out your portfolio of research is contained in the Word document called “Example layout for the portfolio of research”. Please study this Word file carefully – it is in the “Assessment” folder of the BlackBoard site. You can present your portfolio using:The portfolio of research contains compulsory sections, and optional sections. All students must make a good attempt at the compulsory sections to pass the module.Your tutor will help you begin to prepare your portfolio of research in the taught seminars. However, it is your responsibility to complete the portfolio of research in your own time outside of the seminars. If you have any questions about how to prepare a specific aspect of your portfolio of research please ask your tutor in the relevant seminar. In our experience, if you want to pass the module, you will need to spend time before, during, and after each seminar completing the required work. You will not have enough time to complete the portfolio of research in a rush one week before the coursework needs handing in. In our experience, some students underestimate how much time and effort will be required to pass this module. To say it again: this is a Masters level module, and you must be prepared to undertake a significant amount of independent study to be able to pass the module. [B] Critical reflection – quality control statement The requirement for the critical reflection is set out on page 5. Before you study the requirement, please consider the quality control statement carefully. Quality control statementYou must convince the marker that your critical reflection is: To achieve a plagiarism free piece of work we recommend that students use the Two Colour Technique and the “Quote” and (Cite) Technique.Further details about how to achieve a plagiarism free piece of work are set out on pages 17 to 18, and also pages 20 to 30 of this briefing.The specific requirement is explained on the next page.[B] Critical Reflection – Requirement Word count: minimum 2,000 words and maximum 3,000 wordsChoose a selection of Corporate Governance issues to analyse and critically discuss. Guidance about how to make this selection is provided in this briefing on pages 7 and 8. For each issue that you chose to discuss:1. Present a carefully prepared table, or tables, that summarise the relevant research that you conducted into the issue for your chosen coursework company. 2. For each issue: describe your key observations. Key means the observations that are the most important for a reader to understand if they are to be convinced and compelled by your critical argument. Use carefully selected and (cited) “quotes” from the AR&A to support and develop this description. All (citations) from the AR&A must include a year and a page number, for example: (AR&A, 2020, pp.127).3. Explain how each key observation links to the UK Corporate Governance Code. Ensure that you carefully “quote” and (cite) appropriate each section of the Code that you (cite). All (citations) must include the exact page number of the Code from where the “quote” was taken from, for example: (UK CG Code, 2018, A, pp. 4).4. Critically discuss each issue from a corporate governance perspective. Guidance on how to create a suitable critical discussion is provided in this briefing on pages 11 to 16. Before you draw your conclusion, you are encouraged to write a section that attempts to critically connect the issues that you have discussed. End your critical reflection with a short conclusion that summarises the most important findings and arguments presented. Do not include any new material in your conclusion. Important clarification about Master’s requirements in the UKIn the UK you must attempt to answer all the parts of the requirement. You cannot just do the easier bits and hope to pass! To pass the critical reflection you will need to demonstrate to the marker that you have interacted with all the 4 key action phrases: present; describe what; explain how; and critically discuss.How to choose a suitable selection of Corporate Governance issues The issues that you choose to discuss must be supported by the research that is evidenced in your portfolio of research. Choose issues that you feel most confident to analyse and discuss.Strong students are encouraged to choose issues that connect with each other. In this way you will be able to create a compelling, and connected, critical argument that flows through your entire piece of work. We cannot tell you exactly how many issues you will need to talk about. Stronger students will tend to talk about fewer issues than other students but will explore them in a more sustained and rigorous manner. Here are some examples of issues that students have discussed in the past.Always use sub-headings to identify each issue you discuss. How many sections – or, issues – should you cover?The basic rule is that “quality” is better than “quantity”. Nobody will know how much they are going to write for a section, until they have a go at writing a section. We suggest that you choose one issue to discuss, and then draft a section about this issue.After you have drafted this section, move onto working on another section. In this way you will be able to guage how many sections you will ultimately need.The most important thing is to make sure you always make sure that within each section you always: present a table or tables; describe what your key observations are; explain how these link to the UK Corporate Governance Code; and attempt to critically discuss the governance. Pages 11 to 16 provided detailed advice about how to create a critical argument.