Coursework instructions:

Your assignment should be 1,250 words maximum.
The word count excludes the two full references at the start of the piece, the table detailing five relevant articles you have read, and the list of references at the end of the document. In-text citations are included in the word count.
Your first task is to find five empirical research articles published in good quality, peer-reviewed journals in the last five years, and complete a Literature Review Table (to be included in an Appendix). You should choose articles on the same topic written by different authors and published in at least two different journals. The articles must be available to read in English. Your five articles should include at least one example of qualitative research and at least one example of quantitative research. The topic should be relevant to your
degree programme. This is a good place to begin your search.
From your Literature Review Table, choose TWO articles to review in detail.
Your assignment must be written entirely in your own words and should begin with the full Harvard reference for each of your TWO chosen articles (excluded from the word count), and a brief summary of how you found these
articles (no more than 150 words, included in the word count). The main body of the text should be in 12pt Arial or Times New Roman with 1.5 or double line spacing. Pages should be numbered.
Your assignment must be written in your own words. Do not copy any words from the work of others. You will need to cite and reference the work and ideas of others, and may need to quote directly –

Assessment Criteria: Your submission will be evaluated against a rubric, which we will cover in detail in the first of our two assessment workshops.
Feedback on your work will be returned to you by Thursday
A suggested structure for the main body of the assignment (with some questions to get you thinking) follows:

Introduction
What interests you about this topic and how is it relevant to your degree programme? Why have you chosen these two articles? What is each article about? What is the geographical context of each research article? What are the research questions and how do these compare to each other?

Literature review
Are the literature reviews relevant to the topic? Do the literature reviews miss any important sources or arguments within the field? Are the reviews similar or different, and can you explain this similarity or difference? Does each article support the existing literature, or offer a challenge?

Research Philosophy
Is the research philosophy clearly outlined in each article? How would you describe the research philosophies of the articles? Are they different or similar?

Data Collection
A summary of the way in which the researchers collected data, including information about the sample/participants. What are the differences in approaches to collecting data? What sort of data are the researchers collecting? Are the data collection tools and techniques clearly described or
difficult to understand? How do the articles justify their approaches? Do the researchers consider the advantages and disadvantages of their chosen methods? Did the researchers encounter any challenges in collecting the data?

Data Analysis
A summary of the way in which the researchers analysed the data. What are the differences in approaches to analysing the data? Are the data analysis tools and techniques clearly described or difficult to understand? Do the researchers consider the advantages and disadvantages of their chosen methods? Did the researchers encounter any challenges in analysing the data?

Research Ethics
Do the authors note any ethical issues with their research, and if so then how do they account for or overcome these? Are the ethical issues in each article similar or different?

Findings
What are the main findings of each article and how do these compare? Are the findings of each article reasonable and well-supported by evidence? In what ways are they reasonable or not reasonable? What are the main contributions of the articles and are these similar or different?

References
A list of all sources that you have cited in your assignment, in the Harvard style, listed in alphabetical order by author surname.