2.4.1 Job Application
Weight: 30%
Type of Collaboration: Individual
Due: Week 7. Before Friday, 6 September 2019, at 1PM.
Submission: To submit this assessment, you need to complete the online job application and submit it electronically. This will constitute your submission. No hard copy submission is required.
Format: Job application (including E-portfolio) (1500 words) Completion of a job application and the first part of the ePortfolio.
Length: 1500 words
Curriculum Mode:
Part one
Students are required to complete a job application for this assessment. A list of nine to eleven ’position vacancies’ will become available on vUWS in week 2. Students need to choose one position and fill in an application for it. The application will consist of addressing seven selection criteria, out of which five will be job specific and the remaining two will be generic for all applications. They are;
1. Understanding Equity and Diversity.
2. Awareness and Competence regarding the workplace health and safety issues.
A guide on where to find and how to commence the job application will be posted on vUWS in week two.
Part two
Students are required to set up their ePortfolios in WordPress in order to be in a position to complete this aspect of the assessment. The ePortfolios need to be set up like the following example: https://veljanovablog.wordpress.com/. Information on how to get started with the e-Portfolios is located in the e-Portfolio content folder located in the main course menu on vUWS.
Once the e-Portfolios are set up, for the purposes of this assessment students need to develop the following text widgets:
1. About professional practice (100 words)
2. About inter-professionalism (100 words)
3. About ethical practice (100 words)
4. (DEGREE) GRADUATE SKILL SET & KNOWLEDGE: Generic (100 words) and specialised (100 words).
Once this is developed students will have to provide a copy of their e-Portfolios URL in the specified section in their job application workbooks.
Details
Submission method:
To submit this assessment, you need to complete the online job application and submit it electronically. This will constitute your submission. No hard copy submission is required.
Is this assessment compulsory? Yes, you must complete this assessment in order to be eligible to pass the unit (as explained in Section 5) regardless of the aggregate mark you achieve across assessments. Is Cover Sheet required? No.
Late penalty: If the assignment is submitted (without an approved extension) on or after the due date and time and before 2:00pm on the following day, it will be one day late and will occur a penalty of 10% of the weighting (i.e., 2 marks). If submitted on or after 2:00pm on the day following the due date it will be two days late and will incur a
20% penalty, and so on for each day (including weekends) it is late up to a maximum of 10 days, at which time the penalty will be 100% of what the assignment is worth (please see section 4.5 ’Late Penalty’ from the SSAP guide). Assessments will not be accepted after the marked assessment task has been returned to students who submitted the task on time. Also see section on Extension, Special Consideration, and late assignment penalties in attached Social Sciences Student Resources document.
Marking Criteria:
Marking standards and criteria will be made available in the relevant assessment folders on vUWS in week 2.
Weight: 40%
Type of Collaboration: Individual
Due: Week 13. Due before Friday, 18 October 2019 at 1pm.
Submission: Turnitin submission only.
Format: Position Paper (including e-portfolio) (1700 Words) Position paper and the third part of the ePortfolio
Length: 1700 words
Curriculum Mode:
Overview
There are two parts to this assessment too: [1] the position paper (1600 words) and [2] the third part of the ePortfolio (100 words).
Part one (1600 words)
Position papers are used in a wide variety of contexts and for different purposes in academic and non-academic workplaces. Governments, political parties, non-government organisations and the business/corporate sector alike use position papers to communicate their approach to issues, to outline and ground discussions, to contribute to policy debates on a specific issue and to advocate for the positions of various stakeholders/organisations. In an applied debate context, a position paper presents one side of an argument about a particular issue. A position paper describes a position on an issue and the rationale for that position. It is based on evidence that provides a solid foundation for your argument. Its purpose is to generate support on/for an issue and to convince the audience/reader that your position (on the issue) is valid and defensible. More specifically, the goal is to present a compelling case justifying your position and the merits of the course of action you propose for solving the problem (where appropriate).
In the position paper you should:
- Use evidence to support your position, such as statistical evidence or dates and events.
- Validate your position with authoritative references or primary source quotations.
- Examine the strengths and weaknesses of your position.
- Evaluate possible solutions and suggest courses of action.
[1] Choose an issue/topic from the list of issues/topics provided or [2] approach your tutor with a topic of your choice. The issues/topics will be announced on vUWS in week 7.
Your position paper should be developed using evidence and solid reasoning. You may choose an issue on which you have already formed an opinion. However, in writing about this issue you must examine your opinion of the issue critically. Prior to writing your position paper, define and limit your issue carefully. Social issues are complex with multiple solutions and you may need to narrow the topic/issue of your position paper to something that is manageable. Research your issue thoroughly, consulting the literature (and where appropriate, experts in the field) and obtaining primary documents. Consider feasibility, cost-effectiveness and political/social climate when evaluating possible solutions and courses of action.
The following structure is typical of a position paper:
1. An introduction
- Identification of the issue (background information)
- Statement of your position (main thesis statement)
2. The body
- A discussion of both sides of the issue (summary and limitations)
- Reasons why you position is stronger
- Supporting evidence or facts
3. A conclusion
- Suggested courses of action
- Possible solutions
The introduction has a dual purpose: to indicate both the topic or issue and your approach to it (your position or thesis statement) and to catch the reader’s attention.
A position or thesis statement is a short statement or assertion about your topic, something you claim to be true. A topic alone does not assert anything: it merely defines an area to be covered (such as a lecture topic). A thesis statement should be concise, clear and focused - clearly stating your position on the issue in one or two sentences.
Before you can come up with your position on any topic, you have to collect and organise evidence, including research and theoretical perspectives (i.e. this means doing a literature search). Look for possible relationships between the available data and reflect on the beneath-the-surface significance of these relationships.
You are then in a position to develop a ’working thesis’ or argument that you think will make sense of the evidence. The body of the position paper may contain several paragraphs. Each paragraph should present an idea or main concept that clarifies a portion of the position statement and is supported by evidence or facts. Evidence can be primary source quotations, statistical data, interviews with experts (where appropriate), and indisputable dates or events.
Evidence should lead, through inductive reasoning, to the main concept or idea presented in the paragraph. The body may begin with some background information and should incorporate a discussion of both sides of the issue. The conclusion should summarize the main concepts and ideas and reinforce, without repeating, the introduction or body of the paper. It could include suggested courses of action and possible solutions (where appropriate).
An effective position paper is persuasive, evidence-based, balanced and measured, well-structured and coherent and understandable. It is not simply a diatribe for or against something. For further information about writing a position paper please read chapter 11 from Johnson-Sheehan, R. and Paine, C., 2009. Writing Today [online],
Pearson Education, available at: http://www.pearsonhighered.com/showcase/johnson-sheehan/assets/ch11.pdf
Part two (100 words)
For the purposes of this assessment students need to develop the following section of the ’(Degree) graduate skill set and knowledge’ text widgets in the ePortfolios:
1.Applied debating: Developing position papers
Once this is developed, students will have to provide a copy of their ePortfolios URL at the end of their position paper, following their conclusion and recommendation section. Details
Submission method: Turnitin submission only.
Is assessment compulsory? Yes, you must complete this assessment in order to be eligible to pass the unit (as explained in Section 5) regardless of the aggregate mark you achieve across assessments.
Is Cover Sheet required? No.
Late penalty: If the assignment is submitted (without an approved extension) after the due date and time and before 12pm on the following day, it will be one day late and will occur a penalty of 10% of the weighting (i.e., 5 marks in this case). If submitted after 12 pm on the day following the due date it will be two days late and will incur a 20% penalty, and so on for each day (including weekends) it is late up to a maximum of 10 days, at which time the penalty will be 100% of what the assignment is worth (please see section 4.5 ’Late Penalty’ from the SSAP guide). Assessments will not be accepted after the marked assessment task has been returned to students who submitted the task on time. Also see section on Extension, Special Consideration, and late assignment penalties in attached Social Sciences Student Resources document.