MARIA NIKISHINA 1

BCOBM111 Business Management Final Assignment (Formalities)

The management report must be:

• Concise and go straight to the point.

• Well argued: we can clearly see what you are writing and how this happens.

• Good structured

• Demonstrate a combination of skills that combine theory and practice.

• Distilled and synthesized

• Academically based

Structure of the report:

• Cover Page (on a separate page)

o Institution: EU Business School

o Course: Business Management

o Title: Make this title specific to the assignment you are submitting – do not use the module title.
(e.g. Final Assignment: Planning & Decision Making and Leadership & Motivation)

o Professor’s name: Maria Nikishina

o Student’s name:

o Submission date: January 21ST , 2024

• Table of Contents (on a separate page)

o Section and sub-section titles should be aligned to the left, and page numbers to the right.

• Introduction

o Attract the Reader’s Attention. Answer the question “Why should I read this?” (Begin your
introduction with a “hook” that grabs your reader’s attention and introduces the general topic. Here
are some suggestions on how to create a “hook”)

o State Your Focused Topic (What is your paper about? Why is this topic important? This part of
the introduction can include background information on your topic that helps to establish its
context.)

• Main body

o Discuss the Case Studies, each on a separate page. Make sure that, with your essay, you answer
all the proposed questions.

• Conclusions

o One of the key aspects of a business report conclusion is summarizing the information for your
reader. Your summary should mirror your opening, recapping highlights that lead to a conclusion.

o Avoid details, because you’ve already provided them in your report and can make assumptions
the reader will accept. Highlight only the key points that summarize your main pieces of
information, which might include new, important facts, projections, or a justification for the reader.
Most importantly, don’t introduce any information in the conclusion that wasn’t in the actual report
because this may confuse your reader.

• Bibliography (References and Sources)

MARIA NIKISHINA 2

o References must be taken from sources such as books, academic papers and reliable websites
(e.g. organizations, associations and consultants websites)

o You should cite publications in the text: (Adams, 2006) using the first author’s name; or (Adams
and Brown, 2006) citing both names of two; or (Adams et al., 2006) when there are three or more
authors. For example:

▪ Hines et al. (2004) mention that much of the discussion in academic circles about lean thinking still
centers around the shop-floor

▪ Nystuen (2002) reports that lean management has helped some organizations to reduce its product
lead time by up to 11%.

▪ Lean Manufacturing is currently considered the most important approach to manufacturing (Liker
and Sanders, 2005)

o At the end of the paper a reference list in alphabetical order should be supplied:

▪ For books: Surname, Initials (year), Title of Book, Publisher, Place of publication.
For example: Harrow, R. (2005), No Place to Hide, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY.

▪ For journals: Surname, Initials (year), “Title of article”, Journal Name, volume, number, pages.
For example: Capizzi, M.T. and Ferguson, R. (2005), “Loyalty trends for the twenty-first century”,
Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 72-80.

▪ For published conference proceedings: Surname, Initials (year of publication), “Title of paper”,
Title of published proceeding which may include place and date(s) held, Publisher, Place of
publication, Page numbers. For example: Garza-Reyes, J.A, Eldridge, S. and Barber, K. (2006),
“Using discrete-event simulation and Taguchi methods to analyze the Overall Equipment
Effectiveness of an automated bottling process”, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference
on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM), Limerick, Republic of Ireland, June
26-28, 2006

▪ For electronic sources: if available online the full URL should be supplied at the end of the
reference, as well as a date that the resource was accessed. For example: Castle, B. (2005),
“Introduction to web services for remote portlets”, available at: http://www-
128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/ws-wsrp/ (accessed 12 November 2007).

• Appendices

o Appendices should only present complementary information that expands on what has already
been included in the main body of the document.

o They should not be used to detail relevant information that has not been included in the main body
of the report.

o They can be used to include graphs, tables, figures, and images.

o They should be numbered, and a list of appendices created following the Table of Contents (on a
separate page).

Word count:

• Introduction

• Main Body (1500 words ±10%). Points will be deducted if this criterion is not met.

• Conclusions

• Cover Page, Table of Contents, References and Appendices are excluded of the total wordcount.

MARIA NIKISHINA 3

Format and Style:

• Use just one font, size, and color. Font: Arial 11 pts.

• Text alignment: Justified.

• Personal Writing vs Academic Writing

o You must use only an academic writing, always avoiding “I feel…”, “I believe…”, “I think…”, “I
have found…”, etc. The plural form of the 1st person is also not recommended “We feel…”, “We
believe…”, “We think…”, “We have found…”, etc. Instead, you need to use an impersonal form:
“It has been found…”, “It is proven…”, “It is recommended…”, etc.

Personal Writing Academic Writing

• Tells a story • Comments, argues, analyses

• Non-technical vocabulary • Subject-specific vocabulary

• ‘I’ at the centre • ‘I’ as observer and commentator

• Information comes from the
writer’s experience

• Information comes from sources
and refers to what others say

• Personal views and feelings • Evidence and arguments

• Conventions for citation

Recommendations:

1. Read all the material discussed in class regarding.

2. Identify the most relevant concepts and establish the relations between them.

3. Always start the development of each case study by providing academic definitions of the concepts that
you will use.

4. Apply the concepts according to the questions of each case study.

5. State your findings very clearly at the end of each case study.

6. Don’t forget to include an overall introduction at the beginning of the assignment and overall conclusions
at the end.

7. Read all the report when you finish to check the coherence, format, style, etc.