Elevate Your Academic Excellence: A First Marker’s Checklist for Success!
As a first marker, these are the essential elements I scrutinise to ensure your work meets the highest standards. From research evidence to critical analysis, and structured presentation, this guide will help you refine your dissertation or thesis and achieve success.
Dive in to understand what markers are really looking for and elevate your work to the next level....
- Evidence of Research: Ensure that relevant documents are included in the appendices. Check all research supporting documents such as PCF, PIS, Interview transcripts, Sample/survey data, Survey questionnaire/Interview questions, record of Dissertation supervisor meetings, thematic table/analysis/map and any other if needed.
- Structure and Completeness: Verify that all sections and chapters are accurate and complete.
- Critical Writing and Evaluation: Particularly for Level 7 students, I look for critical analysis and evaluation. This includes a critical evaluation of the intervention undertaken.
- Literature Review: Ensure that the literature review is critically written, synthesised, and compared. There should be critical engagement with wider academic literature related to the key research area. With the chosen topic of study, it’s essential to explore relevant academic and professional literatures. This involves examining the current state of knowledge, key developments, and engaging with debates to frame the research. Appropriate critical engagement with relevant literature is crucial.
- Main body of the Literature Review: Summarise and synthesise literature research findings, ideas, key theories, and concepts. Highlight similarities and differences, critically evaluate strengths and weaknesses, contribute your own opinions, analyse and interpret findings, and discuss their significance. Use well-structured paragraphs with transitions and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts. Highlight previous themes, time periods, and methodologies. Make judgements, identify limitations, and agree or disagree with authors. Identify gaps, debates, or contradictions/conflicts in the literature. Discuss methods used, identify trends and patterns in theory, method, or results, and look for influential theories or studies that have been pivotal. Contextualise your own research, distinguish between facts and opinions, demonstrate your knowledge and ideas, and highlight inconsistencies, omissions, lack of evidence, or bias. Justify your arguments. Mostly importantly, have your critical voice.
- Research Objectives, Aim, and Questions: Check that these elements, along with the title, are clear and concise. Ensure there is a brief background and rationale for the project, including research aims and objectives.
- Justification of Methodology: Assess the rationale behind the chosen research methodology. There should be a critical analysis that provides a clear justification in terms of philosophy, methodology, data collection, and analysis. The chosen methodology should demonstrate an awareness of the importance of research ethics, with applied and selective use of research methodology literature to justify the approach taken to data collection and analysis.
- Presentation and Evaluation of Results: Confirm that results are properly presented and critically evaluated with respect to the literature. Evaluate the research conducted and the extent to which the objectives have been met. Explore what has changed (or will change) as a result of the intervention, and what learning has been achieved. Critically evaluate the findings based on existing literature.
- Conclusion Chapter: This chapter should include key conclusions, limitations, recommendations, future research directions, and implications, if any.
- Reflection: Ensure that the reflection is critically written. This should include reflection on personal and professional implications. Critically reflect on your learning and how the theories and concepts used might impact yourself and the wider organisational context. Include articulation of your next steps as a result of the work you have done and any barriers encountered. Conduct a reflexive analysis of the personal and professional implications of the competencies gained.
- Referencing and Citations: Verify that all references and citations adhere to APA 7th style. Ensure references are in alphabetical order. Ensure referencing enables clear attribution, enhances understanding, and that the reference list is accurate and follows all conventions for different source materials.
- Overall Presentation and Communication: Ensure the work has a good structure. It should be creatively, logically, and coherently structured, with convincing development of arguments. Communication should clearly apply academic language to enhance meaning. The work should be well presented, demonstrating postgraduate written and academic skills.
