Reflection on Module Content Personal reflection refers to the skills that a person has and in what areas he needs to improve. The objective of this task is to evaluate the person’s skill. Dyment and O’Connell (2010) defined personal reflection as a tool to assess the skill and abilities. According to Randolph (2009) personal reflection is necessary because it provides a picture of person’s success and failures and suggests how to improve the flaws. While working on my project, ‘Independent Business Analysis, I came across many of my strengths and weaknesses. In the next section of this report I will throw light on each and every part of the analysis. To work on the project I learned a lot. I have got the idea that how to write dissertation. According to O'Reilly (2015) to the analysis of topic, literature review is a central part of the activity. This helps to provide an insight of different aspects of the particular topic. Writing essay was not my cup of tea but this module made me able to understand the concept of academic writing. According to Randolph (2009) academic writing is a process to evaluate the knowledge and increase the ability of thinking and interpreting. Moreover, Bell (2014) defines academic writing is something which is according to professors expectations. In the view of McKinley (2013), academic writing is very challenging for non native speakers. In addition, Gonye et al (2012) emphasize different styles of academic writing. Throughout my current task, I faced same difficulty. I need to learn for the betterment according to the expectations of my teacher. Therefore, my objective is to polish my academic writing skills to represent the content clear and in the way that reader can easily get it. Therefore, McKinley (2013) pointed out the quality of high level research paper that it gives clear understanding of the concept.
While working on the independent business analysis, I noticed that there are many conflicting arguments of different scholars present in the literature review. Therefore critical writing requires a careful analysis of each and every concept related to the particular topic. The purpose of the academic writing in the view of Bell (2014) is to present a clear picture of the concept that is written. I always thought that critical writing is just to write about negative. Davies (2011) emphasizes that critical writing provide the coverage of the whole topic. I am lacking in this area because I usually do not write every type of concept regarding the subject. According to Ataรง (2015) the duty of writers is to present good quality knowledge about the idea. Referencing is also considered important by teachers. According to the Randolph (2009), refernbcing helps to increase the level of authenticity of your work. Therefore referencing is very important in academic writing. For me, to do referencing is a hard nut to crack. Specially, I find difficulty in Harvard referencing style. I need more practice to overcome my weakness. Throughout the session, I came to know that reading for critical writing is not a piece of cake. The requirement of complete understanding is necessary during reading. To improve my research skills and critical writing skills I need to read more. However I am good at reading but there is always a room for improvement. Bell (2014) emphasizes on the material that will provide the better understanding of critical writing skills. To improve my reading skills I will search the related material read a lot. My university provides useful search engines to get the material. I need more extensive reading on the topic. I may intend to do more research on available journals related to the subject area so that I may cover all the aspects of the problem.
Arrange so much information to develop an academic task is an important strategy. In order to design the way that how you will present your research idea you need to do mind mapping and planning. Planning and mind mapping is the first step to develop any research proposal or to learn anything. According to Randolph (2009), mind mapping is a tool which helps in effective way of learning. I, somehow, well aware of the technique of brain storming but it will take time to understand the concept of mind mapping. Bell (2014) considers these concepts are the useful strategies to give the detail understanding about the relevant subject. These skills help to enable to organise the relevant information in effective manner. In order to enhance this skill, I will seek the assistance of my teachers assistance while obtaining tutorials for mind mapping and planning methods. This semester requires publishing a research paper. While making research paper i came across strengths and weaknesses in terms of my research skills. My data collection skills are quite good but sometimes i feel hesitation while selecting the method. I considered questionnaires are the best way to collect data. According to Kothari (2004) questionnaires are the best and convenient way to collect data. I am not good at sampling techniques. Kothari (2004) further emphasized that there are other appropriate methods than this to the collection of appropriate data. Research methodology is a complex and advance concept for me. In the view of Bell (2014), to present and summarise the research findings, analysis of data is necessary. I found myself that I need to learn few more techniques of data analysis. Therefore, my aim is to learn the other methods of data collection to enhance my research skills. According to Bell (2014) there are other data collection techniques that include focus group discussion and interviews. Furthermore, I am interested to learn more techniques of data analysis. My aim is to learn how to extract data from
interviews and focus group discussions. In order to learn I will take the help of my supervisor. He can guide me about when and where we should use the specific technique of data collection. The whole process of selecting the topic for my research proposal was very learning and informative for me. I gained a lot of experience from this painstaking process as a beginner. The topic is ‘analysing challenges for Seeking Investment from Saudi Financial Markets and possible solutions: Analysis of SME Sector KSA’. Throughout the process I find the areas of my weakness. I had to think a lot to develop my research objectives. While reviewing literature I faced difficulty to summarise the authors view in a presentable and in a way that can be understand by readers. Due to the review of so many articles, my reading skills have improved. To present the ideas in effective way so that reader can easily understand the concept had to do a lot of efforts to improvise my academic writing skills. This exercise also provides me an opportunity to learn the different referencing styles. The process of selecting the research design provides me to search and learn the different types of research designs. I have selected the approach for the topic that is inductive as well as deductive because the requirement of the research involves both qualitative and quantitave data. According to Botley and Hakim (2014), primary data is the first hand knowledge whereas secondary data authenticates the received data. The selection of the data type depends on the literature review. If the required data is not available on the secondary sources then primary data collection will be required. This research made be able to read and analyse critically to obtain relevant information and how to use this information. During this semester, my knowledge has expand in so many ways. I have got so many opportunities to learn new things like ethical consideration during the writ up. Weideman et al.
(2014) defines academic ethics in a way that students of research should make them morally responsible. To conduct the research, students should consider ethical academic activities. This is to conclude that this session has added many things in the ocean of my academic knowledge. Now i feel very confident while doing any research work, read articles and writing the academic essays. This session developed my reading and writing styles in a way that i can easily interpret and present my ideas in front of my teachers. Due to the learning process i learn how to do mind mapping and planning in order to organise the research idea. Moreover, I gained information that what is academic ethics and how to consider it while doing research.