Avoid defining terms and focus the question

Frequently Asked Questions

General

5. What is the core reading of the module? The module leader will recommend a wide range of resources, one to five each week, all available in the LRC or publicly available on the internet.

6. How can I get updates on the module, such as cancellation of office hours, change of class, ...? Announcements on the module page

11. What am I supposed to do in addition to the lectures? Almost 84% of your learning will be through self-study while 16% will be in class. Each week, you will read ~40 pages from a book or report, listen to a podcast of ~40 minutes and watch a video of ~40 minutes as self-study. These tasks will be given to you at the end of each lecture and as part of the slides.

12. When do you start and when do you finish the class? We start at 1602 and finish at 1758 (except the second and fourth week for the Wednesday cohort for which we will start at 1302 and finish at 1458).

17. What if I do not attend lectures? Students who do not have a significant record of attendance at tutorials are likely to be subject to an assessed viva

18. Clarity and relevance. Your submissions should be clear and relevant to the question. You should be careful not to digress.

23. I can't see it there. Please get in touch with your programme leader.

24. Can you tell me my mark over the phone or in person or email, etc? Sorry, but I cannot.

2. How many marks? 70

3. I did not pass the first part. What does it mean? There is nothing like pass/fail in the first part. Your overall mark will determine your pass/fail in this module. In other words, if you scored 5 in the first part, a mark higher than 45/70 in the second part means that you will pass the module and if you scored 20, you will need at least 30/70 in the second part to pass.

8. What do you mean by justify lines? You should not align text right, align text left or centre text. You need to justify the lines. When you justify text, space is added between words so that both edges of each line are aligned with both margins. The last line in the paragraph is aligned left. Click anywhere in the paragraph that you want to justify. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click Justify Text (from the Microsoft's support page).

9. What are the things to strictly avoid? Do not explain a case in detail (just refer to the case and provide the reference); do not repeat things already discussed in class or things which are common sense; do not provide a synopsis for your submission (e.g. In this essay, I will ...; this report will discuss ...; Section 1 will cover ...; the remainder of this essay will deal with ...; the main goal of this essay is to shed light on ...); do not provide recommendations to businesses; do not provide a conclusion (this is just a summary and not adding value to your work. It does not demonstrate your understanding any further); do not tell a story (Company X was disappointed and went to Company B), do not write an annotated bibliography (e.g. Harper et al. (2018) posits that ...; As Jackson (2020) argues ...), avoid defining terms and focus on the question. For instance, for the question on slow/fast fashion, rather than defining what each one is, focus on the question and from the very beginning talk about the differences in terms of design, operation and control of their supply chains. Make your submission as lean as possible and only answer the question in an analytical way. In my feedback for the first assignment, anything you see in red is non-value-adding.

Slow fashion vs. Fast fashion. What are the fundamental differences in terms of supply chain design, operation and control? Sample non-value-adding stuff would be what slow fashion is, what fast fashion is, how big is the industry, how many people are buying these, the recent trends in the market, what author A or B said or argued, … Value-adding would be the differences in terms of logistics, SRM, CRM, risk, integration, use of Industry 4.0, …; THE QUESTION IS ON “FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES”

The role of collaborative transportation in achieving Sustainable Development Goals 11 and 12. Sample non-value-adding stuff would be what SDG 11/12 is about, the history of SDGs, why sustainability matters, what author A or B said or argued, … Value-adding would be anything on how CT can contribute to achieving SDGs 11 and 12; THE QUESTION IS “THE ROLE OF A IN B”

18. Is it my responsibility to make sure the submission is accessible to the module leader, is not password-protected and is not corrupted? Y