Individual Assignment (Essay)

Worth 15% Type A

Objective:

The purpose of this assignment is to enable students to evaluate professional communication aspects within an industry in relation to the various elements covered, and to demonstrate the ability to communicate the key issues through a written essay.

Assignment topic:

Online communication or computer-mediated communication (CMC)

The Internet has become an integral part of our lives. Online communication or CMC is one of the fastest growing modes of communication for individuals within and between organisations. We use CMC for social, educational, and business purposes (Mohan, 2008).

Discuss the following aspects in your essay:

• The impact of online communication in an organisational context;
• The distinctions between traditional face-to-face communication and CMC in an organisational context;
• The role of media richness in effective online communication;
• The importance of being competent at intercultural communication using electronic channels of communication.

Description of assignment:

Students will prepare a 2500 word essay (not including references). The assignment is to be completed individually. This is NOT a group assignment. Please refer marking criteria for more detailed breakdown of marks.

It is expected that the essay will provide a balanced view of the issues discussed.

Presentation of your Essay

• Essays are to be presented according to the information contained in the University Guide for the Presentation of Academic Work (see http://www.ballarat.edu.au/generalguide)
• In the essay, you are expected to write in paragraph style with an introduction and a conclusion. The use of bulleted/numbered lists should be avoided and headings (if any) kept to a minimum (no more than 5).
• Essay should be presented in the following order and format (Mohan, 2008, pp316-317):
  1. Cover page;
  2. Table of contents (Auto-generated);
  3. Abstract;
  4. Introduction;
  5. Sections;
• Essays with unsupported personal opinions will be marked down, as will those that make excessive use of direct quotes (no more than 8 lines in total).
• Incorrect APA referencing will also be penalised. Your essay should include both a list of references used in the essay and a bibliography of the wider reading you have done to familiarise yourself with the topic.
• Any direct quotation from one of your sources (i.e. anything that you have not written yourself) must be referenced (cited) in-text (as well as included in the reference list); if the quotation is more than three lines in length it should be formatted in its own paragraph indented 0.75 cm, single-spaced, with font size 10; if it is three lines or less it should be surrounded by quotation marks (double inverted commas). This is normal practice, which you should always follow.
• The vast majority of your essay should consist of your own writing whether paraphrasing a specific section of a source or synthesizing ideas from a number of sources. Paraphrasing should also be accompanied by in-text citation (as for a direct quotation).
• If you use a source either with a direct quotation or by paraphrasing and do not cite it, you are guilty of plagiarism (refer to the course description).