Report 2,500 words (+/- 10%) (60% of overall mark)
In the United Kingdom, since March 2020, there has been a massive Covid data collection and management exercise that has to be carried out by various organisations. Write an academic report, which critically discusses some key principles and practices that have been associated with the exercise. Your discussion must be well grounded within the academic literature and official publications by creditable organisations.
Guidance for the report
Compared with a traditional essay, an academic report will normally have a more pragmatic focus, relating more directly to workplace objectives and issues. It should be based on a review of academic literature supplemented by other relevant documentary sources, with the overall aim of making ‘good practice’ recommendations for workplace implementation. The report should be constructed to the same level of academic scholarship as that applied to the essay. Its format does not need to be substantially different to that of the essay, although it should be noted that the key features of a report should relate to its intended audience. Reports are directed at busy people, such as corporate managers, who are likely to skim read them rather than give them the careful reading normally afforded to a traditional academic paper. These reports, therefore, incorporate features to aid the ‘busy’ reader, such as headings and figures/tables, an example layout being as follows:
·       Title page;
·       Contents page;
·       Executive summary (providing a short summary of the whole report, section by section);
·       Introduction (clarifying the topic and outlining the structure of the report);
·       Main body divided into thematic headings; and 
·       Conclusions and recommendations.
Figures and tables can be employed within the main body to present any relevant material visually. If using these, they need to be numbered and labelled, introduced within the text and an explanation given as to what the figure/table shows. Despite these distinctions, the primary focus of the marker will be the usual concerns about the quality of sources, relevant content, clear structure, appropriate referencing, etc.