Essay Question
“Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an increasingly essential element in the business world. There are many different ‘definitions’ of CSR which reflect different assumptions and approaches to the responsibility of corporations. What is your understanding of CSR and how does it contrast with other understandings?”
1. First give an introduction to your essay. This should include a brief introduction to the relevant management theories together with a brief summary of the main ideas, definitions and scope in the essay. Give a clear, concise statement of the problem you are going to investigate; define the limits of the scope of your investigation; and, if you are dealing with terms that are ambiguous, define them clearly and concisely.
2. The discussion is the main part of your essay. In this part of the essay you need to identify and discuss CSR, possibly its background and your personal understanding of CSR. Use theory and provide evidence from your research of academic journals and reference books to support your ideas. Remember to provide evidence, theoretical analysis and academic journals references to support the discussion.
3. Then provide a precise and straightforward conclusion which ties together the various strands of your argument. Make sure your argument in the main part of the essay supports the conclusions
4. Finally provide a reference list as per Harvard referencing requirements.
The essay should:
•Show evidence of analytical thinking.
•Reflect research into the topic beyond the theory provided in the text book and in lectures.
•Incorporate information obtained from reference books, or peer reviewed journal articles (i.e. academic journals).
•As a guide, a minimum of five references are required in addition to the text book. These references must be reference books or peer reviewed journal articles.
You may NOT use webpages, blogs, newspaper articles, magazines, Wikipedia and marks will be deducted if you do so.
Word Limit
1500 words excluding references, headers and footers. Include the word count at the beginning of the assignment. Essays that are more than 10% over or 10% under the 1500 word count will lose marks.
Assignment Format
Your essay is to be TYPED, and is to be prepared and presented in the following format. This assists the lecturer and tutors in assessing your work. Further, as the majority of organisations require the use of standard formats, this process will provide you with helpful experience. Marks will be deducted for assignments which do not use this format.
Font Times New Roman
Point size 12 point
Line spacing 1 and a half lines
Margins 2.5 cms, top, bottom, left and right margins
Paragraph Block set up
Page numbers Bottom header, right corner on EVERY page
Student name and Student Number Top header, right corner of EVERY page
Word count Top header, page 1.