Page 1 of 10
School of Management
—
BUSM4551 CID/Innovation Management
Assessment 1: Argumentative Essay
Assessment type: Essay
Word limit: 1,500 (+/- 10%)
Word count excludes the cover
page and reference list.
Due Date: Friday of Week 5 on or before 23:59
(Singapore time)
Weighting: 30%
Rationale
As students undertaking undergraduate study in an Australian University, you are expected to
develop your critical thinking skills. This requires you to go beyond just describing and summarizing
phenomena or criticizing phenomena to find their faults. Critical thinking involves higher level
thinking and reasoning skills to independently 'analyse (
eak things down), evaluate (make
judgements based on evidence) and synthesize or create (put parts together into a coherent whole)'
(RMIT University n.d). Critical thinking involves doing independent research, reading critically
(questioning what you read with an open mind), analysing and evaluating your findings, developing
your arguments based on solid evidence and synthesizing your arguments, and presenting them
appropriately.
These skills will help you to become good researchers, independent thinkers and challenge
established ideas and perspectives.
Reference:
RMIT University n.d., What is critical thinking? RMIT University, viewed 1 Fe
uary 2020,
https:
emedia.rmit.edu.au/learningla
content/what-critical-thinking
Learning outcomes
Course Learning Outcomes related to this assessment are:
CLO1 Explain the relationship between creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship and how it impacts business growth, sustainability and wealth creation
CLO2 Investigate factors that inhibit creativity in individuals and innovation within teams and organisations, and recommend strategies and tactics to encourage entrepreneurial behaviour
https:
emedia.rmit.edu.au/learningla
content/what-critical-thinking
Page 2 of 10
CLO3 Identify and critique organisational models of innovation management
The Program Learning Outcomes related to this assessment are:
PLO2
Integrate business knowledge, social intelligence and ethical decision-making in ways that are
inclusive and culturally appropriate to produce outcomes that are impactful, sustainable and
fair.
PLO5 Coherently articulate technical and conceptual business knowledge that is both contemporary and interdisciplinary.
Overview
The purpose of this assessment is to provide you with an opportunity to apply your critical thinking
skills. This requires you to write an argumentative essay in the context of innovation management.
Your essay is written from the perspective of a university student who is studying the management
of innovation. In the essay, you will apply critical thinking skills to argue a specific point of view
egarding the practice of innovation.
Assessment details
You will learn from this 12-module course that the management of innovation within the corporate
context (medium to large enterprises) is a multi-faceted endeavour that occurs at all levels within the
organisation. Demonstration of that learning will require you to apply critical thinking as you argue to
show understanding of the many, often competing, viewpoints. One such viewpoint is that innovation
is complex, uncertain, and almost impossible to manage.
Your task is to write an argumentative essay in which you critically argue in favour of, or against, the
above (underlined) viewpoint. This assessment requires that you focus your arguments on the
challenges (and remedies?) associated with the various sub-sets of managing innovation.
To be clear, arguments must be balanced across all four modules, which is reflected in the marking
u
ic. Select specific concepts, models, theories, frameworks, or tools that you found particularly
useful to support those arguments. Critical thinking requires you to make arguments rather than
describe materials covered in this course. In those arguments, draw on specific examples of your
learnings from each of the first four Modules of this course. As you argue, apply relevant specialist
terminology and demonstrate relevance to contemporary creativity and innovation practices. Where
possible and appropriate, support your arguments with real-world industry examples.
Important requirements:
• Your chosen examples (concepts, models, theories, frameworks, or tools) must originate
from the materials presented in the first four modules in this course. Do not include
examples from elsewhere.
• There is no upper limit to the number of examples you may wish to select from each module.
• You should include at least two examples of theories and two examples of tools among your
examples across the four modules.
• Please be guided by the marking ru
ic when writing your essay. The four Canvas modules
that you must cover each ca
ies a heavy weighting (20%) in the assessment criteria.
https:
emedia.rmit.edu.au/learningla
content/critical-thinking
https:
emedia.rmit.edu.au/learningla
content/critical-thinking
Page 3 of 10
Assessment criteria (100 marks equate to 30% of overall course assessment)
This assessment will measure your ability to:
• Introduce the context, background, scope and purpose of your essay (7 marks)
• Critically argue the factors related to Module 1 (20 marks)
• Critically argue the factors related to Module 2 (20 marks)
• Critically argue the factors related to Module 3 (20 marks)
• Critically argue the factors related to Module 4 (20 marks)
• Synthesise and conclude your arguments and relate it back to the
oader knowledge of the
innovation management field (7 marks)
• Cite appropriate resources using the Harvard /RMIT Harvard style (3 marks)
• Present your arguments professionally (3 marks)
Structure of the argumentative academic essay
Your argumentative academic essay must include the following components:
Cover page (compulsory)
Please include the following detail on your cover page: Your full name and student number; Course
title, Tutor name; Assignment 1: Argumentative essay; Tutorial #; Word count.
1. Introduction: must include
• A general statement to provide context and background information.
• A purpose statement that outlines the scope and structure of the essay.
• A statement (argument) that identifies the topic and your position.
2. Argument: Your argumentative academic essay can include any number of paragraphs. Give
each set of paragraphs that portray a specific topic a descriptive sub-heading and make it clear
which sections relate to which course modules.
Each paragraph should:
• describe one main idea only, supported by information and evidence from your research
• follow the TEEL strategy to ensure all elements of a good paragraph are included
• relate back to the argument you posed in your introduction
In the paragraphs, you must include in-text citations of all scholarly work (i.e., journals,
academic textbooks, e-books, etc.) and of non-scholarly work (i.e., company websites,
newspaper articles, company videos, etc.) used. Non-scholarly work must be cited when real-
world corporate examples are used to support your arguments.
3. Conclusion:
Your conclusion should:
https:
emedia.rmit.edu.au/learningla
content/structure-0
Page 4 of 10
• restate your position (for completeness’ sake)
• summarise how the most important evidence supports this
• show how your position is related to the
oader body of knowledge of this field/topic
4. References: List all scholarly and non-scholarly work you have cited in the body of the essay in
a Reference List.
• The reference list is not included in the word count.
• References should be in RMIT Harvard style (or Harvard style if using Endnote).
• The list should be in alphabetical order by family name.
• The list should not be listed by numbers or bullet points.
• A minimum of 5 references must be from scholarly work, the remainder can be non-scholarly
work where real-world corporate examples are used.
Referencing guidelines
Use RMIT Harvard referencing style for this assessment.
You must acknowledge all the courses of information you have used in your assessments.
Refer to the RMIT Easy Cite referencing tool to see examples and tips on how to reference in the
appropriated style. You can also refer to the li
ary referencing page for more tools such as
EndNote, referencing tutorials and referencing guides for printing.
Feedback mode: Feedback will be provided using Canvas/Turnitin's inline marking tool, a Ru
ic
and general comments.
Format: Professionally presented using Ariel or Cali
i 12-point font, justified. Cover page must
include the word count.
Additional resources | Please refer to the following links for further information on:
Critical thinking:-
• What is critical thinking? by RMIT’s Learning Lab
What is an argumentative academic essay?
An argumentative academic essay is a piece of writing that examines and interprets a given 'claim'
or 'statement' and defends or refutes it with the use of theoretical and practical evidence.
In such an essay, you are essentially building up and presenting your own argument(s) on the
statement while using scholarly (i.e., journal articles, textbooks, theories, etc.) and practical
evidence (e.g., corporate stories, news items relating to companies, etc.) to support your arguments.
Hence, you are not simply describing or summarizing what others have said about a given
statement but introducing and developing your own arguments on it. Your arguments must be
acked by evidence if they are to be valid.
In summary, in writing an argumentative academic essay, you are using your critical thinking skills.
• How to Write a Good Argumentative Essay: Easy Step-by-Step Guide by MasterClass
https:
www.lib.rmit.edu.au/easy-cite
https:
www.rmit.edu.au/li
ary/study
eferencing
eferencing-guides-for-printing
https:
www.lib.rmit.edu.au/easy-cite
https:
emedia.rmit.edu.au/learningla
content/what-critical-thinking
https:
emedia.rmit.edu.au/learningla
content/structure-0
https:
emedia.rmit.edu.au/learningla
content/argument-analysis
https:
www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-good-argumentative-essay#what-is-an-argumentative-essay
Page 5 of 10
• Argument by The Writing Cente
Submission
Back up all copies of drafts and your final assignment on a separate device (USB or similar) in
case it is required as evidence. Computer failure is not allowable grounds for an Extension or
Special Consideration.
Use Word documents in the .doc or .docx formats only. The assessment will be submitted in
Canvas as a file upload. Assignments submitted in pdf format will not be graded.
Turnitin
Assignments and other assessments must be submitted through the CANVAS assessment
submission system (Turnitin). Submitted assignments that do not have a similarity score will not be
graded.
Do NOT look at similar assignments that have been uploaded onto Internet sites by RMIT students
or students studying at other universities. If you do so you will be tempted to paraphrase their work,
which is not permitted and will lead to a failure mark. You are only allowed to paraphrase
information obtained from legitimate sources.
Do NOT attempt to obtain a similarity score by first submitting it to TurnItIn via another course as
this will result in you achieving a very high similarity score when you eventually submit your
assignment for this course. A 10% penalty will