Introduction to the OBU RAP
The starting point of a successful research report is choosing the appropriate topic to write on out of the twenty available in the information pack. You need to hold a quality discussion with your mentor, and you should please go through the information on choosing a topic so you can make a quality foundational decision.
The focus of this article is to provide quality insight into the five documents in the OBU RAP. These documents are:
The research reports. (Main 7500 words documents)
The skilled and learning statement. (2000 words self-reflection)
The excel model (Appendix)
The list of references (This is a separate document)
The PowerPoint presentation.
This article provides information on the following:
Choosing a company, industry and financial statement date for your research report, Referencing, Research objectives, research question, and research approach, Research report structure for chapter 1 and 2, Chapter three section of the research report, Conclusion and recommendations, Skilled and learning statement, PowerPoint presentation, Plagiarism check, interpretation, and grammatical error
To come up with a quality Skilled and learning statement for the ACCA Oxford Brookes research analysis project, you should start taking note of the weaknesses you uncounted and specific action you took to overcome them during the various section of the research report.
To get the most out of this article, the following are essential:
-Read along with the latest ACCA OBU information pack
-Have an overview discussion with your mentor on all the steps
-Agree on the date you intend to complete various sections of the research report.
The OBU rap research report criteria are analysed at various sections of this article.
You can contact our mentors for a free consultation and also join our WhatsApp group discussion.
Choosing a company, industry, and financial statement date for OBU RAP.
For OBU RAP topics with primary information like topic 6, please ensure the company is a listed company, and there are other secondary sources of information to support your analysis of the questionnaire. Similarly, for topics connected to the secondary source of information, you need to do some preliminary search on Google to be sure you can get the required information to support the requirement of the topic. Specifically, for Topic 13 and Topic 14, you need to ensure that the corporate governance and unethical business practices of the company are not more than five years, and there is adequate information on the company to support the analysis. For Topic 8, Topic 4 and Topic 5. choosing an industry related to manufacturing is usually helpful, but you also need to assess if you can easily get the required information about the company online. Specific action required are listed below:
- Irrespective of your OBU RAP topic, relate with your mentor, choose a company, and do a simple Google search. E.g., Corporate governance issue of XYZ Company or Financial analysis of XYZ Company.
- Ensure that your chosen companies are listed and there is other supported analysis available.
- Finalize your decision with your mentor.
You can contact our mentors for a free consultation and also join our WhatsApp group discussion.
OBU RAP Harvard Referencing Guide
The ability to reference appropriate is critical to the overall success of the OBU RAP. References are of two forms, in-text citations, which are the references in the body of your research report, and a list of references, which is a separate document listing all the sources available in the body of the research report.
The following pieces of information are additional tips that will enable quality references.
- Avoid direct quotations, read information, digest the information, write the information in a unique manner or your own words, then reference the source of information.
- Ignore references from Wikipedia, Investopedia, social media, and other extremely weak sources. Instead, use a variety of books, quality, authoritative websites, and analyst write up. Etc.
- Long write up that is obviously from external sources without any references is a bad academic practice
- Generate your information from a broader range of sources, and likely bias sources of information should be of limited use, e.g., Annual report.
- When you use the annual report or other lengthy documents, you should reference the relevant page in your body of your research report.
- Use a,b, or c. to differentiate different articles from the same source or author. Please check all Youtube videos below.
- All your in-text citations must be available on the list of references without any broken links. We advise you use the Microsoft word auto referencing tool for this. Please check all Youtube videos below.
- You should reference graphs and table, i.e., below the chart, Diagram 1 – sources Appendix 1
- One of the OBU RAP assessment criteria for referencing and information gathering is to use a wide range of sources such as textbooks, journal articles, and online source
- You should avoid using too many forms of lazy references such as references with no date and author
You can contact our mentors for a free consultation and also join our WhatsApp group discussion.
Please every student should study the presentation below for sound knowledge on referencing
How to avoid plagiarism and cheating by john playle
Automated Harvard referencing on MS word
OBUTraining’s ACCA OBU RAP Hardvard referencing section 1
OBUTraining’s ACCA OBU RAP Hardvard referencing section 2
OBUTraining’s ACCA OBU RAP Hardvard referencing section 3
OBUTraining’s ACCA OBU RAP Hardvard referencing section 4
OBUTraining’s ACCA OBU RAP Hardvard referencing section 5
You can contact our mentor for a free consultation and also join our WhatsApp group discussion.
OBU RAP Research objectives, research question, and research approach.
There is a strong connection between your research objectives, questions, and research approach. The research objective expresses the coverage of the research report in chapter 3 section of the ACCA OBU research report. In contrast, the research approach explains what models, techniques, and specific information sources to achieve the stated OBU RAP objectives.
The starting point is the research objectives- The objectives statement must be consistent with the models, techniques, and concepts that the researcher is planning to use to achieve the research report. While these models, methods, and concepts must not deviate from the topic title. For example, for topic eight that focuses on the business and financial analysis of a company, Let’s assume I am using SWOT and PEST as the models to satisfy the business section, and financial ratio analysis techniques for the financial section. It is crucial to agree with your mentor on the proposed models and techniques you intend to use for the requirement of the topic title. You can also check suggested models for some of the top RAP Topic.
With the explanation above, I can have an objective for SWOT, PEST, and Financial ratio analysis.
The objective for SWOT can go like this
To perform a critical analysis of the internal strategies and other external factors that have impacted the performance of XYZ Company within year1 to year 3. (This is just a statement from the model I am applying)
The research question for this objective can go like this
What are the internal strategies and external factors impacting the performance of XYZ Company within year1 to year 3? (This is just a transformation of the objectives to question)
The research approach for this objective can go like this
The researcher intent to used a secondary source of information. The SWOT model will be utilizing to critically analyses the strengths, weaknesses, which are internal factors, opportunities, and threats that are external factors within the period of focus. (Did you observed I specifically mentioned the model and I explained how I intend to apply it in my research report)
You can contact our mentors for a free consultation and also join our WhatsApp group discussion.
ACCA Oxford Brookes research analysis project structure for chapter 1 and 2
You must have concluded the required foundational work; I am sure you are excited to start writing your ACCA Oxford Brookes research analysis project.
The information below will help improve your OBU RAP structure
- Please ensure you use Arial as your front
- font size should be 12 or 11
- Line and paragraph spacing should
- you should arrange your research report appropriately, i.e., a heading or tile in your research report cannot be on a page while all the entire content of the title is on another page.
- You should use a page number for your document.
- Irrespective of the recommended word count, you should plan your world count base on the challenge of the specific topic. For example, for topic 8, it is advisable to have about 2600 word in chapter one and two as against 3000 word due to possibility of needing more words in chapter 3 of the ACCA OBU RAP
- The entire research report word count is 7500 words meaning between 7001 to 7500
- The word count is counted from the very first page (Title page) of the document excluding the list of references and bibliography
- The layout of your chapter three should be consistent with the structure of your research objectives earlier stated.
The research report is marked base on the OBU RAP assessment criteria, which is available in the information pack. Under the understanding of the business and accountancy model criteria, you should perform a quality explanation of the business models and critical descriptions of their limitations — the most crucial section in chapter two; you should prioritize when allocating word count.
There are essential facts you should be aware of here:
- Explain your models and their component with wider ranges of information sources.
- Explain the advantages and limitations of models against listing limitations and advantages.
- Use a broader range of information for the limitations of models.
- Please, you should submit your chapters one and two to your research report mentor for a quality review
You can contact our mentors for a free consultation and also join our WhatsApp group discussion.
Chapter three section of the OBU RAP
The research objectives and approach must have given a direction for this section. Before starting this section, you should present your plan to your mentor on preliminary research, information gathering, analysis, and evaluation. The discussions and other practical materials will be helpful as this section larger determine if the research report will be a success or failure. You should please read the tips on each popular topic provide.
Here we will analyse some of the section of the OBU RAP Assessment criteria
Application of accountancy/business models
- Apply your models independently.
- It is expected you use a comparator/benchmark for effective analysis.
Evaluation of information, analysis, and conclusions
- Little or no mark is available for the information presented without any form of interpretation, expression of judgment and extensive analysis
- Extensive analysis means doing further research to give practical examples, comparing the information with a benchmark or comparator, applying judgment to the information presented, and presented additional evidence.
- Use graphs to show the movements and your words to provide detailed reasons and factors that lie behind them rather than just describing the obvious.
- Discuss and explain changes rather than presenting descriptive statements.
- Refer to the broader economic environment, industry effects, and the impact of corporate strategy, as well as an analysis of the numbers behind the graphs presented.
- Avoid words like ‘Could be’ or “maybe” which may indicate guesswork
Presentation of project findings
- Presentation of the results in an appropriate form, e.g., tables, graphs, charts (This is important irrespective of your topic)
- Good use of appendices (Pointing your RAP document to the relevant section of appendices)
- The structure of your chapter 3 should be consistent with that of your research objective stated. For example, if the objective one is about SWOT, please start with SWOT analysis for chapter 3.
Information technology
- You should use various excel formulas irrespective of your topic
- It is essential to check the accuracy of your excel formulae as this is a recent failure trend in the feedback sheet.
In conclusion,
- Ensure you use a broader range of information.
- Perform some preliminary research to pen down some points that will be the focus of your research report.
- limit the usage and referencing of the annual report or the company’s website as further research should be carried out.
You can contact our mentors for a free consultation and also join our WhatsApp group discussion.
For students writing Topic 4,5 and 8, the following, the following videos are beneficial.
OBUTraining’s OBU RAP Topic 8 financial analysis 1
OBUTraining’s OBU RAP Topic 8 financial analysis 2
OBUTraining’s OBU RAP Topic 8 financial analysis 3
OBUTraining’s OBU RAP Topic 8 business analysis 1
OBUTraining’s OBU RAP Topic 8 business analysis 2
ACCA Oxford Brookes research analysis project Conclusion and recommendations
Your conclusion should focus on the summary of your findings or your analysis in chapter three section of the ACCA Oxford Brookes research analysis project. Do you remember that chapter three section was structured following the logical structure of the research objectives and questions? Then your conclusion needs to be consistent with the construction of chapter three. You don’t bring new analysis here under the conclusion section, and your conclusion should not be too small, like being less than half a page.Finally draft some set of questions after constructing your conclusion, when you read those questions, the conclusion is automatically providing an answer to those questions
Your recommendation needs to be focus on your main company on areas they need improvement base on the weaknesses identified during your analysis
You can contact our mentors for a free consultation and also join our WhatsApp group discussion.
ACCA OBU Skilled and learning statement (SLS)
I need to clarify here that the ACCA OBU SLS is not what you have in your research report or the various information you have presented in your research report. The RAP assessment criteria available on ACCA OBU SLS available in the information pack focuses on your ability to write down the judgment made or action taken throughout the various section of the research report. There are weaknesses, and there are critical decisions in multiple sections, then what are the weaknesses? What self-development did you do to overcome them? What specific action did you take? Also, expressing some of your strengths is also acceptable.
A personal reflection on OBU RAP skilled and learning statement
- Makes a satisfactory attempt to discourse all two inquiries. (each question is within 800 to 1000 words)
- The entire OBU RAP skilled and learning statement must be in the region of 1800 and 2000 words. (From the beginning of the title page to the end)
- Displays the ability to reflect on judgments made at the time of the project work.
- Reflect on the process of your research report rather than the actual content of your research report.
- The concentration should not be on your mentor’s advice, but how the meeting aided you to surmount your weaknesses and make use of your strength during the RAP process.
- It can be of help to students to keep a learning diary when starting the RAP; been aware of critical experiences, storing your thoughts or feelings, what was good or bad and why.
- It will be helpful if you keep notes of the meetings arranged with your mentor, and note any definite learning points.
- You need to concentrate on the process, not the research report findings.
OBU RAP skilled and learning statement new information
Skills and Learning Statement
– The purpose of the SLS is to demonstrate that you have developed the graduate skill of self-reflection. You are required to answer the following two questions.
– Q1 How have you developed, personally and professionally, as a result of undertaking the Research and Analysis Project?
Consider
· what new skills you acquired and how you developed them
· the challenges you faced and how you overcame them
– Q2 How will the experience of the RAP help you in the future?
Consider how this experience has
· made you more employable and capable
· might influence your future plans in the short and longer term
OBU RAP skilled and learning statement Examiner’s comments
OBUTRaining’s Video on Skill and learning statement
You can contact our mentors for a free consultation and also join our WhatsApp group discussion.
OBU RAP PowerPoint presentation
The important point to pick out from the OBU RAP PowerPoint presentation
- Often begin with a clear opening slide with the presentation title that includes the student name, the ACCA number to identify the presenter.
- The structure of the slides includes the following; title, table of content, findings, research objectives or inquiries, and lastly, conclusions, and recommendations.
- Observed by the new Information Pack, there should be at least 10 to 20 slides.
- It is not enough to present the graphs and charts without commentary
- Prevent conversing about other aspects in part 1 and 2 of the research report
- Don’t force too much information into the slides.
- Graphs, table, and charts, conclusions and recommendations must be included
- Containment of the results of your analysis and conclusions from the presentation and slides.
- Be consistent with line spacing, color, and font size (between 25 to 30) across all slides
- Ensure a specific slide that doesn’t have more than six bullet points and a bullet point is not prolonged
- You may have to keep the bullet point short as it is not a sentence
- Acquire to be more choosy in what you present, only bring out what is important and do not force the slides with data and words
- Just one image per slide
- The slide should be created to help the student verbal presentation.
- There should not only be concerns with the number of slides, but also the amount of content on them. If the markers appraised that there is much information to present in 15 minutes, the student is at risk of failure. PowerPoint Examiners comments
OBUTraining’s video on presentation
You can contact our mentors for a free consultation and also join our WhatsApp group discussion.
Communication is one of the RAP assessment criteria, so if you desire a higher grade, all expectations must be perfect.
- Your style of communication must be acceptable to the business audience. i.e., bringing any form of religion or expressing yourself in an unprofessional manner won’t be favorable. For example, I have seen feedback that the examiner complained about the use of words like “whooping increase” A significant increase should have been used instead.
You can contact our mentors for a free consultation and also join our WhatsApp group discussion.
