An investigation into the social impacts of cruising on island nations in the Caribbean

Further guidance for your Individual Journal Article (assignment 2):

 

• Title of Journal Article – make the title concise, with a connection to your keywords

e.g. ‘An investigation into the social impacts of cruising on island nations in the Caribbean’

not….

‘Impacts of Cruising’

 

• Abstract

Write this last – it should be concise and approx. 250-300 words

The abstract should clearly tell the reader what is in your journal article, its purpose etc and begin to hint at the conclusions / findings without giving too much away.

The abstract should have a clear connection with your title and your keywords

 

• Keywords

No more than 6 keywords – should again be concise and have a relationship with your abstract and your title – your keywords may also form (some of) the headings for your literature review….

 

• Introduction

The Above Sections all go onto the First page

A brief introduction to the contemporary issue, and surrounding literature contexts – i.e. if you are talking about social impacts of cruising, this is surrounded by fields such as costs and benefits on the economy, environmental issues, cultural impacts such as authenticity and commodification etc.. – you also in this section need to form emphasis on what you are writing about – I.e. a problem statement / research questions or aim of the paper – what are you finding out for the reader?

 

• Main body or ‘Literature review’

Why is the issue important – whilst all the time you are reviewing academics work in this area – use themes and headings to link the sections together. You need to be reviewing at least 15 journal articles within this section. What theories and research frameworks are they using? Are there definitions? How long have some of the concepts been around? Have they been developed / critiqued / redesigned?

Think about the criteria you could apply to review them – how useful was the article? How has it advanced knowledge? Has it solved the problem? Etc… See supporting document on ‘How to read a journal article’ in Units 10 & 11 – Assignment 2 support week.

 

Methods – every article published will have employed some sort of research methodology – without this the paper is fundamentally flawed

Your task is to review the types of methods used – i.e. has research just been quantitative in nature (e.g. economic impact analysis – uses surveys and only numerical data) or purely qualitative data – e.g. peoples’ thoughts feelings emotions through focus groups or semi-structured interviews? Discuss the limitations of these methods.

See what the balance is – what have the majority of studies done? – then build a case accordingly – i.e. do you think that your contemporary issue would benefit from more data or different types of methods? Etc.…

 

Headings

Use headings / sub-headings and link them to keywords, title, abstract – but use them sensibly – look at published journal articles as a guide

 

• Findings and Conclusions

This should include recommendations for the future or for future research, or a strategy for industry adoption etc.….

 

•   References

In Harvard style, consistent, in alphabetical order