The critical incident assignment

Please note: A penalty of 5% will apply to submissions without a cover sheet. A penalty of 10% per day will apply to late submissions.

Length:1,300 words max. This does not include your reference list.

Purpose: The purpose of the task is to demonstrate your understanding of what you have learned about business communication (SLO 1) and to communicate this in writing clearly and fluently (PLO 3.1).

Task: You are required to respond to the questions below by developing two reflective learning log entries. For both parts of the learning log, you will write 400-500 words critically reflecting on what you have learned from the subject materials up until that point, and how this relates to professional practice. Your learning log must respond to the following questions:

Part A: The critical incident (to be completed for classes in week 3)

• Describe an experience or ‘critical incident’ you have experienced or witnessed in a work-based setting, involving an aspect of poor communication. You may draw on experiences you have had as an employee, as a customer, or simply as an observer of organizational life. How did you feel about the incident? Given your insights from the subject’s learning materials – why was the communication so poor and how could it have been improved?

Part B: Your business communication skills (to be completed prior to submission in week 6)

• In engaging with the subject’s learning materials, what insights did you gain for the development of your own interpersonal communication skills in work-based settings? How can these insights inform the way you communicate with people in the future?

Prior to your final submission in week 6, you are required to collate the two entries into one document and add an introductory paragraph (introduction) and a concluding paragraph (conclusion) explaining how your thinking about business communication has evolved overall and how this will inform your future professional practice.

Assessment Criteria:

Your collated learning log will be assessed on

1. Clear purpose and introduction (5%)
2. Language appropriate to purpose and audience (20%)
3. Structure appropriate to purpose and audience (10%)
4. Referencing (5%)
5. Reflexivity – ability to draw out significant learning experiences including evidence of insights/learning outcomes (40%)
6. Critical thinking – including ability to analyse how learning applies to professional practice (20%)

Format requirements:

• 12 pt font
• 1.5 line spacing
• 2.5 cm margins
• APA or UTS Harvard referencing

Further information:

The requirements of this reflective writing task have implications for the writing style and structure of your learning logs.

Writing style

The reflective writing this task requires is less formal than the writing in other tasks you may encounter at university such as essays and reports. Importantly, you are allowed and encouraged to use personal pronouns (I, me) and possessives (my) to express your thoughts, reactions, interpretations and ideas.

However, at the same time, you are still required to adhere to the usual academic conventions.  This means:

• Use full grammatically correct sentences.
• Refrain from using colloquialisms and vague expressions
• Edit your work carefully to ensure clarity of writing
• Reference your sources properly in-text and in your reference list (APA  style or UTS Harvard Style)
• Proof-read your final work for grammar issues, typos and spelling mistakes