English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Name:.

English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
Name:
Lecturer name:
This is your English for Academic Purposes Online Portfolio. Please save a copy on
your computer and back it up regularly (e.g. by saving it on your computer / in the
cloud on Google Drive / emailing it to yourself). At the end of this course, you need
to submit this electronic copy via Moodle Portal
Please refer to suggested word counts for each task included within in this portfolio.
Assessed Learning Outcomes (LOs):
1. Produce cohesive and coherent elements of academic writing
2. Read, compare and summarise written academic texts
SECTION 1: Portfolio Evidence 1
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Self-evaluation checklist
Below is a list of the skills you will need in university when working on extended pieces
of writing. The work you do on the EAP course will help you develop these skills. Tick the
appropriate box for each skill, according to how well you think you can do this at the
beginning of this course. Look again at the checklist throughout the course in order to
identify areas for independent study.
Skills Do not
know
about
this
Find this
difficult/
can’t do
this
Can
partially
do this
Can do this
well
Looking for information
Identify which books/journals/websites to use ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Select relevant parts of a text ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Using sources
Acknowledge sources of information ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Avoid plagiarism ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Planning/ writing
Brainstorm ideas ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Plan written work ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Link ideas effectively ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Paraphrase & summarise ideas ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Write an introduction ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Write a conclusion ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Personal study
Work independently ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Manage my time ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Oral presentation
Discuss written work in a tutorial
☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
IT
Access the internet ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Use search engines ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Create word documents ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
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SECTION 2: Portfolio Evidence 2
Outline (suggested word count: 200)
An outline is a map of the main ideas included in your essay. You do not need to write
full sentences, just notes of the main points that you are going to write in each
paragraph of your essay, along with the references.
Title: Impact of teamwork on the performance of an organization.
Introduction Background Information:
Teamwork is considered to be one of the major contributors to the overall
success of an organization. Effective teams across the company can help it in
achieving the organizational goals effectively. The employees are engaged to
their respective jobs and contribute efficiently towards helping the
organization gain a competitive advantage against others.
Thesis statement:
To determine the impact of teamwork on the overall organizational
performance.
Main body
paragraph 1
Topic sentence: To analyze the importance of teamwork for an organization.
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Supporting details: Teamwork plays a major role in contributing to the
overall performance of an organization. This is because employees who are
comfortable in working with each other, communicate well with each other.
Besides this, they also motivate and support each other. Also, teamwork
brings in new and innovative ideas for the company. The skills ans
knowledge of the employees are utilized in an effective manner.
Main body
paragraph 2:
Topic sentence: Different ways to promote teamwork in an organization.
Supporting details: Teamwork within an organization can be promoted in
an effective way. This can include conducting regular meetings and
providing team rewards.
Conclusion: Summary of main points: It can be said that teamwork is an important
aspect within an organization. It can be promoted by conducting regular
meetings and offering rewards to the employees.
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Recommendations/suggestions: Organizations are recommended to
promote a culture of teamwork within the workplace in order to enhance
their overall performance.
Reference
List: Marlow, S., Bisbey, T., Lacerenza, C. and Salas, E., 2018. Performance
measures for health care teams: A review. Small Group Research, 49(3),
pp.306-356.
Pambreni, Y., Khatibi, A., Azam, S. and Tham, J., 2019. The influence of
total quality management toward organization performance. Management
Science Letters, 9(9), pp.1397-1406.
SECTION 3: Portfolio Evidence 3
Summarising (suggested word count, 100 including notes)
Question: What are the similarities and differences between universities in England
and Finland in relation to tuition fees?
Notes (Text 1): Universities in England Notes (Text 2): Universities in Finland
 University of Oxford
 UCL or University College of London
 University of Edinburgh
 University of Manchester
 King's College London
 Tampere University
 University of Oulu
 University of Turku
 Aalto University
 LUT University
What are the similarities and differences
between universities in England and
Finland in relation to tuition fees?
The tuition fees of universities in England as
well as Finland are not very high and almost
same. The similarities are that universities in
both the places offer scholarships to the
students based on their individual academic
performance. There are also various
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opportunities that are offered to the students
so that they can enhance their levels of skill
set. Differences are that the level of
scholarships are different.
SECTION 4: Portfolio Evidence 4
Paragraph structure (suggested word count, 300 including notes)
Topic: Impact of employee engagement on
the performance of an organization.
Item A: Importance of
employee engagement in
the success of the
organization
It is important for the employees within an organization to be
engaged in their respective jobs as this can help the organization
in achieving its goals as well as objectives. Also, employees who
are engaged to their jobs are likely to be more motivated and
perform in the desired manner. This can lead to the company
being able to retain its employees for a longer period of time. As
a result, there is a positive impact of employee engagement on the
company's performance.
Item B: Different
measures to increase
employee engagement
There are different measures that can be adopted by an
organization in order to ensure that the level of employee
engagement is increased. These can include providing
constructive feedback to the employees based on their
performance from time to time, recognizing the ones who
perform well and rewarding them. Besides this, a company can
also conduct employee engagement surveys frequently.
Concluding remarks: To conclude, it can be
said that employee engagement is an
important component that should be promoted
within all organizations in order to make sure
that the organizational goals as well as
objectives are achieved. Various measures
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can be implemented to ensure that the
employees are engaged to their jobs and
perform in the desired manner.
SECTION 5: Academic Writing (750 words)
Essay Title:
Compare and contrast the higher education system in England with that of a chosen
country in terms of funding and quality, concluding with which system is preferable?
Introduction
The education system within the United Kingdom is primarily popular across the world
for its structure and the quality of education provided to them. The education is provided in five
stages which are discussed in the report. This report includes a contrast and comparison of the
higher education system in England with a chosen country, i. e., Finland.
Main Body
Education in England is provided in five stages which include early stages, primary and
secondary years, further education as well as higher education (Carvalho and Diogo, 2018). It
has been identified that the education system in England is in the form of a hierarchy. On the
other hand, in Finland, the funds for education are provided by the Ministry. In England, this is
not the case and the funds for education are collected from both public as well as private
organizations (Herrmann, Bager-Elsborg and McCune, 2017). The parliament in Finland decide
as well as allocates funds to the universities so that they can offer best quality education to the
students.
The funding in Finland is distributed on the basis of different key areas well as various
models that are developed by universities there. The primary goal of these models is to enhance
the overall impact as well as make use of the available resources effectively. The Ministry is
involved with the department of higher studies and they prepare effective solutions (Howie and
Tauchert, 2019). In order to achieve the funding, clear and definite objectives are developed.
Finland has one of the most effectively structured and powerful education system in the world.
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This is because it offers nine years of basic education which is compulsory for all individuals.
Besides this, there is upper secondary education and lastly higher education (Jones, Green and
Higson, 2017). The higher education is provided by the different universities as well as the
universities of applied sciences in the country. The education system of Finland sets an example
for other countries as the citizens receive the best quality of education.
In England, Higher Education arrange their funds from the public and private company.
And this mostly covers from the tuition fees, teachers funds, ministerial funds (Kruse, Rakha
and Calderone, 2018). These funds are different ratios which is depends on the different colleges.
England government make a department known by Office Of Students. Which is responsible for
the arrangement and organising the funds from the different sources to the colleges and
universities (Mittelman, 2017). England higher eduction system have high standards in the
quality of teaching staff and structure of universities also. All the quality assessment is done by
the department name by Quality Assurance Department.
This department signifies the basic rules and fix the standard of quality in the education
system. From choosing further education programme to the PHD holders the quality of education
and the services provided by the department are same (Rashidfarokhi, Toivonen and Viitanen,
2018). Their are some voluntary services offered by the eduction departments, which are
amazing for the students and staff as well. The scholarship facilities, the training in between the
courses, and the backup data available in terms of online and offline are incredible in terms of
education system (Rissanen and et. al., 2018). That are the reasons of England's higher eduction
system for holding a top position in across the UK.
Lastly, it can be said that the overall education system of Finland is much better in
comparison to England (Sinclair and Aho, 2018). This is because they have structured their
education system in a much more effective manner and therefore, the citizens of the country
receive the best quality of education. Another reason behind this is that they utilise the various
resources available in an effective manner (Tight, 2018). Therefore, this is the comparison
between the higher education between the two countries,
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Conclusion
From the above essay, it can be concluded that education systems across different
countries are different. This is because the funds that are collected in order to provide best
quality information to the students are collected in different ways.
REFERENCES
Carvalho, T. and Diogo, S., 2018. Exploring the relationship between institutional and
professional autonomy: a comparative study between Portugal and Finland. Journal of
Higher Education Policy and Management, 40(1), pp.18-33.
Herrmann, K. J., Bager-Elsborg, A. and McCune, V., 2017. Investigating the relationships
between approaches to learning, learner identities and academic achievement in higher
education. Higher Education, 74(3), pp.385-400.
Howie, G. and Tauchert, A., 2019. Gender, teaching and research in higher education:
Challenges for the 21st century. Routledge.
Jones, C. M., Green, J. P. and Higson, H. E., 2017. Do work placements improve final year
academic performance or do high-calibre students choose to do work
placements?. Studies in Higher Education, 42(6), pp.976-992.
Kruse, S. D., Rakha, S. and Calderone, S., 2018. Developing cultural competency in higher
education: an agenda for practice. Teaching in Higher Education, 23(6), pp.733-750.
Mittelman, J. H., 2017. Implausible dream: The world-class university and repurposing higher
education. Princeton University Press.
Rashidfarokhi, A., Toivonen, S. and Viitanen, K., 2018. Sustainability reporting in the Nordic
real estate companies: empirical evidence from Finland. International Journal of
Strategic Property Management, 22(1), pp.51-63.
Rissanen, I. and et. al., 2018. Teachers’ implicit meaning systems and their implications for
pedagogical thinking and practice: A case study from Finland. Scandinavian Journal of
Educational Research, 62(4), pp.487-500.
Sinclair, J. and Aho, A. M., 2018. Experts on super innovators: understanding staff adoption of
learning management systems. Higher Education Research & Development, 37(1),
pp.158-172.
Tight, M., 2018. Higher education research: The developing field. Bloomsbury Publishing.
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SECTION 6: Essay Self Assessment
Complete this form before you submit your portfolio.
Good Evidence Some Evidence Insufficient
Evidence
Essay Structure
A. Has a clear
structure including
an introduction;
body paragraphs,
conclusion &
bibliography
✓
B. Has a clear thesis
statement that states
their sub topics and
position
✓
C. Has clear topic
sentences in each
main body
paragraph
✓
D. Has features of an
essay not a report,
i.e. no headings,
bullet points etc.
✓
Content
E. Has compared
directly between the
two countries in each
paragraph
✓
F. Has commented
on what we learn
from the
comparisons
✓
G. Has included
suitable background
information in the
introduction
✓
H. Has included a
suitable summary
and overall comment
in the conclusion
✓
I. Has written 750
words (+/- 10%) ✓
Use of Sources and
Referencing
J. Has a minimum of
2 sources per ✓
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paragraph
K. Has in-text
citations which
follow Harvard style.
E.g. (Coughlan,
2014)
✓
M. Has avoided
plagiarism ✓
Use of English
N. Writes accurate
sentences ✓
O. Spells and
punctuates
accurately
✓
P. Uses a range of
language ✓
Q. Writes in an
appropriate
academic style
✓
Things you have done well
Avoided plagiarism. Also, there is use of correct language and the spellings.
Things you need to improve on
I need to improve in the process of data collection and therefore, be able to implement
the ideas independently.
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