Academic and Research Skills Report: Personal Development Plan

This report comprehensively examines academic and research skills, crucial for professional development. It details the importance of personal development, emphasizing the significance of enhancing skills such as analytical and communication abilities, particularly for aspiring marketing managers. The report outlines the process of effective note-taking and its impact on concentration and information retention. It also provides a structured approach to research report writing, including planning, data collection, analysis, and conclusion, alongside a research report plan with activities and timelines. Furthermore, the report underscores the importance of interpersonal skills and creativity, alongside time management and flexibility. The conclusion summarizes the key takeaways, emphasizing the value of continuous improvement through seminars, classes, and interactions, and the role of a personal development plan in evaluating performance and setting improvement goals. The report concludes with a list of references, including books, journals, and online resources.

ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH
SKILLS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
1. Personal Development............................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2. Capability of writing notes......................................................................................................5
TASK 3 ...........................................................................................................................................6
3. Research report........................................................................................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
4. Preparing a Personal Development Plan.................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Having a good command on the skills will help to improve the weakness and increases
confidence to achieve target objective or goals in life. These skills will also help in writing an
effective research project. This report will explain the way to write a research report in a proper
manner and the different factors required to achieve this. It will also discuss about the personal
development plan and ways to prepare it. For a marketing manager, the way skills play an
important role will also be explained in this report.
TASK 1
1. Personal Development
Personal development is important for an individual to work properly in the respective
field. For an effective research report writing, it is crucial to have skilled knowledge regarding
the work. While conducting this research report, I came out to understand about my strengths
and weaknesses for which I have to work on. Personal skills play an important role in building a
strong career. Having an effective personal skill will to maintain a positive attitude towards
work. It can also affect the success of organization as well. It motivates to put the best efforts to
get good results. For me, personal skill is very important as it enhanced my personality so
much. But, I have to work on my analytical and communication skills which have to be perfect
if I want to achieve my goals.
My whole research project work is based on my target which is to become a good
marketing manager at the end of 2019 for which I am working very hard. For marketing
manager, I have to improve my analytical skills as it will be helpful for me to communicate with
other employees working in the organization. For this, I have also improved my academic skills,
for example, my ability to conduct research, taking notes, summarizing and paraphrasing, etc. I
am also working on my language skills because for better communication, it is very important to
have a good command on language. It will also help me to build confidence and work more
effectively for the organization and I can achieve my objectives and goals easily. Interpersonal
skills also plays an important role in becoming a good marketing manager as it will help me to
give innovative ideas for the organization to increase their marketing techniques in target
industry. Apart from this, language skill is something in which I have to get a good command as
for me, it is very crucial to make communication with people for getting better marketing plans
for the organization.

TASK 2
2. Capability of writing notes
For an effective research report writing, it is very important to take notes as it will help in
making a good report. It will improve the ability to be organized in the work. It will provide an
ability to organize my material for writing report. By writing notes, it helped me to increased
my concentration power and my listening ability, which has a great impact om my overall
performance while conducting this research report. The main reason why I have started to take
notes is because it helps me in concentrating on things to understand it more accurately and
second reason is that it maintains complete information regarding my work which I can use in
the future as well.
For marketing manager, I researched about an article named “Marketing Management
Concepts - Yesterday and Today” which is given by BERNARD J. and EDWARD J.
MORRISON. While going through this article, I learned about how management works in an
organization for their better marketing of products and services in target industry. This article
includes concepts like scientific management and sales and marketing management, etc. It
helped me to understand different factors which are responsible for marketing a product's sale in
the market. For example: it needs market research and planning, marketing training and
accounting as well as its advertising to attract customers. These are the main elements of
scientific marketing system according to this article.
I have studied that scientific study and analysis of work are very important for marketing
manager in order to discover the best way possible and to manage proper time to do that job. It
also has to do scientific selection and training of employees which fits best for the organization.
To manage disciplined work performance by workers is also supervised by the marketing
manager as well. It has to increase the efficiency of employees and motivate them. According to
this article, I understood that there are several other managers as well who work under
marketing manager, such as, advertising manager, sales and production managers who helps in
creating an effecting marketing plan for any product or services of the organization.
It is stated in the article that standardization and specialization play an important role for
an effective marketing manager to plan strategies as he is the one who plans, organizes and
controls the activities of employees working under him. This helps to achieve their targets
within stipulated period of time. Complete information which I have gathered while going

through this article has helped me to understand all the roles and responsibilities which a
marketing manager has to follow in organization in which he or she is working,
TASK 3
3. Research report
For an effective research report, it is very important to have a proper planning of the
work which has to be achieved by doing this report. Initial step which I have taken to start my
work is the selection of appropriate topic for my research work. After selecting it, I go through
some literature review for the better understanding of my work. This process has helped me a lot
in gathering information regarding my topic. Then I conducted research methodology to collect
the required data which I will be using for completing my report. I have done both; primary and
secondary research method to complete my report. After collecting all these data, I go through
studied them for the data analysis which is very important for writing any report effectively.
Final step is the conclusion and recommendation which gives the overall summary of the report
followed by final submission.
For any research report, it is very important to follow the appropriate steps to make it
effective. All these steps have taken some time to complete it which are listed below in the
research report plan including all the respective steps:
Research Report Plan :
Activities 1st
Week
2nd
Week
3rd
Week
4th
Week
5th
Week
6th
Week
7th
Week
8th
Week
9th
Week
10th
We
ek
Selection
of the
research
project
work and
evaluating
its
objectives

and aims
Literature
Review of
different
authors and
writers
Implement
ation of
suitable
research
methodolo
gy for
research
Research
proposal
Completion
Data
Collection
for the
research
report
Recording
of data
Data
Analysis
Conclusion
and
recommend
ation
Finale
submission

of the
research
project
work
TASK 4
4. Preparing a Personal Development Plan
For an effective marketing manager, I have worked on my analytical and communication
skills to improve them which can help me to get better results for the organization. It will also
help me to build confidence in me which is very important an effective report writing. For the
improvement of my analytical skills, for example, to use my approaches towards different
situations, using innovative schemes for the company to implement, time management, etc. I
have taken so many classes and seminar to enhance them. As it will be beneficial for me to
communicate with other employees and make them work effectively.
I have attended seminars and gave presentation as well which helped me to improve my
communication skills because it is very important for me while conducting primary research as
it requires communicating with different people to gather or collect information. I have also
worked on my time management skill and my creative thinking which can help me to build
innovative ideas for making marketing planning for organization's products and services in the
target industry to achieve my objectives. Giving presentations to people has helped me in
improving my language skill as well as my attitude while interacting with them. I have also
interacted with my seniors and other marketing managers of different organization which helped
me to understand the post more accurately.
 Personal Development Plan :
Objectives Current
Proficiency
Target
Proficiency
Strategies to
Implement
Time Scale
Analytical Skills This is the field in
which I have to work
on as it is very
important for the
I am attending
seminars and
classes for the
improvement of
I am reading articles
on different
marketing managers
to improve it.
8 to 10 days

marketing manager. my analytical
skills.
Communication
Skills i.e. verbal
and written
communication.
My communication
skill is very weak for
which I have to look
after for the
improvement.
My aim is to get a
good command
over it.
I have joined
training sessions
and seminars to
improve
communication
skills.
10 to 12
days
Time
management
I need to improve
time management for
getting effective
result.
I am working on
myself by
scheduling my
work to get
results on time.
Working myself to
manage my work on
time.
5 days
Language Skills My current language
skill is good for
marketing manager
post, I only need to
enhance it a little.
Interacting with
more people to
improve it.
Giving presentation
has helped me a lot.
Also, I am attending
my training for the
corporate trainer.
5 to 6 days
Data Analysis
Skills
To collect effective
data I need to work
on it.
Collecting data
from different
sources.
Communicating
with different
people as much as I
can do to enhance
it.
10 days
Problem solving
capability
It is average
according to me.
Taking training
and classes to
work on this.
Reading different
articles and
magazines.
5 days
Capability of
Critical Thinking
e.g. accuracy of
For marketing
manager post it is
very important to
Working on it by
reading different
articles related to
By interacting with
my seniors and
teachers.
5 days

work, efficiency,
practical, etc.
have critical thinking
ability. I have to
work on this section.
this to enhance
my capability.
Flexibility Skills
e.g, adaptability,
punctuality,
helpfulness, etc
To be flexible in
work is very
essential tool. I am
quite flexible in
nature.
Working with
different people
to check my
flexibility skill.
To improve it I am
taking classes to
have a good
command.
3 days
Interpersonal
Skills e.g.
collaborative,
encouraging,
leadership, etc.
I have to do a little
improvement on my
interpersonal skills.
Meeting with
different people
has helped me to
improve this skill.
This skill is very
important to work
effectively and for
that I am working
myself to manage it.
4 to 5 days
Creativity Skills
e.g. innovative
thinking.
It is good. Preparing
presentations to
improve it.
Giving
presentations to
enhance my
creativity
2 days
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that it is very important to have a good
command on different types of skills, for example, analytical, communication, language,
interpersonal, creativity, etc. For the improvement of all these skills, attending seminars, taking
classes, interacting with seniors and teachers will help a lot. It is also discussed in this report the
importance of note taking while conducting any research report, as it helps to concentrate more
on the work. Apart from this giving presentation is also an effective measure to improve. This
report also explains about the personal development plan which helps to evaluate the overall
performance and target those areas which needs improvement.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
AlHassan, L. and Wood, D., 2015. The effectiveness of focused instruction of formulaic
sequences in augmenting L2 learners' academic writing skills: A quantitative research
study. Journal of English for Academic Purposes. 17. pp.51-62.
Allison, B. and et.al., 2016. Research skills for students. Routledge.
Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
Carey, M., 2017. Qualitative research skills for social work: theory and practice. Routledge.
Milad, M., 2017. Blended learning approach: integrating reading and writing research skills to
improve academic writing. Arab Journal of Applied Linguistics. 2(2). pp.23-55.
Wibrowski, C. R., Matthews, W. K. and Kitsantas, A., 2017. The role of a skills learning
support program on first-generation college students’ self-regulation, motivation, and
academic achievement: A longitudinal study. Journal of College Student Retention:
Research, Theory & Practice. 19(3). pp.317-332.
Online
6 Reasons Why Note-Taking is Very Important. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.fatimahachem.com/6-reasons-why-note-taking-is-very-important/>
Marketing Management Concepts Yesterday and Today. 2014. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.ama.org/documents/4996187.pdf>