Academic and Research Skills Report: Semester 1, University XYZ

This report comprehensively examines academic and research skills essential for professional development, particularly within the context of Business Management. It begins with a self-assessment of strengths and weaknesses, followed by the establishment of SMART goals for improvement. The report includes examples of note-taking from lectures and outlines a research plan focusing on Marks & Spencer's marketing strategies. Furthermore, it culminates in a Personal Development Plan (PDP) that details specific skills, current abilities, development targets, success criteria, and timelines for achieving these goals. The PDP addresses areas such as leadership and management skills, time management, and problem-solving abilities, providing a structured approach to enhancing the individual's overall academic and professional capabilities.

Academic and
Research Skills

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Assessing own academic strengths and weaknesses..............................................................3
Setting targets for self-improvement including long and short term goals............................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Present notes taken in the class from teacher lectures............................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
Research plan..........................................................................................................................6
TASK 5............................................................................................................................................7
Personal Development Plan (PDP).........................................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Academic and Research skills are two basic requirements and capability which a student
or a professional should hold in concern with excelling in there area of profession and
performance. An individuals with strong research and academic skills are supported throughout
their careers and in their future development too (Avery, 2019). Therefore, these abilities are
essential for personal growth of an individual and for seeking the success in their professional
settings as well. Thus, the present assessment is reflecting upon these capabilities by beginning
with conducting an analysis of strengths and weaknesses and developing SMART targets for self
improvement. Moving along note taking and research skills are examined with development of a
research plan. Lastly, at the end of the report a Personal Development Plan is made for seeking
right steps to attain the determined targets and develop further.
TASK 1
Assessing own academic strengths and weaknesses
Business Management is the specialist area in which I have been seeking my professional
learning and development (ten Braak and et. al., 2019). The area of business management as
career pathway moves the individual to hold up a potential responsibility and to manage the
administrative tasks and responsibilities for making the business a success and lead towards
attaining all goals and agendas.
Business management is my specialist area in which there are number of skill which is
required to be developed by me in order to surpass others and stay competitive enough. The
influence imposed by number of skills of a person to grow and develop their understanding in a
respective area and to a particular goal (Byrne, 2020). These capabilities are personal, academic
and language. In order to determine and reflect upon the same a personal strength and weakness
analysis is made in the section below:
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
 First up is my personal skill which is a
strong suit for me and supports my
studies and professional development is
my communication practices and ways.
 As a learner and a profession pursuing
a professional practice degree in the
field of management of a business the
biggest weakness and barrier is my lack

I am an effective communicator which
enable me to be more interactive and
gather the most relevant information
when requires amongst different
groups.
 Another strength which I hold is of
having potential command on my
language. As a learner this is my
strength which enable me to be
critically analytical and supports my
learning practices (Hussein, 2017).
 The third strength that I enjoy and have
support of in my self development and
learning is my motivation skills. I am a
self motivated individual and keep
myself encouraged towards learning
and seeking more and more knowledge
in the best possible manner and learn as
per the requirements and put required
amount of efforts.
of understanding of the concept of
effective decision making and diagnosis
skills (Tamis-LeMonda and et. al.,
2019). With this specialist course I
have been aiming at developing better
diagnosis skills and make use of my
capabilities in improving my decision
making skills by gaining better
judgement power.
 Then moving along another area which
is my weakness and needs
improvisation is my note taking skills.
This is related to my critical thinking
abilities and reflects the need for further
development and progression.
 In regards to my course of business
management, leadership is a necessary
concept but I lack knowledge and
understanding in the areas. This is my
weakness which is important for me to
develop.
Setting targets for self-improvement including long and short term goals
SMART Objectives
The acronym of SMART is Specific Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed, these
are the form of objectives which allows managers and employees to create, track and attain the
objectives both long or short term. The role played by SMART objective style is in construction
of aims for longer or shorter period of time. This form of goal setting practice and framework is
applicable to several separate sectors and situations.
That means an individual who is willing to work towards their career and development
needs certain objectives to be developed. Hence, the person make use of SMART objectives

framework in order to make their aims in particular aspects with the focus of attaining
appropriate outcomes at the end. In the same manner businesses and large organisations
belonging to any sector also make use of SMART framework in favour of determining their
objectives in most influencing manner where they can make sure of effectiveness of those targets
and look over the success (Lee, Hu and Bilszta, 2020).
From the above discussion of my personal strengths and weaknesses there are certain
targets which are essential for me to attain and accomplish in relation to be keenly productive
and skillfull while completing and learning my course of Business Management. These goals are
as follows:
 To take rapid decisions and improve my decision making skills I will be more engaged in
team assignment where I will be holding responsible position for making the best
assignment with all team member in next 2 months.
 To improvise critical thinking abilities within 6 months for being more analytical and for
which I will be making use of note taking practice in aspects to taking the best
information extracted for future use and reference.
 To learn about leadership and management I will be using books and journals for seeking
information of the basic ideas behind the concepts (Lin and Magnuson, 2018).
TASK 2
Present notes taken in the class from teacher lectures
Note taking is a practice where the learner and the examiner of the article or the
respective sessions will be extracting the most relevant data and storing it in their notes for future
reference and contextual learning. In more concise words, this is a data collection and recording
practice where different sources and references are considered for gathering an appropriate
amount of information in regards to a certain topic. While taking notes the person do not copy
the whole work, but the essence of the presented work and data is written down in brief and used
to recall it later on with passage of time (Veerasamy and et. al., 2019).
Most commonly students or the person learning and working upon their career through
taking academic help and educational institutions make notes to refer to their studies after some
time once the tutor have elaborated upon them. As per my understanding and learning course of
Business Management is have been taking notes from lectures and lessons from professors in

class and teaching lessons. Hence, one example of my note taking practice is presented
underneath.
The article chosen was over the Business Management, that is “Exploring employability
skills in Business Management studies within higher education levels”. The article was
developed to look over the higher education in the United Kingdom and the focus being imposed
on making teaching more responsible and learning processes easy. The notes of the article are as
follows about the notions and aspects covered in the article (Mwaniki, 2018)
 Increasing engagement of Higher Education Institutions in local environment for
exploring the market place, firms and other requirements of industry to seek information
about talent required and developing professional and educational practices accordingly.
 The key employability skills required for a business management student to excel in their
line of profession and raise their skillset offering more to industry and to the economy of
the United Kingdom in making it a leading western and knowledge based learning.
 The focus of this higher educational program changing is made over the demand of job
market where the requirements of the educational programmes of Business Management
were modified as per the need of the industry in regards to talent they require for future
growth and development.
TASK 3
Research plan
 Overview of the company along with products or services
Marks & Spencer is a retail organisation which is planning to engage customers and
attract them again after the COVID-19 pandemic and looking over the critical areas to cover. The
company is planning to develop a new marketing campaign for doing so in order to promote its
food products (Ong and Djajadikerta, 2019).
 Aim of the research
To explore different marketing strategies useful for company to make promotions and
influence the performance of organisation. A study on Marks & Spencer.
 Objectives of the plan
◦ To explore the concept of marketing and its influence on organisations.

◦ To determine a strong marketing strategies for Marks & Spencer for making strong
promotions.
◦ To explore the challenges of marketing and its strategies which will be affecting
Marks & Spencer and its performances.
 Literature review
According to the view points of author, marketing is considered as a practice to make
promotions and increase communication with the external public in order to inform them about
goods and services and offering them appropriate knowledge. Marketing has number of tools
which are adopted by teams and marketing member for developing a campaign and offering the
best informed knowledge to the customers and potential buyers in case of making sales and
engaging people with firm (Son, Choi and Kwon, 2019).
 Methodology
The research methodology used for the research is secondary out of both primary and
secondary. The secondary research conducted holds the information which actually presented by
others and researcher sort it for making their conclusion with accumulating proper evidences.
TASK 5
Personal Development Plan (PDP)
SKILLS CURRENT
ABILITY
TARGET
ABILITY
DEVELOPM
ENT
OPPORTUNI
TY
SUCCESS
CRITERIA
TIME
FRAME
Leadership
and
Management
Skills
Average Excellent This is a key
skill of a
business
management
professional
who is being
studying and
planning to
In case of
making
judgements
and assessing
the skill
development
of
management
Approx 2 to 5
months.

enter the
market in the
similar
professional
field. A key
aspect of the
same is for
effective
administration'
s and
operation of
business the
manager have
to be skilled
enough. Hence
the
development
opportunity I
hold for doing
so is using
books and
journals and
making the
best use of
resources
provided by
tutors for the
same. Along
with it the
guidelines
from tutors
and leadership
abilities as a
students of
business
management
course the
feedbacks
from
professors is a
strong tool to
make
evaluation of
the
improvement
made and how
well the
progress is
being taking
place.

and their
teaching is a
maximising
source.
Time
Management
Skills
Average Excellent Time
management is
another key
aspects of
learning and a
profession of
business
manger. In
regards to the
same the best
and the most
suitable
leaning and
developing
opportunity
which I will be
exploring and
which is
supportive
enough is
making
routines and
using
timetables for
setting daily
schedules and
working as per
The best
judgement
criteria to deal
with the
progress being
taken place in
my time
management
skills through
timetables and
working
according to
routines is self
judgements
and making
analysis of
completion of
work in given
time and
effectively
attaining the
prescribed
agendas.
Approximately
3 to 6 months.

the
requirements
and the
priority of
activities.
Problem
Solving Skills
Poor Excellent The last area
which needs
improvement
as per now in
my personal
and
professional
development
is problem
solving skills.
As a student I
do not have
enough
interpersonal
abilities which
are affecting
my abilities to
deal with
difficulties and
challenges and
solve the
problems. The
development
opportunity
which exist for
me is to take
The judgement
criteria which
will best suit
in assessing
the
improvement
and
improvisation
of change and
development
took place in
problem
solving is
taking
feedbacks
from peer
group with
whom I am
learning and
seeking my
professional
studies.
Around 10 to
12 months.

up online
learning
sessions and
participating
into practices
which are
offering more
learning of the
areas and
tactics by
which
problems can
be solved in
the most
efficient
manner on a
responsible
position.
CONCLUSION
The above report concludes in regards to significance and efficiency provided by research
and other academic skills to the learner or the individual. There are number of reflective tools
used and worked upon in the report where strengths and weaknesses in regards to academic and
personal skills are determined. In according to which targets are developed with SMART
formate in order to seek towards improvements and development. Moreover, a research plan is
constructed in order to demonstrate the research skills by outlining the understanding of research
methods and ways in which research can be conducted. Once these evaluations are completed at
last a personal development plan is presented for seeking further growth and success.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Avery, J. M., 2019. Enhancing Library and Information Research Skills: A Guide for Academic
Librarians, by Lili Luo, Kristine R. Brancolini, and Marie R. Kennedy. Canadian
Journal of Academic Librarianship, 5, pp.1-3.
Byrne, C., 2020. What determines perceived graduate employability? Exploring the effects of
personal characteristics, academic achievements and graduate skills in a survey
experiment. Studies in higher education. pp.1-18.
Hussein, L. M., 2017. The Effectiveness of Teaching Educational Research Course on the
Development of Scientific Research Skills, Academic and Personal Integrity among
Female Students of Al-Qassim University. International Journal of Asian Social
Science. 7(5). pp.392-409.
Lee, M. G., Hu, W. C. and Bilszta, J. L., 2020. Determining expected research skills of medical
students on graduation: a systematic review. Medical Science Educator. 30(4). pp.1465-
1479.
Lin, Y .C. and Magnuson, K. A., 2018. Classroom quality and children’s academic skills in child
care centers: Understanding the role of teacher qualifications. Early Childhood
Research Quarterly. 42. pp.215-227.
Mwaniki, P. W., 2018. Envisioning the future role of librarians: skills, services and information
resources. Library Management.
Ong, T. and Djajadikerta, H. G., 2019. Adoption of emerging technology to incorporate business
research skills in teaching accounting theory. Journal of Education for Business. 94(7).
pp.480-489.
Son, S. H. C., Choi, J. Y. and Kwon, K. A., 2019. Reciprocal associations between inhibitory
control and early academic skills: evidence from a nationally representative sample of
head start children. Early Education and Development. 30(4). pp.456-477.
Tamis-LeMonda and et. al., 2019. Early home learning environment predicts children’s 5th grade
academic skills. Applied Developmental Science. 23(2). pp.153-169.
ten Braak and et. al., 2019. Bidirectionality in self-regulation and academic skills in play-based
early childhood education. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. 65.
p.101064.
Veerasamy and et. al., 2019. Relationship between perceived problem‐solving skills and
academic performance of novice learners in introductory programming courses. Journal
of Computer Assisted Learning. 35(2). pp.246-255.