ASB/ABJ 4439: INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

Module coordinator: Dr Sonya Hanna, s.hanna@bangor.ac.uk, Hen Goleg Rm. 1.14

Individual Critical Reflective Essay (worth 40% of the module mark)

Submission Deadline: Week 31, Monday 27th March 2023

(NO later than midnight 11:59pm UK time)

Word count: minimum 1,000 – maximum 1,200

ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION: Based on your individual experience of the module and in

particular lecture topics 1 to 8, you are to critically reflect upon the learning gained and the
contribution made to your knowledge of international marketing.

You need to undertake constructive self-reflection (so you need to provide a certain logic to
your reflective critique), to demonstrate your ability to examine your understanding of
international marketing while critically reflecting on relevant subject literature.

Examples of content to reflect upon:

• Home country vs. international marketing, are there any differences in practice?
• The impact of global factors on management decision making.
• What is the influence of globalisation; opportunities/threats?

CRITICAL WRITING vs. DESCRIPTIVE WRITING:

With critical writing, you are participating in academic debate. You need to weigh up
academic evidence and arguments, and to contribute your own. You will need to:
• Consider the quality of the evidence and argument you have read, in doing so you are
clearly refusing to accept the conclusions of other writers without assessing the arguments
and evidence that they provide,
• Identify key positive and negative aspects you can comment upon, so you are providing a
balanced presentation of the reasons why the conclusions of other writers may be
accepted or may need to be treated with caution,
• Assess the relevance and usefulness of these arguments to the content that you are
debating, so you are identifying how best they can be integrated into the argument that
you are developing in your assignment,
• Recognise the limitations in your own evidence, argument, and conclusion.

Critical writing requires a much higher level of skill than descriptive writing, and this is
reflected in the higher mark it is given.

With descriptive writing, you are NOT developing arguments; you are merely setting the
background within which an argument can be developed. You are representing the situation
as it stands, without presenting any analysis or discussion.

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In providing only description, you are presenting but not transforming information; you are
reporting ideas but not taking them forward in any way. An assignment using only descriptive
writing would therefore gain few marks.

ASSIGNMENT ADVICE: Similarly, to essay writing, critical reflective writing DOES incorporate:
• Secondary source of material,
• Use of formal English,
• Discipline/subject specific terminology,
• Follows appropriate academic citation and referencing,
• Follows appropriate academic presentation and layout (style and structure).

However, it also differs from essay writing in that:

• It makes use of the first person,
• It makes “you” an object of inquiry,
• It incorporates experiences as a form of evidence.

WRITING MECHANISMS:
• Use Times New Roman Font.
• Use 1.5 spacing for the main body of the plan.
• Number pages.
• Word count minimum 1,000 – maximum 1,200 excluding executive summary, tables,
charts, figures, references, and appendices:
o Tables, charts, figures, references, and appendices must be used appropriately and
referred to within the main body of your assignment, they must not be used to
circumvent the word count.
o All materials submitted must be readable/assessable as A4 printed material; do not
include video, sound, or any other form of interactive files.
• Spelling and grammar must be checked to ensure accuracy.
• Use Harvard Referencing Guide (download from:
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/library/help/documents/harvardreferencingguide.pdf)
o You are reminded not to copy material from any sources without properly referencing
it, as this constitutes plagiarism: cases of plagiarism will be referred to the Business
School Academic Integrity Officer and will be subject to a deduction of marks, which can
result in an overall mark of 0%.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: 1 electronic copy to Turnitin via Blackboard.

Submission Deadline: Week 31, Monday 27th March 2023

(NO later than midnight 11:59pm UK time)