is there any implication if I don’t include a recommendation?

It is strongly advisable in my opinion to include the recommendation. I am sure there are areas in your RAP were you can simplify to accommodation the recommendation part. Make sure the recommendation is based on the findings and conclusions. Atleast 4 to 5 recommendation is enough for the company to focus on. That is what I gave and I passed.

I read pg. 37 or (pg. 40) of the info pack. You are correct that the Title and Table of content are not in Part 1,

however, all words except Appendices and Reference list are included in the word count 😀 thus Title and Table of content also.

Don’t worry, my Title + Table of content were larger so i compressed my table of content by writing like “Ratio analysis pg 12” instead of “Profitability ratios pg.13 Liquidity ratios pg.16 Investor ratios pg. 21”

Then after compressions like these, it became 140 words approx. only.

Try changing the sentences without losing their meanings like i showed right now.

Reduce part 2 by 200 words or even more! Part 3 is the important one like trephena said :))

@batala Check your email.

Hi Guys! -shall I pitch in here? The evaluation and analysis – Part 3 is the most important section – and it would be folly to ignore this fact. If a student asked me if they should compromise this section in favour of producing the contents page I would respond – absolutely NOT!!!! I have never known a student fail for not producing a contents page but I’ve encountered dozens that have failed on evaluation and analysis……

I don’t think a ‘literature review’ is necessarily relevant for a RAP (it is more a dissertation thing and the RAP is most definitely not the same standard as a dissertation). You should however include a model for most topics (SWOT, PESTLE, 5 Forces etc for topic 8, 7 P’s Boston Matrix etc for topic 18)) relevant codes for (topics 17 & 20) and theory for some of the others (including Topic 6) NOTE this list is not exhaustive you have to find a model or theory that is appropriate for your chosen topic and ensure it is all fully referenced of course!

Now back to the word count issue: this runs from the title page to the last word of the report and is 7,500 words. As your reference list should be loaded as a separate file it doesn’t count towards the word count but perhaps the confusion is arising because the references in the text itself DO count.

Where the word count is exceeded slightly, some educational bodies instruct their markers to stop at the point the word count maximum is reached so perhaps your conclusion and recommendations would not be marked (so your grade might then be lower – maybe that’s what happened to the friend mentioned above perhaps?). Most universities apply the electronic word count in the Word program (let’s face it, no marker is going to count 7,500 words, are they each time?) and if the total is very excessive then the whole thing will be rejected. I’m not sure exactly what OBU does but bung all the raw calculations and formula in the appendices and trim as much of the superfluous material in Parts 1 & 2. Do a contents page if you can but I would never beat myself up about missing out the latter if the rest of my report was well laid out and the analysis was good (again I have doubts that a marker would really look at it and be hypercritical as I’ve never seen it mentioned in any of the feedback or comments made by OBU! – but who knows?)

Hope that helps some of you chill a bit!

Congratulations and thanks to @trephena for being moderator of this forum.
She is an asset for this forum.

Absolutely Brian! You could not pass Topic 6 without reviewing motivation theories. To get a decent pass you have to show linkage (which you did) applying the theory to your findings and producing a reasoned analysis and conclusions. (Linkage applies to just about all of the topics e.g.in Topic 8 the financial analysis should link back to the SWOT /PESTLE of the business analysis as for a good grade you need to show how the company built on its strengths and overcame its weaknesses etc and how the PESTLE factors influenced the results).

Sounds as though you should have got an A though!!!! 😀

(What I meant is that the Lit Review in a dissertation is a formal section on its own and you have to delve fairly deeply into the theory, referencing lots of academic research, articles and journals the higher the level of degree and then critique the prevalent theories – can be interesting but equally can be one long yawn….)

ACO stands for the Academic Conduct Office. It is the university department that deals with any suspected infringement of the university rules by students.

There are now electronic processes in place to uncover malpractices by students who may have colluded, copied and cheated and the ACO will withhold results for the student’s RAP pending an investigation, if their electronic systems and / or markers have indicated that the work is suspicious. Many RAPs after investigation by the ACO, are passed but it can obviously be very stressful to be told your work is being scrutinized and that you are suspected of misconduct (even if you know you are innocent) and the investigation can take several months.

If students have done all of the work for their RAP, SLS and Presentation themselves AND REFERENCED FULLY* they have nothing to fear.

*it is very important to reference fully otherwise you may be ‘guilty of plagiarism’ – even if you did not intend to pass someone else’s work and ideas off as your own and the incidences of this were ‘accidental’.