Progress in the Course of Developing Professional Practice - Research Proposal Example

The paper 'Progress in the Course of Developing Professional Practice" is a good example of an education research proposal. The report details what I have learnt in the course of my student development studies. In the course of my leaning, I have managed to develop my skills as a reflective practitioner. The purpose of this report is to be able to provide critical analysis and overview of progress in the course of studying on my MSc Programme with particular reference to Developing Professional Practice.

Student Development File

In the course of my studies in the past terms, I have been able to develop immensely in my lessons and especially in Developing my Professional Practice. Discussed below are some of the new things that I learnt as part of my student development program. This is in the context of writing a dissertation for my MSc program.

Analyzing activity: according to Whitaker (2009), doing research takes time and a student/writer should not expect to conduct it once and conclusively write about it. Writing and the foregoing step of research is a process that may take several days or weeks. Analyzing activity on scientific articles, for example, often requires a generally accepted way of providing the information in writing. Precisely such kind of scientific text usually does not dwell on one individual but the general contribution to mankind; moreover, such texts go straight to the point. A paper that may be deemed fantastic is usually objective and presents both sides of a particular concept.

Use of referencing: referencing helps authors/writers of an essay or thesis to mention the sources of his/her material. In other words referencing is the acknowledgement of other people’s writings that I may have used in my essays/theses; the term referencing comes from the word refer. A good example of referencing, as I’ve mentioned earlier in this paper, is Harvard style. This style is mostly used in academic writing. However, it is not as popular as the other referencing styles such as the American Psychologists Association (APA) followed by the Modern Language Association (MLA).

Implications for professional practise: writing on academics has been adopted widely. As I have noticed in all of my writings, there are areas I need to improve on; for instance generating original content using the widely used writing styles such as Harvard style. When a writer/author chooses to dwell on a topic he/she is particularly passionate about in order to enrich his/her content, it is an impressive march to grand writing in academics.

General critical analysis: it is general for students/authors/writers to dwell on significant fit into place with the source material in order to cite them well in their essays/theses/articles. In his quest to showcase his knowledge of a particular topic, a student may be too descriptive as some supervisors may complain.

Presentation skills: Using mind maps to present a certain concept, is the most preferred method of disbursing information (Whitaker, 2009). It is a powerful form of planning because the people involved usually grasp the task presented on a mind map comprehensively and quickly. Moreover, mind mapping is also used in strategic planning for a business. Strategic plans which may be presented in a mind map and are often concise regarding a particular topic. In the case of a business, numerous and expensive meetings may not be necessary for discussing the way forward for that particular business. The objectives of a business are usually summarized in a mind map because it has a graphic nature; therefore an employee just has to scan it in his mind momentarily and understand the issues of the business.