Self-Reflection and Self-Allocation of Grade - Essay Example

? Self-Reflection and Self-Allocation of Grade Self-Reflection and Self-Allocation of Grade IntroductionAcademic writing is no less than an art. I have had the opportunity to improve my skills in this respective domain to a great extent in the course under discussion. The content of the submissions has been related to a vital field of study in the modern times, i.e. information management. Due to the relevance of the topic, I felt very excited and focused on the research since the acquisition of this information will help me in my future academic courses, as well as professional life. This paper includes personal reflection and critical analysis of the submissions in this course. 2. Best Effort among the Submissions I believe that abstract writing and peer reviews can be considered as the best reflections of my research and writing capabilities. These writing tasks bore great outcomes and came up to my personal benchmarks of quality writing. I have written abstracts before but this challenge was met with the personal inclination to research about the techniques that can be used to write comprehensive abstracts. As a result, I was able to organize my abstract into three main parts; introduction, problem statement and solution of the research problem. The abstract also included few lines discussing the purpose of the paper that makes the reader understand the relevance and theme of the research study. Due to the adoption of an organized process, I was able to focus on the quality of the writing rather than worrying about the type of content that needed to be included. Conducting a peer review was a commendable experience since I learned the art of performing critical analysis of academic writing and got the opportunity to study the work of researchers in the respective domain at a detailed level. The first paper included useful information regarding the implementation of information incident management program; the steps for the program were explained and critically analyzed for the strengths and weaknesses of the content. The techniques to conduct a peer review were studied for the process that reflected in the paper and gave it a professional look. Similarly, the second peer review was also conducted on the same lines that proved to refine the practice of critical analysis. The second paper was based on the challenges that are faced during the implementation of information security management. Both the peer reviews were concluded with useful recommendations that can facilitate improvement of the paper; such recommendations bear great relevance in the process of conducting peer reviews. However, one factor that has been missed out from the peer reviews is that of the mention of the authors’ details and the place where this paper was presented. 3. Most Challenging Submission The article writing proved to be the most challenging and difficult submission in the course. The topic of my research was “The Relation between IM, Information Security and HRM”; all the three aspects of this chosen domain involve extensive research since numerous papers and literature are available for each one of them. The excessive nature of the available literature made me lose focus at few instances during the research process and made me include information that could not prove to be highly relevant for the research topic. The inclusion of too much information proved to make the paper generic in nature to a certain extent rather than focusing on the link of information systems, information security management practices and human resource management practices. Meeting the word limit (i.e. 3000 words) of the paper also proved to be a challenge that led to the compromise of the quality of the content. Referencing is an important part of any academic writing process. The article lacked effect usage of in-text referencing at some places. I failed to adopt a critical analytical approach during some steps of the research study, instead ended up producing descriptive details about the information systems and their link with human resource practices. However, some arguments were included as a result of the acquisition of the skills of critical analysis during the peer reviews and provided strong basis to prove the notions. Along with these weaknesses, I believe that the article includes information from considerably recent papers since all the papers have been published in the past 10 years. Information technology is an evolving field therefore none of the chosen research work dates back to the past century. This aspect makes the research findings useful for the purpose of seeking guidance and implementation in the practical fields. Strength of the article is regarding the formal language that has been used in the paper and the way the content has been organized by means of headings and sub headings. 4. Lessons Learnt from the Exercise A valuable lesson that has been learnt in the process of this academic writing is that there exists a considerable difference between critical analysis and a descriptive discussion of a paper. The techniques of performing critical analysis should have been studied more extensively to improve this weakness. I also believe that repeated proofreading exercises would have improved the quality of the paper and rectified mistakes at a greater level. The most important thing that I have learnt from this experience has been that information should be selected wisely from the ocean of knowledge that is available in the prevailing times. One of my greatest weaknesses has been the lack of choice of effective content in the paper. Due to the occasional unfocused tone of the research study, I feel that I might have been more successful if I had narrowed down my research with the aid of specific research questions and objectives. 5. Overall Grade The overall grade for the publishing process is recommended as 7 since the work reflects commendable efforts invested in the research studies. The critical evaluation of the work of other authors, professional tone and presentation of the peer reviews delivers a comprehensive and accurate analysis of the chosen research papers. The abstract follows a logical structure by providing a complete outline and purpose of the research study. Key issues of information management, security and linkage to human resources management practices have been highlighted that succeed in retaining the attention of the reader. As for the task of article writing, it can be stated without any inhibitions that the content is free from plagiarism since all the authors have been given due credits at all the required places. I believe access of information is better than missing out any relevant aspects; however I have learnt valuable lessons and will refrain from including too much information. I believe that 7 points are suitable for the writing performance since key issues have been identified that are faced by the audiences of the paper and create the need for information management systems. The information is focused on the chosen domain of information management (throughout the paper) and does not diverge into other fields such as strategic management or financial aspects of a business. Read More