Assessment Requirements
For this task you need to prepare a 1000 word country report on Australia’s bi-lateral relationship with either the United States, Japan, China or Indonesia.
For the country report you need to provide a report detailing the most important aspects of Australia’s relationship with your chosen country. It is important that you do not write a briefing that is just about the country itself. You will find information on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) website which may provide a general guide of what you might include. However, this is an official source, prepared by the government
department responsible for international diplomacy. As such, it will necessarily steer away from controversial issues, or seek to gloss over tensions in the relationship. Discussion on these will be found in the required readings. You may also consult the additional reading resources but this is not essential.
Your report should include details on the following:
Economic relationship
Strategic relationship
Diplomatic relationship
The country report must be written in proper prose form using complete grammatical sentences. Dot points are not acceptable. Your country report must be written in your own words.
Structure of the country report
It is important that you set out your report in an easy to follow way. The recommended structure is:
Introduction – a brief outline of what you will be covering in your country report
The main topic – the importance of this bi-lateral relationship to Australia
The author’s thesis – why this bi-lateral relationship is so important to Australia’s national interest
Key points –the 3 main arguments the author presents that demonstrate this position?
Body – a discussion of these 3 key points
Australia’s current economic, strategic and diplomatic relationship with the chosen country in its historical perspective
Evidence and examples from your sources to support the claims
Conclusion – a brief summary of the recommendations for the future
Author’s conclusions on what is necessary to ensure the relationship are effective in the future
Referencing System
You are required to include a reference list and cite in the text of the report the author, year and page number/s of the sources where your information and ideas come from. You must use the APA (in-text) referencing system.
Resources
No other resources are needed other than the TWO Required Readings for the country you select and access to the DFAT website for this assessment task. However, you can use the Additional Readings for background information.
Assessment Criteria
Accuracy, grasp of relevant detail, appreciation of the significance and chronology of events and issues
Your report must include relevant details and must reproduce them accurately. Your use of detail must demonstrate that you have grasped (understood) it correctly. Your report should demonstrate that you appreciate (understand) the significance of relevant events and issues and the chronological order in which they occurred.
- Critical thinking
You should demonstrate the application of critical thinking to the ideas you encounter. This means you should assess them objectively, looking at whether evidence and examples support the argument. Your report must be logical (adhere to the principles of reasoning) and coherent (fit together naturally). Your argument must make sense and views presented must be justified.
- The utilisation of sources, evidence, and examples
Your report should use sources, evidence, and examples appropriately, and the report must demonstrate that the sources are relevant and accurate. Therefore, you need to provide sources that are reliable, that relate to the bi-lateral relationship and of high quality to support your argument. Your use of relevant sources and evidence must also demonstrate that you have understood the information accurately.
- Structure and organization
Your report should be organized and structured so that it is easy to follow and efficient. It should not jump backward and forwards between points or repeat itself unnecessarily. It should be put together so it assists in supporting your argument and have a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. It should contain ‘signposts’ where appropriate so that the reader understands why you are dealing with things in the order you have chosen and can easily follow when you are moving from one point to another.
- Adherence to scholarly conventions
You must comply with scholarly conventions. This means avoiding plagiarism, including the “cut and paste” variety as discussed below under using your own words. It also means you should correctly and diligently acknowledge any quotes used with quotation marks and citations via in-text referencing and a reference list.
- Use of own words
Using your own words demonstrates that you have genuinely processed the ideas you are using rather than simply reciting the words of others. Using your own words helps to make the work your own. You should avoid lengthy quotes or ‘cut and paste’ pseudo paraphrasing (where a word or two is mechanically substituted). Use quotes very sparingly. If you do include a quote you must comply with scholarly conventions below.
- English expression, correct spelling, and grammar.
Attainment of the minimum standard for writing and presentation is necessary to pass the summary assessment task. There will be no right of resubmission for Task 2 on the grounds of English expression or for any other reason.
- Formatting and presentation
The appearance of your report is as important as its content. How it looks can impact how the entire report is viewed. It must be laid out, formatted and identified so that it is easy to read. You must follow the presentation criteria provided in the Unit Learning Guide.