Topic: International Trade and Globalization – Assessment
Order Description
Weighting = 100% of module mark Word Limit: 3000 word (+/- 10%)
OVERVIEW OF THE MODULE / MODULE AIMS
This module will provide students with a thorough grounding in the theory and practice of international trade in the context of economic, social and cultural globalisation, as witnessed since 1945. Through this module, students will explore the international business environment, including issues in international economics and international management. An understanding of the challenges and opportunities created by globalisation for firms, states, markets and individuals is a critical aspect of international management education.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On successful completion of the module the students will be able to:
1.Interpret and analyse the historical development of the international trading system since 1945.
2.Analyse and interpret the contemporary international trade environment.
3.Critically evaluate the mechanisms for the global governance of the world economy.
4.Critically evaluate economic globalisation and its implications for business, including an understanding of relevant economic theory.
ASSESSMENT TASK

A critical essay (3,000words). (100%). learning outcomes 1 to 4

IMPORTANT – Please see below for further guidance on the critical essay.
Failure to follow the guidance below may lead to a ‘fail’ mark for this module; if you are in any doubt regarding what is being asked for, please consult with the module leader, Greig Mill, who will be happy to assist.

ASSESSMENT GUIDANCE NOTES: CRITICAL ESSAY
1.You are asked to select one essay title from two possible titles. Essay Title A: International Trade
Essay Title B: International Production

2.Try to include everything from all relevant lectures.

3.A good strategy is to firstly to provide context with a concise summary and overview of key issues from across a number of relevant lectures, and then to focus on a particular much narrower topic in detail and depth. As a rough guide, probably at least half of a good critical essay should consist of „detail and depth?.

For example, suppose you choose Essay Title A: International Trade.

Any essay on international trade should probably briefly demonstrate an understanding of key ideas regarding why international trade occurs and of the possible benefits or costs to different groups of people. Relevant ideas from the lectures include comparative advantage, intra-industry trade, the impact on factors of production (eg wages), the benefits or costs of restrictive trade policy, and so on.

Then for ?detail and depth? you can choose a narrower topic to suit your interests, such as
-fair trade labelling systems
(for example: are they needed? what do they claim to achieve? do they achieve this?)
-observing and explaining patterns of trade
(for example: looking at real-world examples, which trade seems to be explained by the theory of comparative advantage? what other types of trade are there?)
-trade policy
(for example: can you find real-world examples of trade barriers or the removal of trade barriers? who gains? who loses?)
-preferential trade agreements (PTAs)
(for example: what are the main PTAs? what effect have they had? are PTAs good or bad for world trade as a whole?)
The above are examples – there are lots of different narrower topics that you could choose. Similar comments apply to Essay Title B: International Production.
4.Whichever topic you choose for your critical essay, the overall approach should be:
(a)firstly demonstrate your learning and understanding of key points from the lectures and recommended reading.
You must do (a) to achieve a pass mark.

Once you have done (a), additional marks are available for things such as:
(b)demonstrating detailed, critical or insightful understanding of relevant theory
(c)finding interesting real-world data or case study examples and explaining how these relate to the general issues or illustrate theories
(d)locating and demonstrating your understanding of relevant good quality academic publications (eg located using Emerald or Business Source Premier)
(e)demonstrating an awareness of different points of view, of how they relate to each other and of how they can reasonably coexist
(f)demonstrating an appreciation of linkages – how ideas fit together; for example it is good to show that you understand comparative advantage and that you understand foreign direct investment (FDI); it is even better to show that you understand how these interact so that FDI can change a country?s comparative advantage
(g)overall clarity and insight demonstrated in your essay style and structure
(h)please also see the note below about the meaning of „critical essay?

5.Include your name, the module code and the title of your critical essay at the beginning of the document. All pages must be numbered.

6.It is important to understand what is meant here by a „critical essay?.
The key characteristic of a „critical essay? as opposed to any other kind of essay is that it must demonstrate a sensitive appreciation that the topic under consideration is „contested? – that is that there is no single, universally-agreed, correct point of view.
The main aim in a critical essay is to demonstrate a thoughtful, balanced and detailed understanding of different perspectives on the topic, and of how they relate to each other.
An important secondary aim in this case is to also demonstrate engagement with and critical understanding of the learning materials in the module plus other relevant materials.
Put simply: you must not just provide „a good essay? – you must provide an essay that demonstrates that you have studied the material provided. An otherwise good essay that does not demonstrate this may be awarded a „fail? mark.

7.You must use the Harvard system to acknowledge publications that you have consulted and to provide evidence to support any claims that you make.
The Harvard system is sometimes called the name-date system since in-text citations are in the format (Reinert 2012).
Internet addresses should almost never be shown in the main text of your essay; instead use the name-date format.
Citations must be used whenever your essay mentions something that you know because you have read about it somewhere, to acknowledge the person who wrote it. Your essay will mainly take ideas that you have read about and explain these using your own words, to show that you understand – this is called paraphrasing. Whenever you paraphrase, you need a citation.
Rarely, you may want to reproduce exactly the words written by someone else; this is a quotation. Wherever you include a quotation you need more than just a citation – also the exact words reproduced must be in quotation marks “like this”.
Lectures and similar University teaching material should not usually be cited in your essay. The purpose of most lectures is to draw your attention to textbooks and other publications that you should read – it is these that you should cite.
Any tables or figures must be labelled similar to:
Figure 1: Demand and Production Possibility Frontiers.
If the table or figure uses information from a publication, then a citation is also needed, similar to: Figure 1: Demand and Production Possibility Frontiers.(Reinert 2012, p35).
Using the Harvard system, you must provide a reference list at the end of your essay giving full information of each publication cited in the text. This should be a single list (not separate lists for books, web publications, etc) in alphabetical order by author surname. There are rules about exactly how this should be done; for more information see
https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/information-learning-services/library/help-and-information/referencing-and-plagiarism.aspx
also a document with further information is provided on the Moodle page for this module.

8.The logical structure of your essay is important in demonstrating your academic skills and your understanding of the topic. The essay should begin with a paragraph describing the aim of the essay and the structure of what you go on to say. The essay should have clear sections on well-defined topics that relate to each other in a logical way that develops the points you are making. These sections can be defined either using headings or by explaining what is happening in your text (eg above X was considered; Y is also important, this is considered next…).
Paragraphs are an important way of organizing what you write. The basic idea is that each paragraph should explore a single coherent idea; a new idea needs a new paragraph. It is good to keep paragraphs fairly short. There is no hard-and-fast rule about paragraph length but as a rough guide you should try not to exceed 10 to 15 lines of text, with most paragraphs shorter than this.
Since each paragraph contains an idea, and most ideas in your essay come from things that you have read, this implies that most paragraphs will contain at least one citation.
The essay should end with a paragraph (perhaps two or three paragraphs) of conclusions. An essay of this type is very unlikely to reach a dramatic conclusion – don?t try. It is usually best to view the conclusion as a summary of the main points previously made in the essay. Doing this is another way in which you can demonstrate your good understanding.

9.The assessment is marked in accordance with the assessment criteria shown at the end of this document.

If you are in any doubt about any of the above, please discuss this with the module leader at your first opportunity. These matters are also discussed in se