Masters Program
Applied Research Project/怎么寫Dissertation？

Student Handbook

August 2009

Table of Contents
I. Applied Research Project
1.1. Introduction 4
1.2. Project supervision 5
1.3. Milestones 5
1.4. Choosing a topic 6
1.5. Access and ethical considerations 7
1.6. Reliability: chain of evidence 8
1.7. Layout of the research project report 9
• Title page 10
• Plagiarism: signed statement 11
• Executive summary 11
• Acknowledgements 11
• Table of Contents 12
• Tables and figures 12
• Review of related literature 12
• Methodology 13
• Results 14
• Discussion 14
• Conclusions and recommendations 14
• Appendices 15
1.8. Applied research study report checklist 15
1.9. Applied research study report/dissertation submission 16
1.10. Assessment 17
II. Dissertation
2.1. Introduction 19
2.2. Dissertation milestones 19
2.3. Dissertation supervision 20
2.4. Choosing a topic 20
2.5. Layout of the dissertation 21
• Title page 22
• Plagiarism: signed statement 23
• Abstract 23
• Acknowledgements 23
• Table of Contents 24
• Tables and figures 24
• Literature review 24
• Methodology 25
• Results 25
• Discussion 26
• Conclusions and recommendations 26
• Appendices 26
2.6. Dissertation formal checklist 27
2.7. Assessment 27
II. References Applied Research Project/Dissertation
3.1. Basic of referencing 30
3.1.1. Referencing a journal article 30
3.1.2. Referencing a book 33
3.1.3. Referencing in body of text 34
3.1.4. Referencing a video or DVD 35
3.1.5. Referencing internet and electronic sources 35
3.2. Golden rules of referencing 38

I. Applied Research Project
1.1. Introduction
This document is to help you to identify a realistic topic for your study project, and to clear the ground in terms of gaining access and permissions for your primary data collection. Your project is an active cyclical study process, and it is understood that as you progress your perspective will change, approaches may need to be revisited or modified, or your focus narrowed.
By providing guidance and advice, the Graduate School will help you:
• To say clearly what it is that you need to do.
• To assess the extent to which your plans are likely to be suitable.
Delays in the study project are often due to the following problems:
• Choosing the wrong sort of project at the outset.
• Choosing a topic which is too big and unworkable given your time and resources.
• Difficulty gaining access to people or sites.#p#分頁標題#e#
• Ethical issues of confidentiality, questionnaire design, and right to privacy.
According to the Course Reference Sheet, the study project entails:
“The challenge of organizing and executing a small-scale management consulting project in teams. Students are expected to identify a suitable subject for study in the hospitality, tourism and related service industries and then develop a contract or team charter in collaboration with a client. The project provides an opportunity to conduct a project related to the needs of an employer or other organization of special interest. A variety of formats for the project report are acceptable including: a strategic plan for an organizational change, case study, academic style of dissertation, or industry analysis report.”
An important output of your project will be a consulting report of approximately 8,000 words, excluding the references and appendices. It will use American English, and the referencing system will be based on the Harvard referencing system. Essentially, it involves you performing the following activities:
• Choosing a relevant well-defined problem
• Investigating what is already known
• Choosing methods and collecting data
• Carrying out analysis, drawing conclusions, and making recommendations
• Critical evaluation and reflection, and the overall presentation of a report.
We strongly recommend you keep a diary or notebook in which to record every detail of your progress. This can be used through the project and is especially valuable to prove the reliability of your data collection, or chain of evidence, as discussed later in this document.
1.2. Project supervision
You will be allocated a specific supervisor whose role it is to both help you develop as an independent researcher, thinker and writer, and to monitor your progress during the whole applied research project process. Your supervisor is there to guide you, and should be the first person to whom you turn for advice and support.
You are responsible for keeping your supervisor informed and updated on your progress, and working out a schedule of meetings or email access.
The supervisor and the student should initially agree how they are going to work together and set mutual expectations. The student should make notes and immediately after meetings summarize what was talked about and any conclusions reached, and email the note to the supervisor. The candidate should keep these notes on file. This audit trail of emails will allow you to refer back to your conversations to guide your study. The essential point is that the student should be responsible for documenting the deliberations, decisions, and actions proposed during meetings with supervisors.
Any of the faculty may be approached if you feel they can assist you in your topic area. Your supervisor can make a contact on your behalf, or you can request a meeting yourself.
1.3. Milestones
You are expected to keep to the announced milestones, dates by which work is to be formally submitted to your supervisor. Generally they are:#p#分頁標題#e#
Written study proposal – 7th of September 2009 (Milestone 1) 17h00-Reception & online copy.
Supervisor allocated – 14th of September 2009
First draft of literature review – 14th December 2009(Milestone 2) 17h00-Reception & online copy.
Data collection should be discussed with supervisors before the Christmas break
Meetings with supervisor should continue about every 2 weeks
First draft of study project to supervisor – 17thof May (Milestone 3) 17h00-Reception & online copy.
Final submission (3 bound copies) – 30th of July (Milestone 4). 17h00-Reception & electronic copy sent to Dr Rios-Morales

1. 4. Choosing a topic
怎么寫Dissertation？It is important that your topic matches your own capabilities and interests. You must be able to gather data about it and relevant literature must be readily available. Your topic must be such that you can clearly define the research aims and objectives and address them specifically within the 8,000-word limit.
It is important to immerse yourself in textbooks and journals as much as possible before choosing a topic. We encourage you also to read newspapers, popular journals (Time, Newsweek, Harvard Business Review, The Economist) and use television to identify current and important topics relating to politics, social welfare, business, economics (which affect demand for travel and consumption), education, and government. These can present marvellous topics for research. Take time to make friends with the librarians. Print versions may offer advantages over e-journals (portability, special issues, ease of browsing) but both are generally available.
• Write down a statement of your proposed project, including which part of the organization or which function or activity you will examine, why it is worth investigating and what type of findings and outcomes you are looking to achieve.
• Is this something of interest to you? Who else will be interested and why?
• Is this something that can be done using the time and resources available to you? What activities do you think will be involved?
• Can you really achieve a successful conclusion in the time available? What do you see as the main risks and obstacles you may encounter?
• Will this topic give you the scope to apply a marketing, strategy, operations or learning perspective? What concepts or theories might apply?
• Try explaining your intended project to someone other than your supervisor. Can they easily understand what it is you want to do?
Whatever the outcome, do not be concerned if your first (or later) pass at selecting a project means rejecting an idea. This is a normal part of the process. Being denied access to an organization, department, or individual as you develop your work is a valid research finding which should form part of your study. Remember, we are looking for critical thinking, ability to offer and defend your research position, and to set it in a meaningful context according to the literature review and your course work.#p#分頁標題#e#
1.5. Access and ethical considerations
Even if you are working on an investigation that is wholly or partly in your own organization, you cannot just assume that you can gain access to everyone and everything you need when you need it, or even at all. There is normally a series of negotiations required. People will want to know what you are doing, why, and how it might affect them. This is the basic problem of gaining support and access to people and information.
• Clear official channels by formally requesting permission to carry out your investigation as soon as possible. Check for any regulations regarding ethical guidelines and protocols.
• Maintain strict ethical standards at all times. Consult your supervisor if you become concerned about the way the investigation is developing.
• Submit the project outline and questionnaire if appropriate to your supervisor and the senior person in the organization or department to be studied, plus its ethics committee if there is one. List the people you would like to interview, or who you wish to survey, and state conditions under which the study will be conducted.
• Decide what you mean by anonymity and confidentiality. Remember, if you are writing about the department head, and there is only one such person, that person is immediately recognizable within the organization.
• Decide whether participants will receive a copy of the report and/or see drafts or interview transcripts. There are huge cost and time implications. Think carefully before you make any promises. There are ethical considerations if you do not keep your word.
• Inform participants what is to be done with the information they provide. For your eyes and the examiners only, or publicly displayed in the library?
• Prepare an outline of intentions and conditions under which the study will be carried out to hand to participants. Even if you explain the purpose of the study and the conditions/guarantees verbally, participants may forget.
• Be honest about the purpose of the study and about the conditions. If you say an interview will last ten minutes, you must NOT take an hour. It is disrespectful and unethical. State you are conducting the investigations as part of your Masters degree, and discuss obtaining a letter of access from the Dean with your supervisor.
• Remember that people who agree to help you are doing you a favor. Letters/emails of thanks should be sent no matter how busy you are.
• Never assume it will be alright. Negotiating access is an important stage in your investigation.
• If you have doubts about the ethics of your investigation, consult your tutor and decide what action to take.
• Document everything in your diary to maintain a “chain of evidence” in case examiners wish to verify any of your data or confirm you personally conducted interviews.

1.6. Reliability: chain of evidence
Reliability is the extent to which data collection will yield consistent findings, similar observations would be made or conclusions reached by other researchers, or there is transparency in how sense was made of the raw data. #p#分頁標題#e#
The reader should be able to trace the logic/research steps of your work in either direction, from conclusions back to initial research questions, and from questions to conclusions. All evidence should be verifiable: time, date, contact details (who, what, where, when, why and how). This evidence may or may not be written directly into the project report, but the candidate should be able to produce it if required. This is where the diary is so important, and should be regularly updated and retained for future reference.
Using multiple data sources on which to base findings and conclusions carries more weight than a single source. Triangulation (three sources) is a concept used to interpret findings, test alternative ideas, identify negative cases and point the analysis towards clear conclusions based on the evidence collected.

These steps ensure reliability: a tight and interconnected path of recording evidence.
Validity is another important issue in your research study. It means the extent to which the data collection method or methods accurately measure what they were intended to measure, and the findings are really about what they profess to be about.
The text for the course is “Research Methods for Business Students” (2007), fourth edition, by Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, published by Pearson Education Limited. We expect you to read pertinent chapters of this text and understand the main concepts. Do not get bogged down in the terminology, stay focused on the aims and objectives of your work. Research methods are tools, and not the goal of your research project.
It is the researcher’s creativity, sensitivity, flexibility and skill that determine the reliability and validity of the work, and ultimately the rigor of the study.
1. 7. Layout of the applied research study report
Your report must communicate the research to the reader, clearly and concisely. It should demonstrate many of the features of a paper submitted to a journal. In order to do this, you should prepare it in the following format, and each section must begin on a separate page:
? Title page
? Signed statement
? Executive summary
? Acknowledgements
? Contents page
? List of tables and figures
? Review of related literature
? Methodology
? Results
? Discussion
? Conclusion and recommendations for further research and/or for practice (and for implementation, if appropriate)
? References
? Appendices (only if required).

The report should be around 8,000 words with a minimum of 7,500 and a maximum of 9,000 words, not including the references and appendices. Use A4 paper, American English, and the Harvard Referencing System. Please grammar and spell check your work, AFTER you have read it through completely yourself.
Your report should show clarity of thought. You should achieve this by structuring it carefully, and using fully-referenced supporting material appropriately (keep a diary).#p#分頁標題#e#
Here are some tips that should help your writing style:
• Never use a long word where a short one will do, unless it is an established trade or technical term.
• If it is possible to cut out a word, cut it out.
• Never use a foreign phrase, scientific word, or jargon if there is an appropriate everyday English one.
• Be concise and lucid.
• Keep words and sentences as short and simple as you can.
• A paragraph is a unit of thought, not of length. Each paragraph should deal with only one topic or part of a topic. A paragraph should be homogeneous in subject matter and sequential. It is better to keep paragraphs short, but try to avoid single sentence paragraphs.
• Avoid abbreviations like “don’t”, “isn’t”, and “can’t”. Use “do not”, “is not” and “cannot”.
• Do not use slang.
• Avoid unnecessary prepositions after verbs (e.g. companies and organizations can be “bought and sold” rather than “bought up and sold off”).
• Do not end sentences with ‘etc’.
• The document should be written in the past tense and in the third person passive, wherever possible, like this: “Twelve hotel managers were interviewed…” or “The data were analyzed using SPSS…..”
• Check the verb tenses. This will make it easier for your supervisors to read.
• Be consistent with spelling, grammar and verb tenses. SPELL AND GRAMMAR CHECK.

Title page
This should contain the project title, your name, the qualification for which the work is to be submitted, the name of the school and the date (month and year only). The title should be a concise and accurate description of the content of the work, for example:
A Comparative Study of the Teaching of Waiting Skills in Two Swiss Hotel Schools.
Morgane Dubois
Submitted for: Master of Education in Hospitality Organizational Training and Management
OR
Master of Business Administration with a Concentration in Service Industries
Glion Institute of Higher Education
July 2010

Plagiarism: signed statement
Following the title page there must be a page on which you sign a statement that the work included within the report is your own work, except where appropriately referenced within the report. To quote the work of others without proper acknowledgement is regarded as plagiarism and is an extremely serious academic offence. The following statement should be used:
Statement of authorship
I certify that this report is my own work and contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any degree or diploma in any institute, college or university. Moreover, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of the report.#p#分頁標題#e#
I also understand that the contents of this report belong to Glion Institute of Higher Education and under no circumstances should any part of it be published, including on the Internet, or publicly displayed without receiving written permission from the School.
DON’T FORGET TO SIGN EACH OF THE THREE COPIES!
We remind you that your diary log of contacts to prove your original work may be requested by the examiners.

Executive summary
The executive must be a complete and accurate synopsis, half to three-quarters of a page in length. It should include your objectives, the scope of the work, the methods of investigation and analysis, your main findings, and conclusions. The executive summary should give the reader an overall understanding of the project.
Acknowledgements
It is correct (and professional) to acknowledge everyone who has helped either in the research or writing up of the report: for instance your supervisor, the librarian, a typist, language checker and anyone else who has given you useful information, advice or support.
Table of Contents
This should be a tabulated list showing each section of the report and the page number on which it begins. If the sections are numbered, then a numbered entry for each sub-section should appear in the contents list. MS WORD can compile a table of contents automatically and it is recommended that you use this facility. However, do not set it up so that each heading acts as a “hyperlink”.
Tables and figures
There should be two separate lists: one for tables and one for figures. Each should contain the number of the table or figure, and the number of the page on which it appears in the text. Number sequences should be separate for tables and figures, but both should be Arabic numbers: i.e. Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, Figure 2.
Tables are used to display information in a way that allows the reader to understand it as easily as possible. Tables should be numbered consecutively within the document, and the table number and title should be displayed clearly at the top of the table. There should be a concise summary in the text that reinforces the points made in the table, positioned close enough to the table for the readers to check their understanding of each point made. Do not insert tables that are not referred to within the text.
Figures should have the number and title displayed at the bottom, accompanied by a figure legend. They should also be numbered consecutively. Figures include such things as pie charts, bar charts, graphs, histograms, scatter plots, diagrams, maps, or photographs.

Review of related literature
This section sets the scene for your topic, reviews the literature, and states your aims and objectives. It allows the reader to understand the background to the area which you are going to research, then to follow the process by which you have identified an area worthy of study, and finally to be clear about your aims and objectives.
It is recommended that you begin your introduction with a thorough review of the pertinent literature in the area, thus allowing you to place your research question in context. Then you will have an account of the broad subject area that narrows in scope until it identifies the conspicuous gap that may be filled by the results of your research. All the literature you use should be referenced in the Harvard style. The literature review chapter should end with a clear statement of the aims and objectives of your research.#p#分頁標題#e#
It is important to ensure there is a clear link between your literature review and your aims and objectives: that the research you are going to carry out is a natural extension of the area you have reviewed. This will ensure the reliability and chain of evidence. Before you begin your investigation, you should check the literature relating to your subject area systematically, to see what has already been published. Reading will help you (a) identify the current trends in your chosen area and (b) ensure that your work is not a duplication of someone else’s. Consider the scope of the literature you wish to research carefully. Use current print industry and management/education journals in the library (look for topic editions), ProQuest, Emerald, library databases, specialist dictionaries and textbooks to get an overview of the topic and to clarify the terminology. Your literature review will need to be updated at intervals throughout your research, particularly before you write up the final report, to ensure that you keep up with all developments in your area.
When you have done your initial literature survey and are familiar with the background of your chosen area, you will be ready to define your research question and your aims and objectives. A clear statement of your aims and objectives helps you evaluate your work as it progresses.
One of the criteria that your report examiner will assess is how well you have met the stated aims and objectives in the final piece of work. There is no single “right answer” to a research question, but reports that do not show critical evaluation and analysis that match the aims and objectives will be scored much lower than those that do.

Methodology
This section discusses how you gather the data required to meet your objectives. There are a variety of methods you might use, depending upon your research question, including observation, a structured or semi-structured interview, or a questionnaire. You may use several different research methods together to achieve your different objectives, and each should be justified within this section.
The methodology section should give full details of what you did, for example you should describe the sampling frame and the way you gathered the data. Issues of validity and reliability must also be addressed here, with particular reference to your research, as well as more generally.
You should identify in this section the techniques you use for analyzing the data. If you intend to use statistical analysis you should check it with an appropriate lecturer in order to be sure that you have chosen the most suitable techniques. At the end of the methodology section, you should critically evaluate your methodology, highlighting where it could have been improved, e.g. collecting more data, tightening the sampling frame, and time and resource constraints (known as “limitations” to the study).

Results
The results should be presented in a logical fashion using tables and figures to summarize and emphasize the points made. The results section should say what you found, and it is best to write it in simple past tense: i.e. “11 of the 15 interviewees expressed their dislike of smoking in restaurants”. Data are not results. It is analysis of data that turns them into results. All your results should appear here. The discussion of your results in a more global context should be a separate section: Mixing unnecessary discussion with results could result in your remarks for each section being merged. Include a subsection at the end where you summarize your results. The discussion of your results in a more global context falls under “Discussion”, the following heading, so confine your remarks here to the results themselves.#p#分頁標題#e#

Discussion
This is the key section where you demonstrate your analytical skills. It is an opportunity to place your results creatively in the context of your literature review and in a “real world” context. You should compare and contrast your results with those of others, and identify reasons underlying the differences.
Discussion can include reasons or causes that lie outside your research, and perhaps associated ethical or political issues. It must show your powers of conceptualization and critical analysis.
The most important criteria for success are the quality of rational argument, from results to inference, and the way this illuminates the original research aims and objectives.

Conclusion and recommendations
This section should recapitulate the main findings of your research, and is a summary of the discussion section. The conclusions should relate to your original statement of aims and objectives.
You should also give recommendations for further research. Do not worry if you identify more new questions than there were at the beginning: research does not merely answer questions, but helps to identify gaps in the body of knowledge. You may also make recommendations for practitioners to use your work to improve their practice.
Appendices
The criteria for placing an item in an appendix are:
(a) It is essential for understanding the body of the text.
(b) Readers have to refer to it constantly to understand the text.
(c) Appendix material is usually too large (e.g. large page format) to fit easily in the text. The usual examples given are a map, or a genealogy. However it is generally good practice to include the original wording of a questionnaire here (translation and back translation where necessary). Raw data, including interview transcripts, should be kept for possible inspection, but not included in the appendix.

1. 8. Applied research study report format checklist
? Font: 12 point Times New Roman, or 10 point Arial or Helvetica for main text. Do not mix fonts or use unnecessary capital letters. In English capital letters are used at the start of proper names and some abbreviations.
? Page set-up: the top and bottom margins should be 2.54 cm, the left margin 3.5 cm (to allow for binding) and the right margin 3.17cm.
? Paragraph formatting: use either “left alignment” or “justify”. The text should be 1.5 spaced.
? Page numbering: not on page 1.
? Headings and Titles: in general, you need no more than 3 levels of heading.

For example, in your report introduction, you might have:
Introduction level 1 heading 1
Teaching practical skills level 2 heading 1.1
Serving food level 3 heading 1.1.1
Reception level 4 heading 1.1.1.1

You do not have to number paragraphs and sections, but you may do if you think that it makes your report clearer to the reader. Numbering must be consistent.

1.9. Applied research study report submission/Dissertation#p#分頁標題#e#
1.9.1. Applied research study report (group project)
Your final submission must be approximately 8,000 (7,000 – 9,000) words long, including tables but excluding references. You are required to submit three spiral bound copies (hard or soft cover) for final marking, with original signatures on the plagiarism signed statement.

It should be printed clearly, on one side only of good quality white A4 paper. Margins should be 3.5 cm wide on the left (to allow for binding), 3.17 cm at right, and 2.54 cm at top and bottom. The text must be one and a half spaces. The pages should be consecutively numbered at the bottom of each page (except the first page) and your name should only appear on the front page. Do not include your name in headers or footers.

Late submissions will be automatically failed. Reports with word length outside the 7,000 –9,000 range will also be penalized. Penalties for excess length may seem harsh but part of the academic exercise is the discipline of writing succinctly.

1.9.2. Dissertation submission (individual work)
Your final submission must be approximately 6,000 (5,500 – 6,500) words long including tables but excluding references. You are required to submit three spiral bound copies (hard or soft cover) for final marking.

It should be printed clearly, on one side only of good quality white A4 paper. Margins should be 3.5 cm wide on the left (to allow for binding), 3.17 cm at right, and 2.54 cm at top and bottom. The text must be one and a half space. The pages should be consecutively numbered at the bottom of each page and your name should only appear on the front page. Do not include your name in headers or footers.

Late submissions will be automatically failed. Dissertations with word length outside the 5,500 – 6,500 range will also be penalised. Penalties for excess length may seem harsh but part of the academic exercise is the discipline of writing succinctly

1. 10. Assessment

When your completed research project (group project) has been submitted it will be marked by two faculty members who will not know the identity of the authors. Both marks will be averaged to determine the grade. A further group of senior faculty will review the report and determine the final grade. Similar process will apply to your dissertation (individual work).
The research project (group project) will carry a weight of 40% of your final mark
Dissertation (individual work) will carry a weight of 60% of your final mark.

Marks for both, group project and dissertation are allocated as follows:

Presentation and style 15%
1. Originality and level of effort and initiative displayed
to pursue and complete this project.
2. Professional presentation of the data, overall structure,
writing style, accuracy of grammar and spelling, referencing format,
and word processing skills (tables and charts as appropriate).
3. Clear and concise abstract.

Introduction & literature review 20%#p#分頁標題#e#
4. Research question or case scenario (beginning of this section), then
logical development of related research aims and objectives (end of section).
l5. Appropriate use of reference material (fifty to sixty relevant works.)
6. Depth of knowledge of subject area.
7. Critical analysis of pertinent literature.
8. Reliability and “tightness” of presentation.
9. All material pertinent to the research aims and objectives.

Methodology 20%
10. Ability to develop and focus the methodological approach,
and provide a clear justification for the methods(s) selected.
11. Do research design and methodology address aims and objectives?
12. Demonstrate understanding and discuss alternative approaches and limitations of the work.
13. Discuss validity, reliability and ethical issues appropriately.

Results (discussion of study results only) 10%
14. Presentation and clarification of primary data.
15. Discussion of questionnaire, interviews,
focus groups or other instruments used.

Discussion (global discussion of results) 20%
16. Consistency and depth of argument. Critical thinking.
17. Use and interpretation of data. (Triangulation.)
18. Logical development of the discussion as reflected in
the aims and objectives of the work.
19. Ability to use primary and secondary data to support your position.

Conclusion and recommendations 15%
20. A measure of the overall value of the research output, influenced by the contents of the conclusions and recommendations.
21. Practical implications of the research project.
22. Areas of follow-on r
II. Dissertation
2.1. Introduction
The dissertation is a major piece of course work during your Master’s program. You will have to spend a considerable amount of time on this and you should therefore choose a topic in which you are especially interested. Many dissertations are related to subjects of special interest in the course or proposed areas of work post-graduation.
According to the Course Reference Sheet, the dissertation is:
the carrying out and communication of a piece of investigative academic work which demonstrates, within the context of existing knowledge, an understanding of a particular problem together with evidence of original, critical and analytical thinking.
The investigative work will probably contain a considerable amount of data, which will be analysed and used to support a logically structured argument. The work you do must be original, i.e. it must not repeat the work of others. The examiners will be looking for evidence of analytical skills in your dissertation.
Good project planning will help considerably. Be honest with yourself and your supervisor about timescales and use milestones constructively. There is no magic formula. If things start to go badly, admit it and ask for help.
2.2. Dissertation milestones
You are expected to keep to the announced milestones, dates by which work is to be formally submitted to your supervisor. Generally they are:#p#分頁標題#e#
Written study proposal – 7th of September 2009 (Milestone 1) 17h00-Reception & online copy.
Supervisor allocated – 14th of September 2009
First draft of literature review – 30th of November 2009(Milestone 2) 17h00-Reception & online copy.
Data collection should be discussed with supervisors before the Christmas break
Meetings with supervisor should continue about every 2 weeks
First draft of study project to supervisor – 17thof May (Milestone 3) 17h00-Reception & online copy.
Final submission (3 bound copies) – 30th of July (Milestone 4). 17h00-Reception & electronic copy sent to Dr Rios-Morales

2.3. Dissertation supervision
Your lecturers will give guidance, as far as possible in the choice of the subject. You will be allocated a specific supervisor whose role it is to both help you develop as an independent researcher and thinker, and to monitor your progress during the whole dissertation process. Your supervisor is available for e-mail contact at all times. You are responsible for keeping your supervisor informed and updated on your progress and you are expected to keep to the milestones. Your supervisor’s main responsibility is to encourage your development as an independent thinker and writer. Your supervisor is there to guide you, and should be the first person to whom you turn for advice and support. He or she cannot be expected to carry out your research, think for you or write for you. Any of the faculty may be approached if you feel that they can assist you in your specialist chosen area, but do remember that they all have busy schedules and you need to make appointments.
You should expect to have formal meetings with your supervisor several times a semester (approximately every 2 weeks if your supervisor is based at the school: less frequently if your supervisor is external), in which you will both discuss the progress of your research and your writing and ways to proceed. At this meeting, you should both agree a set of goals to be achieved, and a time frame. After the meeting, you should e-mail your supervisor with your understanding of the goals agreed and the time allowed for them. Your supervisor will then confirm, via e-mail, that they concur. You are also encouraged to contact your supervisor via e-mail for support and advice whenever you feel that it is necessary.
2.4. Choosing a topic
You will choose your topic under the guidance of your lecturers during the first of your research courses course. It is important that your subject interests you. You must be able to gather data about it and relevant literature must be readily available. Your topic must be such that you can clearly define a research question and answer it specifically within the 12,000-word limit.
Another way to look at it is as though you are an investigative journalist. There may be an area that has been well covered in the past and yet if you are able to research it and provide some new data and a new insight, it will be of interest to the examiners.#p#分頁標題#e#
Your dissertation should relate in a clear and obvious way to the content of your taught programme. However, there is ample scope for your personal creativity, and you should consider the choice of topic carefully and discuss it with your lecturer and classmates before finally deciding.

Some examples:
Example 1
“Do service industries deliver good quality?”
There is a good idea within this title, but the implied topic is much too broad. We know that it deals with service delivery, but what service industries are meant, and what is “good quality”? There is far too much work for one student to do here. You could narrow the topic down by considering one particular industry, or better, one company. Another problem is that the question part seems to demand a “yes/no” answer, but probably the results of the research will be less certain and more discursive. It would be better to write:
“A study of the quality of service provision at Zurich Versicherung GmbH”
Example 2
“How is service taught in Swiss hotel schools?”
This is not a good example because too much is implied by the word “how”, and a student could not obtain a representative sample of “Swiss hotel schools”. A better approach to the same area might be:
“A study of service teaching in two Swiss hotel schools.”
This still does not define what is meant by “service”, and so an even more appropriate title might be:
“A comparative study of the teaching of waiting skills in two Swiss hotel schools.”
In this example it is clear what sort of study is being done, what process is being studied, and in how many hotel schools. The aim of the project is implicit in the title.
So you see that just having the idea is not enough: you have to focus on a particular area to be studied and formulate a question that can be adequately addressed within the parameters of the dissertation.
2.5. Layout of the dissertation
Your dissertation must communicate the research to the reader, clearly and concisely. It should demonstrate many of the features of a paper submitted to a journal. In order to do this, you should prepare it in the following format, and each section must begin on a separate page:
? Title page
? Signed statement
? Abstract
? Acknowledgements
? Contents page
? List of tables and figures
? Literature review (within which is to be found the introduction or introductory
paragraph(s) outlining the research “question” or case scenario should be outlined, and this should be at the beginning of the literature review; your aims and objectives should appear at the end of your literature review).
? Methodology
? Results
? Discussion
? Conclusion and recommendations for further research and/or for practice (and for
implementation, if appropriate)#p#分頁標題#e#
? References
? Appendices (only if required)
The dissertation should be around 12,000 words with a minimum of 10,000 and a maximum of 14,000 words, not including the references.

Title page
This should contain the dissertation title, your name, the qualification for which the dissertation is to be submitted, the name of the school (Glion Hotel School) and the date (month and year only). The title should be a concise and accurate description of the content of the dissertation like the following example:

A Comparative Study of the Teaching of Waiting Skills in Two Swiss Hotel Schools.
Morgane Dubois
Submitted for: Master of *****.
Glion Institute of Higher Education
July 2010
***** i.e. Master of Education in Hospitality Organisational Training and Management or Master of Business Administration with a Concentration in Service Industries.
Signed statement
Following the title page there must be a page on which you sign a statement that the work included within the dissertation is your own work except where appropriately referenced within the dissertation. To quote the work of others without proper acknowledgement is regarded as plagiarism and is an extremely serious academic offence. The following statement should be used:
Statement of authorship
I certify that this report is my own work and contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any degree or diploma in any institute, college or university. Moreover, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of the report.
I also understand that the contents of this report belong to Glion Institute of Higher Education and under no circumstances should any part of it be published, including on the Internet, or publicly displayed without receiving written permission from the School.
DON’T FORGET TO SIGN EACH OF THE THREE COPIES!
We remind you that your diary log of contacts to prove your original work may be requested by the examiners.

Abstract
The abstract must be a complete, accurate summary, half to three-quarters of an A4 page in length. It should include your objectives, the scope of the work, the methods of investigation and analysis, your main findings and conclusions. The abstract should give the reader an overall understanding of the dissertation. It should be written in the past tense and in the 3rd person passive, wherever possible, like this:
“Twelve hotel managers were interviewed…” or “The data were analysed using SPSS…..”

Acknowledgements
It is correct (and professional) to acknowledge everyone who has helped either in the research or writing up of the dissertation: for instance your supervisor, the librarian, a typist, language checker and anyone else who has given you useful information, advice or support.

Table of contents#p#分頁標題#e#
This should be a tabulated list showing each section of the dissertation and the page number on which it begins. If the sections are numbered, then a numbered entry for each sub-section should appear in the contents list. MS WORD can compile a table of contents automatically and it is recommended that you use this facility. However, do not set it up so that each heading acts as a “hyperlink”.

Tables and figures
There should be two separate lists: one for tables and one for figures. Each should contain the number of the table or figure, and the number of the page on which it appears in the text. Number sequences should be separate for tables and figures, but both should be Arabic numbers: i.e. Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, Figure 2 etc.
Tables are used to display information in a way that allows the reader to understand it as easily as possible. Tables should be numbered consecutively within the document, and the table number and title should be displayed clearly at the top of the table. There should be a concise summary in the text that reinforces the points made in the table, positioned close enough to the table for the reader to check his or her understanding of each point made. Do not insert tables that are not referred to within the text.
Figures should have the number and title displayed at the bottom, and be accompanied by a figure legend. They should also be numbered consecutively. Figures include such things as pie charts, bar charts, graphs, histograms, scatter charts, diagrams, maps or photographs.

Literature review
This section sets the scene for your topic, reviews the literature and states your aims and objectives. It allows the reader to understand the background to the area which you are going to research, and then to follow the process by which you have identified an area worthy of study, and finally to be clear about your aims and objectives.
It is recommended that you begin your introduction with a thorough review of the pertinent literature in the area, thus allowing you to place your research question in context. Then you will have an account of the broad subject area that narrows in scope until it identifies the conspicuous gap that may be filled by the results of your research. All the literature you use should be referenced in the Harvard style (see:”Instructions for referencing dissertations”). The literature review chapter should end with a clear statement of the aims and objectives of your research.
It is important to ensure that there is a clear link between your literature review and your aims and objectives: that the research you are going to carry out is a natural extension of the area you have reviewed. Before you begin your investigation, you should check the literature relating to your subject area systematically, to see what has already been published. Reading will help you (a) identify the current trends in your chosen area and (b) ensure that your work is not a duplication of someone else’s. Consider the scope of the literature you wish to research carefully. Use ProQuest, Emerald, library databases, specialist dictionaries and textbooks to get an overview of the topic and to clarify the terminology. Your literature review will need to be updated at intervals throughout your research, particularly before you write up the final dissertation, to ensure that you keep up with all developments in your area. #p#分頁標題#e#
When you have done your initial literature survey and are familiar with the background of your chosen area, you will be ready to define your research question and your aims and objectives. A clear statement of your aims and objectives helps you evaluate your work as it progresses. One of the criteria that your dissertation examiner will assess is how well you have met the stated aims and objectives in the final piece of work. There is no single “right answer” to a research question, but dissertations that do not show critical evaluation and analysis that match the aims and objectives, will be scored much lower than those that do.

Methodology
This section discusses how you gathered the data required to meet your objectives. There are a variety of methods you might use, depending upon your research question, including observation, a structured or semi-structured interview or a questionnaire. You may use several different research methods to achieve your different objectives and each should be justified within this section.
The methods section should give full details of what you did, for example you should describe the sampling frame and the way you gathered the data. Issues of validity and reliability must also be addressed here, with particular reference to your research as well as more generally.
You should identify in this section the techniques you use for analysing the data. If you intend to use statistical analysis you should check it with an appropriate lecturer in order to be sure that you have chosen the most suitable techniques. At the end of the methods section, you should critically evaluate your methodology, highlighting where it could have been improved, e.g. collecting more data, tightening the sampling frame, time and resource constraints (otherwise known as the “limitations” section).

Results
The results should be presented in a logical fashion using tables and figures (see earlier section detailing the presentation of figures and tables) to summarise and emphasise the points made. The results section should say what you found, and it is best to write it in simple past tense: i.e. “11 of the 15 interviewees expressed their dislike of smoking in restaurants”. Data are not results. It is analysis of data that turns them into results. All your results should appear here, and you should try not to mix the results with discussion, except where such discussion makes the next piece of data more accessible. However, you will need to begin to analyse the results further in the results section. The discussion of your results in a more global context should be a separate section: mixing unnecessary discussion with results as you go along could result in your marks for each section being merged. You are recommended to include a subsection at the end where you summarise your results, ready for discussion in the next part.

Discussion
This is the key section where you demonstrate your analytical skills. It is an opportunity to place your results creatively in the context of your literature review. In effect you are putting your findings in a “real world” context. You should explore the similarities and differences between your results and those of others and identify reasons underlying the differences.#p#分頁標題#e#
Discussion can include reasons or causes that lie outside your research, and perhaps associated ethical or political issues. It must show your powers of conceptualisation and critical analysis. The most important criteria of success in a dissertation are the quality of rational argument from results to inference, and the way this illuminates the original research question.

Conclusion and recommendations
This section should recapitulate the main findings of your research, and is a summary of the discussion section. The conclusions should relate to your original statement of aims and objectives.
You should also give recommendations for further research. Do not worry if you identify more new questions than there were at the beginning: research does not merely answer questions, but helps to identify new research areas. You may also make recommendations for practitioners (hotel and tourism managers) to use your work to improve their practice.

Appendices
The criteria for placing an item in an appendix are:
a) It is essential for understanding the body of the text.
b) Readers have to refer to it constantly to understand the text.
Appendix material is usually too large (e.g. large page format) to fit easily in the text. The usual examples given are a map, or a genealogy. However it is generally good practice to include the original wording of a questionnaire here. Raw data, including questionnaires and or interview transcripts, should be kept for possible inspection but not placed as an appendix.

2.6. Dissertation format checklist
• Font: 12 point Times New Roman, or 10 point Arial or Helvetica for main text. Do not mix fonts or use unnecessary capital letters. In English capital letters are used at the start of proper names and some abbreviations.
• Page set-up: the top and bottom margins should be 2.54 cm, the left margin 3.5 cm (to allow for binding) and the right margin 3.17cm.
• Paragraph formatting: use either “left alignment” or “justify”. The text should be 1.5 spaced.
• Page numbering: not on page 1.
• Headings and Titles: in general, you need no more than 3 levels of heading.

For example, in your report introduction, you might have:
Introduction level 1 heading 1
Teaching practical skills level 2 heading 1.1
Serving food level 3 heading 1.1.1
Reception level 4 heading 1.1.1.1

You do not have to number paragraphs and sections, but you may do if you think that it makes your report clearer to the reader. Numbering must be consistent.
2.7. Dissertation submission
Your final submission must be approximately 12,000 (10,000 – 14,000) words long including tables but excluding references. You are required to submit three spiral bound copies (hard or soft cover) for final marking.
It should be printed clearly, on one side only of good quality white A4 paper. Margins should be 3.5 cm wide on the left (to allow for binding), 3.17 cm at right, and 2.54 cm at top and bottom. The text must be one and a half space. The pages should be consecutively numbered at the bottom of each page and your name should only appear on the front page. Do not include your name in headers or footers.#p#分頁標題#e#
Late submissions will be automatically failed. Dissertations with word length outside the 10,000 –14,000 range will also be penalised. Penalties for excess length may seem harsh but part of the academic exercise is the discipline of writing succinctly.
2.8. Assessment
When the final document has been submitted your supervisor will mark it. Another faculty member, who will not know the identity of the author, will also mark it and both marks will be averaged to determine the final mark. A further group of senior faculty will review the dissertation and determine the final grade. Marks are allocated as follows:
Presentation and style 15%
4. Originality and level of effort and initiative displayed
to pursue and complete this project.
5. Professional presentation of the data, overall structure,
writing style, accuracy of grammar and spelling, referencing format,
and word processing skills (tables and charts as appropriate).
6. Clear and concise abstract.

Introduction & literature review 20%
5. Research question or case scenario (beginning of this section), then
logical development of related research aims and objectives (end of section).
l5. Appropriate use of reference material (fifty to sixty relevant works.)
11. Depth of knowledge of subject area.
12. Critical analysis of pertinent literature.
13. Reliability and “tightness” of presentation.
14. All material pertinent to the research aims and objectives.

Methodology 20%
15. Ability to develop and focus the methodological approach,
and provide a clear justification for the methods(s) selected.
11. Do research design and methodology address aims and objectives?
12. Demonstrate understanding and discuss alternative approaches and limitations of the work.
13. Discuss validity, reliability and ethical issues appropriately.

Results (discussion of study results only) 10%
16. Presentation and clarification of primary data.
17. Discussion of questionnaire, interviews,
focus groups or other instruments used.

Discussion (global discussion of results) 20%
16. Consistency and depth of argument. Critical thinking.
17. Use and interpretation of data. (Triangulation.)
19. Logical development of the discussion as reflected in
the aims and objectives of the work.
19. Ability to use primary and secondary data to support your position.

Conclusion and recommendations 15%
23. A measure of the overall value of the research output, influenced by the contents of the conclusions and recommendations.
24. Practical implications of the research project.
25. Areas of follow-on research.

III. References Applied Research Project /Dissertation

3.1. References
It is essential to acknowledge all ideas and statements that are not your own by referencing them. This shows what you have read and how carefully you have read it. At the conclusion of the study you must list the works you have used and referenced in the text. The reader must be able to consult the original works where necessary. Direct quotes, figures, and tables must be referenced under copyright law. #p#分頁標題#e#
Please note that failure to acknowledge your sources appropriately will be regarded as plagiarism. Plagiarism is ‘the stealing of thoughts or writings of others and giving them out as your own’ (Chambers Dictionary).
There is a formal procedure whereby suspected plagiarism is investigated and a positive outcome will result in a mark of zero.
It is your responsibility to read the guidelines in this handbook and familiarize yourself with the appropriate way to reference work.
The references must correspond exactly to the sources you have cited in your text, and must be given very precisely, so that readers and researchers can locate them. Bibliographies are generally found at the end of textbooks or non-academic books, to provide a sources for further reading. They are not appropriate in research work, and therefore GIHE house style is to use a "Reference" section, not a "Bibliography" and only to list items that are cited in your text.
3.1.1. Basics of referencing
There are several items that need referencing. A citation is where you just mention a paper that supports your own statements or arguments. A quote is where you take the exact words of another author and use them in your own text. If you use a table, picture, diagram, photo, or figure in your text, this must be treated exactly the same as a quote.
For a citation you must put the author’s name, plus the date of the publication in which the idea appeared, next to the idea or argument you want to support. For example I want to say that referencing is very important for all academic work. I can support it with a reference (Gibaldi, 2003) that acknowledges that this is not just my idea.
I can also quote this source, but then I have to give the page number on which the quote can be found, as well as the author’s name and the date. For example, I might want to use the words “referencing is essential to avoid the suspicion of plagiarism” (Gibaldi, 2003:23). The number 23 refers to the page.
The “References” must list all items you have used in alphabetical order by author. In the end-list the reference used above should look like this:

Gibaldi, J. (2003). MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (6th edition). New York: SKU.
The agreed standard house style for GIHE is the Harvard referencing system. However, "Harvard" varies slightly from publication to publication.
In the Harvard referencing system adopted by GIHE, the author's name, plus the date (year) of the work is inserted in the text at the point where the reference is made. Then it is listed in a section headed "References", with authors’ names in alphabetical order, followed by the date of publication, the exact title(s), and volume if appropriate. Page numbers (the first and last pages of an article or chapter) should also be given in this section. This system makes citations very easy for readers to find. However, it is important to note there are three situations when you must give the specific page of a reference in your text. These are: (1) if you quote an author directly, word for word, especially if you quote one or more whole sentences, (2) if you reproduce a table directly from another author’s work, and (3) if you reproduce a diagram, illustration, or photograph from another author’s work.#p#分頁標題#e#
The reason for these rules is that text, tables, and illustrations are copyright. Infringement of copyright is a serious offence. You have permission to reproduce small items as long as you attribute them to the original author. However, if you wish to copy longer passages you have to get the original author’s written permission, as well as acknowledging the author in your text.
Nowadays publishers often instruct authors to use a format that is uncomplicated to set in print, in other words one which has the minimum of punctuation, italicizing and emboldening. These are the principles that have been adopted in the GIHE house referencing style.
Important:
Microsoft Word for Windows 2007 includes an automatic reference feature. Students who wish to make use of this feature are required to use the APA (American Psychological Association) referencing style from the drop down menu which is the closest to the Harvard style. In terms of writing style and in text referencing, once the APA style has been adopted, it must be used consistently throughout your work.

3.1.2. Referencing a journal article
A citation from a journal article appears in the text of the report like this: Operations management has increasingly emphasized strategic awareness (Smith, 2007) ...

Another way to present the same reference in the text in the Harvard referencing system is like this:
Smith (2007)) notes that operations management has increasingly emphasized strategic awareness …
Both of these are equivalent. If you actually want to quote the author word for word, you must also give the page number in the text reference, separated from the date by a colon, like this:
According to Smith (2007:50) operations management has:
”not only developed theoretically, but also tends more and more to stress the importance of strategic awareness, especially since 1990.”
This is the way to insert longer quotes, of several sentences, into your text. Remember to italicize the quote and place it in quotation marks. Shorter quotes (one sentence or less) can be enclosed in inverted commas and placed in the text itself, for instance:
Operations management has “not only developed theoretically, but also tends more and more to stress the importance of strategic awareness.” Since 1990 operations management has also identified the need to recognize the importance of the service economy (Smith, 2007:50).
In all four cases, the actual reference appears in the alphabetical list headed "References", in the form:
Smith, R. (2007). Operations: from factory to service management. International Journal of Service Industry Management. 5 (1):49-63.
The punctuation and italics are very important, because they tell the reader the function of each part of the reference. (For instance, something in brackets is either a date or an issue number, depending where it comes in the reference).
A new volume of a journal usually comes out every year, so the volume number generally indicates the number of years since the journal was first published. The number of issues varies with the journal. For instance the Journal of Marketing publishes twelve per year (one per month) but Annals of Tourism Research only four. Volume and issue number are presented like this: 5 (1)#p#分頁標題#e#
The journal title is always italicized and should be entirely capitalized, like this:
International Journal of Service Industry Management.
The page range of an article means the first and last page numbers, separated by a hyphen, like this: 49-63.
The page range is important for readers who do not have the journal in their library and have to order a photocopy of the article from another institution.
If there are two authors, both should be included, e.g. "(Smith and Jones, 2007)" or "Smith and Jones (2007) state…". It is better to avoid the "&" sign and use the word "and". If there are more than two authors the Latin "et al." ("and others") is used in the text reference, for example: "(Johnson et al., 2007)" indicates that the article was written by Johnson and two or more co-authors. This abbreviation (for the Latin et alii "and others") should be in italics because it is in a language other than the normal English of the text. The item shown in the "References" list at the end of the text should always give all of the authors in full: "et al." is not permissible there.
3.1.3. Referencing a book
A book is referenced in your text similarly to an article. The page number must be given if you are quoting from the book or using a table or figure. There are four possible ways this can be done, depending on the context, like this:
Smith (2007), Smith (2007:103), (Smith, 2007), (Smith, 2007:103).
In the reference list, the book title should be italicized. In most cases there are no volume or issue numbers, but the number of the edition must be given (after the title), and so must the place of publication and name of the publisher, like this:
Smith, J. (2007). Total quality management. London: Heinemann.
You must include the page number if the reference is a table, an illustration, or a direct quotation from the text of a book or article. Otherwise you do not have to, but books are large, and it may be helpful to indicate to readers where in the book they can find the idea you are referencing. This can be done by indicating the page where the idea you mention occurs. If you are citing a longer section, put the page where this begins, followed by "et seq." which means "and the following" for instance (Smith, 2007: 103 et seq.) means "page 103 and the pages after that".
Articles may also be published as items or chapters in a book. In this case the author you are citing is the author of the article. The book in which the article appears has one or more editors (acknowledged as Ed. or Eds). The title of the item/chapter should be presented in normal type in the same way as titles of journal articles. The book title itself should be italicised like any other book or journal title. For example:
Smith, S. and Evans, S. (2007). Prudential Assurance: The ABC Way. In R. Taylor, C. Cole and C. Edwards (Eds.) Achieving Quality Performance: Lessons from the Moon, London: Cassell, 143-170.#p#分頁標題#e#
Just as with journal articles you must give the page number of all direct quotes, tables and figures that you use, including graphs, diagrams, drawings, and photographs

3.1.4. Referencing in body of text
? Date and page number (required for a direct quote or reproduced table or figure) should always be given within the brackets; the name may be within or outside the brackets, depending on the context: Smith and Jones (2007:35) say hospitality marketing is the "key to sales", or (Smith and Jones, 2007:35).
? Comma between authors and date if inside brackets: (Smith and Jones, 2007).
? Use the word "and" between authors, rather than "&": (Smith and Jones, 2007), not (Smith & Jones, 2007).
? Colon between date and page number (Smith and Jones, 2007:35).
? Semicolon between multiple citations (more than one reference in the brackets): (Smith and Jones, 2007; Wilson, 2006).
? Arrange dates in sequence, if several works by one author are quoted: Smith and Jones (1979, 1992, 2007).
? If an author has several works all appearing in the same year, use letters to indicate which is which: Smith and Jones (2007a), Smith and Jones (2007b), Smith and Jones (2007c).
? If there are more than 2 authors, only the first should be given, followed by "et al.": Watkins et al. (2005), rather than: Watkins, MacNamara, Tristan and Isolde (2005). However, the first mention of a multiple-authored work should include all names, just as in “References”.
? Rather than referring to the same book or article over and over, use "ibid." (in the same place) providing they are sequential in the text. (Smith and Jones, 2007) first time, then
? ibid. p. 35, ibid. p. 198, ...and so on.
? If the author is not named, use the name of the organisation responsible for the document. If neither the author nor the organisation is available, for example in a newspaper article, use “Anon.”, which is the abbreviation of “Anonymous”.
If you want to cite more than one anonymous reference from 2008, differentiate them with letters, e.g. Anon. (2008), Anon. (2008a). However, it is bad practice to reference your text with a large number of anonymous articles, since they are not peer-reviewed.

3.1.5. Referencing a video or DVD
This should be done exactly as for a book, except that you should put the type of media (“video recording” or “DVD”) after the title, like this:
Smith, W. (2007). Road Map for Change: The Smith Approach. Video recording, Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corp.
American Hotel and Motel Association (2000). Shaping Change and Changing Minds. Video recording. Cincinatti: AHMA.
The author of the recording can either be the individual who made it, or the company (if no individual is mentioned on the sleeve or in the recording). However, sometimes it may be better to put the director in the case of films produced by large studios, like this:#p#分頁標題#e#
Scott, R. (1982). Blade Runner, The Director’s Cut. DVD. Hollywood: Warner Brothers, re-released 2001.
If you want to actually quote from audio materials, or present a frame from a video as an illustration in your work, you should give the footage of a tape or the track of a CD. The date of a web site is the copyright date, which should be given at the bottom of each page in the form "© Will Smith, 2005". If this is not present on the site, you should use the date you accessed the page, which should in any case appear at the end of the citation, as in the example above.
3.6.Referencing Internet and electronic sources
Internet referencing is a particular problem, because there are so many different sorts of items available. The basic format is like this:
Author(s) (Date of publication) Title of Item. Type of medium. Volume number (issue number): page range. Availability statement (if relevant). Date of access.
There are many different types of Internet sites, including usenets and usegroups, web pages, ftp sites, and telnet sites. Since the mid 1990s, when the World Wide Web came into public use, web sites have become the principal, if not almost the only types of sites in common use. (However, the others remain, and web users are sometimes referred to them by web sites).
Examples - Usenet posting
Stoddard M. Re: How do you cite URL's in a bibliography? (not in FAQ). comp.infosystems.www.users usenet newsgroup. 16/03/1995. No archive known. Accessed 17/03/1995.
Web pages
Stoddard M. AHSL Educational Services -- draft. Web page. Feb 1995.
http://amber.medlib.arizona.edu/ homepage.html. Accessed 16/03/1995.
Smith, W. (1998). How to Use the Internet in Your Writing. http://www.universityonline.com/helpfultips/ internet-writing.html. Accessed 24/01/1999.
The whole point of referencing is that the reader must be able to find the place where the cited work comes from. With web sites, this is given as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) which generally begins http://www… or just www… It can be found at the top of your browser screen when you access the site.
In effect the URL substitutes for the volume number, issue number, and page range that you would find in a reference to a publication. The URL (http://) is just one type of Internet Resource Locator (IRL) which also includes usenets, ftp sites, and others. There is a specific format for citing Internet Resource Locators, which can be found at the following address:
Berners-Lee, T. (1994). Uniform Resource Locators (URL). ftp site December. <URL: ftp://ds.internic.net/ rfc/rfc1738.txt>. Accessed 16/03/1995.
This address is also an interesting example of an IRL that is not a URL (it is an ftp site).
However with some web sites this may be more complicated. Although most sites show a page (written in htlp or Java) some (especially those in electronic libraries) are able to retrieve items from a database and display them as .html, .pdf or .doc files. In this case the window at the top of your browser screen displays the web page, followed by a lot of apparently confused symbols, like this#p#分頁標題#e#
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/vl=1816616/cl=55/nw=1/rpsv/~1193/v9n1/s2/p13
This is not actually the URL of the document. The last part of it is the command sequence that the site http://www.emeraldinsight.com uses to find the article in its database. You find a similar pattern in all on-line databases, which includes all electronic libraries.
In this case you should not be trying to reference the article as an electronic one at all. It is a published (hard copy) article, which happens to be available through an internet database. It should be referenced as itself: as a journal article. For instance the one shown above is like this:
Lock, S. T. K. (2003). An examination of the role of marketing culture in service quality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 15 (1):13-20.
Sometimes you may see a command sequence that leads you to an e-document (an e-book, e-report, or e-article). However, it is more common to find this kind of material in an archive, like this:
Harnack, A and Kleppinger, G. Beyond the MLA Handbook: documenting electronic sources on the Internet. E-article. http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/1.2/inbox/mla_archive.html. Accessed 02/05/2005.
This is a particularly useful e-article, because it discusses the referencing of all types of Internet materials. Two other similarly useful sites are:
http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/citation/index.cfm
http://www.nrlssc.navy.mil/bibliography.html.

Important
You are responsible for the quality of the sources you cite as references, and you cannot trust everything that you find on the Internet. One way to find better quality items is to restrict your search by domain. A domain (part of the URL) shows whether you are looking at a commercial (.co or .com), governmental (.gov), or educational site (.ac or .edu). For example on http://www.zapmeta.com, if you select advanced search, under domain filter, you can select .edu.
Another example: if your query is “questionnaires job satisfaction” in Google you can select only the sites that come up with the domain “.edu” or “.ac”. This means that your results will be linked to educational Institutions such as universities, colleges, and schools. These papers may well have been written by a professor. For instance try: http://www.pbfea2002.ntu.edu.sg/papers/6068.pdf.
Far better, for academic writing at the Masters level: do not use Google to search for academic references; use Emerald, ProQuest or EBSCO.
More information about Internet literature searching and GIHE e-library resources is available in the handout: Electronic Library Resources.

3.2. Golden rules for referencing

The following sections give precise rules for referencing text and for compiling reference sections. However, the you needs to remember that underlying all this detail there are really just three golden rules for all referencing:
• Your reader must always be able to find the exact place in the source (literature, videotape, Internet, etc.) to which you are referring.#p#分頁標題#e#
• You must be sure you have obeyed the copyright laws, by attributing citations, direct quotes, tables and figures properly and precisely to their original author.
• You must give your references, both in your text and in the reference list at the end of your work, precisely and consistently throughout.

Rules Examples
Arrange all entries in alphabetical order, alphabetize letter by letter and alphabetize prefixes such as O' Mc and Mac literally. MacNamara, G. and Frank, M. (2001). Service and Waiters. London: Allen and Price.
怎么寫Dissertation？Marshall, D. W. (2002). Appropriate meal occasions: understanding conventions and exploring situational influences on food choice. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research. 17 (3):279-301.
McClain, L., Beringer, D., Kuhnert, H., Priest, J., Wilkes, E., Wilkinson S. and Oberick, J. (1968). On the philosophy of Food Service. Cambridge, Mass: Polity Press.
O'Leary, P. (2006). Sociology and Food. London: Spicers.
Single author precedes multiple authors beginning with the same surname. Bateson, F. B. (1999)
Bateson, F. B. and Ohms, G. Z. (1969)
Same author(s) papers are listed in date order. Johnson, K. L. (1971)
Johnson, K. L. (1976)
Johnson, K. L. (1988)
Authors with the same surname are listed in alphabetical order of their initials Johnson, B. H. (1992)
Johnson, K. L. (1988)
Article titles always appear in ordinary type and journal or book titles in italics or underlined. Johnston, R. (2007). Operations: from factory to service management. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 39 (1):49-63.
Volume is in ordinary type and issue number in brackets; page numbers follow a colon and end with a period. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 5 (1):49-63.
For a newspaper or a journal which has no issue numbers, dates are used instead. Gates, E. (1995). Managing to avoid violence, Health & Safety at Work. February: 40-42.
Raffael, M. (1997). Welcome to the gastrodome. Caterer and Hotelkeeper. 27/02/97: 32-36.
Anonymous works are referenced in exactly the same way, but with the author as "Anon." The date, title and other details are as usual. Anon. (1995a). Violence must be controlled. Caterer and Hotelkeeper. 5/10/95: 25.
A video or DVD is referenced like this, with the medium and publisher specified.

Sometimes it is best to put the director, rather than an author. Smith, W. (2007). Road Map for Change: The Smith Approach. Video recording, Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corp.

Scott, R. (1982). Blade Runner, The Director’s Cut. DVD. Hollywood: Warner Brothers, re-released 2001.

An Internet site is referenced like this. The Internet Resource Locator is used instead of the volume issue and page range that you would use with a journal article.

Be careful to find out what the real medium is. This is a web page …#p#分頁標題#e#

This is an e-document published as html. They commonly also appear as .doc or .pdf files. Berners-Lee, T. (1994) Uniform Resource Locators (URL). ftp site December. <URL: ftp://ds.internic.net/ rfc/rfc1738.txt>. Accessed 16/03/1995.

Smith, W. (1998) How to Use the Internet in Your Writing. http://www.university online. com/ helpfultips/ internet-writing.html. Accessed 24/01/1999.

Harnack, A and Kleppinger, G. Beyond the MLA Handbook: documenting electronic sources on the Internet. E-article. http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/1.2/inbox/mla_archive.html. Accessed 02/05/2005.