Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

Data Analytics, Word Processing, and PowerPoint Presentation

April 27, 2023

CASE 1: AKASMA’S DRAFT DISAPPOINTMENT

Akasma was a Turkish student studying for a degree in marketing at a major

European university. She had completed all the taught modules and now was nearing
the end of her course, and her return to Turkey. She had enjoyed her course very much
and found the academic, as opposed to the practical, element of the course particularly
rewarding.

Akasma’s family ran a very successful business. The main part of that business
was the running of a fleet of buses which transported passengers around the city of
Istanbul. The majority of the turnover came from the running of shuttle buses to and from
the airport to the city centre. This was part of the business which had grown in recent
years as the tourist trade had developed. Nonetheless, this was a competitive business
because there are other ways for travellers to make the journey from the airport to the
city. The principal competitor is the taxi. Arrivals may also take the Metro and tram to
the center of Istanbul.

Akasma’s dissertation had been suggested by her father. He was keen to

understand why customers made their choice of transport to and from Istanbul airport.
He felt that if he understood this he would be able to make changes, if they proved to be
necessary, to the service the company provided and the way in which it was marketed.

Akasma was enthusiastic about this dissertation for two reasons. First, she was
keen to do something that was of practical use to the family business. This was a natural
desire as her father was soon to retire and Akasma would take over as the chief executive
of the business. The second reason for Akasma’s keenness was that she had developed
an interest in consumer decision theory. This was understandable since she had
graduated with a first degree in psychology from one of Turkey’s most prestigious
universities.

Akasma’s dissertation adviser was Professor Norrington. She had seen Professor
Norrington regularly in the early stages of her dissertation. He was very helpful in
assisting Akasma in defining her objectives and talking through the research approach
and data collection techniques she would adopt. As she became more confident with her
progress, Akasma saw less of Professor Norrington. This was only to be expected and
was a situation with which Akasma and Professor Norrington were quite happy.

Akasma enjoyed the literature research and conducted this most diligently. She
produced many thousands of words of literature review from which she intended to
select the most pertinent for final inclusion in dissertation. She returned briefly to Turkey
to complete the conduct of the primary research. This was based principally on the
completion by travellers from the airport of a questionnaire on how they made their
journey and why they had chosen their particular mode of transport. Akasma designed
a questionnaire and piloted it before handing the implementation of the survey to her
younger brother. In the event, the survey produced some very useful data, much to the
delight of Akasma and her father.

Approximately two months before the final date when the dissertation had to be
handed in Akasma delivered a draft to Professor Norrington. She was happy with what
she had produced and anticipated that little would need to be done by way of revision.
Professor Norrington took a couple of weeks to read the draft and then made a time to
see Akasma. She could tell as soon as she walked into his office that all was not well.
Professor Norrington told her that the dissertation had some commendable features but,
as it stood, it was not of pass standard. He explained that the main reason for this was
the gross imbalance in the way in which the material was structured. He felt that Akasma
had spent far too much time on her literature review at the cost of her findings,
conclusions and recommendations. He had done a rough calculation and estimated that

ACN 2108-5
of the 15 000 words that Akasma had produced, 1500 were on the introduction and
method chapters, 11 000 were devoted to the literature review and only 2500 on the
findings, conclusions and recommendations. He told Akasma that he thought this was a
great pity because it was clear that she had some excellent data, which would tell an
interesting and useful story in the findings chapter. Moreover, the data would allow her
to draw some insightful conclusions and make some practical recommendations, which
would be of immediate benefit to the business.

Akasma could see the fault in her dissertation as soon as Professor Norrington
started explaining it. The truth of the matter was that she had enjoyed researching the
literature so much that she had concentrated too much on this to the detriment of the
other, more practical aspects of the research. In addition, she had been too close to the
writing process and not given herself time to sit back and think in a reflective way about
how she was doing it.

All this meant that Akasma now had just over a month to make some major
revisions to her draft dissertation. Although very disappointed, she was really pleased
that she submitted the draft in good time.

REQUIRED:

1. Discuss the following questions in a PowerPoint Presentation:

a. What do you think may be a more appropriate word allocation for Akasma's
dissertation? (15 points)
b. How would you advise Akasma to go about shortening her literature review
chapter? (15 points)
c. Use the comment function to evaluate the presentation submitted by other
groups in terms of content and format. (10 points)
d. Save the file using the format [Group Number_Section_Case 3.pptx] (10
points)

ACN 2108-5