Examine how investing directly in company shares has changed in the UK over the space of a generation, whether share ownership is significantly more common today than it was 20 or 30 years ago, and whether this change in ownership levels is as a result of the development of relevant information technology.

This assessment is an individual essay on a contemporary issue in financial services. You are required to select one topic from the list below and discuss the chosen topic in detail;

1.It is now possible for most individuals to manage their personal finances online and by using other information technology. The need for specialist financial advisers no longer exists.

To what extent do you agree with the above statement in terms of how individuals can manage all of their personal financial requirements today?

2.Examine how investing directly in company shares has changed in the UK over the space of a generation, whether share ownership is significantly more common today than it was 20 or 30 years ago, and whether this change in ownership levels is as a result of the development of relevant information technology.

3.Assess the impact of social lending on the financial services industry over the last ten years. To what extent do companies like ZOPA replace all the personal finance functions of retail banks in the UK today?
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Choose any one of the three topics for your Essay. You should find that each topic allows you to consider a wide range of issues and you may decide to develop a particular line of argument or discussion. While much of the background material will have been covered in the Module material, you will need to spend a significant amount of time researching your chosen topic independently. This is a critical academic skill and, as can be seen from the marking scheme, accounts for a significant part of the allocated marks for this assessment.

Regarding the marking scheme, here are some suggestions as to how you should undertake this assessment:

Quality, range and relevance of source material (20%)
Depending on your chosen topic, you may end up with a great many types of sources of information to back up your argument or discussion. These may come from a variety of different sources (e.g. journal articles, textbooks, company reports, news items, magazine features, websites etc.) or may be concentrated on just a handful of source type (e.g. solely from websites and the financial press as the topic you are researching is evolving very quickly). Regardless of the how many different types of source you have included, the number of individual sources you refer to should be roughly the same. I suggest for an Essay of this length, and at this level, that you aim for approximately 20 sources, although a very good Essay may contain twice that number or even more. A minimum of 10 cited sources may be enough to provide you with a bare pass but will not be enough for a mark of 70%+ which is what you will be hoping to achieve in a Level 9 Module.
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Added on 22.04.2016 19:25
In fact, as a rough rule of thumb, the number of sources you should refer to in a written Essay or other similar assessment should be approximately the Word Count divided by 100. As most students write between 250 and 350 words per page this means you are looking to cite between 2 and 4 sources per page on average. Not too demanding!

Review of appropriate source material (20%)
Some students (and even some academics) think that finding and printing an information source is enough. Clearly it is not! In fact, even just reading the source is not enough. What you need to do is integrate the key information and ideas from the source into the structure of your Essay. This takes time, and a considerable amount of academic thinking by you. Ultimately some sources will turn out to be irrelevant to your finished Essay, while others will be the cornerstone of your discussion and debate. In this situation you need to identify the key sources and filter out those that add little value to your final assessment submission.

At this level we need to see what you think about an issue. However, this must be based on relevant, factual information as much as possible. Not simply your hunch or guess. And any discussion of yours that is based on relevant, factual information will automatically be awarded marks. Even if the marker does not necessarily agree with your point of view (and academics are famous for being overly opinionated and stubborn about what they believe in) they will acknowledge that your discussion is based on relevant evidence to back up what you claim, and will therefore award you the marks.

Discussion of the topic (30%)
You need to be careful that you actually address the topic as it is set out above. If you are asked for a discussion of the issue then that is what you must do. This should be balanced and fair and cover all the key aspects of the topic. If you are asked a question you need to ensure that in your Essay you end up with an answer! In addition you will need to explain why you have given that particular answer. This calls for a reasoned debate about the issue, based on your understanding of appropriate information sources, and backed up by evidence to support your case.

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