Imagine it is 2013 and you are working for the Civil Service at the time when the UK government is considering a range of policy options to address the financial risks of flooding. You have been asked to provide your head of department with a briefing on the following policy: Option X: Require all new-build and existing homes on floodplains to comply with specified flood-resistance and/or resilience standards (such as flood doors, external wall render, waterproofed flooring and plaster, waist-level electrical sockets, and so on) with a cap on the cost for existing homes. Now imagine you are a journalist working for an online newspaper and you have been asked to explain Option X to the general public in a news article. Write a reflection that considers: •why your writing might be different from the briefing you wrote for Part A of this TMA; and •in what ways your writing might be different? 1 How the total marks available for Part A (90 marks) will be allocated ElementMaximum marks available for this elementSome relevant module materials Explanation of a mainstream economic case for Option X and briefly how a behavioural approach might be relevant20 marks•Chapter 1 and Reading 1 in the module book •Week 9, Section 4 Clarity of writing and suitability for the audience15 marks•Week 4, Section 6 •Week 9, Section 6 Explanation of price elasticity of demand and equity weighting15 marks•Week 10, Section 6 •Week 10, Section 7 Use of in-text citations and an end-reference list10 marks•Week 9, Section 6 •Cite Them Right Harvard Calculation of data in the Excel file5 marks•Week 10 Integration of at least one diagram of an economic model5 marks•Week 9 •Week 10 Integration of at least one chart or table of data5 marks•Week 4, Section 6 •Week 9, Section 6 Comparison of the cost–benefit analysis outcome for Option X with Option 2 (Flood Re)5 marks•Week 10, Section 8 Comment on relevance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment to firms’ building on floodplains5 marks•Week 8 Appropriate use of evidence throughout5 marks•Weeks 6 to 11 •External sources (if used) •Week 1 (The PROMPT criteria) •Week 3 (data resources) Hints for Part A You can find guidance on creating a briefing in Week 9, Section 6 of the module materials. Your briefing should start with a short introduction which summarises the key points you cover. The remainder of your briefing should set out the information, arguments and evidence that you are using. You may use subheadings, if you wish, to help you organise your material. Your text should be written mostly in continuous prose arranged in paragraphs. However, occasionally you may wish to use bullet points where this is appropriate: for example, to emphasise items in a list. You have been asked to integrate at least one diagram of an economic model and at least one chart or table of data. ‘Integrate’ means that these features should form part of the information, arguments or evidence you are using and so the surrounding text will need to refer to them. Referencing is a key skill for both academic and professional communication. Make sure that you: •understand the principle of writing in your own words and the reasons why referencing is important •become familiar with the Cite Them Right Harvard style of referencing and use this in your work. Note that if you wish to reference the resources that have been created for this TMA (which are called ‘TMA 02 Impact Assessment’ and ‘TMA 02 Social CBA for Option X’), you should cite the author as The Open University, the year of publication as the year you started the module and include the DD226 Assessment web page on which the link to the resources appears, along with the date you accessed the material.
