homework

Introduction

Short research reports prepare students to address issues/problems faced in the workplace, at school, in their community or in organizations and develop creative solutions while providing information to colleagues and clients.

Short reports are exactly that - short! Often, short reports are usually prepared in the memo format. They are brief and tailored to what the audience really wants to know. Resist the urge to make them too long and too involved. Get to the point and present the information that your audience wants clearly and concisely.

There are many different types of short reports, including:

• Informative reports - summarizes information needed for improvements

• Feasibility reports - evaluates several alternatives and recommends one of them

• Justifications reports - recommends or justifies a purchase, investment, hiring decision, or change in policy

To meet the learning objectives for this topic, you will complete these activities. Print this page and use it as a checklist.

• You will have two weeks to work on your short research report. Read the Introduction and Objectives page.

• Read Module 22 & 23 in your textbook. Your short research report will be 2 or more pages, memo format, with three or more sources following the MLA style outlined in Figure 22.7.

• Read Module 25 - Using Visuals. You will need to include at least one graph, table, chart, or picture in your report.

• Review Module 5 & 9.

• Complete the Learning Activities page.

• Read the online lesson Short Research Report Notes.

• Read the online lessons: A Student's MLA Tips, A Student's Short Research Report, and EasyBib Instructions.

• Read the online lesson Criteria for the Short Research Report.

• Assignment: Write a draft of short research report and submit to the correct discussion forum. Provide feeback to two or more of your classmates and always review those who have not been reviewed first. Pay attention to due dates.

• Assignment: Submit your final copy of your short research report to the drop box by the posted due date.

• Assignment: Complete the quiz by the posted due date.

Short Research Report Notes

Informational, Problem-Solving or Recommendation Reports (Short)

• Define and explain your topic.

• Describe the organizational problem.

• Show why easier or less expensive solutions will not solve the problem.

• Present your solution impersonally.

• Show that the disadvantages of your solution are outweighed by advantages.

• Summarize the action you need.

• Ask for the action you want.

Introduction:

• Use the Direct Pattern

• Tell your audience why you are writing

• Define your subject

• Show the seriousness of the problem/issue

• Give a brief overview of what caused the problem

Problem:

• Give specifics of the problem

• Tell who/what is responsible in an unbiased way

• Tell who/what is negatively impacted by this problem

• Use statistics to show why the problem has worsened

• Use a fairly formal style, without contractions or slang

• Avoid the word you

• Include in the report all the definitions and documents needed to understand the recommendation

Solution:

• Provide solutions: policy changes, education, training, assessment, etc.

• Show how benefits outweigh costs

• Overcome counterarguments, the opposition

• Elimination of alternatives

• How difficult this is depends on how hard it would be to implement the action, how much opposition there will be to the recommendation, and how willing the organization is to accept recommendations from subordinates.

• Use source support (cite sources within text using MLA format)

Conclusion:

• Future looking-does not summarize what has already been said

• Show how the solution after implemented has a positive effect

• May show growth as an organization, team, individual motivation, profits, customer base, etc.

Dear Class,

To help you understand the proper use of MLA style in this week's short report, I have attached a draft of the short report by one of your classmates (who tells me that she has previously written papers using MLA style--and it shows!). Please open the attached sample. Look it over carefully, paying particular attention to the following areas relating to MLA style:

• First, go to the end of the report, and notice the Works Cited page; yours, too, should be titled Works Cited, centered at the top of the last page.

• Notice the line spacing on the Works Cited page: double spaced between entries and notice that each of the three source entries uses hanging indentation. Each new entry begins flush with the left margin and any additional lines within a given entry are indented five spaces.

Tip: When you start to type your Works Cited page, preset the page to hanging indentation by going to the paragraph dialog box on the ribbon, and then, in the Indentation group, under Special, select "hanging indentation" from the dropdown menu.

• Notice that the source entries on the Works Cited page are in alphabetical order, by author's last name or the first word of the entry. In the source with no known author, the title of the article, in quotation marks, is the first part of the entry, alphabetized by the first major word of the title.

• Notice the lack of URLs--the website addresses. DO NOT use URLs on the Works Cited page or in the content of your report! That is not proper MLA style.

• Notice the content of each entry, including the punctuation, spacing, use of the medium (Web) and the date of access that ends each entry.

• Now, go back to the content of the report. You will now see how the student writer did her in-text citations. (MLA requires in-text citations of your sources, exactly where you use them in your paper, as well as the Works Cited page. In-text citations are usually very brief--usually just the last name of the author, which is cued to the first part of each entry on the Works Cited page.) Notice that whenever the student writer uses information from her three sources, she puts the name of the author in parentheses at the end of the sentence containing the information. There are not quotation marks around the authors' information in this report--that means the student writer paraphrased (put the author's words into her own phrasing--but still cited the source because ideas, not just exact words, must be given credit in order to avoid plagiarism! When you quote directly from your sources, be sure to use quotation marks).

• Notice, in the content of the report, that the one source without an author was cited as the title of the article--which corresponds to its entry on the Works Cited page--placed in parentheses, just like the author's last names, at the end of the sentence that contains the paraphrased material from the source.

Short Research Report Criteria

Assignment:

This is a continuation of your research proposal from last week. Now, you are moving forward with a report about that topic and you will be using source material to support your information. Show why:

• the problem needs to be solved

• propose a solution to the problem

• show how that solution is the correct one (use credible sources for support)

• and make predicts about how your solution will improve the organization.

Once you show the seriousness of the problem, then discuss the counterarguments that may arise from your solution, after showing the benefits outweigh the costs of your solution, then argue for your solution using credible sources that agree with your solution. These will persuade your audience that the solution you propose is the correct one.

1. MLA Format and include a "Works Cited" page at the end of the report and source citations/attributions within the textual content of the report. Module 22 and the samples in the text will help you type these pieces.

2. Two or more pages typed in Memo format with four headings: Introduction, Problem, Solution and Conclusion. You may add two additional headings of your own creation that relate to the topic.

3. You must create a solution to the issue, do not use something that someone else/team has done in the past.

4. Do not use any contractions or slang, stick to formal language.

5. Your subject has to be a "real" issue explored in the textbook - you do not make up anything about this report.

6. You are required to use 3 or more "scholarly/credible" sources and these must be cited within your report. Here is the works cited entry for our textbook:

Locker, Kitty O. and Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek. Business Communication-Building Critical Skills. 6th ed. Boston: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2013.

7. Include one or two visuals in your report: picture, graphic, table, chart, etc. Place the visual appropriately and keep it small--thumbprint to wallet photo size only.

8. Evaluate source materials based on the information in Module 22 of your textbook.