Overview: Imagine a scenario in which you are working for a company/government in a field you desire employment in. As an ambitious person who wishes to improve his/her standing, you propose to conduct a study on a topic of importance to your employer with the hopes that your employer could benefit from the results of the study.

Based on your proposal, your supervisor authorizes you to conduct research and report on the proposed, specific topic. Your next step will be to conduct a review of similar projects undertaken at similar institutions to provide you with the groundwork you need to begin your own report. If your study is unique to the point in which you are unable to find similar projects, you will need to conduct background research and construct an annotated bibliography.

The research report you have been charged with creating will be both informational in nature, meaning that it will present factual information in a well-organized format, and analytical, meaning that you will analyze the data and make recommendations based on that analysis. Choose either (1) a topic related to your career plans, such as a new development or issue in your chosen field, or (2) a topic from the Report Topics document on D2L, but not the same one your group wrote its short report on.

As you conduct your research and gather materials to develop your study, you will be required to provide your supervisor with both a progress report memo and a working outline, so your supervisor can be sure your project is on track to be completed by the predetermined due date. Before the final project is submitted, you will also meet with your supervisor in a conference to discuss your progress report and outline.

Finally, you will present the findings of your study to your peers in a persuasive presentation that validates the time spent conducting research and composing your report. Your presentation will be followed by a question/answer period so be prepared for audience questions and/or feedback

Research: You are required to conduct formal research and incorporate a minimum of 10 credible sources. Refer to the I.D. Weeks website for English 205 among the library tutorials and guides for further help. It will be helpful to make a list of key terms related to your topic and conduct a search in appropriate electronic databases, such as Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, and Lexis Nexis. Textbooks, dictionaries, and encyclopedias are not appropriate sources for a research paper because they are too general. Specialized dictionaries, such as Black’s legal dictionary, or specialized encyclopedias, such as the PDR (Physician’s Desk Reference) are, however, legitimate research sources.

Audience and Style: Your primary audience will be the imagined supervisory professional who has asked you to conduct the research and write the report; however, there will be secondary readers as well. Give yourself a suitable job title, similar to the job you applied for during Project #1, such as Administrative Assistant, which will appear on your title page. This is a formal report and the language and style should reflect that. Refer to Chapter 10 in your text for discussions on formal reports.

Documentation: As with all other assignments for this course, you will use the APA documentation style, 6th edition, to identify your sources on a References page that will be attached to your short report.

Format: The Formal Report must be a minimum of 3,500 words and are required to have prefatory and supplemental parts.

Prefatory Parts:
1. A title page
2. A transmittal message
3. A table of contents
4. An executive summary
Supplemental Part(s):
1. A References page
2. Optional appendixes that include charts/graphs/other aids that would otherwise clutter up the body of the report.

Points Available to be Earned:
• Proposal to Conduct a Study 25
• Outline Memo 20
• Conference 10
• Formal Report (approx. 3,500 words total)
o Title Page 5
o Letter/Memo of Transmittal 15
o Table of Contents Page 5
o Executive Summary 30
o Body of Report 300
o References Page 10
• Presentation 50
470

Submission Requirement: You must submit all parts of Project #3 individually to the assigned places in the D2L Dropbox. You must also turn in a clean hard copy of the final Research Paper Project. The final report from the first word of the title page to the final word of the references page must be a minimum 3500 words. Any report submitted that is 3200-3499 words will automatically lose one full letter grade. Any report submitted that is 2900-3199 words will automatically lose two full letter grades. Any report submitted with fewer than 2900 words will earn an F.