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GEB 3213: Recommendation (Persuasive) Project

Your end of semester project is to recommend the final location for Amazon’s second
headquarters (after CEO Jeff Bezos has decided to re-evaluate options other than
Northern Virginia). Your recommendation consists of 3 assignments:
1. Recommendation Report (150pts): A persuasive written report, in memo format
(750-1000 words, or approximately 3-5 pages)
2. Recommendation Outline for Presentation (100pts): A condensed version of
the memo report, the outline is written specifically for the presentation
3. Recommendation Presentation (100pts): A 3-5 min presentation that
persuades the audience to accept your recommendation
How to begin? After you have chosen your location (on the discussion board), begin
researching what that location has to offer Amazon (or any large business, in general).
Of course, Google is your friend to begin, but you must also use the FAU Libraries GEB
3213 page (http://libguides.fau.edu/c.php?g=671495) to discover other sources that
support your location as strong for this business. Remember that your sources do not
have to solely focus on Amazon—the sources may more generally support your location
as being strong for a new or large business in general.
Your goal is to find evidence about your location that makes is stand out as a strong,
maybe even the best, choice for Amazon. One point to remember—we already know
that each of these cities meets a number of minimum criteria (see the list below in the
“Scenario” section). Thus, those criteria are not relevant to your recommendation—you
need to find other aspects, other critical factors, that would persuade Amazon to choose
your location. Thus, for example, general population data or airports/transit are
irrelevant for your recommendation because the 20 final locations already have those
minimum requirements. The one possible exception would be if you could prove with
legitimate cited evidence that your location excels at one of those factors, significantly
beyond the other locations (but note in any case that general population CANNOT be a
factor, as it’s irrelevant once you already have many millions of people nearby).
After you have completed your research, you will then choose 3 critical factors that best
make the case for your location. Those critical factors must be supported with cited
evidence, and at least two of the critical factors must be data/statistics based—intuitive
arguments are not convincing in a business context. You must also compare those
data/stats to national averages or ranks (ideally, you would compare them to the other
19 locations, but that’s too much work for our course exercise)—the point is to
contextualize your numbers so it is clear that they are actually positive factors for your
location. Also remember that your location is a city area, but it is located within a state;
thus, factors like state-wide taxes (corporate tax, for example) are fair to use as critical
factors for (or against) your location.
Finally, before you start writing, you also need to find legitimate cited evidence for a
main counter-argument against your location—what is the major weakness of your
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location that would make Amazon (or perhaps any business) not want to locate there?
Having this counter-argument is a key component of persuasive structure, as it builds
your credibility by showing that you have considered “the other side” and are fair,
balanced, objective.
Once you establish the counter-argument, however, you then address it as best you can
(again, using legitimate cited evidence). How do you work around it? How do other
positive factors make up for it? Note that I don’t say “refute” the counter-argument; that
is because in this case, the counter-argument must be a legitimate, serious weakness
with your location—you cannot set up an easily over-turned “straw man.”
Your counter-argument could be a strength of Northern Virginia that you contrast your
chosen location to, or it could be an inherent weakness of your chosen area (for
example, high corporate taxes, or a high crime rate that discourages business
development). In general, throughout your report, you can contrast your chosen
location against Northern Virginia—in other words, you can argue for your location as a
direct alternative to Northern Virginia—but you don’t need to, explicitly. That rhetorical
strategy is your option.
Here are the requirements for each assignment:
Recommendation Report
 Polished draft for Peer Review and Final Versions required
 Memo format, with numbered page headings (see format sample in module)
 750-1000 words (both the minimum and maximum are enforced; the report will
be approximately 3-5 pages, with graphics and headings, plus References page)
 Includes at least two graphics that visually represent data
 Includes 3 critical factors in support of your location and one counter-argument
against it
 Cites at least 6 distinct, legitimate sources—thus, you must use information or
data from at least 6 sources in your paper, each of them with proper APA
parenthetical citation in the body of the paper, and with a corresponding APA
“References” page at the end of your report (the references page does not apply
to the word count)
Recommendation Outline
 Outline is a separate assignment as the basis for the oral presentation
 1-2 page formal outline that uses the template provided
 Includes at least 4 cited sources (with APA parenthetical citations) and a
references page (you can use the same sources as for the memo report)
 Also includes the 3 critical factors and the counter-argument
 Do not, however, include any actual graphics in the outline (although you may
write text indicating where you might refer to a graphic in your slides)
 No draft for peer review required
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Recommendation Presentation
 A 3-5 minute video presentation based on your Recommendation Outline
 Must be accompanied by PowerPoint slides that you will submit to Canvas—you
do not need to have the slides in your video, but you do need to orally refer to the
slides by number (so, number your slides)
 At least two of the slides must have a graphic representation of data (you can
use the same graphics as in your memo report, but you don’t have to)
 For any images/graphics of data, you must include a citation on the slide (“Image
Source: http://www.example.com”), either of the image source (NOT Google
images) or where you obtained the data if you created the image yourself.
However, you do not need to cite all the information you use on the slides (the
citations in the outline cover that).
 Rule of thumb: Approximately one slide per minute, so about 3-5 slides
 Note also that the slides should NOT replicate your outline—instead, the slides
are a supplement to your presentation and should illustrate key ideas. Thus, the
slides should be graphic heavy and text light.

SCENARIO (You will create the assignments “role-playing” as described below)

Hello, fellow Amazon employees who work at the Seattle headquarters. As you know,
we at Amazon conducted a nationwide search to open its second headquarters, initially
narrowed its possible locations to twenty locations, and then chose TWO locations,
Arlington, Virginia and New York City--before we changed our minds, backed out of
NYC, and settled on the Northern Virginia location. You can refresh your memory on the
process and see the initial final list of 20 at this surprisingly good Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_HQ2.
Not surprisingly, this decision and reversal has caused much internal controversy, and
many of us are not convinced we made the right choice, including our CEO, Jeff Bezos.
The Covid-19 pandemic also has complicated the decision; Amazon has become more
important than ever, but pandemic issues were not a factor in the original decision.
Similarly, neither were the nationwide protests for social justice, which could possibly
influence our choice. Bezos wants one final look at the alternatives; thus, our task is to
make an argument for the other 19 choices (the original list of 20, but not including
Arlington/Northern Virginia, but also revisiting New York City). To do so, each of you will
pick one location, research how the location fits Amazon's needs, and then try to
persuade me that your location is the superior choice to Arlington/Northern Virginia. We
already know that all of the locations meet the following criteria:
 Metropolitan areas with a population of over 1 million
 A stable and business-friendly environment
 Within 30 miles (48 km) of a population center
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 Within 45 minutes of an international airport

 Proximity to major highways and arterial roads 1–3 miles (2–5 km)
 Access to mass transit routes
 Up to 8 million square feet (740,000 m2) of office space for future expansion
Therefore, your task is to persuade me (your supervisor at Amazon) and Jeff
Bezos that your location has 3 other strong benefits (3 other criteria) that make it
the best choice for our second headquarters.
Note that the initially we listed some optional preferences that were not requirements:
 Airports with direct flights to Seattle, New York, San Francisco, and Washington,
D.C.
 Urban locations (being in a major city instead of near one)
 Proximity to major universities
Most of the 20 possible locations also meet these preferences, so they are usually not
good candidates for the 3 other strong benefits (3 other criteria). However, if your
location excels at one of these optional preferences and is clearly stronger than almost
all of the other 19 candidates, and you can prove it with legitimate cited evidence, then
you could include that optional preference as one of your 3 other strong benefits/criteria.