In business, you will write a variety of reports, each having different purposes and audiences.

Your Term Project is to prepare a Formal Report, along with some smaller reports and a team presentation. This project will emulate the various communication tasks you will encounter in the working world. You will learn the skills necessary to prepare effective, grammatically correct, mechanically clean reports directed to appropriate primary audiences.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT The term project will be a collaborative project (with 2 or 3 partners; I will assign the teams). It will offer you a variety of real-world writing scenarios (e.g., write a proposal to build a restaurant; identify a problem and propose a solution for a small, local, privately owned business, etc.). Each team will select a topic from a list provided in Learning Unit 4.
The project will require primary and secondary (library, Web) research, and appropriate documentation (use the APA style review the appropriate section in A Writers Reference and online at http://owl.english.purdue.edu). You are required to use (and cite) at least five secondary sources, which must be documented using the APA style. The body of the report, not counting the supplemental material, should be between 15-18 pages for a team of three or 10-12 pages for a team of two. Each team member would be responsible for 5-6 pages of the body of the report. The goal is to produce a collaboratively written document; in other words, the finished project should look like one person wrote it. NOTE: Wikipedia is NOT a valid scholarly source; its use will result in an automatic zero. In addition, the project requires that you prepare and submit a PowerPoint presentation (which will be graded separately). If you are unfamiliar with this software, start getting familiar with it now (one of your classmates is bound to be competent with PowerPoint).

DEADLINES A rough draft must be submitted for peer evaluation and completed by May 5.
The final draft of the Formal Report is due by 6:00 p.m., May 11. See your calendar for the due dates of the Proposal, the Annotated Bibliography, and the Progress Report. You will also submit your PowerPoint presentation and the Collaborative (Team Term Project) Evaluation Form by 6:00 p.m., May 11. Due to the length of the formal report and the incorporation of potentially high-density visual aids, save this document in MS Word (.docx) format (.rtf does not handle graphics well). Use your team members names as the beginning of the file name, using the format: Smith_Jones_Doe Final Report.docx. Submit the final version and peer evaluation forms using the Assignment feature in Learning Unit 4.

GRADING Your assignments will be graded on:

Content targeted toward and appropriate for the audience, complete (including visual aids, supplemental materials, findings, conclusion, and recommendations), etc. (40%) Correctness correct punctuation, grammar, spelling, etc. (25%) (for a perfect score (100), the report cannot have any grammatical or mechanical errors) Documentation required number of sources, correct documentation style (10%) Organization content flows logically, information is easy to find (10%) Format appropriate for the situation, formatted correctly, are all parts present (10%) Team Work all members participate; collaboration evident from unity of product (5%)