Assume that your proposal to do research has met with success, and you will be paid to do the proposed research project. Commence researching as you were asked to by your employer for the topic you selected. As you do your research, you are asked to:
Keep research notes – you do not have to use notecards if you do not like them. But you should in some way create detailed and careful research notes. If this seems like a lot of work, remember that you are writing your report as you take notes.
Keeping careful notes means you document the source you take information from, paraphrase and summarize most of what you read, and you (very occasionally) quote – but only quote when the voice of the author is important for your readers to “hear.” Do NOT quote just to avoid having to paraphrase or summarize information.
You are required to have at least three (3) scholarly and/or reliable sources for your annotated bibliography. Expect your sources to be judged using the criteria for high-quality sources found in Chapter 5.
Write an annotated bibliography that tells your audience what sources you have located by the due date. Submit the annotated bibliography with a short status report informing your manager at what point you are at in the research project.
Instructions
Step 1: As you continue doing the research for the recommendation report, keep research notes – you do not have to use notecards if you do not like them. But you should in some way create detailed and careful research notes. If this seems like a lot of work, remember that you are writing your report as you take notes.
Step 2: Locate the sources of primary or secondary research on the project that you will annotate by summarizing the source, evaluating the source, and reflecting on how the source is useful to your report (see https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/annotated_bibliographies/index.html (Links to an external site.).) for specific help with this).
Step 3: Create APA style references page citations (see the reference handbook in the appendix of Practical Strategies).
Step 4: Annotate the sources so that they look like this template:
Markel, M. (2013). Practical Strategies for Technical Communication. New York: Bedford St. Martin’s.
Summary of Source: Markel’s textbook provides a broad range of strategies and considerations for beginning technical communicators. In Part 1, he begins with three chapters addressing critical knowledge that will support students as they learn how to shift from academic to business writing: Introduction to Technical Communication, Understanding Ethical and Legal Considerations, and Writing Collaboratively Using Social Media. The second part of the book covers the skills needed to draft any type of technical document. In this section, Markel covers how to analyze audience and purpose, how to research a business subject, and how to write in a way that will clearly communicate with readers. Part 3 of the book focuses on document and graphic design strategies. The fourth part focuses on specific types of technical communications, such as correspondence, memos, job application documents, proposals, progress reports, recommendation reports, definitions, descriptions, instructions, and oral presentations.
Evaluation of Quality of Source: The book is thorough and considered one of the best and most affordable on the market by technical writing instructors. Markel is a reliable subject matter expert. He is the author of other, more detailed books on technical communication. The information presented in the book is current; the copyright date is 2013 and a new edition is coming out this year. The advice is sensible and promotes cultural awareness and a strong sense of ethics.
How Source Will Be Used: In my online class, I will use Chapter 13 to model how to write recommendation reports to my students. The chapter contains a sample recommendation report, as well as a discussion about other types of major reports.
Step 4: Revise your annotated bibliography.
Step 5: Create a short progress report to attach the bibliography to. Write the report as if it were the body of an email that you would send to your manager. You do not need to write a formal progress report, such as the one shown in Chapter 12. However, in your report, please include the research you have accomplished (the tasks taken from your proposal) and the research/tasks you have yet to accomplish.
Sample Progress Report-1.docx
Step 6: Submit your final draft of the status report and the annotated bibliography here.
Grading rubric and methods
The progress report is worth 20 points, and the annotated bibliography is worth 30 points.
The Eight Measures of Excellence will be used to grade this assignment.
