For Project 2, our class will function as a consulting firm whose goal is to serve clients interested in one of the following: revising or developing print materials; developing a power point presentation; or writing a grant proposal. Your team will be working with an actual business or organization in the community or at Purdue.

Project summary

After each person proposes a potential client project for which you will receive an individual grade worth 10% of your course grade, you will be asked to select your top five project choices. You will be assigned to a team. First, you will confirm the client's interest in your project and present your team goals to the client. You will conduct field research to assess further the client's needs. Once you have completed your team's initial research, you will prepare and present an oral progress report addressed to our class. Based upon feedback on your oral progress report, your team will draft a report addressed to your client. Following feedback on your team's first draft, your team will revise and polish the written report and submit it for evaluation. Your team will also provide a copy of your final report to your client and a sample of any print material you recommend.

Project goals

Writing in Context

• Analyze professional cultures, social contexts, and audiences to determine how they shape the various purposes and forms of workplace writing, such as persuasion, organizational communication, and public discourse, with an emphasis on

  • writing for a range of defined audiences and stakeholders
  • negotiating the ethical dimensions of workplace communication

Project Management

• Understand, develop and deploy various strategies for planning, researching, drafting, revising, and editing documents both individually and collaboratively.
• Select and use appropriate technologies that effectively and ethically address professional situations and audiences.
• Build professional ethos through documentation and accountability.

  Document Design
  Make rhetorical design decisions about workplace documents, including

  • understanding and adapting to genre conventions and audience expectations
  • understanding and implementing design principles of format and layout
  • interpreting and arguing with design
  • drafting, researching, testing, and revising visual designs and information architecture
    
    
• Teamwork
  Learn and apply strategies for succesful teamwork and collaboration, such as
• working online with colleagues
• determining roles and responsibilities
• managing team conflicts constructively
• responding constructively to peers' work
• soliciting and using peer feedback effectively
• achieving team goals

Research
Understand and use various research methods to produce professional documents, including

• analyzing professional contexts
• locating, evaluating, and using print and online information selectively for particular audiences and purposes
• triangulating sources of evidence
• selecting appropriate primary research methods, such as interviews, observations, focus groups, and surveys to collect data
• working ethically with research participants

Technology
Use and evaluate the writing technologies frequently used in the workplace, such as emailing, instant messaging, image editing, video editing, presentation design and delivery, HTML editing, Web browsing, content management, and desktop publishing technologies

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project summary | project goals | deliverables | resources | grading criteria | revision | top

Deliverables

Step 1: Community Project Proposal
Following the client criteria and the project proposal suggestions presented in class, you will contact and gain commitments from a potential client. You will write a project proposal. Your written proposals are due for presentation to the class and in written form on Oct. 22.(10% of your individual course grade).

Step 2: Client Confirmation Memo
After you select a project from the project proposals and are assigned to a project team, you will individually and collectively establish goals for the project in accordance with the proposal assigned. ( Only four or five proposals will be selected.) You will write a memo to the client confirming their participation, clarifying goals, and providing contact information. You must submit the memo to me prior to sending it to your client. You must complete Step 2 by Nov. 3. (10% of your collaborative project grade)

Step 3: Annotated Bibliography
Your team will identify four secondary resources that will support your design decisions for the product you are developing. You will share the resources with other teams. The bibliography is due Tuesday, Nov. 17 (10% or the project grade)

Step 4: Power Point Presentation to the class
Your team will share your research about your client context. You will review the interview with the client and any observations. You will discuss the product you are creating for the client and the design principles you have researched. The presentation will be no longer than fifteen minutes and each team member must participate. December 1. ( 20% of your collaborative project grade)

Step 5: Written Process Report
Your team will submit to me a draft of the written process report, the product ,and the maintenance instructions by the end of class on December 3. I will return your drafts on Tuesday, Dec. 8, for final revisions. The final written report, product and instructions are due in print to me and to your client by December 10. You will provide a cover memo for your client copy. (30% of your collaborative Project 2 grade) Steps five and six will be sent to the client together.

Step 6: Final Product
A copy of your final product(s) and written instructions on how to maintain or change the product. For example, If you are creating or revising a brochure, you must provide your client with a print sample of the document and an electronic copy with print instructions. If you are creating a power point, you should provide a print copy and an electronic copy with instructions on how to change the slides. Due Dec. 10. (30% of your collaborative Project 3 grade)

project summary | project goals | deliverables | resources | grading criteria | revision | top

Resources: on calendar

Grading

The individual Community Writing Proposal (Step 1) is 10% of your course grade.

The Community Writing Project Collaborative grade is worth 40% of your course grade. The breakdown for each of its components is as follows:

Grading Criteria

When I assign a grade to your project, I will measure your work against the models discussed in class and will pay particular attention to see whether your team has effectively adapted the documents to your client's needs. As always, the writing will need to be precise, accurate, and well-suited to that context and to the rhetorical problems you faced in this case. I will also use your collaborative peer reviews to determine individual grades.

Revision

Because the final report is due at the end of the semester, you will not have the opportunity to revise after receiving a grade. However, you're invited to submit a draft to me for review at any time during the project and are required to submit at least one draft.