Project summary

To begin, your team will contact potential clients who are willing to participate in this project. Then, your team will respond to a prompt which asks you to describe your client and their feasibility for the project. After I have approved the client for your team, you will conduct field research to assess further the client's web 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 recommendation report addressed to your client. Following peer feedback on your team's first completed draft, your team will revise and polish its recommendation report and submit it for evaluation.

Project goals

This project emphasizes several important goals that all professional writers should bear in mind and that are consistent with those of the Professional Writing Program at Purdue. In the Corporate Web Project, we will focus on these particular course goals:

Writing in Context
Analyze professional cultures, social contexts, and audiences to determine how they shape the various purposes and forms of writing, such as persuasion, organizational communication, and public discourse.

Writing Process
Develop and understand various strategies for planning, researching, drafting, revising, and editing documents that respond effectively and ethically to professional situations and audiences.

Collaboration
Learn and apply strategies for successful collaboration, such as working and communicating on-line with colleagues, setting and achieving project goals, and responding constructively to peers' work.

Technology
Develop strategies for using and adapting various communication technologies to manage projects and produce informative and usable professional documents.

Document Design
Learn to argue with visual data, understanding and implementing various principles of format, layout, and design of professional documents that meet multiple user and reader needs.

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

Deliverables

Client Description Assignment (10% of Project 3 grade or 40 pts)
Using the client criteria, your team will contact and gain commitments from a potential client. After gaining this commitment, your team will write an email to the class discussion list that describes your client, their feasibility for the project, and what you anticipate doing for them. This email is due by Monday, November 4.

Client Field Research (10% of Project 3 grade or 40 pts)
After choosing your client, your team will plan and conduct field research on your client context. To assess your client's web needs and prepare for the oral report, your team will conduct at least one interview and at least one observation as well as collect documents from the client organization. Submit all of your information that you have collected from your research at the time of your oral progress report.

Oral Progress Report (10% of Project 3 grade or 40 pts)
In the Oral Progress Report, your team will provide a brief overview of your client and will summarize the initial results of your client research and document analysis. Be certain to consult Considerations for Oral Reports for information concerning the delivery of your team's presentation. This report should include the basic recommendations that you'll include in your final recommendation report. Oral Progress Reports will take place on Friday, November 8.

Oral Recommendation Report (20% of Project 3 grade or 80 pts)
After conducting and analyzing your team's initial field research, your team will present an Oral Recommendation Report addressed to your client (but delivered to the class). Your presentation should be accompanied by a PowerPoint slide show. Your team will deliver its well-coordinated and scripted, 10-15 minute presentation on Wednesday, November 20 and Friday, November 22. You will present the key recommendations in your report and discuss and justify your cost analysis.

Recommendation Report (50% of Project 3 grade or 200 pts)
After delivering your oral progress report, your team will draft its recommendation report addressed to your client. Your team will email its completed 1st draft to an assigned exchange team and me by Sunday, December 1st at 9pm. Students will read over the reports in preparation for in-class peer review on Monday, December 2. The final draft of your recommendation report is due by 6pm on Friday, December 6. You should bring the printed version of the project to ENAD 233. The electronic version (and all supporting files, if any) should be sent to me (and all team members) by 6pm also. Email my copy to jbay@purdue.edu.

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

Resources

In addition to the discussion and materials available in PW Online (Corporate Web Project), here are the direct links to the various assignment sheets:

Client Criteria
Client Letter
Established Teams
Planning Calendar
Interviewing Clients
Field Research
Oral Progress Report
Oral Progress Report Response Evaluation
Considerations for Oral Report
Oral Recommendation Report
Oral Recommendation Report Evaluation
Recommendation Report
Sample recommendation report
Peer Response for Recommendation Report

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 project evaluation form to determine individual grades.

Revision

Because the final draft of the recommendation 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.