Group Project: Proposal/Report
Final due December 2
Due Dates and other Important Information
Oct. 31
Due—Proposal/Report Topic memo (evaluated as exercise)
Nov. 7
Due—Proposal Outline (evaluated as exercise)
Nov. 11
In-Class indiv. assignment—Status Report of project (50 pts.)
Nov. 16
Due—Proposal Rough Drafts (4 copies, evaluated as exercise)
Dec. 2
Due—Final Draft of Proposal/Report (1 print copy & 1 digital)
Dec. 5-9
Oral Presentations begin (group grade, 50 pts.)
Proposal/Report Topic Memo—Oct. 31
Since the selection of a suitable topic is so essential to the success of this heavily
weighted assignment, I ask that you write a memo describing your topic. It should
probably be from 200 to 400 words long. From this memo, I should be able to
understand the direction of your research and judge how well your topic and
context might work for this assignment. Based on these memos, I will either give
you a “go-ahead” or a rejection for your topic.
The memo should:
1) Use correct memo format.
2) Include a 1-2 sentence summary statement describing the subject, purpose,
and scope of the problem you plan to examine.
3) Provide a justification of the problem as a valid one for your audience, not
necessarily for society as a whole.
4) Describe your audience, be they real or imaginary.
5) Describe the persona your group will adopt. If the proposal/report will
actually be submitted, your persona might well be that of a group of
concerned Iowa State students.
6) Describe your relationship to your audience.
7) Speculate about any potential research problems that may arise.
Proposal/Report Outline—Nov. 7
This outline should provide a fairly complete framework of your proposal. It must
be specific enough to give some idea of the organizational scheme your work will
take, a very good idea of the specific support you have gathered for each claim
you will make, and establish that your group is “on course” for successful
completion of this assignment.
Proposal/Report Rough Draft—Nov. 11
Bring 4 copies and have all 4 copies when class begins.
Proposal/Report Criteria
Ideally, your proposal/report will be based on an actual situation or fulfill a real need and
be submitted for consideration to the appropriate audience. Once again, I believe the
project will best serve your needs if you have in mind an audience other than myself. If
by happy chance your project fulfills a real need, or even fulfills the requirements of
another course, it can be a very rewarding experience. It can also be a less than rewarding
experience if your group does not get equal participation.
Remember—this project is a group effort. Support your group through every phase of the
project. This support means that you attend every group meeting and arrive on time. It
also means determining how best you can support the project and that every group
member shoulders roughly equal burdens. Finally, it means being prepared for the
meetings.
Do not wait to see how much of the work will get done without your help. Do not take
the position that you are the busiest member of the group and therefore should be able to
get away with a little less. Remember, everyone is busy, and while you may in fact be
busier than everyone else, at some point, you individually decided how busy your life
would be and no one else is responsible for those decisions.
In the past, I have required a personal log in order to keep track of those not supporting
the group effort. However, I have decided that such a requirement is just one more
burden with few measurable returns for the amount of effort expended. In lieu of the log,
I am asking that your group inform me (via memo signed by all members but the
offending party) of anyone who is acting irresponsibly toward the group. If this happens
early, I will remove that person from the group and they will produce a full-length project
individually. If it happens later in the project, I will make an adjustment to the individual
grade that will seriously impact that person’s project grade.
As a recommendation, I suggest that each group designate a different agenda setter for
each meeting. This practice will help make the meetings more productive and it will help
to bring the quiet ones out of the corner.
Length: The proposal/report should be, at a minimum, 2000 to 3000 words in length.
This length does not include visuals, front matter, or appendix material. It must contain at
least four visuals which may be photos, illustrations, charts or tables.
Attributes: The proposal/report should demonstrate a practical knowledge of all the
appropriate principles and guidelines of communication we have discussed this semester
(i.e. page design, usability, readability, audience analysis, logic, and use of visuals).
Content: Included in the final report, you must have 1) a Letter or memo of transmittal
2) an abstract 3) a title page 4) a table of contents 5) the proposal/report and 6) an
appendix.