ASSIGNMENT 2 – The Career Research Proposal
The Career Research Proposal requires you to write a short (three-to-four page) proposal to me, proposing your topic
for the final assignment in CMNS, the Career Research Report (Assignment #5).
Worth:
Date Due:
15% of course grade
See Moodle for Due Date
ASSIGNMENT CONTEXT
Audience: Your CMNS Instructor
Purpose: To convince your CMNS instructor that you have a viable and valid research proposal for your final CMNS
assignment—the Career Research Report—and that first-year students in your program or field might find
your final research report informative and interesting.
ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
COVER MEMO REQUIREMENTS
Write a short cover memo using standard memo format and address your proposal to your teacher. Summarize the key
issues that you plan on researching for your final CMNS report and ask for permission to continue with this research.
RESEARCH PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS
Ensure that you address (answer) the following questions, and use these requirements as the basis for the headings of your
proposal:
1. Identify the career area or field you will be exploring in your final paper for this course and describe the basic
parameters (scope) that you will be researching. Use an extended definition to define the field. (Cite sources)
2. Describe some of the current issues that are part of your intended professional field. Are any of them controversial?
What are the complexities? Etc. (Cite sources)
3. Identify a key international trend that is impacting or informing your prospective field. Define the trend—what is it?
What is its impact? Why is it important that you are aware of it now? What steps can you take to be prepared to
leverage this international trend and make yourself more employable? (Cite sources)
4. Why do these issues interest you personally? (This is a personal statement, ergo, no citation required, and it is OK to
use “I” in this section.)
5. Introduce and list at least 8 questions about your field that you could potentially research in your final report. (No
citation necessary for this section.)
6. From the above list, select at least two questions that you plan to address in your final paper, and list them in the order
that you will structure them in your report. Ensure that these are all open-ended questions. For example: don’t say Is
sustainability important? Do say, Why is sustainability an important part of Marketing?
(Explain WHY you chose those two questions. (“I” is OK in this section—No citation necessary)
7.
Explain how each of these questions will benefit first year students in your field. Pretend that you would be presenting
your report findings to these students at the end of the semester.
Address the benefits to first year students for each question that you intend to research. (Some citation may be
necessary, depending on the claims you make in this section.)
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