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Paper 5: Executive Summary for Research-based Proposal

A substantial percentage of this course focuses on a persuasive researched proposal that solves a problem/issue within an organization in an office or in a community. You will formulate the proposal through a series of projects and conferences beginning early in the course, and culminating in submission of the final paper. Papers 3and 6 both support the formal research-based proposal assignment. Paper 5 is the draft of your Executive Summary; Paper 7 is the resulting proposal for change, complete with the final version of the Executive Summary.

Traditionally, an Executive Summary is created AFTER you have written a formal, researched proposal or report.  However, from my 30 years of experience in writing decision papers for senior managers in the Executive Branch of the Government and in the Department of Defense, I found that creating the summary FIRST reduced the time to create a complex documented report substantially and avoided writer's block as the inevitable deadline approached. 

So, before you have completed work on your researched proposal (Paper 7), please create a one-page, single spaced Executive Summary with headings that (1) identify the problem, (2) address the background, (3) provide a recommended course of action, and  (4) list step-by-step implementation steps you are asking the decision maker to take.  I will NOT hold you to the content of this DRAFT document when I grade Paper 7; most likely something will change when you complete the final version of your proposal -- and so you will include a modified Executive Summary at that time.  However, this planning document will allow your peers first (as a conference topic) and then me (with a grade for the resulting paper) to comment on your approach and provide final comments before you submit Paper 7.

Grading Criteria – Paper 5 (Draft Executive Summary)

• submitted on time
• wording makes clear that this document is addressed to correct audience (your decision maker) describing the proposal as already having been completed and following the Executive Summary 
• no fewer than 250 words; no more than 500
• clear statement of problem being addressed
• clear development of solution to resolve the problem
• clear set of implementation steps that the decision maker is requested to follow
• uses headings to separate the four required sections
• sections address the problem, the background, recommended course of action, and  step-by-step implementation steps you are asking the decision maker to take  
• contains no proofreading, grammar, or construction errors
• Question # 3: 

Please see the attched for my response for question #3

Paper 3: Request to Conduct Research

Typically before a writer would expend energy on a research proposal, he or she would ask for permission from a decision-maker to undertake the project. In this assignment, you will identify an actual, CURRENT problem in your workplace or community, identify a decision maker empowered to make the change necessary, the potential outcome from your research (some change that only the decision maker could implement), provide a Gantt Chart depicting the estimated activities you will have to pursue, their duration and interdepedencies, and ask my permission (not the decision maker's) to pursue this project as a class assignment.

You will write a 400 to 750-word memo to me requesting permission to work on a specific proposal for Paper 7.  Your request will use headings that will:  (1) identify the problem in the community or workplace you wish to address, (2) identify the decision maker who can implement the contemplated change, including his/her position title and explain why he/she should grant you this permission (the justification for approval), (3) your proposed solution, and (4) describe the benefits you believe the proposed solution will bring to the organization. Then, (5) you will include three SPECIFIC references (in MLA Works Cited format) you intend to use as research to support your proposal in Paper 7 to the decision maker that he/she adopt your recommendation.  Note:  these references must be specific; not merely "I will use books, such-and-such a web site, or a daily paper."    Include (6) a Gantt Chart to plot your anticipated progress toward completing the researched proposal on time.  Directions for developing a Gantt Chart are found in the Conferences area.  In your memo, you will use these six headings (PROBLEM, DECISION MAKER, PROPOSED SOLUTION, BENEFITS, THREE REFERENCES TO BE USED, GANTT CHART) to set off your discussion of each of the required components set out above.r 3

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