Career Research Report and Career Research PPT

ASSIGNMENT #6 SNAPSHOT

The Career Research Report is Assignment #6 (A6) from our CMNS 1140 Course Outline. It is the final writing assignment for the semester.

Worth: 20% of course grade

DUE: Friday, December 04 7:00 pm (posted to Moodle)

Note: Assignment details for A7 PPT requirements are on separate Word file.

FINAL RESEARCH REPORT—BACKGROUND AND LEARNING CONTEXT

Background

The Research Proposal (A4) that you submitted was the first step towards your Career Research Report. The A4 Proposal allowed you to narrow down your research topic, frame boundaries for your research report, and formulate questions that you could explore in your final report—the Career Research Report, Assignment #6.

It also forced you to find credible sources.

Now you’re ready to explore your research question in more depth and produce a final report with conclusions and recommendations.

The learning objectives for this assignment focus on research and writing skills.

Learning Context

We will apply the following critical communication skills and principles to research and write an informative and persuasive , researched report:

The Final Research Report—An Extension of Your Research Proposal

Your A4 Research Proposal allowed you to formulate questions which you felt were viable research questions for a Final Report on two career related topics that would be useful for Year One students in that field.

Ideally, your proposal gave you (and the instructor) a pretty clear idea of whether your research ideas/topics/questions were feasible. I will give you feedback on your proposal to indicate whether the topics are feasible or if there are possible problem areas. This initial feedback will allow you to proceed with researching and drafting your final report.

For your final CMNS 1140 project, you will write a four-to-six page report. (This page number total does not include cover memo, table of contents, executive summary and Works Cited!) Your A6 report will evaluate (make a claim about) at least two aspects of your career interest(s) that you feel would be useful and interesting to first-year students in that field.

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

ASSIGNMENT #6 (CAREER RESEARCH REPORT REQUIREMENTS)

Assignment #6—Career Research Report—requires you to write a short (four-to-six page) report that provides useful and interesting information aimed at Year One students who are interested in the same career as you are pursuing.

Please note that the four-to-six page guideline excludes the following pages:

i. cover memo,

ii. title page,

iii. table of contents,

iv. executive summary , and

v. works cited.

ASSIGNMENT CONTEXT

Primary Audience: Your CMNS 1140 Instructor.

Secondary Audience: Year One students in the same career path as you.

Purpose: To convince your CMNS 1140 instructor that you have written a viable and valid research report for your final CMNS 1140 assignment, one that first year students in your program or field might find informative, useful and interesting.

Assignment Challenges

Your main challenge is to clearly define the research parameters in the context of your Audience and Purpose, research and collate some useful and interesting facts (or claims), integrate quantitative data into visuals, present this information concisely and precisely and end with conclusions and recommendations that logically follow the data that you have provided in the report.

Remember—this is not a problem solving report! Avoid making value statements; simply present the facts and try to persuade the audience that your facts are relevant, accurate and current and that they should take heed of your recommendations.

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

THE ASSIGNMENT IN A NUTSHELL

You will write a four-to-six page (excluding title page, cover letter table of contents, executive summary, and works cited pages) report that supports a claim (thesis) about each one of the two (minimum) questions that you have chosen to research and explore. These questions or topics are the ones you have selected in your Career Research Proposal; they are directly related to your career interests and you feel that an in-depth exploration of each question would be useful and interesting to first-year students in your field.

Furthermore, in your recommendations section you will articulate how an understanding of the information that you are presenting will assist you and your classmates to make more informed decisions about your chosen career path.

IMPORTANT

Ensure that you carefully review the Sample Formal Report PDF posted on Moodle.

REPORT REQUIREMENTS—The Front Matter

The following items are required for your complete report. These four items are referred to as “front-matter” and are not paginated as part of the report because they are considered ancillary to the main discussion. They are listed below in the chronological order in which the report appears to the reader, but not in the order in which they are written.

Note:

The Executive Summary and Cover Memo are written last, although they appear at the beginning of the report.

TITLE PAGE

· Precisely identifies the subject (Name of Project) with a meaningful title.

· Precisely identifies the name and position of the recipient(s).

· Precisely identifies the name and position of the writer.

· Precisely identifies the date that the report was issued to the recipient.

Page number: The Title Page has no page number.

COVER MEMO—write this last, after you have written the report, but place it at the beginning of the report!

· Includes full name of recipients.

· Includes full name of author.

· Includes date.

· Clearly identifies the subject (Name of Project) with a meaningful title.

· Refers to the origin of the report (response to written or phone request etc.)

· Describes the content and major points or sections of the report.

· Highlights any major conclusions or recommendations.

· Acknowledges any special advice or assistance that was received.

· Invites reader to respond and provides contact number/email.

· Clearly requests action(s) from reader.

Page number: This does not count as a page of the report. Do not paginate.

TABLE OF CONTENTS—write this after you have finished your report and have formatted the document so that you know the page numbering and your final headings

· Ensure that you include all main headings and sub-headings that are in your report and that the pages are consistent with the paginations of the report

· Include a List of Figures as per the example in the Sample Report PDF posted on Moodle

Page number: This does not count as a page of the report. The correct page number is “iii.”

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY write this after you have finished your report. You can’t summarize something until it is written.

· Placed immediately after the Table of Contents on its own page.

· Summarizes the main points of the Background and Introduction.

· Summarizes the main points of the Discussion section of the report.

· Summarizes the main Conclusions and Recommendations of the report.

· Uses full paragraph format, with no bulleted lists, except for the Recommendations summary at the end.

Page number: This does not count as a page of the report. The correct page number is “iv.”

REPORT REQUIREMENTS—The Body of the Report

Ensure that you address (answer) the following areas and use these requirements as the basis for the headings of your report:

INTRODUCTION

· Define your chosen field with an extended definition and support this definition with examples. It is OK to be repetitious with your Research Proposal in this section. (Sources required)

· Introduce and list the two questions that you explored in your research proposal, and explain why you chose each question. (It is OK to use “I” in this section. No citation necessary.)

· Define the purpose of your research. Explain WHY you think that Year One students in your field would find the research on these two questions interesting, informative and useful. In other words, explain how these two research questions/aspects would be relevant to Year One students who are contemplating entering this same field (It is OK to use “I” in this section. No citation necessary.)

· Define the scope of your report. Explain some of the complex issues that you have included and some that have been omitted. Explain WHY these issues are of importance to Year One students in your field. For example, if your research is about Salaries for IT Professionals, you might say that you looked only at entry level jobs, not management jobs. (It is OK to use “I” in this section. No citation necessary.)

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

· Information on Question 1 is adequate, relevant, current and credible. ( Sources required )

· Information on Question 2 is adequate, relevant, current and credible. ( Sources required )

· Three visuals (at least one table and one figure) are required somewhere in this section of the report. ( Sources required )

· Mention and explanation of at least one International Trend is made somewhere in the body of your Results section. ( Sources required )

· CONCLUSION

Conclude with at least three short paragraphs that do the following:

· Detail WHAT information surprised you and WHY you were surprised. (It is OK to use “I” in this section. No citation necessary.)

· Detail WHAT information you found most useful, and WHY it was of use to you. (It is OK to use “I” in this section. No citation necessary.)

· Detail WHAT information you think would be most useful to Year One students in your field, and WHY you think they would benefit from reading this research. (It is OK to use “I” in this section. Some citation may be necessary, depending on the claims you make in this section.)

RECOMMENDATION

Using a numbered list format, list at least two recommendations that logically follow the report findings and your conclusions.

· Begin each recommendation with an active verb.

· Ensure that the recommendation is applicable to Year One students in your field.

(Some citation may be necessary, depending on the claims you make in this section.)

WORKS CITED

· Attach a References/Works Cited page at the end of your report and ensure that it clearly follows either MLA or APA format.

See Report Requirements Checklist Next Page

REPORT REQUIREMENTS REMINDER

VISUAL ELEMENTS

· Introduce, insert and integrate at least three visual elements (minimum one table and one figure) somewhere within the discussion (results of the study) section of your report.

· You can use the visuals for one research question and none for the other if you choose, but you must have at least three visuals somewhere, and at least one figure and one table.

· Citation is required for each visual.

· Remember to introduce each visual with a sentence or phrase before you insert the visual. E.g., Figure One below shows that blah, blah, blah…

· Directly after the visual you must provide an interpretation (elaboration) regarding the significance of the visual. What does it show? Why is this important and relevant? What conclusions or inferences could Year One students in your field draw from the visual? What are the major takeaways from the visual information?

· These visual must be different from the visuals in your Research Proposal.

RESEARCH REQUIREMENTS

1. Use at least four different sources of information:

· one primary source (e.g., an industry professional whom you will interview)

· three secondary sources (e.g., textbook, journal article, industry magazine etc.)

· Ensure that the sources are credible! Random blogs don’t cut it. Government websites and industry association cites are considered credible.

2. You must use proper documentation/citation format, either MLA or APA, your choice, but be consistent.

3. Document (identify sources) for all numerical data and statistics.

See Final Report Criteria Sheet next page

A7 CAREER RESEARCH REPORT PRESENTATION REQUIREMENT

The requirements and criteria for the A7 Career Research Presentation PPT associated with your Final Career Research Report (A6) are documented in a separate Word file, also posted in Week 10 Moodle.

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