IFSM 300 Report creation assistance needed

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Helpful Writing Tips for the IFSM 300 Class Assignments

But this isn’t a writing course!

You’re correct; this isn’t a writing course. However, if you are unable to convey to others your

information, analysis, understanding, and recommendations, then no one will know what you

know! It is critical to be able to clearly and correctly present information to your audience.

As an upcoming college graduate, you will be expected to be able to clearly communicate in writing

in most any position you hold. Take this opportunity within your UMGC courses to finetune your

writing skills to help you make the best impression in the work world.

Under the Course Resources – Writing Resources section in Course Content, there are many

resources for you to assist in improving your writing skills.

This document provides several pointers on writing mechanics to help you write more effectively for

this course. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but this is intended to provide some easy tips to

help you improve your writing. Writing is a skill and takes practice.

Here are a few broad tips to help you write effectively for business:

 Write clearly, concisely and to-the-point

 Think before your write o Who are you writing to (audience)?

o Why are you communicating?

 Avoid extra words and introductory phrases that do not add value to what you’re trying to

communicate

 Avoid jargon and slang expressions

 Review what you’re written – reading out loud can help identify issues you might otherwise not

identify when reading to yourself.

Overview of Four Staged Assignments for IFSM 300

A Case Study for a fictious company, Maryland Technology Consultants – This provides the scenario

to be used throughout this course. Your final result will be a complete Business Analysis and System

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Recommendation (BA&SR) report that you will prepare in four stages in your role as a business analyst for

MTC.

I: Strategic Use of Technology (Stage 1) - The first step is to look at the organization and explain how an IT

system could be used to support MTC's strategies and objectives and support its decision-making processes.

II: Process Analysis (Stage 2) – Next you will evaluate current processes and workflow and explain how MTC

can use IT to improve its processes and workflow.

III: Requirements (Stage 3) –Then you will identify key stakeholder expectations for the new technology

solution to support MTC’s hiring process and develop a set of system requirements.

IV: System Recommendation (Stage 4) – Finally, you will review the provided vendor brochure for a

proposed solution and explain how it meets the requirements and what needs to be done to implement the

system within MTC.

General Comments on IFSM 300 Staged Assignments Do! – Follow assignment information regarding format:

 Report will be double-spaced (except for single spaced within required table entries)

 Report should be written in the third person (he/she, it, they – not I, you, etc.)

 Report requires headings and numbering provided in instructions, i.e.,

I. Strategic Use of Technology

A. Business Strategy

B. Competitive Advantage

 Each stage requires specific references to be correctly incorporated within your writing.

A few Don’ts! —

 Exceeding recommended section/assignment lengths – It is a deliberate choice to require clear,

concise and effective business writing. Excessive length likely means you’re not meeting the

assignment requirements and are including extraneous information that detracts from the report.

 Referring to “stage” or the “case study” or “assignment" – this is a business report for MTC and those

classroom references would not appear in the report to the CIO of MTC.

 Omitting the required introductory sentence for each table in the report. It is important to introduce

what is to come in the table.

Checklist for Reviewing Your Assignments:

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 Review assignment instructions to ensure you have addressed all required sections.

 Compare your content to the Grading Rubric for the assignment – have you met the criteria?

 Review the formatting instructions – does your assignment have the appropriate spacing, layout,

headings, etc.?

 Run Spellcheck and Grammar Review and evaluate any recommended changes before incorporating.

 Review assignment to ensure you have provided the required references and incorporated them

correctly into your writing using APA style. Each reference listed in the reference list should also

appear within your writing with an in-text citation showing specifically where information from that

source was incorporated. Direct quotes must be indicated with quotation marks and require

additional in-text citation information. The reference list should be in alphabetical order and

correctly formatted.

 PROOFREAD

 Be sure to include your name within the filename of your submission, e.g.,

Lastname_firstname_Stage_2.

Common Grammatical and Punctuation Errors Maryland Technology Consultants (MTC) is considered a collective noun. This means that although it is

typically more than one person, it is treated as singular; therefore, takes a singular verb and pronoun.

Example: “MTC is an IT consulting company based in Baltimore, Maryland. Its customer base includes small

to mid-tier businesses, …” (Other common examples of collective nouns are class, group, company, and

team.)

Below are the top 3 grammatical errors often found in student assignments:

1. Its – is the possessive form of the pronoun it – MTC provides its customers with consulting services.

It’s is the contraction for it is – It's important that MTC understand their customers' needs.

2. Companies – plural of company– more than one – MTC provides IT consulting services to many

companies.

Company’s – possessive form of company. MTC seeks to excel at providing outstanding IT services to

meet each company’s needs.

3. They’re – contraction for they are – MTC's employees realize they're representing the company.

Their – possessive plural third person pronoun – MTC's employees realize they represent their

company.

There – provides a location - There is a place for studying.

Many of these issues can be avoided by following the general rule not to use contractions in business writing.

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General Common Writing Issues Incomplete sentences – or sentence fragments. A complete sentence requires a noun (person, place or

thing) and a verb that can stand on its own and express a complete thought. A sentence fragment may look

like a sentence but does not convey a complete thought.

Example: Fragment: UMGC offers many majors in computing areas. Such as cybersecurity, information

systems management, and software engineering. (Bold text indicates the sentence fragment.) Possible

Revision: UMGC offers many majors in computing areas, such as cybersecurity, information systems

management, and software engineering.

Additional information from UMGC’s Writing Center -

https://www.umgc.edu/currentstudents/learningresources/writing-center/writing-resources/grammar-

help/sentence-fragments.cfm

Run-on Sentences – A sentence typically conveys one complete thought. Stringing together several ideas

within one sentence detracts from readability and often fails to clearly communicate what’s most important.

Breaking one long run-on sentence into two or more sentences, each conveying its own complete idea, will

strengthen your writing.

Lack of parallel construction: Edward likes to study, play video games, and hiking. Revised: Edward likes

studying, playing videogames, and hiking. Parallel construction means using the same word format to show

consistency and convey information with the same level of importance.

Use of commas: Often student work contains two extremes– little or no use of commas – or peppering the

document with extraneous commas.

Wordiness: Removing unnecessary words and rearranging phrasing can result in more clear and concise

presentation of your information.

Resources:

 Your Professor – Do not hesitate to ask questions and seek clarifications so you can correctly address

the assignment requirements. The only bad question is the one you don’t ask!

 Use Microsoft Word Spell and Grammar Check – Click on Review Tab at top of page and far left

should show the Spelling & Grammar icon. It is important to evaluate the suggestions from Word

rather than blindly accepting into your document. Correctly spelled words, for example, that are

incorrectly used in your report may not be caught by the Spell Check tool.

 Several students have mentioned they found the free tool Grammarly useful. This might be worth

checking out - www.Grammarly.com

 In the LEO Classroom, under Course Resources – Writing Resources – are additional links to provide

assistance. Pay particular attention to APA Requirements for IFSM Classes –this indicates how to

correctly incorporate references to course content.

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 The UMGC Writing Center provides additional resources and will review draft assignments.

https://www.umgc.edu/current-students/learning-resources/writing-center/submit-your-

paper/index.cfm

 Time – Writing clearly to address assignment requirements, proofread, and use additional resources

all take time – plan ahead!