Report Assignment
Audience and Purpose
The audience for this assignment will be your English 104 instructor and other members of the class. The purpose is for you to investigate a controversial area within your field of study, enabling you to learn more about one phase of your future career.
Assignment
Readings
- Read Chapter 3: “Reports” in Writing in a Visual Age.
- Read Chapter 9: “Starting Research and Finding Sources” in Writing in a Visual Age
Inventing (pre-writing)
- Brainstorm ideas of possible topics within your major or proposed career. Try to think of at least ten narrowed topics.
- For instance, a teacher education major might brainstorm the following list: censorship issues in literature classrooms in Iowa, the way your hometown school is addressing No Child Left Behind, the reasons underlying the increase in home schooling, the use of alternative teacher certification programs, etc.
- An agriculture business major might brainstorm this list: the effect of more women entering agriculture business, alternative crops such as pumpkins or Christmas trees, the aging of Iowa’s farmers, etc.
- With a classmate or friends, brainstorm more topics for your field.
- First circle the three topics that interest you the most, and then select the topic that is the most appealing to you and to other readers.
- Compose a list of questions for your topic. Ask a classmate or friend to add to the list.
- Do an audience analysis of your topic (see pages 151-152).
- Research answers to your questions (this is called an “I-search” report) from a variety of sources (see page 155)–people (interviews), print sources (see pages 535-547), electronic journals (see 547-558). Make sure that you have reliable sources (see pages 558-562). Include at least five sources: at least one primary source (interview) and at least four print or electronic sources.
- Submit your topic choice, research question(s), and list of sources in a proposal to your instructor. If your topic is too broad, work on narrowing the topic.
- Upon confirmation by your instructor, begin taking notes on the information.
Drafting
- Determine a thesis sentence (see page 158), an organizational pattern (see page 159), and subheadings (see page 169).
- Decide whether you can incorporate information from your diagnostic writing about your major or from the profile about an individual or contact the interviewee with additional questions.
- Compose a rough draft, using an attention-getting introduction (see pages 160-164), an organized body (see page 169), transitions (see pages 170-171), and an effective conclusion (see pages 171-172).
- Decide a way to integrate visual information such as subheadings, photos, graphs, tables, etc. (see pages 173-174).
- Use appropriate in-text citation and add a Works Cited page.
Revising
- Obtain a peer review from a class member (see pages 175-177).
- Return to your original questions and check whether or not you have answered them. Make sure that you have included facts, paraphrases, and quotes. Use these steps to revise the report (see page 177).
Editing
- Look at former papers and see what types of convention errors you made. Proofread your paper separately for each type of error. If you don’t know how to locate or correct that type of error, ask for help (classmate, teacher, Writing and Media Help Center, etc.).
- Turn in the polished draft with research questions, notes, drafts, and copies of materials used with quotes and statistics highlighted.
Some Evaluation Criteria
- involves a narrowed topic related to the field of study and answers one or more of the research questions.
- uses at least five sources (one interview and four print or electronic sources).
- features an attention-getting introduction.
- includes parallel subheadings (other visuals are optional but may enhance the paper).
- provides a thesis sentence and a recognizable organizational pattern with transitions.
- includes a variety of paraphrasing, partial quotes (phrases) and full quotes (sentence quotes).
- concludes with an overall perspective or possible solutions.
- uses appropriate conventions so the sentences is not confusing or distracting to the reader.
- uses correct MLA in-text citations and Works Cited page.