You will write a formal report based on one successful or unsuccessful company of your choice. You may choose any company that you wish provided that it is not Apple (it has been overused as a model) or a company that you have researched or presented for another course or previous assignment. Students repeating COMM 10337 should select a new company to research. This assignment should reflect new/original work and research. Spend some time brainstorming and making a list of possible selections in both the “successful” and “unsuccessful” categories. Consider each one carefully and then narrow it down to a final selection. When you have made your choice, you will send a Research Topic Proposal letter to your professor outlining your choice. Please see the Formal Research Report Topic Proposal assignment instructions for this part of the project. This assignment will showcase your critical thinking, reading, writing, and reporting skills. This assignment will also include APA citation and referencing (see materials/lessons in CANVAS appendix C (pp. 341-342 of your textbook). In addition, you may wish to review pp. 192-194 from Chapter 9 that cover document and citing sources as well as how to paraphrase.
The Context or Scenario for this Assignment
As a context or scenario for this report, imagine that you have been working in your chosen field for a few years, and you are now the Assistant to the Vice President of Operations. Based on some research that you have been doing on another company in your industry, you have some ideas on how to improve your company. Your goal will be to persuade your Vice President of Operations to either:
A) Follow the successful business model and strategies of the company you have chosen
(OR)
B) Avoid the unsuccessful model and strategies of the company you have chosen.
You work for a small-to-medium-sized Canadian business headquartered in Hamilton but with offices in British Columbia, Montreal, and Halifax. You can create your company’s name, and its product or service will be the same as that of the company you have chosen to research (e.g., if you chose Nike, then sportswear and accessories, for example, only on a smaller scale, obviously). You are the Assistant to Vice President of Operations Joan Esselmont, for whom your report will be written.
You have been working for this company for a few years, starting as an administrative assistant and working your way up to Joan’s assistant. Your company has grown consistently over the past fifteen years and is now ready to take the next step and expand operations to a larger business, possibly even in the U.S. or internationally. You have always contributed good ideas towards improving services or processes. Now you have been asked to do some research on a competitor to discover what they have done to become successful and how your company might implement some of your competitor’s strategies in order to achieve similar success.
You will conduct research on a company of your choice and complete a report of your findings to Joan Esselmont, Vice President of Operations. Your report will include specific details/findings on what the company you have researched has done to become successful. There should be multiple areas covered with specific details cited from credible research sources. You will include recommendations based on your findings, indicating what you think your company could do or adopt based on your research to take its business to the next level.
Stage 1: Research
Once you have your research topic (a successful or unsuccessful company) chosen, the next step is to do some research. Best practices for academic research, including how to use Google and the Mohawk Library search engines effectively, will be covered in the Week 6 materials in CANVAS. Students will be expected to choose appropriate, credible academic/professional sources for this assignment. When you are searching for resources to use for this assignment, consider looking for both of these types of sources:
A) Direct sources: Written specifically about the company you have chosen
(AND
B) Indirect sources: Sources related to a strategy that the company you have chosen has employed (e.g. your chosen company has been successful at viral marketing, so you are including a book about viral marketing among your sources).
Your research should be based on no fewer than five (5) high quality sources appropriate for academic/professional research projects.
Consider looking for information on many different areas that have made your particular chosen company either successful or unsuccessful, such as but not limited to:
Branding and marketing (including public relations)
Recruiting and developing talent
Corporate culture and morale
Product or service research and development
Organizational structure
Logistics
Ability (or not) to change and adapt
Financial and investment decisions
NOTE: You do not need to include information on all eight of these topics. These are merely suggested possibilities. In order to have sufficient detail and keep your report to an appropriate length, it would be a good idea to consider covering three to five subtopics.
Stage 2: Planning and Writing
Once you have submitted your topic proposal and completed your research, you are ready to plan and write your report. Your report should follow the guidelines outlined in Chapter 9 (see pp. 194-211). Remember that this is a persuasive report designed to convince your CEO either to follow the model of the successful company that you have chosen or to avoid the model of the unsuccessful company that you have chosen. Therefore, you may wish to review Chapter 6 on persuasive writing as well to employ successful strategies for persuasive writing.
Your report should be organized effectively (see Chapter 9 for details and discussion on using graphics as well as Chapter 8 for headings and hierarchy of headings).
It should be no shorter than three pages long, not including any Front Matter or Back Matter contents, such as title page, table of contents, and references. In other words, the body of the report must be at least three pages long. No letter or memo of transmittal is required. The first page of your report should be your cover page.
The report should include the following elements:
A cover page (see p. 202 for format. You can use your professor’s name as the recipient).
Page numbers at the bottom of each page, not including the cover page A table of contents (see p. 204 for format)
An introduction section (see p. 200-201 for items to include). NOTE: You do not need a separate Executive Summary for this report.
A body that includes the Findings of your report divided into sections using appropriate headings of your choice. Consider using effective graphics, tables, and lists in addition to short paragraphs to present your findings. Your report should be readable as well as persuasive.
A conclusions and recommendations section at the end to persuade your reader why he should or should not follow the model of your chosen company. Here you should review the definitive data/ facts that support your claims and end in a memorable way by making recommendations/projections/warnings.
An APA-formatted references list that lists alphabetically the five or more sources you consulted in your research.
Stage 3: Revising and Submitting
Once you have completed your report, spend some time reading it over in order to revise and correct it. You should consider/do the following:
Check that you have covered all posted elements in the Research Essay Report instructions (see above)
Review the organizational structure for effectiveness and consistency
Review your graphics for errors and readability
Read ALL text in your report for errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and word choice as well as errors in use of numbers and symbols.
When you have finished revising and editing your report, submit the final copy to CANVAS as either an MS Word or PDF document. Make sure your assignment is submitted before the posted due date or you will receive a grade of ZERO.
Grading
This assignment will be graded using the attached rubric on CANVAS. Grading criteria will include the following:
A mark for the content of your report (does it effectively accomplish the purpose of this task and demonstrate a well-researched and persuasive report)
A mark for having a well-structured/organized report (including properly formatted cover page, table of contents, and references list as well as a well-organized body with consistent headings and structural elements that improve readability)
A mark for the correctness of your writing, including grammar, mechanics, and word choice
A mark for correct APA format used for in-text citations and the references list.
NOTE: THE FORMAL RESEARCH SHOULD BE MADE IN 3 PAGES IN “APA FORMAT”. PLEASE ATTACH A CHART OR GRAPH. THIS IS A COLLEGE-LEVEL FORMAL RESEARCH SO IT MUST BE HAND-WRITTEN. PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. MOREOVER THERE SHOULDN’T BE ANY GRAMMATICAL ERRORS.
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