White Paper Assignment – Final White Paper

Group Assignment

Due Date: November 5, 2020, 11:59 PM EST No late assignments are accepted.

General Education Assessment 1: Information and Data Literacy Student Learning Outcome 2: critically interpret quantitative evidence (such as graphs, tables, charts) in order to identify false claims, incorrect use of evidence or contradictory statements

Description

This assignment is the final step in producing your team white paper.

Deliverable

• Submit final product by November 5th at 11:59pm. See the Assignment Completion section for more information.

Assignment Preparation

• Review Writing for Executives in Chapter 8 Executives from The Engineering Communication Manual. This chapter discusses how to talk to executives in your writing. As the decision makes on financial outlays for organizations, company executives are the primary audience for this document.
• Review Audience Needs in Chapter 1 section 4 Accommodating audience needs, values, and priorities (pathos). This section of the chapter provides some important information on how to respond to your audience by understanding how your document is relevant to them and by addressing them in a language they will understand.
• Watch Design a Modern Cover: Think Simple, Clean, and Angular (Links to an external site.) (3:22 minutes) in the Graphic Design Tips & Tricks Weekly course on LinkedIn Learning.
• Watch find and add something on basic layout and color use. Look at other cover videos

Assignment Completion

Document Elements

• Cover – The document cover should be professional in appearance and contain all the required information. A cover should have a title for the document that is precise, brief, and interesting. Text on the layout should also include a fictitious company name, and the date, you may also include the team members’ names.
• Table of Contents – Table of contents should include the introduction, each case, and the conclusion.
• Introduction – The introduction should accomplish the following
  • Reach out your potential clients/funders and let them know you understand what is important to them.
  • Suggest that your company can help them meet their goals and that using probability and statistics will help them do that.
  • Indicate that the rest of the document will share cases that illustrate the types of problems that can be addressed with the help of probability and statistics. You will briefly identify what each case review illustrates.
• Cases – Each case will be presented. Each case should start on a new page (like a new chapter).
• Conclusion – This can be a brief paragraph or two reviewing what you have shown your clients that probability and statistics can do to help them meet their goals. Then that you hope they will work with your organization.
• References – Include an APA formatted reference list with all the articles used in the cases and any additional references used anywhere in the document. Be sure to include in-text citations where you use the words, ideas, or images of others.

Document Graphics and Layout

• Cover – Better covers use graphics and/or images that are relevant to the topic (If you use a template or copy the layout of another document, make sure the cover is fitting to your topic.) Your cover should fit with your document. There are a range of potential clients/funders and industries that will be addressed by different groups in the course. Do you think the people you are addressing will think a conservative classic cover will show discipline and stability or lack of imagination? Do you think a cover that is a bit different will make the people you are addressing think your group is innovative or “too out there” for them? Pick a style that you think fits the type of people you are addressing.
• Table of Contents – Must be easy to read, consistent in layout, and fit with the rest of the document. As the table of contents is likely to be short you may get creative, as long as they stay professional in appearance.
• Document Layout – professional documents, particularly those intended to be marketing documents must be consistent in layout, with clear hierarchies, and consistent use of fonts. These type of documents use:
  • More “white space,” space that is not full of text or images. This is accomplished in several ways larger margins, the spacing between sections, and around graphics.
  • Graphics: The use of graphics is strongly encouraged, as “a picture is worth a thousand words” Tess Flanders, news editor Syracuse Post-Standard. However, the graphics MUST add value to the case. If you are using figures and tables from another document, be sure it is adding meaning and the image is readable. Be sure to include a citation.
  • Consistent approaches to graphics. Labeling of graphic elements should be in the same font and follow similar layout approaches. Tables and figures should be numbered through the entire document. The source identification of the graphics must be consistent.
  • Page numbering – the cover is not numbered, the table of contents can be without a number or with a roman numeral. The rest of the document is numbered starting with page 1.

Rubric

CA1.4 2020U

PreviousNext