Purpose: To conduct and write up a feasibility study or recommendation report about some topic (probably local) that interests your group and to compose a report on the subject for a suitable audience of your choice.

Method: Each group will select its own topic; the only criterion is that it must be accessible to all group members. This report does not have to involve library research (though it may if you choose). Instead, the report will probably be a combination of your own experience (individual and pooled) and some interviews or surveys. Youíll then brainstorm to subdivide the topic in some reasonable, interesting way. Each group will submit a single report, with different sections contributed by each member. You should, however, help each other edit and should submit a unified document . (You don't have to use the same typeface, etc., if that presents a problem, though e-mail has made producing a single document much easier than formerly.)

Once you decide on a topic, you should exchange full names and phone numbers or e-mail addresses. I expect to give you time in class to do all the necessary group work, but you may have to check on some points outside of class. Please plan to utilize the class time effectively; this is one 75-minute period that you're all free, and experience suggests that out-of-class meetings may be erratically attended.

Please read carefully Chapters 3 and 10 of your text; Chapter 17 is also quite important. These portions of Markel offer background and models for your work.

Please contribute your fair share to your group. Though I've worked to make this assignment as risk-free as possible, it's by nature inter-dependent, and your part is vital.

Schedule:
T 3 Mar Divide into groups; select topic and brainstorm. Decide on tentative
organization and assign each person a responsibility for gathering
material.

T 17 Mar Bring gathered information to class. Discuss, sort, and make
outline. Assign a different section to everyone to write.

T 24 Mar Bring drafts of your section to class; share and decide on final report
structure. Decide what visuals your final report will use and rough
them out. Fairly divide the remaining sections, such as letter of
transmittal, executive summary, visual, etc.

T 26 Mar Bring copies of everything to class; work together to achieve unified
document.

Th 26 Mar Submit final document.

Check List for Collaborative Reports


Suggested Outline

___Letter of transmittal

___Title Page (Title of report, audience [ìPrepared for _______î], authors, date-- attractively arranged)

____Table of Contents

____Executive Summary (On a separate page, a succinct statement of the problem you studied and your recommendation[s] concerning it. All of this material should be derived from material in the body of your report; this section substitutes neither for the introduction nor the conclusion. Its hypothetical audience is a busy person who may not read any other part of the document.)

____Body of the report (with numbered sections):
Introduction
Other subdivisions, as appropriate
Conclusions and/or recommendations

____References, if used

____Appendix or appendices, as necessary. Here include material such as notes from interviews, handouts, or other documents that support your report. Refer to the items in the body of the report exactly as you would a figure (ìAppendix A offers VDOTís assessment of the Smart Road.)

Other Notes

I'm assuming that most of your material that doesn't come from your heads is the sort to be included in an appendix. If you use formal printed references, though (e.g., books, journals, websites), list them on a reference page (placed between the Body and the Appendices) and cite them parenthetically in the body of your paper : A hedgehog has been defined as a shy porcupine [4].

Be sure to help each other edit for consistency of tone, voice, terminology, etc.