• Time Required
• 8–10 hours, including reading time

 

Welcome to Week Twelve of the course.

The writing activities for this week focus on the body of the report. The projects you have worked on so far in the course—the Design Description, Instructions for your primary research, and your Pitch—will all fold into the body of your report. By the end of the week, you should have a working draft for all five sections of the body of your report (shown in the image below).

Next week, we will work on the front and back matter, so that you can compose a complete rough draft before Thanksgiving Break. After Break, you will complete your draft. The Grace Period for all open work in the course closes at 11:59 PM on Friday, December 2.

Holidays & Events This Week

Election Day is November 8th.

Veterans Day, or Armistice Day, is November 11th in the U.S. Some countries celebrate the day as Remembrance Day.

If you observe these holidays and need me to adjust your due dates, send me a message in Canvas.

Objectives for this Module

After completing this week’s activities, you address the following course objectives:

• Analyze the rhetorical situation and determine the appropriate audience or users of written communication, considering the needs of global audiences and people with disabilities. [CLO 1]
• Prepare to conduct research appropriate to workplace problem solving, such as literature review, evaluation of online resources, interview, and site inspection. [CLO 2]
• Consider the ethical and human implications of my situation. [CLO 3]
• Use conventions of various workplace genres, such as proposals, instructions, correspondence, reports, and slide decks, with understanding of how the genre conventions can be used as heuristics and as principles of arrangement. [CLO 4]
• Collaborate with classmates in planning, researching, writing, revising, and presenting information. [CLO 5]

Activities to Complete

📚 To Read This Week

• Chapter 7 of Markel & Selber, “Organizing Your Information”
• Chapter 18 of Markel & Selber, “Writing Recommendation Reports”
• Recommendation Report Criteria
• Tip Sheet: Recommendation Report
• Technical Help with Documentation in Word Processors

📝 To Write This Week

• Develop the body sections for your Recommendation Report, using the these resources:
  • Writing Your Introduction
  • Writing Your Methods Section
  • Writing Your Results Section
  • Writing Your Conclusions Section
  • Writing Your Recommendations Section
• Try out strategies from the course by submitting these activities:
  • Try-It #21: Brainstorming Your Report Intro
  • Try It #22: Integrating Your Sources

💬 To Discuss This Week

• Check in with your Accountability Group, according to the agreement that you have made. Use whatever tool your group has agreed to.
• Post any questions you have in the General Q&A Discussion Board in Canvas. If you have a private question, send me an email at tengrrl@vt.edu.

 

📓 To Check-In This Week

• Fill out the Week 12 Check-In Survey to let me know how you are doing in the course.