Overview

The assignment is to write a proposal for a research project addressing one of the options below—the choice is up to each team as a group, and it's fine if both teams independently choose the same option:

a) the desirability of expanding MGA's graduate certificate program into a 30-hour master's degree (an M.A., e.g., or perhaps an M.S.),

b) the need for incorporating experiential learning into the MGA graduate certificate program in Technical Writing and Digital Communication, whether through a substantial service-learning project or through some type of internship opportunities,

c) expanding or improving recycling MGA's paper and plastic recycling program on the Macon and Cochran campuses.

Important note: Read chapter 16 carefully before embarking on the planning of this project. Your assignment is not to complete the research project itself, but to write a proposal seeking approval to proceed on the research project at some future time. Reread this item more than once!

Research help: Remember that you have access to great help from Graduate Studies Librarian Dana Casper (see her widget on our course's D2L homepage).

Team  assignments:

Rian Williams, team leader Josef Vice Mariam Qureshi

Tanya Hickman, team leader Sherita Sims-Jones Jennifer Huynh

Deadline: Tuesday, October 30th at 9:00 p.m.

Audience, and Audience and use profile: As part of the planning process, each team is to complete the Modified Profile Sheet you used in previous collaborative projects. You may amend or refine the profile sheet however you like, deleting sections that don’t apply and adding others as you like. Above all, articulate what you can about the sorts of audience(s) the document will have on the MGA campus.

For option a) or b) above, address the memo to Dr. Kevin Cantwell, Associate Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies; for option c) address the memo to MGA's Assistant Vice President of Facilities, David Sims.

Be especially attentive in considering how your audience(s) might be skeptical about you (the writers) and either skeptical or possibly resistant to the subject of the document and the document itself. Put some time into these essential issues up front in the planning of your proposal.

Methods of communication: same as with the last collaborative project: set up a minimum of two video-conference meetings over the course of the week (Skype, Google Hangouts, etc.). Arrange the initial meeting as early as feasibly possible—by Friday at the absolute latest. At a bare minimum, do set up a three-way telephone call for the initial meeting. In that first meeting, in addition to agreeing upon tasks, deciding who does what, and making a work schedule for the project, determine the most efficient method of sharing your work with one another—you may use the same collaborative tool you used in a previous collaboration, or you may try something new (Google docs, Dropbox, etc.).

Avoid emailing whole drafts among the group, and take care to date and time-stamp any documents you post or work on in the online system. As with the last project, please grant me access to the workspace you set up so I can check in every so often.

Formatting/document design: The proposal should be in standard memo format, with a length of 3-4 pages.

Timing and scope: Lay out a plan for completing the proposed research project over thirty days (numbered Day 1-Day 30), and indicate the anticipated schedule for completion in a brief Gantt chart (see chapter 17, pp. 436-37). Include this Gantt chart in the body of the proposal memo.

Final format: PDF.

Submission method: Each of you, individually, submit your team's final document to the Collaborative project 3 dropbox along with the Audience and use profile sheet.