Assignment

How can working out at work improve better work productivity

• define the problem persuasively and accurately
• propose a solution or solutions to the problem or issue
• present that solution to a decision-maker or group of decision-makers who can implement the recommendation.

The report will include the following components:

• executive summary
• transmittal letter or memo to the decision-maker
• table of contents
• introduction
• body of the report to include headings and subheadings
• conclusion stated as a recommendation for implementation of the solution
• References page, with references listed in APA format

o Instructions on how to list an interview in APA format can be seen at the following url:https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/11/
The complete report should be 2200-3000 words, not including the list of references.

The complete report should also cite at least seven sources. At least three of them should come from peer-reviewed, scholarly journals. As noted above, your sources can also include interviews. The sources will be integrated into the paper to explain the problem, provide evidence of the problem, and support the solution.

You might have taken WRTG 393 at UMUC. In WRTG 393, the final paper is a white paper. This assignment is different from the white paper in WRTG 393. In this paper for WRTG 394, you are writing to a specific decision-maker about a specific problem in your workplace or community. The audience is much more focused than that for the white paper in WRTG 393.

Defining the Specific Problem

In preparing to write this assignment, please be aware of the following cautions in fulfilling the assignment instructions:

• If you write a report to your manager at work suggesting that more teleworking options be given to employees at your workplace, you cannot simply prepare a report on teleworking. You must show that teleworking will solve a specific problem or problems in your organization.

• If you are proposing that email be used less frequently for communication at your workplace and that another application be used to improve communication, you cannot simply write a report on the problem with having too much email. You must show that the use of email at your current workplace presents problems and that the use of another means of communication would solve the problem.

• If you write a report to your manager at work suggesting that your office become paperless, you cannot simply prepare a report on the benefits of a paperless office. You must show that your specific office can go paperless and indicate the benefits of your specific office going paperless.

• If you write a report to the board of directors at your townhouse community to argue that the playground area in your community should be renovated, you cannot simply prepare a report on the benefits of a playground for a neighborhood. You must show that your specific neighborhood will benefit from renovations in its playground.

• If you write a report to the manager of your unit at work noting that recycling facilities in the workplace should be improved, you cannot simply prepare a report on the benefits of recycling or of good recycling facilities in offices. You must show that your specific work environment lacks adequate recycling facilities and show how it will benefit from improved recycling facilities.

A Reminder about the Role of Primary Research in Supporting the Argument

For your report, you will very likely find it beneficial to conduct some primary research. Please refer to the material from Markel and from Bovee and Thill for strategies in conducting and including primary research.

For writing assignment #3, you gathered some primary research. For writing assignment #4, you want to fill in any gaps needed by conducting additional primary research if necessary. Some suggestions for primary research were given in the instructions for writing assignment #3. They are as follows:

• For a report on teleworking, you might conduct interviews with fellow workers on the topic to see how and why they might benefit from teleworking.

• If you are proposing that email be used less frequently for communication and that another application be used to improve communication, you might interview fellow employees on the situation, and you might take screen captures of alternative communication tools to illustrate how they work and would improve communication in your office.

• For a report on transitioning to a paperless office, you might take pictures of your office environment showing the clutter or unsafe environment that hard-copy files create.

• For a report on building a playground area in the community, you might take pictures of the community area to show where such a playground could be built, and you might interview residents who have children.

• For a report on recycling facilities, you might take pictures of the office environment to show that current recycling facilities are inadequate, and you might interview fellow workers about whether they find it easy to recycle materials at your office.

Please note that, if you interview people for your research, you must cite the interviews in your paper. In the paper, you cannot simply write that you "spoke with employees." A url on how to cite an interview in APA citation style is provided in the list of components for the report.
Length of your paper:

Your report should be 2200-3000 words in length. Again, you are required to use at least seven sources, with at least three of them being acquired through UMUC Library OneSearch.