Question: Your next writing assignment will be a background review and synthesis of the literature for the topic of your research-based report.

This assignment is designed to help you prepare for the final paper. Keep in mind that your final paper in will be a report in which you do the following:

• define a problem in your workplace or community persuasively and accurately

• propose a solution or solutions to the problem or issue Steps to Take in Completing this Assignment:

• Locate at least seven articles on your topic. At least four articles should come from scholarly journals or credible trade journals. You should use OneSearch through UMUC's Library and Information Services or individual databases through the library for your research.

• Take notes, perhaps by applying the skills from your annotated bibliography exercise, on each article.

• Write a synthesis of the articles. The synthesis will be 1000-1400 words. In your synthesis, you will group the themes of the articles. For example, if you have collected seven articles on the topic of paperless offices, you might find that three major themes emerge from your perusing of the seven articles:

• common reasons for resisting the move to a paperless office

• costs of transitioning to a paperless office

• benefits of transitioning to a paperless office

Examples of Topics and the Role of this Assignment:

You might write a report on any one of the following topics. Please note that these are examples of topics. You might not choose any of them. They are provided here to help illustrate this assignment.

• a report to your manager at work suggesting that more teleworking options be given to employees at your workplace

• a report to your supervisor at work suggesting that email be used less frequently for communication and that another application be used to improve communication.

• a report to your manager at work suggesting that your office become paperless

• a report to the board of directors at your townhouse community to argue that the playground area in your community should be renovated

• a report to the manager of your unit at work noting that recycling facilities in the workplace should be improved
In any report of this nature, some background research is necessary. For example, consider the following strategies when collecting background research for the topics mentioned above:

• For a report to your manager at work suggesting that more teleworking options be given to employees at your workplace, some research studies on teleworking would be very persuasive.

• For a report to your supervisor at work suggesting that email be used less frequently for communication and that another application be used to improve communicatio n, some scholarly literature or articles from credible trade journals on transitioning to alternative electronic communication would be beneficial. In addition, articles that demonstrate the problems with email communication would add to the argument.

• For a report to your manager at work suggesting that your office become paperless, some scholarly literature on paperless offices would be effective.

• For a report to the board of directors at your townhouse community to argue that the playground area in your community should be renovated, some scholarly articles or trade journal articles on the benefits of playground areas for communities, the benefits of exercise for young children, the effect of such playground areas on home values, etc. would be effective.

• For a report to the manager of your unit at work arguing that recycling facilities in the workplace should be improved, some scholarly articles or studies on the challenges of and benefits to implementing recycling facilities in organizations would be persuasive. Of course, there are varieties of recycling programs. The articles you find would help define what type of recycling program you would propose. Length of your paper: As noted above, your background review of the literature on your topic should be 1000-1400 words in length. The sources should be cited throughout the paper in APA format and listed in a References page at the end of the paper in APA format.