For your last major assignment, you and your group members (if you choose) will create an entirely online proposal of the equivalent of 5-7 pages (single spaced) for an improvement to a business where you have worked or would like to work in the future. Use the proposal you already wrote as an email for the Homework 2/1 assignment as a starting place.

This assignment will challenge you to achieve the following:

• Persuade a business audience to accept your ideas.

• Create logical, well-supported arguments by linking evidence to your claims

• Develop an online organizational structure and presentation that is easy to understand and follow.

• Adapt your ideas to a specific audience and anticipate and address their concern.

Scenario

This is your big chance to tell an employer how to improve the business. Consider where you have worked, and think about one major improvement you would recommend. Brainstorm ideas that will help the business improve operational efficiencies, save money, increase revenue or market share, improve guest satisfaction, increase social responsibility, or enhance brand image. You might suggest that the company, for example, focus on a new market segment, simplify a procedure, upgrade facilities, begin composting, improve training, invest in a new computer system, or implement a social media campaign.

For this assignment to be sufficiently challenging, choose a recommendation that may be controversial. Expect resistance and garner enough evidence to persuade your audience to implement your idea. You will need to include external research, both of the company itself and the logistics of your proposed action, to support your claims. But choose something with a limited scope, so you can cover the topic thoroughly in a short time frame. Also avoid improvements that have large negative effects on staff.

Your proposal will include the following parts:

• Executive summary
• Summary of and need for planned improvement (including projected purpose and result)
• Logistics of planned improvement
• Conclusion

Grading Consideration

In addition to the goals listed above, I will be looking for the following in your proposal

• Clear strategy/approach to the issue

• Solid reasoning and use of evidence; clear analytical/critical thinking

• An organization appropriate to your purpose; paper is well organized and makes sense as a whole; paper is easy to follow and progresses in a logical manner

• Precision and accuracy of word choice

• Sentences are not only formed correctly, but also read smoothly; sentences, paragraphs, and paper as a whole are clear and easy to understand

• Correct citations/foot or endnotes and formatting

ASSIGNMENT 2: REFLECTIVE ESSAY

For this reflective essay, simply develop answer each question/set of questions in a paragraph, for a total of at least five paragraphs (NOTE: Do not use the five paragraph essay structure, just answer the questions).

1. Why did you pick the improvement/topic you used for the Business Improvement Proposal Presentation? What is your personal connection with it? How would it help you personally, if at all?
2. What was most challenging about presenting the information in a PowerPoint/presentation format? How/why? How did you overcome that challenge?
3. What was most challenging about drafting the content of the assignment? How/why? How did you overcome that challenge?
4. What was easiest/most enjoyable about this process and how/why?
5. How might you apply principles from this project to future writing projects in your career?

ASSIGNMENT 3:

Peer Review Business Improvement Proposal Presentation

For more instructions on using the peer review tool, see the following links as well as this video overview of the peer review tool: (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

• How do I know if I have a peer review assignment to complete? (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
• How do I submit a peer review to an assignment? (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
• Where can I find my peers’ feedback for peer reviewed assignments? (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Step One

Examine the executive summary. Check to see if it covers the following. If not, note which areas are missing in a text note on the draft and explain.

• Brief overview of the company
• Summary of reason for proposal
• Summary of what you’re proposing
• Summary of logistics
• Summary of benefits/drawbacks of proposal

Step Two

Examine the individual sections, answering the following questions for each in the comment box. You can copy and paste the list of questions into Word to fill it out and paste it in the comment box when you are done.

• Summary of and need for planned improvement sections, however titled
  • What is the purpose and expected result(s)?

• What reasons/details are still needed?

• What do you see missing/unaccounted for?

• What questions do you have?

• Logistics of planned improvement, however titled
  • What are the costs, financial and time?

• Does it cover any potential drawbacks? If not, what drawbacks can you think of?

• What questions come up?

• Conclusion
  • Does it summarize the proposal in a couple of sentences? If not, what does it do?

• Does it make one last persuasive push? What suggestions do you have for this?

Step Three

Go back through the document looking at formatting. Answer the following questions in the comment box:

• What headings are used and where? Are they subject specific? What suggestions do you have?

• Are there any large sections that could be broken up into smaller subsections? Where? Why?

Step Four

Look at the document as a whole and answer in a comment box. How persuasive is it on a scale of 1-10? Why/why not?

Step Five

Give any other suggestions or questions.