Reference no: EM132278232

Business reports are a type of document in which you analyze a situation and apply business theories to produce a range of suggestions for improvement. With business reports, typically, there is no single correct answer but several solutions, each with their own costs and benefits to an organization. It is these costs and benefits that you need to identify and weigh-up in your report.

Imagine you are leading an ad hoc committee formed at the Lethbridge College for the purpose of investigating a problem and offering at least three solutions for solving that problem. Problems may include, but are not limited to:

• Stress levels of post-secondary students
• A shortage of student parking at the Lethbridge College
• Cost of paper textbooks

You will need to identify the problem you are focusing on solving. What problem are you focusing on? What is the issue? Consider the scope and limitations of this problem. What will be investigated? Is the project feasible? Are there limitations? Also, make sure you can describe the significance of solving this specific problem. Why is the topic worth investigating at this time? What happens if the topic is not as important as you thought at first? You will submit an 8-10 page business report. The business report in your textbook on pages 467-482 is an excellent resource, and illustrates what an 8-10 page business report should contain. You will also find that some of these pages will include content such as a title page, table of contents, and references page! Your business report must include at least one chart, table, or image!

Your first meeting will be in-class, which will give you a chance to discuss personal expectations and communication logistics while you work on your project:
• What are your grade goals for this project?
• Can you coordinate meeting out of class? Discuss your schedules.
• What aspects of the project is each of you most interested in exploring? How will you divide the workload among yourselves?

If your group is unable to function effectively, please discuss your concerns with me in time for you to explore options. A group project is designed to share the workload between individuals and to also work effectively as a team.

You are required to hand in a hard copy in to my box outside the Centre for Applied Arts and Sciences as well as an online submission to Turnitin through Canvas. The hard copy needs to include the peer review (both your draft and the feedback forms).
Process Steps for Preparing Your Business Report
Step 1: Analyze the problem and purpose
• What is the problem being investigated at this time? Why now? What opportunities exist? What difficulties do you anticipate? What problem are you going to solve and why is it important?
• Outline the background information to discover what you need to understand and analyze.
• Review the information on analytical reports (Chapters 11/12, particularly the sections on Feasibility/Justification Reports. Also, focus on the sample report on pages 467-482.)
Step 2: Anticipate the audience and issues
• Who is your audience? Who are you submitting the report to? If your report is circulated more widely around the College, who might read it? How does this affect the language you use? Your tone?
Step 3: Prepare a work plan
• Consider how you will proceed with work on the project over the course of the semester. What deadlines will you set?
Step 4: Implement your research strategies
• You must use at least four secondary (research) sources in your business report:
o One full-text academic periodical article that you have obtained through an online college library database.
o Another full-text periodical article that you found online through the library's search or Google Scholar.
o One website that you believe you can trust for information on your topic. Please do not choose a Wikipedia article.
o At least one other source of your choice.
• Read the articles and summarize what they say about electronic textbooks/books and paper textbooks/books
Step 5: Organize, analyze, interpret, illustrate the data
• Study the material you have gathered from external sources.
o Select information that you can summarize or paraphrase in your report.
o Select statements or phrases that you can quote directly in your report
o Create visuals to represent key findings.
Step 6: Compose the first draft
• Write the report parts. Format the report with title page, table of contents, and references
• Prepare a brief transmittal letter to accompany the report
Step 7: Review, revise, proofread, and evaluate
• Revise, proofread, and polish the final version.
• Participate in the peer review in class and submit the peer review with your final report.
Report Writing Process Assignments
Topic Memo
Deciding on your topic (the problem you will solve) will allow you to get started on this project. Please write a memo to inform me of the problem you are attempting to solve. Your topic memo should include the following:
1. The problem you will solve through your business report (generally, your topic)
2. The scope/limitation of your problem: how can you make this a manageable topic? For example, if you are focusing on the issue of a shortage of parking on college campuses, how can you limit this from looking at all colleges? You might decide to look only at the Lethbridge College parking situation, or at Lethbridge College and the University of Lethbridge. Limits can be geographical or temporal, for example.
3. The significance: why is it important to solve this problem now? Why is the problem pertinent today instead of last year, or ten years ago? If you think a shortage of parking at the Lethbridge College is a problem, maybe it is significant today because there are more students attending the College than ever before.
4. An outline of the research you hope to complete: where might you search for research about your problem and solutions? What might be helpful for you to research?
Progress Report
The verbal progress report provides you with a chance to check in about your work on the business report so far. Please be prepared to describe your progress on the business report in detail. What sources have you found that are helpful? What writing work have you done? Are you having any problems? Do you have any questions?
Annotated Bibliography
An annotated bibliography is a list of source information on a specific subject. Each entry includes both bibliographic information and a descriptive summary. There are several reasons why we write annotated bibliographies:
1. To write your annotated bibliography, you must find at least four sources of information on your proposed research topic. It proves there is information available, which then ensures you have chosen a researchable topic
2. It's an opportunity to practice your summarizing skills
3. It insures that you have completed your research early in the report writing process
As you research, keep your problem question in mind. You will be searching through a lot of information, and your problem question should help you do a more efficient search.
Find four (or more) sources of information related to your research topic; try to use a variety of sources:
• two articles from an academic periodical (using the library database)
• other possibilities include books, interviews, websites, social media platforms, YouTube, etc.
Following your APA citation, write a descriptive summary; a descriptive summary simply describes the content of the article or site. These summaries are usually short - approximately three or four sentences. Comment on how relevant and useful this source will be for your research.
Example of an entry for your annotated bibliography (you should create four in total):
Brubaker, J. R., Hayes, G. R., &Dourish, P. (2013). Beyond the grave: Facebook as a site for the expansion of death and mourning. The Information Society: An International Journal, 29(3), 152-163.
Although social networking sites allow individuals to connect with many people and groups, they still emphasize the individual. Brubaker, Hayes, and Dourish ask what happens to a Facebook profile when the individual who maintains it pass away. They argue that establishing a narrative and identity for the deceased can be an important part of the grieving process and that it is these strategies of identity preservation that lead to Facebook profiles becoming places of memorialization. Friends of the deceased person are able to define that person's identity through communication with one another on the person's Facebook wall. In this way, these digital identities continue to persist after death. This paper will be helpful to provide context for my business report focus on social media.
Your final written business report should be 8-10 pages in length, and will include the following:
Title Page
• Includes report title
• Highlights name of report recipient
• Identifies report writers
• Date
• No page number
Letter of Transmittal
• Business Letter or Memorandum format
• Announces report
• Overview of report purposes
• Describes primary and secondary research
• Offer to discuss report; express appreciation
• One page
Table of Contents
• List the headings of your paper
• Indicate page number
• List of Figures
Executive Summary
• Present an overview of a longer report to those who may not have time to read the entire document
• Summarize key points
• Present your information in the order it is found in your report
• One page
• This will be the last part you write!
Introduction
• Sets the scene and announces the subject
• Includes a purpose statement
• Suggested headings within your introduction:
o Background
o Scope
o Organization
o Sources and Methods
Body
• Discusses, analyzes, interprets, and evaluates the research findings or solution to the initial problem
• Show evidence that justifies your conclusions
• Suggested headings within your body:
o Results of the Survey
o Analysis of Findings
o Discussion
o Employee Benefits
Conclusions and Recommendations
• What do the findings mean?
• How can we solve the problem?
• May include a summary of the findings
• Make three suggestions for actions to solve the report problem (three solutions)
• Make sure they are practical and reasonable!
• They should evolve out of the findings and conclusions
• Do not introduce new information at this point!
• May be combined with the conclusions
• "The findings and conclusions in this study support the following recommendations"
References
• References cited using APA referencing format
Appendix
• Clean copy of your survey (if you use one)