18 Jan • Victoria University of

WRTG293 Introduction to Professional Writing

WA1 — report on professional organization and conference

Writing Assignment #1

Report on

Professional Organization and Conference

Summary of assignment

• Task: You will write a report on a professional organization in your field and a

conference that the organization sponsors.

• Length: 600-900 words

• Format: If you cite the conference or other sources, you should use APA format in

citing the information

• Sources: You will cite sources in this paper if you refer to information you obtained

from other sources. There is no minimum or maximum number of sources for this paper.

• Purpose: The information you glean from this assignment will help you become more

aware of professional contacts, trends in the field, and perhaps employment opportunities

in the field.

Steps to Take in Completing this Assignment

1. Locate at least one professional organization in the field or profession that you plan to

pursue.

One way to locate an organization of this nature is to conduct an advanced search on

Google. For example, the following screen capture shows a student searching for

professional organizations in cybersecurity.

Please note that a professional organization is a voluntary, member-based organization. A

training workshop offered by a company is not a professional organization event.

For example, if Cisco offers training workshops and identifies the training workshop as a

conference, that event is actually not a conference offered through a professional organization. It

is a conference offered through a private company. You want to find a conference sponsored by

a professional organization.

2. Find out what annual or regularly scheduled conferences the organization coordinates.

For example, in the field of cybersecurity, the IEEE Computer Society Technical

Committee on Security and Privacy sponsors an annual conference. Its conference for

2019 will be held in Stockholm, Sweden:

3. Write your report, highlighting your findings. Your report will feature the following

sections with these headings:

o Professional Organization (approximately 100-200 words)

o Description of Conference (approximately 300-500 words)

o Personal Applications (approximately 100-200 words)

Information under Each Heading:

Professional Organization

After you have located a conference in your field, explore the website of the organization that

sponsors the conference.

Browse the details on that organization. You might indicate when it started, how large it is, who

is eligible to join, and what its mission statement is, for example.

Remember that if you are copying any information, such as the mission statement, you must

document it with internal and end documentation using APA format.

Description of Conference

1. Peruse the conference website for the organization’s most recent conference or its

upcoming conference.

Some organizations will have one large conference annually (such as the Children’s

Literature Association), and some will have two or more large ones based on membership

interests (such as the National Conference of Teachers of English).

Some organizations may instead offer several regional conferences. The Association of

Business Communication (ABC), for instance, tends to hold several smaller regional

conferences in different parts of the United States each year, and it holds one major

international conference each year as well.

2. Peruse the topics that were or will be covered at the conference by looking at the Call for

Papers or the Report on Presentations. In this section, you will find a list of perhaps 20-

30 topics on which the organization is accepting papers for presentations. You might

have found a conference that has already taken place. In this case, you would find topics

on which participants presented at the conference.

Select three topics of interest to you.

In addition, examine the theme or title of the conference, if there is one.

3. From the information you have gathered on the presentations and the overall theme or

title, write a paragraph on what the most important or interesting topics are in your field

right now. This information will be based on what is covered at the conference.

The following are some examples of this process:

• At the 2019 Association for Business Communication Conference, the theme will be

“Innovations with Business Communication: Companies, Communities, and Classrooms”

(see https://www.businesscommunication.org/page/2019-annual).

o Various tracks for the conference are provided at the conference website,

including consulting and training, organizational communication, employment

issues in business communication, and visual communication.

• At the 2019 Children’s Literature Conference, the theme will be “Activism and Empathy”

( see https://chla.memberclicks.net/2019).

o The conference website provides a list of questions that presentations can address,

including issues of political, social, and environmental struggles, literary genres

and global awareness, and the role of children’s literature in the historical and

political spectrum.

• For the 2019 Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Conference,

TESOL 2019, the conference does not have a specific title (see

https://www.tesol.org/convention-2019).

o The plenary speakers for the conference will talk about topics such as endangered

languages, the power of language, etc. The TESOL organization and conference

is divided into many session strands, including applied linguistics, advocacy and

social justice, and content and language-integrated approaches to teaching.

The goal for this section of your report is to help you become aware of the topics that people are

exploring at this time. These topics will impact your field of study in upcoming years. For this

reason, understanding the trends and topics in your field will help you become more familiar

with your field and will assist you in upcoming job searches as you pursue your career.

Personal Applications

In this last section, you will describe what you have learned about your field from this exercise

and how the information might help your job search or your progress in your career.

Ideally, the report on the professional organization will give you some good ideas about

professional development in your field.

Length of your paper:

Your report should be 600-900 words.

Due Date:

Your instructor will notify you of the due date. You will write a first draft, your instructor will

comment on the first draft, and you will submit a second draft using the comments as your guide.

Template for this Assignment:

For this assignment, you may use the template on the following page. You would insert your

information into the appropriate places in the template.

Name

Class

Date

(page break)

Professional Organization

[insert your information here]

Description of Conference

[insert your information here]

Personal Application

[insert your information here]

(page break)

References

WRTG293 Introduction to Professional Writing

Resume and cover letter with summary

Writing Assignment #2

Resume and Cover Letter with

Summary of Use of VMock and Resunate

Summary of assignment

• Task: You will follow the guidelines given through the various tools from UMUC’s

Career Services and write a polished resume and cover letter for a specific job posting in

your field. You will also write a summary of the advice given to you for your resume

from VMock and Resunate.

• Length: You will follow the advice from Career Services on the length of your resume

and cover letter. Your summary of how you followed the advice given in VMock and

Resunate should be 200-250 words.

• Purpose: This assignment follows up on the report on the professional organization and

conference. It also introduces you to Career Services and prepares you as you either

search for a job or consider an advancement in your current job.

Steps to Take in Completing this Assignment

1. Locate a job posting in your field.

o Your work in locating a professional conference in writing assignment #1 might

lead you to a job posting. In addition, your work in perusing the Career Services

website might lead you to a job posting.

2. Watch the VMock tutorial

3. Watch the Resunate tutorial

4. Write a resume that is specific to the job posting you found

o Submit your resume to VMock.

o Submit your resume to Resunate

5. Based on the feedback in both VMock and Resunate, revise your resume.

6. Submit the following to the Assignment folder

o the job posting

o the resume

o the cover letter

o a summary of how you applied the advice given in VMock and Resunate. This

summary should be 200-250 words.

Due Date:

Your instructor will notify you of the due date. Your instructor will work with you on any

revisions he or she asks for.

WRTG293 Introduction to Professional Writing

Interviewing Skills

Writing Assignment #3

Report and Video on Interviewing Skills

Summary of assignment

• Task: You will use InterviewStream to conduct an interview at your computer using the questions compiled for this class. InterviewStream will record you practicing your responses to the interview questions. You will then write a summary of your use of InterviewStream.

• Assignment Code in InterviewStream: Our WRTG 293 class has pre-selected interview questions that you will be answering. In order to see the pre-selected interview questions, you must use our assignment code in the InterviewStream interface.

The assignment code will be provide to you by your instructor. You must use the assignment code provided by your instructor in order for your instructor to see your completed interview.

• Length: Your summary will be 300-400 words in length.

• Purpose: This assignment follows up on the report on the professional organization and conference as well as the resume and cover letter assignment. It also gives you experience in using additional tools available from Career Services. It prepares you for future job interviews.

Steps to Take in Completing this Assignment

1. Watch the Quinncia tutorial

2. Take the Quinncia interview practice session

3. Watch the InterviewStream tutorial

4. Complete the interview for WRTG 293 students in InterviewStream

5. In the assignment folder, submit a summary of 300-400 words that describes your experience using InterviewStream.

Due Date:

Your instructor will notify you of the due date. Your instructor will work with you on any revisions he or she asks for.

WRTG293 Introduction to Professional Writing

Memo to instructor on topic for report to Decision maker

Writing Assignment #4

Memo on

Short Report to Decision-maker

Summary of the Assignment:

• Task: In this paper, you will write a memo to your instructor.

• Length: 125-200 words

• Format in Citing and Listing Sources: no sources required

Description of the Memo:

This assignment is designed to help prepare you in writing the short report to the decision-maker,

which is the last writing assignment in the class. For this reason, you must read the instructions

for writing assignment #5, the short report to the decision-maker, before attempting to write this

memo.

In writing this memo, please use the format given on the next page:

Template for Submitting Your Memo

Note: Please use the format outlined below, including the headers provided in bold, for the

memo.

To: [Instructor’s Name]

From: [Your Name]

Date: [Today’s Date]

Subject: Request to Write Short Report on [fill in the topic of your short report]

Summary

[Write one or two sentences describing why you are writing this memo.]

What the Problem Is and Why It Needs to Be Investigated

[In one or two paragraphs, describe the problem in your workplace or community to which you

are going to propose a solution. In addition, explain why you think this problem is significant

and should be addressed.]

What Primary Research I Will Conduct about the Problem

[In a one or two paragraphs, describe primary research you will conduct on the problem and

solution. Primary research can be interviews with individuals, pictures, surveys of individuals,

actual workplace documents, etc. Primary research is not articles from the library.]

How My Organization or Community Will Benefit from My Recommendations

[In one or two paragraphs, describe your recommendations to the problem/situation you are

describing. Include a description of the potential benefits that your organization or community

will experience if your recommendations are carried out.]

Length of the Paper:

Your memo should be 125-200 words in length.

Due Date:

Your instructor will notify you of the due date. You will write only one draft of this assignment.

If the topic you choose needs modification, your instructor will let you know.

WRTG293 Introduction to Professional Writing

Report to decision maker

Writing Assignment #5

Short Report to a Decision-maker

Summary of assignment

• Task: You will write a report that does the following:

o defines a problem persuasively and accurately

o proposes a solution to the problem to a decision-maker or group of decision-makers who can implement the recommendation

• Topic: You will choose a problem in your workplace or your community

• Length: 1400-1600 words

• Citing Sources: You will not cite any sources in this paper except interviews or surveys you conduct through primary research. For this reason, you will not list any sources at the end of your report.

o Instructions on citing an interview in APA format

• Formatting the Report: You will need to insert a running head and page numbers into the report in APA format.

• Writing Process: You will submit a first draft of the report to the assignment folder. The first draft will be given comments by the instructor. After receiving comments from the instructor, you will submit a revised draft. The final draft will be graded.

If you do not submit a second draft, the first draft will be graded.

• Components of the report:

o title page

o memo to the decision-maker (app. 80-120 words)

o executive summary (app. 150-200 words)

o table of contents

o introduction (app. 100-200 words)

o discussion (app. 900-1100 words)

o conclusion (app. 75-100 words)

o recommendations (app. 100-200 words)

Topic Selection:

You must use the same topic on which you wrote your memo for writing assignment #4. If you have a need to change your topic, you must contact your instructor as soon as possible.

(Please continue to the next page.)

Details on the Different Parts of the Assignment

Title Page

The following image shows the format you should follow for your title page:

Memo to the Decision-maker

In your memo, you will include the headings

The following screen capture shows a format you can follow for your memo.

Executive Summary

The executive summary should be a stand-alone document. In other words, if a reader were to read only your executive summary, the reader would have a good understanding of the problem you are writing about and the solution you are proposing to that problem. In this report, your executive summary should be 150-200 words.

The following image shows the format you should follow for your executive summary. Please keep in mind that this executive summary is about 260 words in length, so it is longer than the one you will write. However, it provides a guide for how you can approach your executive summary.

Table of Contents

This video shows how to create your table of contents.

Introduction

In your introduction, you will tell your decision-maker what problem the report is analyzing. It will do the following

• describe the context of the work or community situation

• describe the problem being analyzed in that business or community situation

• state the questions your report will answer

• define any terms, if necessary

Discussion

The discussion area is the main part of your report. In this section, you will provide evidence of the problem and justify your recommendations. You will need to be clear, thorough, and persuasive.

The following examples demonstrate the need for clarity, thoroughness, and persuasiveness:

• If you are writing a report recommending that your company allow teleworking, you do not want to write a few sentences about how teleworking is convenient. You want to quote some co-workers you have interviewed about how teleworking will benefit them.

• If you are writing a report recommending that your company move from Google mail to Outlook, you do not want a few sentences on how good Outlook is. You want to show some screen captures of Google mail to demonstrate that it is awkward, is cumbersome, or has inconvenient features. You also want to show some screen captures of Outlook to demonstrate that it does not feature these shortcomings and improves upon these problems.

• If you are writing a report recommending that a sidewalk be repaired in your neighborhood, you do not want a few sentences describing why sidewalks should be smooth. You want to show some photographs of the sidewalk that is in disrepair, demonstrating why its current state is unsafe, unsightly, or otherwise undesired.

• If you are writing a report recommending that your local high school repair parts of its football field, you do not want a few sentences describing the value of athletics for high school students. You want to show some photographs demonstrating where the field needs to be repaired, quote individuals that you have interviewed on the problems with the field now, etc.

Notice that in all four examples listed above, primary research was included. Interviews with co-workers or individuals in the community, screen captures of software applications, or photographs of the neighborhood or the football field all represent primary research. Such research adds to the persuasiveness of the report.

Without this type of evidence, the report is not thorough and lacks persuasiveness. The decision-maker will not be persuaded that the problem you are outlining is an actual problem unless you can demonstrate that it is an actual problem in the context.

Moreover, in the discussion, you describe, in paragraph form, your conclusions and your recommendations. You need to explain why you have come to these conclusions and why you are making these specific recommendations.

Conclusion

In the conclusion, you take an objective stance. You summarize the findings of your research without putting your own opinion into the analysis.

In your conclusion, you will do the following:

• summarize your findings

• connect your findings to the problem you have identified

• present the conclusions in parallel form

• bullet the list of conclusions

You stated your conclusion in the Discussion section. However, in the Conclusion section, you will list the conclusion concisely and succinctly in bulleted form.

Recommendations

In the recommendation, you take a subjective stance in the report. You give your opinion on how the problem should be addressed.

In your recommendation, you will do the following:

• number specific steps of action you recommend in parallel form, beginning with a verb

• rank the recommendations, listing the most important recommendation first, the second most important recommendation second, etc.

Please note that this section should be brief. A busy administrator does not want to pore through long, dense paragraphs trying to locate your recommendations. The decision-maker should be able to see at a glance what your recommendations are.

You stated your recommendations in the Discussion section. However, in the Recommendation section, you will number the recommendations concisely and succinctly.

Due Date

Your instructor will notify you of the due date. You will write a first draft, your instructor will comment on the first draft, and you will submit a second draft using the comments as your guide.

Guides to Help You in Writing this Assignment:

• Victoria University of Wellington

• Writing Effective Short Reports

• Report Writing by Massey University

Submitting the assignment:

You will submit a first draft of the essay to the assignment folder. The first draft will not be graded. The instructor will provide comments to it.

After receiving comments from the instructor, you will submit a revised draft. The final draft will be graded.