Purpose

For our final project, you will write an 8-10 page recommendation report on an issue associated withdeveloping your career knowledge and skills. You’ll identify a specific audience, but you can count onwriting to a group of people who has shown interest in your topic but doesn’t know much about it. You’llsupplement the report with an 8-10-minute PowerPoint presentation (about 15 slides).

Report Types and Topics

As our text points out, reports come in many varieties. For our project, we’ll use the book’s “middleground” definition: “A business report is an orderly and objective communication of factual informationthat serves a business purpose” (200). The business purpose of your report is to recommend a course ofaction undergraduate business students should pursue to develop their “identity capital” (Jay, 2012).You have tremendous flexibility regarding the recommendations you make about how someone can buildhis or her identity capital. Most importantly, you need to select and recommend methods for developingone’s identity capital that will yield enough content for a strong, well-developed document. The report’sprimary goal is to recommend a course of action, but you will also offer analysis and present conclusionsdrawn from research you conduct.We’ll also rely heavily on chapters 8 and 9 in our book, especially when we define problem and purposestatements and determine the factors you need to investigate (201-202).

Research/Visuals/Cover Letter/Tone

You will conduct primary and/or secondary research for this project and cite that research appropriately inthe form of a Works Cited page at the end of your report and PowerPoint presentation. Secondaryresearch must be credible; primary research can be based on carefully constructed survey instruments andinterviews with business professionals. Your report must also include graphic elements (visuals); thecourse materials will explain citation format, and methods for integrating figures, tables, charts andgraphs into the report. You will also submit a cover letter. The report must be written in a professionaltone/style defined by our text in Chapter 4.

Report SpecificationsLength:

At least 8 pages of body textMargins: 1 inch all around

Line Space: Single

Paragraph Breaks: Line space; no indent

Font Size: No smaller than 11pt for serif, 12 forsans serif

Executive Summary: Yes, not counted in pagecount

Headings: No more than 3 pts larger than texttype

Page Numbers: Bottom, flush right margin, textsize

Title Page: Yes, with course name, instructorname, proposal title, group name, individualnames

Visuals: Include visuals, with captions/titlesplaced per standard convention; cite allunoriginal visuals

Citations: Follow MLA guidelines

Cover Letter: Yes; standard transmittal letterformat