Research Reporting
Important Notice
This course is not active. Please contact Department Chair for more information.
Overview
1. Reports: Theory and Practice
The student will
- examine the genre of reports
- examine the rhetorical situation in this specialized writing task
- develop awareness of the stages of client-centred report production:
- initial contact
- proposals
- progress reports
- client-centred outlines
- reader-based reports
- develop awareness of the sub-textual level of report production:
- social and cultural context (organizational culture)
- inter-personal protocols
- rhetorical strategies
2. Time Management
The student will:
- develop an action plan
- structure activities to satisfy short and long term priorities
- establish a system for organizing workload
- meet production deadlines
3. Research Process
The student will:
clearly establish audience, purpose, context
- clearly establish audience, purpose, context
- identify major, minor, and irrelevant issues (scope)
- determine appropriate data base
- analyze appropriateness of data sources
- develop surveys, questionnaires, interview questions
- practise interviewing skills
- utilize appropriate secondary data sources:
- reference texts,
- libraries,
- grey literature,
- market research
- manage information in an ethical manner
- produce applicable related documents as necessary:
- letters,
- memos,
- short reports
- produce an organizational culture analysis (essay)
4. Document Production
The student will:
- collect and organize source material in terms of issues
- prepare a client-centred report outline
- produce a proposal
- produce a progress report
- produce a coherent, reader-based report which fulfills its purpose
- produce an accompanying abstract (executive summary)
- make use of coherence and persuasive strategies as required
- revise the report for appropriateness of tone, structure, and content in relation to audience and purpose.
5. Discourse Theory and Grammar: exercises from Vande Kopple.
This course will emphasize learning through doing. Working individually, in pairs and in groups, students involve themselves in a variety of classroom activities (collaborating on assignments and exercises, revising and editing) and discussion during lectures. These activities will enable them to develop familiarity with and proficiency in client-centred report production.
Evaluation will be based on this general outline:
Proposal | 15% |
Report Genre Analysis | 10% |
Empirical Research Progress Report | 15% |
Theoretical Research Progress Report | 10% |
Organizational Culture Analysis | 10% |
Research Report | 30% |
Peer Review of Formal Report | 10% |
100% |
Students will practise the researched report-writing tasks, and will apply the skills they were introduced to in the 100-level prerequisite courses: research skills and workplace writing strategies. Students will also take responsibility for working independently through a complex, multi-faceted field-based research project requiring focus, organization and self-motivation.
Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students
Anderson, Paul. Technical Writing: A Reader-Centred Approach. 2nd ed. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich College Publishers, 1998.
Vande Kopple, William. Clear and Coherent Prose. Scott, Foresman and Company, 1989.
Research Reporting Readings (Course Ware Package).
Requisites
Course Guidelines
Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.
Course Transfers
These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see
Institution | Transfer Details for CMNS 1218 | |
---|---|---|
There are no applicable transfer credits for this course. |