20 Sep identify a knowledge

GOALS

The document format for the final project is a proposal. As seen in Read Proposal Writing Introduction Materials, there are many types of proposals, the requirements of which change across audiences and industries.

The main objective is to identify a knowledge, training, or some other gap within an accessible context (that is, an office/department/organization/company that you can feasibly gain direct information from). In this proposal, you are identifying what that opportunity/problem is, why it exists, what the best way to address it is, and how you plan on addressing it. There are lots of possibilities here, so be creative.

II.  REQUIREMENTS

The final project should contain the following sections:

Front Matter (in this order)*:

I. Memo (one page minimum, single-spaced):

Here you will describe your goals for the final project, highlighting your experiences and providing analysis of your peer-review and other editing work since the conference. You should update me on any changes made to or information learned about the problem you’re addressing, your audiences, or anything else relevant, since topic selection. Be as detailed as possible while explaining the decision-making process that went into your final submission. At the end, please also provide more general comments about your experience in the course overall.

II: Audience Selection (1 page minimum)

In this section, you will identify this project’s Gatekeeper, Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary audience members, following the model covered in the reading.
For each audience, describe who they are in detail, their backgrounds, their current position(s), their relationship to the problem and how the Final Project document will affect them. Again, your ENGL393 professor is not to be included in these audiences. 
III. Cover Letter: 

Your cover letter will be addressed to your gatekeeper (not your ENGL393 professor). It will introduce your credentials, and serve as a pitch a brief, attention-grabbing description of your final project. You will likely use a three-paragraph structure. Introduce yourself, give a brief summary of the project, and thank the reader. One page, single-spaced max.

IV. Cover Page: 

A single page with your project title (a title that clearly and succinctly identifies the topic of the document as well as the document type) and your name. You may add other essential information you find necessary.  

V. Table of Contents: 

This should include all report sections appearing after the table of contents.

The main body of the report should be double-spaced in MLA format, organized in the following sections:

Part I: Introduction and Context (2 pages minimum)

Provide a meaningful introduction, providing as many specific details as possible about the organization/company/etc you are addressing. Start broad and move to the more specific context of your project.
For example (not to be replicated), if you were discussing something related to ADHD on campus, addressed to the Health Center, in this section you might start off identifying what ADHD was, providing stats and figures. Then you could talk about college age populations specifically. Finally, you would introduce the specific context of the University of Maryland.
Establish the problem or opportunity, providing as much evidence as possible. Be compelling.
Part III: Literature Review and Available Models (2 pages minimum)

Here you will identify and discuss resources currently available on this subject, both within the immediate context of the problem/opportunity you are addressing, as well as at large. For example, if there is already a great deal of internal documentation at the office/department/organization/company you are addressing, you can mention what these resources are, in addition to any available scholarly or other popular research. The items discussed here should be listed in your bibliography.
Most importantly, you will want to identify examples of other offices/departments/organizations/companies that have encountered the same issue and who may have already developed solutions. Likely, your audience is not the first to encounter the problem you’ve identified. Who else has attempted to address the same or similar problem, and how have they gone about it?
Part III. Analysis and Synthesis (2 pages minimum)

Having identified your problem, discussed available research on the project, now you will provide analysis/synthesis that explains to the reader how all of this information works together.
Clearly identify what issues are most important, the pros and cons of different possibilities.
Most importantly, walk the reader through the decision-making process of determining how best to address the problem identified at the beginning of the document.
Part IV: Proposed Solution (2 pages minimum)

Based on your assessment of the problem/opportunity, and the available research and models you identified, outline your solution in detail.
Carefully provide the analysis that led you to this proposed solution, providing any additional evidence.
Be as detailed as possible about the nature of the solution, costs/time/etc. 
Part V: Conclusion (.5 page)

Your conclusion should provide a succinct, effective summary of your proposal, while also mentioning what the next steps are for moving forward. 
Part VI: Bibliography (10+ sources, starting on separate page)

The bibliography should contain at least ten (10) sources and, along with your in-text citations, be provided in MLA format.
III. FORBIDDEN TOPICS

As mentioned, you are encouraged to pursue topics off campus, especially with audiences identified in your resume and cover letter. If you do pursue something on campus, please do not pursue the following, since they have been overdone by other students in the past:

Introducing a new University of Maryland class/major/minor
Solving the problem of parking/traffic on campus
Stopping campus smoking
Promoting anything illegal
Solar/Wind Energy/Water drainage/recycling on campus
Topics related to fraternities/sororities
Campus dining
Mental health/counseling services
IV. FURTHER GUIDANCE

Please use page numbers.
You must fulfill all components of the assignment to receive a passing grade.
Youll be graded not only on the scope of your research, your attention to your audiences needs, the feasibility of your solution, and the tangible results of your work, but also on overall organization, clarity, and cohesiveness. This includes using correct grammar and carefully proofreading all documents.