Question description

assignment is different from the research-based business report in WRTG 394.

In this paper for WRTG 393, you are providing background research to an audience to help the audience make a decision on a topic. In WRTG 394, the paper is written to a specific decision-maker about a specific problem in your workplace o rcommunity and recommends a specific course of action. The audience and approach for the white paper in WRTG 393 is very different from those for the research-based business report in WRTG 394.

If you have written a white paper for WRTG 293, please note that the requirements for this white paper in WRTG 393 aredifferentfromthoseinWRTG293. Thelength,numberofgraphics,typesofgraphics,andfocusofthiswhite paper involve different requirements than those of WRTG 293.

In preparing for this assignment, you will want to review the following videos:

• “White Papers: An Introduction to the Genre and Its Expectations,” from the Purdue OWL
• “What is a White Paper?” by Mak Pandit You may take any of the following approaches:

• a white paper to an internal audience – written to individuals within an organization you work for or are a part of. The white paper might inform them about a trend in the field and/or to solve a problem in the organization.
• a white paper to an external audience – written to individuals in a particular industry or field of study, but not an organization you are a part of. The white paper could address a problem you are attempting to solve in the organization or to inform an external audience about a relevant trend.
• a white paper promoting a new product or service to potential customers. This is an example of a white paper to an external audience, but it features different rhetorical considerations than the typical white paper written to an external audience does.

Strategies to Consider for this Assignment:

Please follow these guidelines:

• have a focused topic
• write to an identified audience

o if your white paper is to an internal audience, it might have a fairly narrow audience. For example, if you work in a hair salon and write a white paper promoting a new billing system for your salon, the audience will probably be the owner and manager of the hair salon.

o if your white paper is to an external audience, it could have a broad audience or a narrow audience. For example, if you do not work for a hair salon and you write a white paper promoting a new billing system for hair salons, the audience will probably be the various hair salons in your neighborhood.

o if your white paper is to promote a product or service to potential customers, it could have a fairly broad audience. For example, a white paper promoting a new taxi service in your neighborhood has, theoretically, all residents in the neighborhood as a potential audience.

• integrate thorough research
• make sure that you do not directly tell the audience what action it should take. Rather,

offer background information that the audience can use to make a decision. The Purdue OWL video mentions this principle. This is one reason the video refers to the white paper as a backgrounder report.

Please include the following sections in your white paper:

• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Previous Approaches
• New Findings
• Conclusion
• References

In the Executive Summary, summarize your research and your purpose. The executive summary should be a stand-alone document. It should be written in such a way that a busy executive could read the executive summary and know exactly what the paper is about without reading the rest of the paper.

In the Introduction, you lay the groundwork for your readers for the details that will be introduced in the white paper. If you need to define any terms, you will do so here. You might share an anecdote or illustration to describe why this topic is important.

In the Previous Approaches section, you will describe the approaches or strategies that have been previously used or are currently used on the topic. For example, if your white paper is being written to advertise a new taxi service in your area, you might review what transportation services are provided now. You could show the challenges or problems that the current services involve. Inthissectionofthewhitepaper,youruseofsourceswillbeveryimportant. Youshould integrate research to show that the problems you have identified exist.

In the New Findings section, you present perhaps the most important information in the paper. In this section, you will describe the findings of your research and relate these findings to the purpose of your report. You will not only provide data and research, but you will also explain the data and research and why it is relevant to your report’s topic.

For example, if your white paper is being written to advertise a new taxi service in your area, you might review what transportation services are provided now and show why the new taxi service fills a need that the current set of transportation services does not fill or solves a problem that the current set of transportation services does not solve. You will provide data and evidence for why the new taxi service has promise in solving the problems you have identified.

In this section of the white paper, your use of sources will be very important as well. You should integrate research to show that the problems you have identified will be solved by your new approach.

In the Conclusion section, you review what your research shows in light of the previous approaches used. You will not tell the audience what steps to take next. However, you will summarize what your findings articulate.

In the References, you will list your sources that you cited in the paper. You will list them in APA format. Please note that the lectures on white papers that you have viewed and examples of white papers you may have read may not have used APA format. You will be using APA format in this assignment.

You are required to have at least five sources for your paper. In addition, at least one of them is to have been acquired through UMUC Library OneSearch.

Primary sources will be very beneficial for the paper. For example, if your white paper is being written to advertise a new taxi service in your area, you might interview some local residents about the problems they have with the current transportation services in the area. The information in such interviews would be persuasive research to integrate into your white paper.

The following websites and documents offer additional guidance in writing a white paper:

• Chapter 1, “A Primer on White Papers,” by Michael Stelzner
• “The Art of the White Paper,” by Manuel Gordon and Gordon Graham
• “Guidelines for Writing White Papers” from Warthman Associates

Length of your paper:

Your white paper should be 2000-3000 words in length. Again, you are required to use at least five sources, with at least one of them being acquired through UMUC Library OneSearch.

Graphics:

Your white paper should incorporate at least three graphics. Graphic can include tables, charts, or graphs showing some research findings. They can also be images that are relevant to the topic of the white paper.

At least two of the graphics must be original. Original graphics can include photos taken by you; tables, charts, or graphs developed by you; or screen captures showing a function on your computer (not a screen capture of an image off of the web).

To see examples of graphics used in white papers, see the Purdue OWL video, “White Papers: An Introduction to the Genre and Its Expectations,” at the 3:27 mark, at the 5:29 mark, at the 6:58 mark, at the 7:01 mark, at the 7:11 mark, at the 7:43 mark, and at

Class, Here are the instructions for the project paper #1 which is a type of Content Analysis — due end of Week 3. Content analysis is “a wide and heterogeneous set of manual or computer-assisted techniques for contextualized interpretations of documents produced by communication processes in the strict sense of that phrase (any kind of text, written, iconic, multimedia, etc.) or signification processes (traces and artifacts), having as ultimate goal the production of valid and trustworthy inferences.” Project #1 maps to the following SOCY 100 learning outcomes (course objectives): apply the sociological imagination, theoretical perspectives, and scientific research to uncover patterns of social behavior. identify the different ways society is stratified and develop awareness of how inequality is perpetuated in society. describe the process of social change and its impact on the individual and society. Requirements: Analyze the content of 10 advertisements. Your discussion should include the following: (1) the name of each product, where it was advertised (e.g., print media, radio, TV), and the amount of space or time devoted to the product; and (2) a sociological analysis of the ads (e.g., using sociological terms, theories, and/or research that best applies here? Explain.) Important tip while you do need to list and describe the ads that you select, the focus of this assignment is on the ability to take some of the sociology that you are learning and apply it to the ads. The best way to do this is to list the ad then identify the term or concept and then define or describe how it is applicable in that particular instance. There should be a clear sociological analysis for each ad. Recommended length: 3 to 4 pages The following website provides some good ideas and thought-provoking exercises relevant to this assignment: http://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/305/studyguidehandout_305.pd IMPORTANT NOTE: This project is worth 25 percent of your total grade. Please see the rubric in the syllabus for the objective grading criteria for this assignment, which are based on the following course outcomes: 1, 3, and 4. Make a back-up copy of your project prior to turning it in. Keep this copy for your records. Your project is due week 3. You may submit it as an attachment in your Assignments folder. Submissions created in Microsoft Word are preferred. If you do not have either one of these programs, then please submit your work in RTF or PDF file format. The failure to submit your project by the scheduled due date without a legitimate excuse will result in a total deduction of points.

Here are some tips based on student questions that I have received over the course of using this project paper assignment.

The Paper Format & Organization – The paper should include the following components

• A separate title page with the appropriate information (e.g., Student Name, Due Date, Name of class, and title of the paper)
• An Introduction that includes the purpose of the paper, definition of major concepts (e.g., Advertisement) and a setup statement for the remainder of the paper.
• Body of the paper – a brief description of the advertisement that provide enough information so that someone could read your description and understand what the ad is without having to go to the link or see the ad.
• Once you have described the ad, then it is best to identify a sociological concept like culture and define the term with a reference that could be from the course text. Here are some examples of defining integral sociological terms:

• Culture – A culture includes a group’s shared practices, values, and beliefs among other things (Griffiths, 2015).
• Symbolic Interactionism – Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective that is influential in many areas of the sociological discipline. It is particularly important in micro sociology and social psychology. Symbolic interactionism is derived from American pragmatism and particularly from the work of George Herbert Mead (Griffiths, 2015).
• Sociological Imagination – The term sociological imagination was coined by the American Sociologist C. Wright Mills in 1959 to describe the type of insight offered by the discipline of sociology. The term is used in introductory textbooks in sociology to explain the nature of sociology and its relevance in daily life (Griffiths, 2015).

• A Conclusion – the purpose of a conclusion paragraph is to sum up the overall point of the essay and leave a lasting impression.

Source: Griffiths, Heather et al., (2015) Introduction to Sociology 2e. Openstax: Rice University.

PAPER LENGTH

The recommended length is 3 to 4 pages. There is no penalty for being a page or two over. Sometimes one does need a little more space to fully develop their thoughts but I just do not want this to turn into more than 7 pages. I believe in the term “parsimony” which means to say the most in the least amount of space or number of words.

WRITING VOICE, TONE & STYLE

I expect the project paper # 1 to be written as a formal research paper. While expect you to identify and describe each ad the focus of the paper should be more on using sociology through the use of sociological concepts and theories.

As you prepare to finalize your project paper 1’s – I wanted to stress a few things ahead of time. Make sure to use the third person voice when writing (or the formal voice) and make sure to include academic and scholarly citations and references to support your use of Sociology in the paper. You need to include citations in the body of the paper like (Huff, 2014) and then also in a reference list at the end of the paper.

Focus on the sociological concepts and how they help explain the ads. The more direct you are in identifying the concepts, defining them using the course text or E-resources or other outside sources, and providing the appropriate citation – the better.

If you need help with writing in terms of sentence structure, use of appropriate paragraphs and so on please click on the “Resources drop down tab” on the blue mini bar and checkout the many writing assistance resources there.