UMUC WRTG293 All Assignments Latest 2019 April Question # 00601640 Subject: Education Due on: 05/25/2019 Posted On: 05/25/2019 06:27 AM Tutorials: 1 Rating: 4.8/5

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.