Overview:
Issue: Tesla has been criticized for workplace safety issues at its manufacturing plants.
Goal: Achieve a reduction in workplace safety incidents at Tesla manufacturing plants within the next two years through enhanced safety training, improved safety protocols, and transparent reporting systems.
Proposals in technical communication can take many forms in academic and professional contexts. Often when it comes to crafting proposal documents you need to be aware of who you are as a persuasive communicator and who your intended audience is. Through doing so you can understand your audience and make tailored recommendations to address an issue. Often these recommendations can be one of the first steps towards getting funding for a project or even show up late in final report style documents. For this assignment you will be approaching the type of persuasive writing of a proposal through the creation of an ethical recommendation report. Why an ethical issue? For starters ethics will come up often within your workplace, from small issues to ones that are prevalent problems that need to be addressed. Often as communicators we will attempt to rely on our “moral compass” when it comes to making decisions, even when it comes to decisions on the types of documents we make and for what purposes. While you should strive to be efficient communicators, you should also try to be ethical ones.
Throughout this unit you will focus on an ethical issue of your choice and create a recommendation report on how to address this issue. You can approach this assignment as a recommendation report for a specific project you are working on or as an issue that you have found prevalent in your field academically/professionally. Students in the past for instance have focused on issues such as ethical payment for teaching assistants at Georgia Tech, environment sustainability recommendations for emerging technology, or even ways to create more equitable professional opportunities for students transitioning to their field full time.
Note: There is a possibility this assignment may align with an ongoing project you are working on in your coursework or internships. If you are hoping to approach this assignment for that focus let me know so we can make sure you are able to approach this assignment for that specific context.
Specifics
Your ethical recommendation report will be made up of several sections. Keep in mind that no matter your chosen topic and whether you are writing from, you will be responsible for making consistent design choices reflective of your context. Your ethical report should be a minimum of 5 pages and have a minimum of 5 unique visual elements such as charts, infographics, logos, photos, diagrams, etc.
NOTE: This assignment is one where I am fine if you use AI to create visual elements if it is helpful for you. You may ONLY use AI for visual elements and you MUST cite the AI in your References section.
Important Due Dates
- June 19th → Rough Draft of Ethical Recommendation Report Due
- June 24th → Final Ethical Recommendation Report Due
Part I: Proposal Recommendation Report (20 points)
Your recommendation report will contain the following and be a minimum of 5 pages in length with 5 unique visual elements:
- Letter of Transmittal addressed to the appropriate audience for your issue to address this issue through support or funding. You will be writing this letter in the format of a cover letter. It may be helpful to take a look at current opportunities for funding or nonprofit organizations who may align well with your chosen topic. Georgia Tech has a compilation of potential funding opportunities you could use for this assignment or you could refer to the Georgia Center for Nonprofits as well for resource information. You want to make sure your report is formatted for that specific audience through references to their mission. Typically cover letters in this matter will contain a letterhead, date and address of your intended audience, genre conventions of a letter (salutation and signature), connections between your topic and the audience, and specific details outlining what you are asking for.
- Cover/Title Page designed to be the first official view of your document. You should think through how you would like this document to be constructed to be professional in the context you are writing your proposal report in (see page 506 of your textbook for an example).
- Table of Contents should be a guide to your report. You have flexibility here in terms of the design, but your document should have clear headings with page numbers noted.
- Introduction to your chosen issue at hand and any applicable background information such as communities that may be involved (e.g. nonprofits, governmental departments, etc.). This section should help to convey the seriousness of your issue through the use of a needs statement that emphasizes research. You should situate your issue in its context, meaning the history and population it is affecting. This section should evoke a sense of pathos, meaning emotional appeal to your audience by focusing on the issue you are presenting on.
- Methods & Budget section should convey how your group intends to address this issue. You should identify 2-3 concrete objectives/tasks that focus on the breakdown of the issue at hand and how it can be approached in specific ways. Sometimes an issue can be larger to address, so concrete objectives can help provide a focus. You should weigh the costs and benefits of your solution in this section, along with a proposed detailed budget with appropriate infographics (your choice) that showcase how you will utilize the funding for your solution. Keep in mind the direct and indirect costs when composing your budget.
- Conclusion/Evaluation that details out how funding and success of utilizing funding will occur over a specific period of time to provide an evaluation of the issue and timeline, while also acknowledging future areas to recommend solutions for your issue. Often you will reference specific objectives you will be addressing, how you will analyze information, how gains will be used to make any changes, and how success will shape plans for the future. This document serves to provide a plan of sorts to your intended audience that helps to show your group has carefully thought through your solution to be effective long term.
- References should be apparent through this type of assignment. You should have APA references for any images you do not make yourself, as well as any documents you use as referral documents for your research in this type of assignment. I would recommend having at least 4 reference sources for this assignment.
- Appendix (if needed) is optional for this assignment, but it could include any survey information or graphs that perhaps you want to include in your report for frame of reference.
Part II: Reflection Memo (5 points)
Similar to the last assignment you will be completing a reflection memo for this assignment (see Purdue OWL for a sample memo). Your memo should answer the following questions in detail (think at least a few sentences per question):
- What drew your interest towards your issue/topic of your ethical recommendation report?
- How did you tailor your ethical recommendation report towards a specific audience?
- How does your report contribute to ongoing conversations regarding your chosen issue?
- What challenges did you encounter while crafting your ethical recommendation report?
- How did you incorporate peer/instructor feedback into your final draft?
GRADING
To receive full points for this assignment you will need to have the following elements:
- Your proposal recommendation report is at least 5 pages and contains a letter of transmittal, cover/title page, table of contents, introduction, methods/budget, conclusion/evaluation, and references (plus an appendix if needed).
- Your proposal recommendation report has 5 unique design elements throughout the different sections which could include charts, infographics, logos, photos, diagrams, etc. You may use elements from additional sources or AI, but these MUST be cited in your references document.
- Reflective memo addressed to me that answers the prompt questions in detail.