Instructor: Pat Richmond Jones

Critical Writing for the Professions WTNG220

Assignment 3 - Developing a Corporate Profile

As students in Critical Writing for the Professions, we have discussed the concepts of technical communication and how we can develop sufficient, clear, concise, accurate, timely, and of course, relevant business-oriented writing which Informs, Instructs, or Influences our audience. In addition, we have discussed how our writing meets/exceeds the course goals of: Subject Matter Knowledge, Process Knowledge, Rhetorical Knowledge, Genre Knowledge, Discourse Community Knowledge and Meta-Cognitive Knowledge. Assignment 3 will build on the work you produced in Assignment 2. As you continue your formal education, you will consider what type of a career you want when you graduate. You know that in todays job market, many applicants compete for few openings; therefore, its important for you to begin planning now for your job search and application process. We have already researched the various skills and knowledge that employers in your planned career field require, and then compared these skills to current college courses and the alternative resources available to help you gain the appropriate skills and knowledge prior to graduation. One of the most important decisions you will make is what type of organization would provide the best fit for the skills and knowledge you have gained, and what type of organization would best suit your overall plans for your career and further professional development. Taking your Academic Major (or possible Major) into consideration, Assignment 3 will require you to develop a comprehensive Corporate Profile about a specific organization to which you might apply for a management or professional position after graduation from RWU. As its never too early to begin your research about possible future employment opportunities, you will develop your own profile of a major international corporation. This organization should be a substantial multinational entity (example: Sony, Microsoft, Citibank), not a local small business. Education Majors should consider a specific school system (please see me if you have questions about this aspect of Assignment 3). 1. Research everything you can find on your chosen organization using timely scholarly and reputable popular resources include information from annual reports, newspaper or magazine articles, library databases, library resources, legal, and governmental sources, personal contacts, etc. Please prepare a Working Bibliography of your sources see MLA or APA guidelines in our text for documentation information and formatting. 2. If you choose a private company (such as Subway), you may have difficulty gathering financial information, as private companies are under no legal obligation to publicly report their finances. Public companies are legally required to report their financials. If you choose a specific school system, you should research their budget process and ratings noting adherence to standard educational requirements. 3. Prepare a formal Memo (Assignment 3A), briefly describing the organization you have chosen, and indicate what information you anticipate being able to retrieve and from what sources. You might also indicate what information you may not be able to access, and briefly explain why. Please include a copy of the Working Bibliography with the Memo. This Memo should be no more than 1 page single spaced, and in accordance with examples indicated in the text. The Memo should be addressed to your instructor. 4. Prepare a Corporate Profile of your chosen organization including the following: a. Introduction overview of your company or organization b. History a paragraph (or two) about the beginnings of the company/organization and how it developed into the entity it is today; describe the international history as well. c. Organizational plan how is the company organized: is there a central management team with national and international subsidiaries? How is the company structured? Is the organization part of a regional education system? d. Financial summary profit/loss ratios, stock analysis. budgets
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e. Strategic goals or Mission Statement f. Major accomplishments and what meaning do these accomplishments have for the company? If your organization is a specific school administration, consider what information you need to provide to ensure that your audience will understand the major accomplishments including personnel, academic results, etc. g. Dynamics how does the company function in its industry? Is it the leader or one of many competing companies in an industry? How does the organization function internationally? How does the organization handle international and cultural concerns? How does the organization reflect diversity? h. Any additional information you find that might be of interest to your audience i. Conclusion brief summary of the organizations overall footprint 5. Prepare your Corporate Profile (Assignment 3B) detailing your research about the organization, and use the topics you researched as headings for the material. Your formal report should be approximately 2-3 pages in length, single-spaced, and formatted according to the guidelines in the handout and in the text. This Assignment may include appendices for charts, graphs, or additional information you feel is necessary for your audience (students in WTNG 220 and your instructor) to understand your profiled organization. Please document any direct quotes, paraphrases, or borrowed ideas/thoughts from your research in APA or MLA style, as indicated in Appendix A of the text. 6. Having conducted the research and prepared the formal report, develop a list of 5 specific and complex questions about which you couldnt find sufficient information, and for which you would like definitive answers from the organization.

7. Once you have completed your list of questions, develop a one-page formal Letter (see examples in the text) addressed to an officer or official in your profiled organization, in which you request substantive answers to your specific questions (Assignment 3C). These questions should be complex and should require critical thinking and analysis by the corporate officer or official. At least two questions should relate to how this organization manages global and inter-cultural diversity, and how they ensure that their organization reflects sensitivity to cultural differences. Please follow the letter format as indicated in the text. Note: you will not send this letter its just for the Assignment. 8. Prepare a Reflective paper (Assignment 3D in Memo format in which you describe the process you followed in researching your organization, and the lessons you learned in that process. Was the research process easy and straight-forward? Did you need to revise/shift your research strategy or change organizations? What surprised you most about this Assignment? What did you learn about the way companies are organized or the way they deal with the public? What did you learn about your own work habits, or about your strengths and areas you might need to work on? This Memo should also reflect how your work on all aspects of Assignment 3 demonstrates proficiency in the Course Outcomes. The Memo should be approximately 1-2 pages and addressed to your instructor. 9. Please follow the dates indicated on the Syllabus for submission of assignments.

Please pay particular attention to grammar, punctuation, and spelling. The Assignment must reflect substantive thought and be clearly organized. You should provide clear and logical transitions within and between paragraphs and be sure your Assignment is free of agreement errors, unnecessary shifts in person, verb voice, tense and mood; in addition your Assignment should reflect varied sentence structure and appropriate word choice. It is expected that this paper will be proofread and edited. If you have any questions, please see me before or after class or send me an email.

2/24/2014RWUCritProfAssign3CorpProf