Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer: 

1. Improving Customer Service. Many customers
find that service is getting poorer and workers are
getting ruder. Evaluate the service in a local store,
restaurant, or other organization. Are customers
made to feel comfortable? Is workers’ communication
helpful, friendly, and respectful? Are workers
knowledgeable about products and services? Do
they sell them effectively? Write a report analyzing
the quality of service and recommending what the
organization should do to improve.
2. Recommending Courses for the Local Community
College. Businesses want to be able to send workers
to local community colleges to upgrade their skills;
community colleges want to prepare students to
enter the local workforce. What skills are in demand
in your community? What courses at what levels
should the local community college offer?
3. Improving Sales and Profits. Recommend ways a
small business in your community can increase sales
and profits. Focus on one or more of the following:
the products or services it offers, its advertising,
its decor, its location, its accounting methods, its
cash management, or any other aspect that may be
keeping the company from achieving its potential.
Address your report to the owner of the business.
4. Increasing Student Involvement. How could an
organization on campus persuade more of the students
who are eligible to join or to become active
in its programs? Do students know that it exists?
Is it offering programs that interest students? Is it
retaining current members? What changes should
the organization make? Address your report to the
officers of the organization.
5. Evaluating a Potential Employer. What training is
available to new employees? How soon is the average
entry-level person promoted? How much travel
and weekend work are expected? Is there a “busy
season,” or is the workload consistent year-round?
What fringe benefits are offered? What is the corporate
culture? Is the climate nonracist and nonsexist?
How strong is the company economically? How is
it likely to be affected by current economic, demographic,
and political trends? Address your report
to the placement office on campus; recommend
whether it should encourage students to work at
this company.
6. With your instructor’s permission, choose your own
topic.


Write the proposal using the following sections questions.
1. In your first paragraph (no heading), summarize in a sentence or two the
topic and purposes of your report.
2. Problem/Opportunity. What problem or opportunity exists? Why does it
need to be solved or explored? Is there a history or background that is
relevant?
3. Feasibility. Are you sure that a solution can be found in the time available?
How do you know? (This section may not be appropriate for some class
projects.)
4. Audience. Who in the organization would have the power to implement
your recommendation? What secondary audiences might be asked to evaluate
your report? What audiences would be affected by your recommendation?
Will anyone in the organization serve as a gatekeeper, determining
whether your report is sent to decision makers? What watchdog audiences
might read the report? Will there be other readers?
For each of these audiences give the person’s name and job title and
answer the following questions:
■ What is the audience’s major concern or priority? What “hot buttons” must
you address with care?
■ What will the audience see as advantages of your proposal? What objections,
if any, is the audience likely to have?
■ How interested is the audience in the topic of your report?
■ How much does the audience know about the topic of your report?
List any terms, concepts, or assumptions that one or more of your audiences
may need to have explained. Briefly identify ways in which your
audiences may affect the content, organization, or style of the report.
5. Topics to investigate. List the questions you will answer in your report, the
topics or concepts you will explain, the aspects of the problem or opportunity
you will discuss. Indicate how deeply you will examine each of the
aspects you plan to treat. Explain your rationale for choosing to discuss
some aspects of the problem or opportunity and not others.
6. Methods/procedure. How will you get answers to your questions? Whom
will you interview or survey? What questions will you ask? What published
sources will you use? Give the full bibliographic references. Your
methods section should clearly indicate how you will get the information
needed to answer questions posed in the other sections of the proposal.
7. Qualifications/facilities/resources. Do you have the knowledge and skills
needed to conduct this study? Do you have adequate access to the organization?
Is the necessary information available to you? Are you aware of
any supplemental information? Where will you turn for help if you hit an
unexpected snag?
You’ll be more convincing if you have already scheduled an interview,
checked out books, or printed online sources.
8. Work schedule. For each activity, list both the total time you plan to spend
on it and the date when you expect to finish it. Some possible activities you
might include could be gathering information, analyzing information, preparing
a progress report, writing the report draft, revising the draft, preparing
visuals, editing and proofreading the report, and preparing the oral
presentation. Think of activities needed to complete your specific project.
These activities frequently overlap. Many writers start analyzing and
organizing information as it comes in. They start writing pieces of the final
document and preparing visuals early in the process.
Organize your work schedule in either a chart or calendar. A good
schedule provides realistic estimates for each activity, allows time for
unexpected snags, and shows that you can complete the work on time.
9. Call to action. In your final section, indicate that you’d welcome any suggestions
your instructor may have for improving the research plan. Ask
your instructor to approve your proposal so that you can begin work on
your report.