Writing a Report on a Successful or Unsuccessful Company: A Guide

For this assignment, you will write a report based on one successful or unsuccessful company of your choice. You may choose any company that you wish provided that it is not Apple (it has been overused as a model) or a company that you have researched or presented for another course/assignment. This assignment should reflect new/original work and research. Spend some time brainstorming and making a list of possible selections in both the “successful” and “unsuccessful” categories. Consider each one carefully and then narrow it down to a final selection. When you have made your choice, you will send a Research Topic Proposal letter to your professor outlining your choice. Please see the Formal Research Report Topic Proposal assignment instructions for this part of the project.
This assignment will follow the format for report writing in Chapter 9 of your textbook. As a context or scenario for this report, imagine that you have been working in your chosen field for a few years and you have an idea to improve your company. Your goal will be to persuade your CEO to either:
A) Follow the successful business model and strategies of the company you have chosen  (OR)
B) Avoid the unsuccessful model and strategies of the company you have chosen.
This assignment will showcase your critical thinking, reading, writing, and reporting skills. This assignment will also include APA citation and referencing (see materials/lessons in CANVAS appendix C (pp. 339-442 of your textbook). You may wish to review pp. 192-194 from Chapter 9 as well that cover document and citing sources as well as how to paraphrase.
Stage 1: Research
Once you have your research topic (a successful or unsuccessful company) chosen, the next step is to do some research. Best practices for academic research, including how to use Google and the Mohawk Library search engines effectively, will be covered in the Week 9 materials in CANVAS. Students will be expected to choose appropriate, credible academic/professional sources for this assignment. When you are searching for resources to use for this assignment, consider looking for both of these types of sources:
A) Direct sources: Written specifically about the company you have chosen  (AND
B) Indirect sources: Sources related to a strategy that the company you have chosen has employed. Your research should be based on no fewer than 5 and no more than 10 high quality sources appropriate for academic/professional research projects.
Consider looking for information on many different areas that have made your particular chosen company either successful or unsuccessful, such as but not limited to: Branding and marketing (including public relations) Recruiting and developing talent Corporate culture and morale Product or service research and development Organizational structure

Stage 1: Research

Ability (or not) to change and adapt Financial and investment decisions
Stage 2: Planning and Writing
Once you have submitted your topic proposal and completed your research, you are reading to plan and write your report. Your report should follow the guidelines outlined in Chapter 9 (see pp. 194-211). Remember that this is a persuasive report designed to convince your CEO either to follow the model of the successful company that you have chosen or to avoid the model of the unsuccessful company that you have chosen.
Therefore, you may wish to review Chapter 6 on persuasive writing as well to employ successful strategies for persuasive writing.
Your report should be organized effectively (see Chapter 9 for details and discussion on using graphics as well as Chapter 8 for headings and hierarchy of headings).
It should be no shorter than three pages long, not including any Front Matter or Back Matter contents, such as title page, table of contents, and references. In other words, the body of the report must be at least three pages long. No letter or memo of transmittal is required. The first page of your report should be your cover page.
The report should include the following elements:
A cover page (see p. 202 for format. You can use your professor’s name as the recipient). Page numbers at the bottom of each page, not including the cover page (see my video Week 7 LectureFormatting a Memo in MS Word for details on how to format the first page differently from the rest of the report)
An introduction section (see p. 200-201 for items to include. NOTE: You do not need a separate Executive Summary for this report).
A body that includes the Findings of your report divided into sections using appropriate headings of your choice. Consider using effective graphics and lists in addition to short paragraphs to present your findings. Your report should be readable as well as persuasive. A conclusions and recommendations section at the end to persuade your reader why he should or should not follow the model of your chosen company. Here you should review the definitive data/ facts that support your claims and end in a memorable way by making recommendations/projections/warnings. An APA-formatted references list that lists alphabetically the 5-10 sources you consulted in your research.
Stage 3: Revising and Submitting
Once you have completed your report, spend some time reading it over in order to revise and correct it. You should consider/do the following:
Check that you have covered all posted elements in the Research Essay Report instructions (see above) Review the organizational structure for effectiveness and consistency Review your graphics for errors and readability Read ALL text in your report for errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and word choice as well as errors in use of numbers and symbols.