Opening Memo on the Issue of Constant Arguments among Coworkers

I have been ordering papers by sections because that is what is due. Now I need to do the opening memo, Table of content, and closing memo. I will attach all the parts of the papers that are in the middle that have been done and graded so you can know what is it on. Thank you in advance and let me know if you have any questions, please. This is my last paper and it has the highest point. I am also attaching an example of the opening memo and how the conclusion should be set.

ASSIGNMENT SHEET

Final Proposal

For this assignment, you will need to turn in:

* A copy of your final proposal (worth 150 points)

* A copy of the checklist I am attaching (worth 5 points, items checked in the paper and checked off on checklist

Final Proposal

This paper tells how to solve the problem you chose to work on, including

--An opening memo to your audience

--A title page

--A table of contents

--A summary of the problem, the recommendation, the research methods, the evidence, the implementation, the schedule, and the budget

--A foreword that tells the benefit of solving the problem, the purpose of your report, and the problem you are writing about

--Information about the problem and the background of it

--Your recommendation to solve the problem

--The research methods you used to find the recommendation

--What you found in your research to support your recommendation

--Who will help you carry out your recommendation

--The schedule for carrying out your recommendation --the budget for carrying out your recommendation --the benefit of solving the problem

In addition, your final proposal should include

--Evidence that you have mastered all of the information we have covered on writing

More clearly

-- At least two visual aids

--At least five occasions when you use outside information (quotations and paraphrases) properly documented. This outside information should come from at least three different sources

--A bibliography or works cited page containing at least five sources

You will notice that we do not have a final test. You can think of this paper as the final exam for our class since it incorporates what we have discussed throughout the semester.

The final proposal counts 150 points. Please make sure it is complete. Proposals in business that omit sections or information are rejected. In our class, proposals that omit visual aids, sources, sections, and so on will not receive a passing grade.

Considerations for the Assignment

Everyone's paper will be different depending on the topic, but everyone should break up the paper into different headings and use subheadings to highlight further parts of the paper. Also, use highlighting devices to make major and minor headings easy to find. Of course, the different levels of these highlighting devices should be parallel. For instance, the titles Foreword, Summary, Problem/Background, Recommendation, etc. may be all capital letters, boldfaced, and the subheadings may be initial capital letters, boldfaced.

Make me the audience for your proposal. Therefore, avoid using jargon or any other terms that someone who does not work in your field or I would not understand without your defining those terms. Write as clearly as possible.

In addition, make this paper complete. Do not count on the reader remembering something you wrote in an earlier paper or said in a conversation. The paper should be able to stand on its own.

As with all assignments, grammar, mechanics, punctuation, spelling, usage, and design will be part of the grade. Severe problems in these areas can fail the paper.

Checklist

For this assignment, I have included a checklist to help you edit and revise you topic paper. Understand that the checklist is not exhaustive; you will need to watch our for other problems as well. The idea is to go through the checklist and check off each item as you go through the parts of this assignment.

Unlike what some folks have done with checklists in the past, with this one you need to not just check off everything to receive credit but to actually do what it says. So, do not check off something such as "contains no dead wood" until you have checked your proposal to make sure that it does not contain any dead wood.



CHECKLIST FOR FINAL PROPOSAL

The Opening Memo

The very first thing your audience will see will be a memo that you paper clip to the front of your proposal. To write this memo, just follow the example with the Sweet Potato White Fly and the format below:

Make sure this memo

____ is written as a memo, following the general format of figure 14.17 on page 513 in your book for the opening

You include

____ The name of the company

____ The address of the company

____ The date

____ TO: followed by my name, title, and telephone extension

____ FROM: followed by your name, whatever title is appropriate, and your initials (normally the initials are handwritten, but if you are uploading your file, you can type them)

____ SUBJECT: followed by a clear, specific statement about the focus of your memo

Body

In the body, you have three paragraphs. Here is what to include in each paragraph:

First paragraph

You tell your audience that

____ This is the proposal that you promised to write

____ You include the name of the proposal

____ You say what you investigated and what your investigation turned up.

Second paragraph

In this paragraph, you

____ Tell what your recommendation is

____ Tell what page you discuss it in the proposal

____ Tell how long you will need to solve the proposal and tell what page the schedule in on.

____ Tell how much your recommendation costs (the budget) and what page that is on

Third paragraph

In this paragraph you

____ End by telling your audience to call you if they have any questions

____Make sure you include your telephone number.

Remember to check out the Sweet Potato White Fly for an example.

For the entire proposal, make sure that it includes the following sections

____ Opening Memo

____ Title Page

____ Table of Contents

____ Foreword

____ Summary

____ Problem/Background

____ Recommendation

____ Research Methods

____ Evidence

____ Implementation

____ Schedule

____ Budget

____ Conclusion

____ Bibliography (or Works Cited)

For each section, check the following:

____ Includes all changes you need to make from earlier writing (especially what I marked)

____ Contains no dead wood

____ Contains no passive voice unless marked (PV) at the end of the sentence.

____ Contains no sentences with strings of two or more prepositions that are difficult to follow

The sections of the paper include the following information

The title page

Make sure you follow the format I have given below:

____ In the middle of the page, write the name of your proposal. Make sure you use highlighting devices to emphasize the title.

____ Below the title, write your name, your title, and the name of the company for which you work.

____Then, write the name of the people in your audience, their titles, and the name of the company for which your audience works. (If you prefer, you can include the name of the company near the top of the page.)

____ After that, write the date of the proposal.

____ Be sure to use highlighting devices where appropriate and white space to make information easy to find and the page appealing.

The Table of Contents

To write the table of contents, make sure you

____ List all the major and minor headings that follow this page, along with the page number the heading is on. Make sure you include ALL major and minor headings, including the Bibliography (or Works Cited).

____ These heading and subheadings are worded exactly alike in the table of contents and in the rest of the paper

____ Use dots to connect the headings and the page numbers.

The Foreword

____ Make sure you spell the title for this section Foreword and not Forward

This section is broken up into three paragraphs. Make sure you include the following:

____ Paragraph 1: The benefit to the company or the reader if you solve the problem.

What will be the benefit to the reader or to the company if you proceed with your investigation?

____ Paragraph 2: The reason you are writing

____ Paragraph 3: The problem you investigated, along with a specific example

The Summary

The summary is simply an overview of your paper, telling the most important information from each section. Therefore, organize your summary the same way you organize your paper. We wrote the paper in one order, but the final version will be organized differently. Specifically, the sections will be organized this way in the final version of the paper:

* Problem/Background

* Recommendation

* Research Methods

* Evidence

* Implementation

* Schedule

* Budget

* Conclusion

* Bibliography

How to organize the summary:

____Begin by giving an overview of the problem and background.

____Then, tell your recommendation to solve the problem.

____ Next, tell how you found the recommendation--the research methods--and what you found--the evidence.

____ Now, tell how you will solve the problem--the implementation.

____ Then, tell how long solving the problem will take--the total time in the schedule.

____ Finish by telling the total amount of money solving the problem will take--the total amount in the budget.

The summary should give brief overviews of each section. However, it should not be simply a list of information unrelated to one another. See the summary in the Sweet Potato White Fly proposal for an example.

Problem/Background

____ What is the problem?

____ What has led up to the problem?

____ Why is the problem serious?

The current status of the problem, including

____ How does the problem stand now?

____ Why must the problem be solved?

____ What will happen if the problem is not solved?

____ You include examples to illustrate the problem

In addition, if you use parts of the problem/background section you wrote for the topic paper:

____ Have you incorporated the suggestions I wrote on how to improve the problem

____ Have you incorporated any changes you see you need to make

____ Have you added any other information you think will give a fuller understanding of the problem and the background to it

Recommendation

____ What have you learned that will solve the problem?

Research Methods

Answers the following question:

___ What have you done to learn more about the problem and/or find a solution to the problem? Consider reading in books and articles and conducting interviews, or any other methods you have used.

This section is often particularly short. That is ok so long as you tell us how you have gone about finding a solution to the problem.

Evidence

____ What have you learned that supports your solution to the problem?

Make sure your evidence supports you recommendation.

The Implementation

You can think of this section as a list of who will do what to solve the problem. You simply tell who will do the tasks necessary to solve the problem. Most people find adding the names to the schedule to be the easiest. If you do that, then call this section Implementation and Schedule.

____ You summarize or give an overview of who will do what

____ You tell who will do what to solve the problem

The Schedule

In this section, you tell when the tasks will have to be done for your recommendation to be in place.

____ Give the total amount of time in the first line

____ Introduce the schedule before listing it out

____ Break up the schedule by day, week or month, depending on how long it will take

The Budget

This section tells how much each item necessary to carry out the recommendation will cost and give the total for all expenses. Summarize the major expense or expenses before presenting the expenses in a table.

In this section, make sure that you

____ Tell total amount of budget in first line

____ Summarize the major expense or expenses

____ Tell cost of each item necessary to carry out the budget

____ Present the expenses in the form of a table

____ Include dots between each item and its amount

____ Tell total amount at the end of the table

In the event that you will not require any money to carry out the recommendation, say that in this section and everywhere else you should include the budget.



The Conclusion

In the conclusion, simply drive home the benefit of solving the problem and carrying out your recommendation. Research indicates that people remember the first and last of something, so in the concision really emphasize the benefits.

Your conclusion should answer these questions:

____ What is the benefit of solving the problem?

____ What will be the short-term benefit?

____ What will be the long-term benefit?

____ Will this save us any money?

____ Will it cause any other improvements

--In morale?

--In relations for with our customers?

--In profits?

Bibliography or Works Cited

In this section, make sure that you

____ Presented your sources in alphabetical order by author's last name

____ Have written your source as it would appear in your bibliography or works cited page following the format discussed it the class

____ Have double-checked the punctuation

____ Have included at least five sources

Using Quotation and/or Paraphrases

____ At least five times you include information that you take directly from an outside source. This outside information should come from at least three different outside sources. Make sure that you include quotations, not paraphrases, on at least two of these occasions.

____ Make sure you have gone through the following checklist each time you use outside information to make sure you have cited it properly

____1. Have you used the author's name?

____2. Have you told the year in which the outside information was written?

____3. Have you told the page number where you can find the outside information?

____4. Have you introduced the outside information in your own words?

____5. Have you followed up the outside information in your own words?

____6. Have you punctuated correctly before the outside information?

____7. Have you punctuated correctly after the outside information?



General Information

____ Sections are in the proper order

____ Pages numbered

____ Throughout the paper, you use subheadings to help your reader find information

____ You have used the other characteristics we have discussed to write more clearly

____ You have read your paper aloud at least twice and have rewritten anything that did not sound natural

____ You have left your paper alone for at least a day and then come back to it to revise it

____ You have double-spaced your paper

You may also include other information that you believe is necessary.

If there is anything else that you would like for me to know about your paper, say it here. Please understand that writing in this section, as in the section above, does not guarantee I will not count off for something. The benefit is that I will have a better understanding of what you are thinking.

Remember to use proper grammar, punctuation, and mechanics. These will count as part of the grade.