assignment handout for Project 4

1. English 202 Introduction to Professional Writing Page 1of 1
Project 4: Analyze a Public Policy Debate for Stakeholders
Project 4 is the major project of the course. In this project, you will apply stasis theory to
analyze a debate about public policy in the United States.
Stasis theory is a four-category analytical process developed in ancient Greece and, later,
refined by Roman rhetoricians. It is a useful tool to determine areas of agreement and
disagreement between stakeholders. A stakeholder is any person, group, or organization
with a specific interest in the outcome of a policy debate. Your goal will be to provide
stakeholders with an objective analysis to help them engage in dialogue as opposed to
deadlocked debate.
The project deliverables are a Research Dossier, Progress Report, and Formal Report. The
dossier will be submitted with the progress report to demonstrate progress to-date and
with the formal report.
Project Deliverables:
Deliverable 1: Progress Report with Research Dossier, about 500 words, submitted as a
Word or PDF that includes the URL to the dossier in Evernote.
Audience: Professor Nicotra
Purpose: To demonstrate your progress on this project.
Deliverable 2: Formal Report, about 2000 words plus visuals/graphics, submitted as a PDF
file.
Audience for Report: Stakeholders in the debate over the issue you’ve
identified
Purpose: To encourage dialogue among stakeholders.
Learning Objectives. After completing this project, you should be able to:
 conduct research to identify a debate surrounding public policy in the United States,
and identify all stakeholders,
 gather data from sources into a research dossier and apply stasis theory to analyze this
data to determine where stakeholders agree/disagree in the four stasis categories
(conjecture, definition, values, actions),
 compose a progress report to describe progress you have made in conducting research,
 compose a formal report aimed at helping stakeholders become more informed and
better equipped to engage in dialogue with one another.
Requirements and Guidelines. The above information is a description of this project,
the basic requirements, deliverables, and learning objectives. Additional explanations
about concepts you will need to apply, requirements, and "how to" guidelines to meet
expectations for each deliverable are covered in other course materials.