Project 4 Handout

1. English 202 Introduction to Professional Writing Page 1of 1
Department of English University of Idaho
Project 4:
Analyze a Public Policy Debate for Stakeholders (30%)
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 also with the formal report.
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.
Project Deliverables:
 Deliverable 1: Progress Report, about 500 words, submitted as a Word or PDF file,
and Research Dossier (about half complete), submitted through the sharing feature
of Evernote.
Audience: Professor Nicotra
Purpose: To demonstrate your progress on this project.
 Deliverable 2: Formal Report: about 2000 words plus visuals/graphics. Research
Dossier (completed), submitted through the sharing feature of Evernote.

2. English 202 Introduction to Professional Writing Page 1of 2
Department of English University of Idaho
Audience for Report: Stakeholders
Purpose: To help stakeholders engage in dialogue.
Audience for Dossier: Professor Nicotra.