Unit 4: Lecture Developing a Proposal Unit 4 focuses on developing your topic for your final report and conducting some preliminary research for your final project.  Your reading for this unit (Chs. 15, 17 and Appendix C ) cover how to research and write proposals, as well as how to cite your work in a business report.  Make sure to review these chapters carefully as you prepare your discussion and assignment for this unit. What are Proposals?  A proposal is a persuasive genre in which a writer convinces an audience to accept or approve some course of action. As your book says, “proposals argue for work that needs to be done” (552).   In business contexts, a proposal might outline a new policy and request implementation or request money to fund a special project.  For our purposes, your proposal will focus on seeking approval for your topic for your final business report.  According to Ch. 17, good business proposals answer the following questions: · What problem are you going to solve or what opportunity do you hope to fill? · Why does the problem need to be solved now or the opportunity explored immediately? · How are you going to solve it? · Can you do the work? · Why should you be the one to do it? · When will you complete the work? · How much will you charge? · What exactly will you provide for us? For our purpose in this class, we are not going to worry about the questions about timelines, qualifications, or fees, as our timeline is already set, everyone has to do the report, and you will be writing your report for experience and learning, rather than money.  However, be mindful that in a real world situation, all of these questions may be important to address. Defining a Problem to Explore in your Proposal and Report:  According to Ch. 15, a good problem to explore for a business report should use the following guidelines: · The problem is real, significant enough to be worth solving, and narrow but challenging · The audience is also real and has the power to make decisions based on your report · The evidence (e.g. data, facts, sources) is sufficient to show the importance of the problem and to prove that your recommendations will solve the problem. When writing your proposal, use the advice in Chapter 15 about writing a purpose statement and review the example on pg. 492. How to Conduct Research: There is a wide range of research available to you that could be used to develop your report. For example, you may find any or all of these types useful in a business report: · Newspaper articles (For example, The Washington Post) · Articles in popular magazines or non-fiction books (for example, Newsweek) · Articles in industry-specific publications (for example, HR Magazine) · Websites and publications of professional organizations (for example, The National Association of Business Management Professionals) · Journal articles and books written by academics (for example, Business Communication Quarterly) · Surveys or interviews you have cond ...

1. Unit 4: Lecture
Developing a Proposal
Unit 4 focuses on developing your topic for your final report
and conducting some preliminary research for your final
project. Your reading for this unit (Chs. 15, 17 and Appendix C
) cover how to research and write proposals, as well as how to
cite your work in a business report. Make sure to review these
chapters carefully as you prepare your discussion and
assignment for this unit.
What are Proposals?
A proposal is a persuasive genre in which a writer convinces an
audience to accept or approve some course of action. As your
book says, “proposals argue for work that needs to be done”
(552).
In business contexts, a proposal might outline a new policy and
request implementation or request money to fund a special
project. For our purposes, your proposal will focus on seeking
approval for your topic for your final business report.
According to Ch. 17, good business proposals answer the
following questions:
· What problem are you going to solve or what opportunity do
you hope to fill?
· Why does the problem need to be solved now or the
opportunity explored immediately?
· How are you going to solve it?
· Can you do the work?
· Why should you be the one to do it?
· When will you complete the work?
· How much will you charge?
· What exactly will you provide for us?
For our purpose in this class, we are not going to worry about
the questions about timelines, qualifications, or fees, as our
timeline is already set, everyone has to do the report, and you
will be writing your report for experience and learning, rather

2. than money. However, be mindful that in a real world situation,
all of these questions may be important to address.
Defining a Problem to Explore in your Proposal and Report:
According to Ch. 15, a good problem to explore for a business
report should use the following guidelines:
· The problem is real, significant enough to be worth solving,
and narrow but challenging
· The audience is also real and has the power to make decisions
based on your report
· The evidence (e.g. data, facts, sources) is sufficient to show
the importance of the problem and to prove that your
recommendations will solve the problem.
When writing your proposal, use the advice in Chapter 15 about
writing a purpose statement and review the example on pg. 492.
How to Conduct Research:
There is a wide range of research available to you that could be
used to develop your report.
For example, you may find any or all of these types useful in a
business report:
· Newspaper articles (For example, The Washington Post)
· Articles in popular magazines or non-fiction books (for
example, Newsweek)
· Articles in industry-specific publications (for example, HR
Magazine)
· Websites and publications of professional organizations (for
example, The National Association of Business Management
Professionals)
· Journal articles and books written by academics (for
example, Business Communication Quarterly)
· Surveys or interviews you have conducted
For your project, you cannot use Wikipedia or other
encyclopedias as a source, as they merely summarize other
sources. However, because Wikipedia articles generally end
with a bibliography, they can be a great place to look for
sources relevant to your project!
Your textbook also includes a long list of web sources you may

3. find useful on pgs. 494-495.
Where to find sources:
Park University Library databases and catalogue
Google Scholar (Links to an external site.)Links to an external
site.
Plain old Google (Links to an external site.)Links to an external
site.
Each of these sources has its pros and cons, but you can search
all three places to find a diversity of sources.
Doing Research at Park:
Review the following tutorials to help you conduct research
using Park University resources:
· Searching Basics Using the Park University Library
(A PowerPoint "slideshow" -- click on the speaker icon to
enable audio)
· How to use Google Scholar to Access Park University material
And read either:
· Purdue’s OWL MLA guide (Links to an external site.)Links to
an external site.
-Or-
· Purdue’s OWL APA guide (Links to an external site.)Links to
an external site.
Note: While you will be using APA or MLA to format your in-
text and end-text citations in the report, you will not be using
their guide to formatting page layout (spacing, paragraph
breaks, etc.). Instead, you will continue to use business format
and document design techniques.
Evaluating Sources:
All sources need to be evaluated to determine their credibility,
authority, and usefulness. This is especially true for web
sources, which may have few limitations or editorial oversight.
Make sure you review the information on evaluating sources in
Ch. 15 carefully, and consider the questions listed in Figure
15.4 for all sources, not just websites: (I have attached this to
the email)
· Who are the authors and what are their credentials?

4. · How sufficient is the evidence supporting the author’s claims?
· How complete is the information?
· How current is the information and is currency important for
your purposes?
· Who is the intended audience of the material?
One other important question your book does not include, but is
very important for evaluating a source:
· What is the author’s purpose in writing?
This last question can tell you a lot about the drift of a
particular article. For example, if the author’s ultimate purpose
is to sell you something, we can probably surmise that the
information may not be very complete as it is not in their best
interest to tell us about the drawbacks of their product.
However, this does not mean the source is necessarily useless.
While we would not use such a source to prove a product’s
quality, we may use such a source to list the technical
specifications of the product.
Evaluating a source can help you decide not only whether to use
a source, but also what it can be used for.
Scholarly vs. Non-Scholarly Sources
Your assignment this unit requires that you find at least 1
scholarly source to annotate in your proposal/bibliography.
You might be wondering: How can you tell if a source is
scholarly?
What is a scholarly source?
Scholarly sources are those that are written by and for scholars.
Basically, it is the writing of experts who study topics in
particular disciplines and produce writing for other experts in
that discipline.
Why do we use scholarly sources?
Scholarly sources represent sustained and serous study about
particular topics; the claims made by scholars are generally
well-evidenced, and academic writing tends to be very detailed
and complex which makes it very useful for gathering lots of
reputable information.
Scholarly sources also carry a lot of credibility because the bar

5. to become a scholar and to publish work is set very high. One
of those bars scholars have to jump is the peer-review process.
Most reputable academic presses and journals have a peer
review policy that dictates that any work submitted will be sent
out to other experts in the field for review before it can be
published. This ensures a level of quality control that is absent
in popular sources. Some peer-review is even conducted blind,
meaning that the authors and/or reviewers’ names are not
revealed, which is supposed to remove a measure of bias.
While peer-review is not perfect, it is a better control
mechanism than is present for other kinds of sources.
How can I tell if a source is scholarly or not?
This guide can help you determine if a source is scholarly. If
you can't decide from these hints, ask a librarian or your
instructor for help.
Scholarly Source
Non-Scholarly Source
Will be peer-reviewed by other members of that academic field
May be reviewed by a professional editor, but not necessarily
reviewed by experts in the field.
Articles or books are written by a scholar or a professional in
the field. The author has a string of letters, titles, or
institutional affiliations after their name (such as Ph.D.,
Professor of African Studies, University of Alabama, Institute
for Professional Communication, etc.)
May be written by a professional writer who is not an expert in
the field.
Always cite their sources of information in the form of
footnotes or bibliography.
Rarely offers information (footnotes or bibliography) about the
sources of information.
Text gives research results, includes specialized vocabulary and
is aimed at a scholarly audience.
Text reports events or opinions and is aimed at a general
audience (easy to read).
Journal cover and pages tend to be plain in design, with few or

6. no pictures or graphics.
Tend to be highly pictorial. Magazines accept advertising.
Most are published by professional organizations, associations,
scholarly groups or universities and colleges.
Are generally published for profit. May be intended as a vehicle
of opinion: political, moral, or ethnic.
Authors are always named, and their institutional affiliation is
given.
Authors may be anonymous.
Journal issues are likely to be successively numbered (for
example, issue 1 includes pages 1-356, issue 2 has pages 357-
585, etc.)
Magazine issues are likely to begin with page 1 each issue.
Articles may be long.
Articles may be short, some only 1-2 pages.
Journal issues tend to be published less often (monthly,
quarterly, semi-annually).
Magazine issues tend to be published more frequently (monthly,
weekly, daily).
Journals would usually be found in a library or in a professor's
office.
Magazines can be found at any bookstore or convenience store.
Examples: Articles in Journal of American History, Journal of
Educational Psychology or books published by a University
Press written by a scholar with footnotes.
Examples: Articles in Newsweek, National Review or books
published by Scribner written by a journalist or professional
writer without footnotes.
Adapted from: St Charles Community College (2008), Scholarly
vs Non-Scholarly
Sources, http://www.stchas.edu/library/scholar.shtml (Links to
an external site.)Links to an external site.
Does this mean that only scholarly sources are credible or
useful?
No, it just means that they are often more detailed and
somewhat more reliable in terms of their claims, evidence, and

7. expertise, and scholarly sources can be used to back certain
kinds of claims you could not support with a less detailed or
more popular source.
However, sources published in other types of venues can still be
useful in your research. For example, say you wanted to discuss
a recent fad in tech companies: pointing to articles on tech
blogs or technology industry magazines would be a good way to
illustrate the trend. Likewise, if you wanted to show that a
particular business practice is causing other companies to end
up in court, you would probably cite news accounts reporting on
those lawsuits. The important thing is to think critically about
the range of sources available to you and the kinds of uses to
which they can be put.
Chapter 11 Assignment
Spending Round by Round
Show your understanding of the Multiplier by completing the
following exercises:
1. Assume the MPC is 0.75. What is the value of the multiplier?
2. Assume investment spending increases by $20 billion and the
MPC is 0.75. Calculate the total change in GDP arising from
this increase in investment spendingChapter 12 Assignment
What Is the Effect on AD?
Determine the effect on the short-run aggregate demand (AD)
curve for each of the following scenarios (It might be useful for
yourself (ie not post) to sketch a graph to illustrate each answer.
1. A decrease in consumer wealth occurs due to a plunge in
stock prices.
2. Households and businesses have more optimistic expectations

8. regarding future economic performance.
3. There are higher levels of investment spending by businesses
4. The government cuts taxes for households and businesses.
5. The Fed decreases the money supply
Which Way Does SRAS Shift?
Determine the effect on the short-run aggregate supply (SRAS)
curve for each of the following scenarios.
1. Labor productivity increases in the macroeconomy.
2. An earthquake destroys a significant amount of infrastructure
in the economy.
3. Technological progress occurs in the economy.
Understanding LRAS
.
1. Why is the LRAS curve vertical?
2. Can the LRAS curve shift
Unit 4: Discussion
11 unread reply.11 reply.
Refining your project idea
ULOs reflected in discussion:
· Develop a research topic for a business report (CLO 2)
Introduction:
This unit’s discussion will let you post your idea for your final

9. report, think about the kinds of sources you may need to
complete that report, and get some feedback in advance of the
formal proposal for that project that is due Sunday.
Directions:
Write a 250-word post in which you explain your chosen idea
for the final report in which you answer the following
questions:
· What organization have you chosen to write for and how are
you (have you been) connected to that organization?
· What problem in that organization will you address? Why is
solving this problem important to the organization?
· Who is the primary audience for the report? Are there any
secondary audiences?
· What kinds of information or types of research sources do you
think you will need to help your write the report?
When you reply to others’ posts, you should consider:
· Does this project seem to meet the requirements of the
assignment?
· Do you think the idea will be sufficient to sustain a 10 pg.
report? If not, what can you suggest that will help the writer
expand or narrow the idea to fit the constraints of the
assignment?
· Could the idea be more specific or more focused?
· What questions do you have about their idea that would help
them develop their proposal for Sunday? What would you like
to know more about?
· What additional information or types of sources could be
useful for this project?
You should use the feedback from your peers and instructor to
write and revise your formal proposal due Sunday.