C14. IM: Reports
A. Chapter Objectives
The purpose of this chapter is to provide you with teaching materials to guide students toward
the ultimate goal of writing a recommendation report, the chapter
project featured
in Chapter 14 of How Writing Works.
We have included
in-class discussion questions, activities, and writing exercises that will scaffold
students’ progress toward
the final project, while also reinforcing the key concepts
introduced in Part 1 and in Chapter 14.
You can also use these materials to create lesson
plans. Start by choosing one or two discussion questions from C. Talk About It: Discussion Questions, an activity from D. Try It Out: In-Class
Exercises, and a writing
activity from E. Write About It: Writing Prompts. Then, you can layer in additional activities if you still have time. You can also assign the activities in part E for homework.
B. Genre Toolkit Table
|
Genre
|
What is it?
|
Who reads
it?
|
What’s it for?
|
|
Social networking status update
|
Short (one-
or two-sentence) reports on recent
news and events
in the poster’s life
|
Friends and contacts of the poster
|
To share the current state of the writer:
location, feelings, attitudes, beliefs,
or news and events
|
|
News report
|
An account of a recent event
|
Readers of the newspaper
in question, especially readers interested in the topic at hand
|
To convey information about the
event
|
255
256 C14.
Teach It: Reports
|
Progress report
|
An update
on the writer’s accomplishmen ts on an ongoing project
|
A supervisor, manager, or professor
|
To inform the reader of the status of the project in question
|
|
Recommendation report
|
A long document that reports on the status
of something and provides recommendatio ns for future action
|
The person
or group who can act on the recommendatio ns—often a government agency, organization, or corporation
|
To bring about change or to adjudicate a public issue (e.g., Should
we switch from chlorine to
saline treatment in campus pools?)
|
C. Talk About It: Discussion Questions
Here you will find questions that you can use to prompt discussion about this chapter
in class. Keep in mind that you do not need to use all of
these questions; you can choose the ones that reflect your teaching objectives and style. For a balanced
lesson plan, be sure to leave time in each class session
to move on to the in-class exercises and writing exercises included
here.
We’ve started with student-centered questions, which help you to get students’ attention
by connecting the topic to students’ own interests and experiences. Then, we’ve provided concept-
and text- oriented questions that help you to direct
students’ attention toward the concepts and texts featured
in the chapter.
Student-Centered Questions
1.
Students’ reading experiences: What kinds of reports
do you read regularly
(from the ones featured
in the chapter)?
If you are less familiar with some of these types of reports,
why is that the case?
The purpose of this question is to guide
students to think about themselves as readers of reports and to think about how the kinds of reports featured in the chapter
differ by audience. Students
will most likely
say that they read social
network updates and news reports.
However,
unless they have workplace experience, they may be less familiar with progress
reports or recommendation reports. You can ask students to explain why they think
they may have encountered these other types less often—what does it say about the audience and discourse community
for those kinds of reports?
You might also ask students
to think about other reports
they may have read, such as lab reports,
book reports, or oral reports.
Then, review how these reports
share similar purposes, even though their topics and audiences
may be quite different.
2.
Students’ writing
experiences: Have you written
a report recently? What kinds of reports have you written
in school or for work?
The goal of this activity is to encourage students to think of themselves as writers
of reports. Students
might mention having written lab reports or book reports
or having delivered oral reports, along with status updates.
Note students’ responses on the board, and then ask students
to consider what features characterize these types of writing. Students might note that reports
are mainly informative writing, that they focus on facts.
But you might
prompt them to think about
whether reports
are also persuasive. For example, a lab report
also seeks to persuade
the instructor that you have done the experiment correctly and interpreted the results
properly, while a book report may persuade the instructor that you have read and interpreted a book effectively.
Concept-Centered Questions
1.
Genre: What are the different genres of reports in this chapter?
If you compare
these genres, what do they have in common
and how do they differ?
258 C14.
Teach It: Reports
Write the four genres
featured in this chapter
on the board, then ask students to list similarities and differences among them. For example, they all seek to report
on information or facts, but they might
use different means to do so. Students
will notice other similarities and differences in the design, format, and style. The goal of this activity is to get students
to use key concepts from Part 1 to think critically about the different genres featured in this chapter.
If they get stuck, you can prompt them by asking about particular elements of the Genre Toolkit (What about the design
of these reports?
Do you notice any differences in the organization?).
2.
Tone and formality: How does the tone for reports
reflect the relative status of the writer and reader? Compare the different examples (status
updates, news reports,
progress reports, and recommendation reports). How would you describe the tone and formality of each? Why is this the case?
The goal here is to get students thinking
about how these
genres index the relative
status of writers
and readers. In a social
networking status update, the audience
is typically a group of peers, so the language used can be more informal. In a progress
report, for instance,
the writer is addressing a superior—someone who is in charge of the project
and the writer’s
performance. So the writer may take on the stance of a subordinate, addressing the reader with extra politeness and respect. In the case of the recommendation report, though, the writer has conducted extensive research
and is an authority on the subject.
While he or she may be writing
to a superior (such as a government agency or organization), he or she has likely been asked to do so because of a certain expertise. Thus, the writer can take on the more authoritative stance of a knowledgeable expert.
3.
Research: A recommendation report requires significant research. Using Brad’s report as a model, ask students
to list the different types of sources
he used and describe how he used them.
Students might note that Brad used research articles
from journals, information from encyclopedias, and Internet sources. They might notice further that Brad used Internet
sources mainly to determine the relative cost of saline
versus chlorine treatment in pools but library sources
for most of his research
on health effects
and sanitization methods.
C14. Teach It: Reports 259
D.
Try It Out: In-Class Exercises
1.
Genre analysis
& organization: Ask each student
to bring in at least three
examples of recommendation reports that they have found (try searching online
at government websites, such as the those of the US Food and Drug Administration or the US Department of Agriculture, or your college’s website). Ask them to write an outline
of how each report is organized. Then, as a group, ask them to prepare a list of similarities and differences among their reports.
What are the major differences among them? What options do recommendation reports
offer for organization?
Note: The goal here is to get students
to think more deeply
about the genre they will be writing. Recommendation reports serve a basic purpose and tend to share many formatting features but can vary quite a bit in terms of organization—what sections are included
and in what order.
As a follow up, ask students
to map out which sections they will include in their reports,
and why.
2.
Research: To get started on their recommendation reports, students will need to do research. Schedule
time in class to help students
get started. If your campus librarians offer library sessions for classes, now is a good time to schedule one. The librarian can help you to identify which resources are available that will work for students’ topics and assignments. In addition to subject area databases, you might try Google’s Think Tank search
engine: http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=004976651853965360775: uqvyjatccjo. This allows students
to find reports
on their issue; however, they should
be careful to research
the think tanks writing each report in order to evaluate the information. Ask students to use the research chapters
in HWW (Part 4) to help them. By the end of the work session,
ask students to have five sources
that they think they will use for their reports. You can go around
and help students who are having trouble finding sources
for their topics.
260 C14.
Teach It: Reports
E.
Write About
It: Writing Prompts
Here we have provided
ideas for writing
prompts that you can assign in class, for homework, or as online
exercises. These are writing activities that can serve as prewriting for the chapter
project or as stages in writing the chapter
project.
Ideally, students should
practice doing some writing for every class session
(either in class or as homework), but you do not need to assign all three types of writing
for every session.
Depending
on your approach
to grading, you may or may not assign a grade to these kinds of assignments. Some prefer to award points that go toward
class participation and attendance; others consider these materials as part of the grade for the final project; still others will set aside a certain percentage of the course grade for in-class activities and homework.
In general, though,
you should award points for completing these kinds of assignments but do not need to assign
a letter
grade or give extensive comments.
In Class
1.
List: As a group,
brainstorm as many problems, issues,
or general annoyances that you notice on campus
as possible. Keep a list of your ideas. Then, identify the five problems
that seem most likely
to yield a good recommendation report. Which ones are most interesting? Which ones would be most feasible
to research? Which
ones are most likely to be subject to change? Which ones would have a clear audience—a group or person who could actually
act on the issue? Share your top five list with the class.
Note: Here you can start to help students to identify good topics for recommendation reports.
Students should be able to see that some problems or issues may be important
but difficult to research. For example, while
students often complain
about construction or lack of parking on college
campuses, it is usually
difficult to recommend feasible changes (due to budget constraints, timelines, etc.). However,
some student-led
initiatives are often
quite successful, such as offering better nutritional information in the cafeteria or starting a composting program.
C14. Teach It: Reports 261
2. Freewrite: Choose one problem
or issue that you would like to explore for your recommendation report. Write for four minutes about why you find that issue interesting and what kinds of research you can do to support your analysis of the problem
and its potential solutions.
Take Home
1. Partial draft: Prepare
a draft of one body section
of your report. As you are writing,
focus on how you can use material from your research effectively to inform
readers about the issue and to demonstrate your expertise. Bring a copy of your draft to the next class.
Note: You can repeat this exercise
multiple times in a unit, gradually
building up from a few body sections to a full report with introduction, conclusions, and recommendations, etc. Give students a chance to workshop
each section, referring to the sample reports
in the chapter for guidance.
2. Progress report: Write a progress report
describing the work you have accomplished so far on your recommendation report. What research
have you conducted? How much have you drafted?
What steps do you have left? What problems
have you encountered so far, and how do you plan to address
them?
Note: Assign this task midway
through the unit,
so you can assess how students are doing
so far and provide feedback. You may choose to grade this assignment, but it might be better to use it as an exercise
and a self- check on students’ progress.
Online
1.
Discussion board or forum: Write a brief forum or discussion board post in which you describe the top three potential topics
you have chosen
for your recommendation report. For each topic, briefly describe why it appeals to you and why you think it will be suitable for the assignment. Your goal is to get input from your classmates about which
topic seems like it will be most feasible for this assignment. If you have questions, you can ask them here. Then,
reply to at least two of your classmates’ posts, giving your opinion on what topic they should choose
and why.
262 C14.
Teach It: Reports
Note: Assign
this activity early in the unit, when students are still deciding on a topic.
2.
Online workshop: Post a draft of one body section of your recommendation report
to the course management system (Discussion Board,
Forum, etc.). Write
at least two questions about the draft (e.g., Do I have enough research
here to support
this section? Does this organization make sense?). Then, comment on at least two other students’ posts,
answering the questions
they have posed about
their draft.
Note: Assign this activity at the midpoint
of the unit, when students have at least a partial
draft. You can repeat this activity
several times during the unit or mix this activity
with an in-class
workshop so that students get many chances
to revise their work based on peer feedback.
3.
Blog post: Write a short blog post in which you reflect
on the process of drafting
your recommendation report.
What did you find most challenging about this assignment? What do you think you did well in this assignment? What elements
of the writing process (Chapter 4) did you use, and how well did they work for you? If you were going to tell a future student
in this course
how to write a good recommendation report, what advice would you give him or her?
Note:
Assign this activity
at the end of the unit as a way for students to reflect on the assignment and what they have learned in this unit.
F.
Media
Suggestions
1.
Student videos: oral recommendation reports: Ask
students to view the following
examples of oral recommendation reports, presented by students:
C14. Teach It: Reports 263
In class, students
can discuss which reports they found most effective and why—was it the delivery
of the information, the depth of information provided, or something
else? They can also discuss
how the oral format for a recommendation report differs from a print report.
What options
does an oral format provide that are not available
in a print version
and vice versa?
2.
Visual recommendation reports: Examine these sets of recommendations,
which come in the form of infographics:
·
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/ PhysicalActivity/American-Heart-Association- Recommendations-for-Physical-Activity- Infographic_UCM_450754_SubHomePage.jsp
·
http://www.watchfulsoftware.com/en/news- events/blog/posts/94-of-healthcare-organizations-breached
In class (or as a journal entry or discussion forum post), ask students to discuss whether
these infographics seem to perform similar
rhetorical functions as recommendation reports.
Do any of them come close to being “visual recommendation reports”?
How are they similar to—and different from—recommendation reports?
As a follow-up activity, you could ask students
to sketch out a mock- up of an infographic for their own report.
How could they present their information in a visual form?
G.
Intercultural
Teaching Tips
Many students in your course may be unfamiliar with reading and writing progress reports
and recommendation reports
since these are professional genres.
First-year students also generally lack an understanding of how colleges
and universities work as organizations— but they are familiar with how colleges
and universities affect
them as students. Reading
examples of recommendation reports
from your campus might give students
a chance to get to know how the college works, as well as to learn more about how reports
work within an institution, all within a context they are familiar with since they are college students. If you search your campus website, you will probably
264 C14.
Teach It: Reports
find examples of task force recommendations on various topics,
from instructional technology to reports
on tuition raises.
You can use these kinds of examples
to practice analyzing a new genre within
a context students may want to learn more about.
Students might also be unfamiliar with some of the features used in reports, especially recommendation reports. For example, they may have less experience writing about facts and statistics if they are mostly used to writing
essays about literature. Because they lack vocabulary for writing about technical
and numerical information, some students may fall back on vague nouns (such as “thing” and “problem”) and may need to practice
other vocabulary, such as “cause,”
“factor,” “elements,” and “effects.” In class, you can do a workshop
where students search
for these imprecise terms and try to find better substitutes.
Some students
may be less familiar with the kinds of government agencies and organizations that issue recommendation reports. In Chapter 14 of HWW, for
instance, we include
a recommendation report issued by the Centers for Disease Control.
For international students, especially, these government organizations may be unfamiliar. You can help all students
by asking them to research
the different entities they encounter while doing
research for their own reports.
Finally,
students who are more familiar with personal writing
or essay writing
may find it difficult to take on the more informative, objective
stance required for a report. They may try to make the research
match their opinions,
rather than letting
the research guide their recommendations. For instance,
they might complain that they cannot
find research to support
their view that smoking bans on campus should be repealed. In that case, they are letting
their opinions guide their research, not vice versa.
Writing based on research—which makes up much of the writing
required in college and the workplace—requires the opposite
stance: letting research and informed analysis
guide the recommendations.
H. Class Handouts
Handout: Peer Review Worksheet
Note: You can use this worksheet when students have a complete
draft to workshop.
Have students write comments in the third column
to address
the questions and then complete
the task in the fourth column by marking
up the writer’s draft. Ask all peer reviewers to include their
own names, the writer’s name, and the date in the last row; and then give it back to the writer. You should leave time for writers
and reviewers
to go over the worksheet and explain their comments.
After the workshop, students should include a revision plan, a list of items that they plan to address
in their next revision. There is a space for the revision
plan toward the bottom
of the worksheet.
Ask the writer to include the worksheet he or she received from the reviewer when handing in the final project. That way, you can assess how well both students (the writer and the reviewer) participated in the draft workshop: how well the reviewer contributed feedback and how well the writer
addressed that feedback
in revisions.
266 C14.
Teach It: Reports
|
|
Peer Review Worksheet: Recommendation Report
|
|
|||
|
|
|
Questions
|
Comments
|
Tasks
|
|
|
|
Genre, audience, and purpose
|
Does the document suit the genre
of a recommendation report?
Does it
suit the audience?
Does it
meet the purpose of a
recommendation report?
|
|
Put an asterisk (*) next to any
passage that seems
to stray from an informed report to that
of opinion or
belief.
|
|
|
|
Rhetorical situation
|
Is the document
suitable for the rhetorical situation?
Has the
author taken on the
appropriate role (a
knowledgeable expert)?
Does it meet the author’s purpose (to persuade readers to adopt the recommendation)?
Does
the report meet the audience’s needs
and interests? Does it address
the needs of a decision- maker?
Does the report provide up- to-date information about the
issue?
|
|
If you were the person or group making a decision about these recommendations, what other
questions or concerns would you have?
Should the
writer address these in the report?
|
|
|
|
Design, organization, content, and style
|
Is the document
designed to look like a
report? Does the writer
use effective design
principles (fonts, alignment, etc.)?
How is the
document organized, and is that organization
effective?
How interesting and detailed
is the content?
|
|
Circle at least
two parts in the
document where the writer could provide more
concrete details or data.
Put an exclamation mark (!) next
to one part of the report that would
benefit from a visual element (such
as a graph or chart).
|
|
C14. Teach It: Reports 267
|
|
|
Is the style appropriate for a
recommendation report?
Has the writer proofread the notes
carefully for grammar and mechanics?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Revision plan:
|
For the writer: What four things will you do when
you revise this draft? 1)
2)
3)
4)
|
|
|||
|
|
|
Reviewer’s name:
|
Writer’s name:
|
Date of workshop:
|
|
|
268 C14.
Teach It: Reports
Rubric: Report
Note: You can introduce this rubric to your students
early in the unit, shortly after you introduce the unit project.
To get students to focus
on using the rubric, you can ask them to develop it with you in class. As you familiarize students
with the genre, ask them to fill in the criteria
for a fair, a good, and an excellent assignment. Then,
ask students to use the rubric in their draft workshops
to comment on each other’s papers.
Finally, use the same rubric to provide feedback
on their drafts
and evaluate
their work. You can highlight on the rubric those elements students need to address and add notes on the rubric or on their papers.
|
|
Rubric: Recommendation Report
|
|
|||
|
|
|
Fair
|
Good
|
Excellent
|
|
|
|
Genre, audience, and purpose
|
The document does not fully
suit the genre of a recommendation report, does
not address the target
audience effectively, or does not fulfill the purpose of the genre. For
instance, it may lack
section headings and be
organized more like an essay, or
it may offer subjective opinions rather than
researched judgments.
|
The document generally addresses
the genre, audience, and purpose of a
recommendation report but
may not always
do so effectively. For example, it may need
more concrete research, or it may slip
into “essay mode”
at times (offering opinions rather than researched judgments).
|
The document suits the genre,
audience, and purpose
of a recommendation report.
It comes close to the student and professional examples in the textbook
in terms of level
of detail and professionalism.
|
|
|
|
Rhetorical situation
|
The recommendation report is not suitable for the rhetorical
situation. For example, it may not
address the interests and needs of
decision- makers, or it may
not include details relevant to the issue at hand.
|
The document generally addresses the rhetorical situation but may miss opportunities
to make the report relevant to the situation. For example, it may not
always include the
details most interesting to the reader or most
relevant for the issue
at hand.
|
The report is appropriate for
the rhetorical situation. It meets the needs of the reader (decision-makers), fulfills the
author’s purpose, and provides
an interesting and detailed analysis of the data before
providing recommendations.
|
|
|
|
Design, organization, content, and style
|
The document may be organized
haphazardly, without
clear section headers or parts.
The content
may be inadequate, the design may be
unappealing, or the style may be unsuitable for the genre. For
example, the language may be too informal.
|
The document generally suits the
design, organization, content, and style
of a report but may not always take advantage
of its rhetorical
affordances.
The design is adequate but may
not be visually striking, or the
style may lack interest
and appeal.
|
The document reflects the design,
organization, content, and style suitable for a recommendation report. The
document keeps the reader
focused throughout with detailed information,
an appropriate style, a logical organization scheme,
and a visually appealing design.
|
|
|
|
Grammar and mechanics
|
The writer has not proofread carefully; there are a distracting number
of grammatical and
mechanical errors.
|
The writing is generally free of grammatical or mechanical errors
but may be awkward or unclear at
times.
|
The writing is not only
free of grammatical or mechanical errors
but fluent, polished, even eloquent.
|
|
|
|
Process
|
The student has not provided evidence of a
writing process or participation in draft workshops. Drafts, comments,
and revisions are missing.
|
The student
has provided some
evidence of a writing process and participation in draft workshops but could show more engagement (i.e.,
more detailed comments in workshops or
more substantive revisions).
|
The student has provided excellent evidence of a
sound writing process and has contributed
effectively to peer workshops.
|
|
