2024-2025 Spring MKT309 Exam 1 Research Memo Instructions PDF

**Exam 1: Research Memo Assignment Instructions** 2024 - 2025 Project: Removing/Reducing Clothing/Textile Waste from Landfills **Project Context** You are part of a student UNCG consultant team charged with studying the problem of textile waste and delivering a comprehensive report at the end of...

**Exam 1: Research Memo Assignment Instructions** 2024 - 2025 Project: Removing/Reducing Clothing/Textile Waste from Landfills **Project Context** You are part of a student UNCG consultant team charged with studying the problem of textile waste and delivering a comprehensive report at the end of the term. At this point, you have explored clothing or textile waste at a store as well as your own home, and, with your team, have chosen your organization/specific issue. **This Deliverable: Exam 1** This report is the culmination of your work in the first stage of the design-thinking problem-solving approach -- The Discover phase. Your collective research job is to become experts on the problem. Gathering information to advance your knowledge is the first activity in the three-phase process. WARNING: You are NOT to go into solution thinking during the research gathering phase. It is natural for the brain to do this, but it's too early. We turn to solution thinking only in Phase 2 -- Design. Each student is **to do BOTH - (1) secondary research and (2) primary research**. Half of your grade is secondary research, and the other half is primary research. The document is to be **1000 words (plus/minus 5%),** excluding headings, subheadings, citations, etc. For extra credit (added five points), you are invited to do a site observation and write up this learning experience in an additional [300 words]. Include [at least one] graphic in the required formatting. Only select graphics that detail an essential point; therefore, do not include pictures for decoration or those that are cartoonish. Please do the following with your graphic(s), or your score could have a deduction for a lesser style. 1. Nested it in the content by right-clicking "Wrap Text" and "Tight" and then move the graphic to its best place in the narrative. (Most often, move it to the right as we read left to right.) 2. Refer to the graphic in the narrative. (In the diagram to the right,..) 3. With a border with appropriate color and weight. 4. With a caption. 5. It contains an embedded link (right-click, link, paste in the link). The embedded link makes it easy for the reader to verify the information and read more details.) 6. Keep the graphic within the margin. Your citations are to be in footnote format only. A video in the Secondary Research Module in Canvas demonstrates how to do Microsoft Footnoting. Do [not] use Works Cited or References; you will receive a full-letter grade reduction if you don't use the required format. No in-text citations are required. **SECONDARY RESEARCH** For secondary research, you are required to use the UNCG databases (guided by our librarian, Mr. Steve Cramer) and Google Scholar. While you can reference websites and periodicals, they must be quality resources, or they will not be counted in your required number of citations. Reading and studying ten or more quality works should yield at least FOUR QUALITY citations for inclusion in your document. **Decide who researches what secondary research topic.** 1. General statistics detailing textiles in landfills. How big is the problem? What innovations or improvements are currently being made? 2. The laws around textiles in landfills. What are governments doing to help with this problem? 3. Facts about the science of textiles -- their creation and needed resources. Additionally, what alternatives are already in use? 4. Facts about current recycling processes. How does this process work? Is it being done well? What is the impact of textiles in landfills on humans and the environment? 5. Information about your team's organization of choice. I suggest starting with the stockholder's report and the sustainability section, looking first at their priorities and current activities. Find out what they are doing or not doing relative to textiles in landfills. Outside of scope is information on the company\'s background and finances, including stock information. **PRIMARY RESEARCH** Select a person whom you believe can offer valuable information. This person can be someone you already know. You are required to record this interview and submit it for instructor review. Post the recording file in that assignment. The interview write-up must be written in narrative form, not in transcript-like- notes-like form---no question-and-answer style. **Decide who interviews whom:** 1. A person in a leadership role in your chosen organization. (It can be a team leader, supervisor, manager, or executive.) 2. An employee of the organization who knows the business operations. 3. An employee of a sister-type organization in the same industry. 4. Textiles in landfills sustainability expert, such as a professor (at any school of higher education), a journalist, etc. 5. Repeat one of the four listed above. If you have a challenge selecting a person to interview, you are encouraged to talk with your team for ideas and email the professor for ideas. **The Interview** See the Module information to aid in crafting your questions. You will submit your questions in an Appendix in your Exam 1. To aid your interviewee in this process, consider sending the questions to them in advance.  This helps the interviewee feel confident in the upcoming experience; perhaps they might even do some investigating before meeting with you. You may deviate from your questions in the interview, as the interviewee might offer valuable information that you would like to explore further. Dress in business casual professionalism. Be well groomed. No need to take notes as you can re-watch the video for the write-up. If the interviewee wants to be anonymous, you may record them using a fake display name and have their camera off. **THE WRITING PROCESS** **Getting Ready to Write** If you have not yet downloaded the free version of Grammarly, I encourage you to do that before you start writing. Grammarly is an exceptional software that aids you in your writing as you write. Reminder: You are writing to your boss*.* In other words, as you write, think of yourself as a business professional at work, writing to give your boss a status update on your research. You are not writing an academic essay. Only include definitions of items you believe your boss does not know. **Writing** A Pre-draft document is delivered to you in the assignment. Use this document to start. Do not use any other style or template. Read and adhere to the instructor\'s comments in the Pre-draft. They are there to aid your performance. **Tips to produce a higher-quality document:** 1. Follow directions. The heading is to be as demonstrated in the Pre-draft. 2. Revise your content when information is "writing to process" instead of "writing to communicate." In this rewriting, you frequently reduce the length. 3. Revise your content to be research [only]. Do NOT include your opinion. In this assignment, you'll write more in the third person than in the first person. There is little emotion as this is a fact-based collection of information. 4. If you believe it important for the reader to know the background of your interviewee, include a couple of sentences as a footnote. 5. Use business writing only. 6. Revise out any hint of a proposed solution. That is part of an upcoming activity, not for this activity. 7. Revise awkward writing patterns. (We all have them. For instance, overuse of a particular word or phrase, paragraph organization, or sentence construction.) 8. Revise to ensure your topic sentences are the first sentence and all in the paragraph are on that topic. 9. Business wants an ease of readability; therefore, use smaller, not larger, paragraphs (more is better). 10. Vary your sentence starts for more vibrancy. Use more nouns than articles, pronouns, and articles. 11. To help write more concise sentences, Vary your sentence lengths. 12. Remove filler words like "There is, There are, I believe, I think, I feel." 13. Create elegant flow by having a transition word or phrase every two or three sentences. Use The Cohesion Process to create unity from the first to the last sentence. **\ ** **THE SUBMISSION** Submit the Canvas assignment by the deadline. While you may submit it up to 24 hours late, know that the grade will have a 15-point deduction. Please be sure to delete the instructor\'s comments before uploading. Please post in Microsoft Word format and Adobe.pdf [both]. Word is needed for the instructor's feedforward/grading process, and.pdf is needed because Word sometimes distorts a document's formatting. Do not post a Google Drive or One Drive file; this format could result in a zero score. Please know that the assignment has the Turnitin feature active, which gives you a score for needed updates. After reviewing this feedback, revise the document until it has a "blue" or "green" score. You may repeat this uploading and revising process multiple times -- until you meet the requirement. On the final page of your document, include a picture of your document's Readability Index. You will find this information by clicking "Editor" and "Document Stats." Ideal business writing readability scores are Reading Ease at about 60 and Grade Level at about 8^th^ grade. Checking your scores helps you learn your writing quality and audience level. **Scoring** Given that this is the first writing assignment in the course, grades are frequently lower. To raise your score for Exam 2 and the Cumulative Exam, apply the feedforward annotations [and more]. (The instructor can't point out every single error in your paper.) A rubric is in Canvas. **Sharing Your Expertise** After completing and submitting your memorandum, you will share your Exam 1 with your teammates in a discussion board. Read everyone's Exam 1; your collective new knowledge helps you in the next phase. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_ **While the instructor has made every effort to be clear in all communications, course materials, and assignment instructions, differing perspectives exist. Therefore, if you have a need, I*T IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to reach out to the instructor to gain more resources, support, or understanding.***