Proposal Report Summary Memos & Presentation Handout Friday, Dec 5 2008

This was the last group assignment of the semester.  We talked about three different things in our individual progress memos.  We talked about our group, our tasks, and changes we would make.

 

Our group managed the overall project well.  We turned in every assignment on time.

 

We communicated with each other frequently.  We used e mail and text messaging to do this.  We met outside of class twice.  We divided the workload for the proposal and worked on the presentation during these meetings.  We also went to your office hours for editing help.  This helped a lot with the style and organization of our report.

 

I had three different tasks for the proposal report.  I wrote the “title page,” “problem,” and “conclusion” sections of the proposal report.  The problem section explained the issue of sportsmanship at Tech.  It proved that our students at Texas Tech have been “bad sports.”  The problem section said that the behavior was a problem that wasn’t acceptable, and that it needed to be solved.

 

I also wrote the conclusion section.  This section restated the main points of the paper.

 

I also printed out all of the assignments from each group member to bring to class on the due dates.  I did this because I can come to class early if I needed to.  This ensured that the assignments were able to be turned in on time.

 

I also wrote about changes I would make if I did this assignment again.  I would do more research.  I would also give the Student Government Association more solution ideas for the problem.

 

Our presentation handout was one page.  We handed this out to every classmate before our presentation.  It had our title (Red Raider Pride: Sportsmanship at Tech) at the top.  It also had a picture of the double T on it.  The handout had the main points of the presentation on it.  It described the issue.  It described the campaigns that Tech has already tried to improve sportsmanship.  It also described our solution ideas. 

 

We put these things on our handout for the benefit of our classmates.  They were able to follow along with the main points of our presentation from our handout.

 

I’m attaching the file for our individual progress memos here below.  I’m also attaching a file of our presentation handout.

 

Proposal Report Summary Memos

Presentation Handout

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Formal Group Proposal Report Friday, Dec 5 2008

This Group Proposal Report was the big assignment of the semester.  All of the other little group assignments lead up to this report.  

 

This assignment was really challenging.  It was a very long paper.  It had to be at least ten pages.  We had to pick our own topic, audience, and goal.  It was hard to think of a topic for this assignment.

 

The hardest thing about this assignment is that it was a group effort.  We worked individually most of the semester.  It’s much easier to work by yourself because you don’t have to cooperate with other people.

 

I can see how this group project could be beneficial to me for the future.  I practiced cooperating and communicating with my other group members.  I practiced setting goals so that everyone would finish their tasks on time.  I practiced being very detailed and organized.  This helped our group know exactly what we had to do, and by what date.  I practiced communicating with group members very often.

 

There were a lot of challenges with this assignment.  One of the hardest things for me was working with other people.  I had to try very hard not to try to do everything myself.  That is what I’ve usually done in the past.  I usually just do everything myself so I know it’ll get done. 

 

However, it wasn’t that way for this assignment.  Our group members divided the sections of the report of evenly.  It was a new experience for me.  It was nice not to have to do everything myself.

 

There were benefits of working in a group.  The best thing for me was not having to do all of the research.  I really don’t like doing research.  Our group members split the research up evenly.  We did our own research for our own sections of the report.  I researched examples of bad sportsmanship at Tech.  Lydia researched the Student Government Association at Texas Tech.  Liz researched previous sportsmanship campaigns that Tech has done.

 

Our group also worked well together.  It was a relief to have group members that evenly contributed.  All of us turned in every assignment on time.  We never had any major problems.  We also got along with each other.  It made the project much easier.

 

This group project was definitely my least favorite project of the semester.  However, it was useful and practical.  I will most likely be working with groups of people in whatever my future job will be.

 

I am attaching the file of our group proposal report here below.  It also contains the handout we gave to the class at the bottom.

 

Formal Group Proposal Report

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Proposal Rough Draft and Progress Memos Wednesday, Dec 3 2008

Our Proposal Rough Draft was about sportsmanship at Tech.

 

The title of our group report was “Red Raider Pride: Sportsmanship at Tech.”  My other group members were Lydia Saldana and Liz Montgomery.

 

Our audience was the president of the SGA (Student Government Association) at Texas Tech.  Her name is Lee Bobbitt.  She represents the student body.  If the students want something done she’ll try to get someone to do it.

 

Our issue was that our students at Texas Tech have been “bad sports” at football games.  It has contributed to our bad reputation as fans.  We decided to prove this to the SGA by giving them examples of the student’s bad behavior in the past.  We included events like the “Vick ‘em” t-shirts and the goalpost brawl with Texas A&M fans.  We also described bad behavior like singing alternate profane words in the fight song.

 

We changed our solution ideas to make the more effective.  We made the Sportsmanship Award idea more clear.  We described that a Sportsmanship Award only exists for athletes, and not for student fans.  Our award would be implemented in the Big 12 for the most sportsmanlike student fans.

 

We also changed our idea of involvement with the athletes.  We decided it wasn’t practical for the athletes to take time out of their game preparation to make a speech to fans.  We decided to have them record a video promoting good sportsmanship instead.  This video would be played before the game and during halftime.

 

Lydia and I came to your office hours to get editing help on the rough draft.  You helped us edit for style.  You helped make our tone more conversational.  You also helped us eliminate wordiness.

 

Our group communicated effectively through all of the assignments so far.  We completed our individual parts and e mailed them to each other.  Every member of the group was able to make suggestions or changes to each other’s work.

 

We texted each other and reminded each other about upcoming assignments.  This was a good way to make sure everyone was still doing their sections of the report.

 

I’m attaching our group’s rough draft for the proposal below.  I’m also attaching the individual progress memos of each group member.

Proposal Rough Draft

Individual Progress Memos

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Proposal Outline and Progress Memos Wednesday, Dec 3 2008

This assignment described the audience, issue, and solutions of our proposal report.  It described our ideas for the design of the report.  It also included an outline of the sections we planned to use in our report.

 

The title of our group report was “Red Raider Pride: Sportsmanship at Tech.”  

 

My other group members were Lydia Saldana and Liz Montgomery.

 

We decided the audience of our report was the president of the SGA (Student Government Association) at Texas Tech.  Her name is Lee Bobbitt.  We decided to write to her for many reasons.  We did some research on her to see what she does for the students.  We found out that she represents the student body.  Basically, if the students want something done she’ll try to get someone to do it.

 

Our issue was that our students at Texas Tech have been “bad sports” at football games.  It has contributed to our bad reputation as fans.

 

Our group made a lot of progress on the “solutions” section since the Proposal Plan Memo assignment.  We came up with three different solution ideas.  Our first idea was to implement a Sportsmanship Award for the students of the Big 12.  

 

We had some problems with this solution.  We needed to research this idea more.  We didn’t make it clear in the assignment that a Sportsmanship Award already exists.  However, it only exists for the athletes.  Our idea involved the student fans.

 

Another solution idea was to get the athletes involved.  We had some problems with this solution idea too.  We originally said that the athletes should give a speech to the fans before the game or during halftime.  However, you said that that idea was not very practical.  This is because the coach would not want their players to waste valuable time making speeches.

 

You said we had generally effective editing for this assignment.  However, we had some trouble with the style.  Our sentences were too wordy.  We also needed to make the tone more conversational.

 

This assignment was useful in different ways.  It made our group think about the design of our final report.  It was also a chance to see what else we needed to get done to be able to turn the assignments in on time.

 

I’m attaching a copy of the Proposal Outline here below.  It includes the individual progress memos from each group member.

 

Proposal Outline and Progress Memos

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Proposal Plan Memo Tuesday, Dec 2 2008

The Proposal Plan Memo was the first of the many group assignments.  The people in my group were Lydia Saldana and Liz Montgomery.  

 

We decided to write about sportsmanship at Texas Tech football games.  We decided on “Red Raider Pride: Sportsmanship at Tech” for our report title.

 

We decided our audience was the President of the SGA (Student Government Association) at Texas Tech.  Her name is Lee Bobbitt.  We chose this audience because it made our assignment easier.  Talking to a fellow student would let us use a less formal and more conversational tone.  We also wouldn’t have to do a lot of research on the audience since Lee Bobbitt is a student at our own University.

 

The issue we chose to write about was sportsmanship at Tech.  We explained that our students have been bad ‘bad sports” at football games.  We tried to convince Lee Bobbitt to consider thinking about implementing a program to improve sportsmanship at Tech.

 

We had some problems coming up with ideas to give the SGA.  We weren’t sure what solution ideas we should give them to improve sportsmanship at Tech.  We talked with you in class.  You helped us and gave us some ideas for solutions.

 

Our group decided to communicate with each other using e mail and text messaging.  We decided this would be the most effective way since we all check our e mail a lot.  We also decided to use class time to work on our assignments.  

 

We met once outside of class before turning in this assignment.  This meeting was useful and productive.  We decided to split up the assignment evenly between the three of us.  We decided what sections of the report we wanted to do.  Then we divided the sections evenly between us.

 

We decided to have eight different sections in our report.  The sections included: a title page, a table of contents, an abstract summary, information about our audience, the problem, what Tech has already done, the solutions, and a conclusion.

 

We decided that we would turn in all of the assignments in on time.  We decided not to try for early submission because the assignments were due very close together.

 

I’m attaching a file of the Proposal Plan Memo here below.

 

 

Proposal Plan Memo

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Instructions Analysis Tuesday, Dec 2 2008

I did my Instructions Analysis assignment on origami instructions.  My instructions explained how to make a “hopping frog.”

 

I chose parents with kids as my audience at first.  However, this audience seemed to be too hard to define.  I chose a new audience instead.  My new audience was experts versus beginners.  I said my instructions were written for beginners.  Each step was short and simple.  There were pictures to go along with most of the steps.  

There wasn’t any confusing language in the steps.  I said my audience could have little to no origami knowledge to make the frog.

 

I had two goals for my instructions.  The first goal was for the user to take as much time as they needed to make the hopping frog.  However, they had to try to make it look very similar to the picture of the finished hopping frog.

 

My second goal was for the user to make the frog as quickly as they could.  The finished product only had to look somewhat like the picture of the finished hopping frog.

 

I did a brainstorming exercise for this assignment.  I sat down and wrote down all my ideas on paper.  This helped to get the “creative juices” flowing.  Brainstorming helps me to remember my ideas and train of thought.  I’ve used this method for almost every assignment this semester.

 

I did the Instructions Analysis assignment in about two sittings.  I like to do as much of the assignment as I can at one time.  It helps me keep my train of thought.

I went to your office hours for editing help this time.  It was more helpful than the people at the Writing Center.  You helped me eliminate wordiness in my paper.  This was the first major assignment that I got 100% on!

 

I think I improved on my writing style in this assignment.  However, I don’t think it took me less time to do it.  I’ve taken about the same amount of time for each assignment.  I think it’s because I like to be extra careful about my assignments.  I like to be content with everything before I turn it in.

 

I’m attaching the file of my Instructions Analysis here below.

Instructions Analysis

 

 

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