Question Description
Word Limits: 1,000-1,500 words
Requirements: This assignment is meant to be informative. Imagine you are a staff member for a local government. Your boss, the city manager, is asking you to summarize the research on a particular topic in a professional, objective, and clear manner. The city manager wants to send the brief out to council members before a vote on the topic, but wants you to make a clear recommendation based on your summary. You must use citations from at least four academic sources. These must be studies published in peer-reviewed journals.
Rubric:
- Summary of Evidence (25%)– you must succinctly but accurately summarize the studies you have chosen to include in your brief. I will be checking sources that appear to be mis-represented. They must be empirical studies. Empirical can be broad, meaning the studies can be based on: interviews, case studies, focus groups, surveys, quantitative models, qualitative/textual analysis, census data, or other data. It cannot be an opinion piece.
- Recommendation (20%)– you will offer a policy recommendation at the end of the document. This is not a personal opinion, but a professional recommendation based on the weight of the evidence. The recommendation you choose should reflect the evidence you have found. A simple paragraph starting with Recommendation: The [council/state/Congress/town should]
- Professional Tone (15%)– no I statements, no exaggerated claims or moralistic language. The tone is scientific and makes advice based on evidence.
- Logical flow and clear writing (10%)– professional writing for public audiences includes having a structure that makes it easy for the reader to transition from one study to the next.
- Readability (10%)everything should be explained clearly enough that the reader doesnt need to have prior knowledge of the topic to understand what is being discussed. You are writing for your selectman/council members!
- Grammar (10%)-this should be grammatically clear. It is a short piece, so make sure every sentence counts by being free of typos and other grammatical issues.
- Citations (10%)– each study you reference will be properly cited.