Capping Exercise (Informal Report) (1500 words, double-spaced)
Preliminary ENGL 1100
Your informal report is the culminating assignment, the capping exercise, for this class. The work that you have completed on your annotated bibliographies and presentations should help you as you present your research in this third format, and your informal report should take up one of two topics: 1) an infamous engineering disaster, 2) the social and/or psychological effects of social media, 3) the relationship between literature and politics.
Note that the above topics are general, so you will need to research and write about a specific issue or case study that relates to one of the two topics.
Writing and Research Please write a reasoned, well-structured informal report on an issue or case study relevant to one of the four overarching topics noted above. The report should clearly indicate the nature and scope of the issue or case study, its causes and/or key features, and its consequences, based on engagement with and citation of resources. As with all other major assignments for this class, please frame your work for a non-expert.
The informal report does not quite fit any of the models found in Paul MacRae’s Business and Professional Writing, but it is closest to the problem-solving report in its goals and overall approaches. The report should be written in paragraph form, not as a memo, and you should not simply summarize or explain the topic. You should show clear argumentation supported by evidence from research (and analysis of that research).
To meet the minimum research requirement, you must use at least ONE book source, ONE peer-reviewed, scholarly article, and ONE online, popular source. You are welcome to find more sources, but do not over-rely on popular sources—try to find another scholarly article. Given the length of the assignment, please do not try to incorporate detailed analysis of more than five or six sources in your report. You might find, for example, that you make more use of two scholarly or professional sources and rely less heavily on a third.
If a research source is available on the internet, it should still be written by an expert in the field and published through a reputable source in that field (a scholarly journal, university, professional association, or government body, for example).
Your work should conform to current MLA standards, and it should adhere to the outlines for style and presentation that are in the syllabus and writing guide. A formatted template for this assignment is available on Moodle. Your report is worth 30% of your term grade.
MLA Details
Your Works Cited page should include entries for all texts referenced in (or otherwise contributing to) your report. This includes ALL sources quoted directly, paraphrased, or generally summarized, regardless of whether or not the source is available in print, online, or as another form of media (someone’s YouTube video, for example). General knowledge on a topic and statements of fact should still be cited if a source is quoted directly.
Given the length of the assignment, headings should be kept to a minimum in your report, and sub-headings should not be used. You can use headings for major components of the report, but do not feel obliged to include them.
