Length: 2 pages minimum

Assignment and Audience:
Your audience for this assignment is me, Betsy. The assignment is to use the generic structure for a progress report to write a memo updating me on your progress on the third unit.

Purpose:
Therefore, this assignment will serve several purposes:

• it will give you practice working with the generic structure of an informal report.
• it provides you with the opportunity to convince me that you are making progress on a major project (a useful skill in the world of business).
• it gives you the opportunity to describe problems in the group work experience, or the chance for individuals or splinter groups to declare their independence.

Planning and Drafting:
You'll want to review the material on the web site on progress reports. There is also a sample progress report on-line. In addition:

• you'll need to organize this assignment carefully. Remember that a generic structure helps provide you with a pattern for organizing your report, but you still must forecast the topics you'll cover, chunk information, employ headers and strong transitions between paragraphs, etc.
• remember that in sections detailing work completed you need not say which group member did what, unless there are specific problems with someone's performance.
• keep in mind that you are not being graded on what you have or have not done—if you have yet to do significant work, that's OK—but show me that you know how to use a progress report as a tool for keeping your group's work focused—and show me you've done significant thinking and planning, enough to write a detailed background section describing the problem you're tackling, the sources you've uncovered, etc.
• give yourself enough time to design this document so that it is not only verbally sound, but visually pleasing.

Evaluation Criteria
Progress report memo:

• employs generic structure for an informal documentary report, including: memo format, description of the problem/assignment, background describing the central issues in the assignment, sections describing work completed, work in process, and work planned.
• is designed to help the reader make her way through complex information as easily as possible.
• integrates the visual and verbal components effectively.
• shows care for written language appropriate to the intended audience.

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