You will write a Progress Report that outlines the status of your Genre Analysis Report. Think of your audience for this project as me. In the workplace, the audience might be your supervisor, others in management, and/or a client and other stakeholders. In the case of public initiatives, the audience can include the public, local, state, or regional community government officials, and local businesses and organizations.
The Project Assignment
Step 1: Assess your project.
Review the current draft for your Genre Analysis Report and compare what you have accomplished to the requirements of the Assignment.
Determine what you have completed and what you still need to do. Consider any challenges you have encountered and how you can address them. Compare your work to the schedule in your proposal and determine whether any adjustments are necessary.
Step 2: Familiarize yourself with the characteristics and features of progress reports.
Use the following resources to learn more about progress reports:
From Lynda.com (free login with your Virginia Tech pid and password). Note that you must be logged into Lynda.com for the video embedded below to play.
Project Examples by Students
From Technical Writing by Hamlin, Rubio, and DeSilva
From Style for Students Online: Effective Technical Writing in the Information Age by Schall
Step 3: Write a progress report.
Your report should outline
- what you have completed
- what work you still have to do
- how you plan to complete the remaining work for the project.
Include any questions or concerns you have that may affect your progress. You can include images, screenshots, graphs, tables, and other visual elements to explain your work (examples and tips).
Write your report in memo format (with the standard headings of To:, From:, Date:, and Subject:). You can use Google Docs or another word processor. Aim for 1 to 2 single-spaced pages.
Step 4: Check for specifics.
Use concrete, specific details to describe the work on your project. Tell your readers precisely that you have done and how you will complete the remaining work. The examples below demonstrate how to make sure you use details.
| Rather than general information like this | Use specific language like this |
|---|---|
| We are making good progress on the project. | In the two weeks since inception, our four-member team has achieved three of the six objectives we identified for project completion; we are on track to complete the project in another three to four weeks. (from p. 49 of Business Communication for Success by McLean) |
| We have assigned the remaining tasks to team members. | We have assigned the remaining project tasks to the following team members:
|
| We agreed on how to organize the pages on the website. | We created a basic wireframe with sections for the information that we need to include on each page of the website (site title, site menus, page title, content, and footer with copyright information and address). |
Step 5. Review your project for design and basic writing errors.
Everything you write should use accurate/appropriate image editing, grammar, spelling, punctuation, mechanics, linking, and formatting. These are important basic writing skills that you should have developed in high school.
Also review your project, considering the layout and design. Refer to the details on the course website listed in the Ten Ways to Improve Your Writing and the grammar and design Lynda.com videos included on that page.
Step 6: Submit your project in Canvas.
Upload your completed self-assessment and your project in Canvas.
Photo Credit: 1405AfricaProgressReport32 by Africa Progress Panel on Flickr, used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.