Compose either a report or an article in a community newsletter in which you analyze a specific problem in your community for a target audience. That community could include your local community where you live, your professional community where you work, or an academic community related to your course of study. You will learn to find and use primary and secondary research to inform and support your analysis.
Note that your second project in this course will build on this project by asking you to propose a solution to your chosen community problem, so it will be helpful for you to choose a problem for this project that you can continue to research in Project 2. You will not be discussing solutions in Project 1.
Your analysis should be research- or evidence-based rather than personal-based writing. While it is ok to start with what you know about the issue, the goal of this project is to ultimately learn something new by conducting primary and secondary research.
Primary Research:
You will need to conduct primary research – a survey or an interview (in-person, online, email, phone) with someone who is an expert on your topic, affected by your topic in some way, or someone who otherwise has an important perspective on the topic.
Secondary Research:
You must use a minimum of 3 credible sources – at least 2 of them scholarly sources such as academic journals and peer-reviewed studies, at least one official document, and at least one local news source. Searching the ASU library databases will yield the best information.
You may need to use Google for some sources, but do not rely on this for all of your research.
Avoid topics that are debated at a national or international level or are based primarily on personal or religious belief rather than on researchable evidence. T
he following topics are prohibited, as they either a) are too generic or common,
b) are debated at a national or international rather than a community level, and/or c) are much too general in scope:
Gun control, abortion, euthanasia, death penalty, global warming, vaccinations, steroids, drinking and driving, legalization of marijuana, opioid epidemic, body image and the media, homelessness
You will also integrate 2-3 visuals (e.g., charts, tables, graphs, images, or photos) and/or other media (e.g., audio or video clips) into your text to support your analysis. Images/photos should be ones you have created or taken yourself or your composition of images/photos with free licensing found on the Internet.
Requirements
In a bulleted list, provide the basic requirements for the assignment as well as how and where to submit:
Title: Something engaging but also something relevant and on-topic
Genre: A report or an article in a community newsletter
Audience: A specific audience who has a stake in the issue
Sources: A minimum of 3 secondary sources and at least one primary source
Length: 1000-1500 word analysis (not including References)
Multimodal Elements: Include at least 2-3 visuals
Style: APA format
Format: Either PDF or Microsoft Word-compatible
