| Project 2: Research-Based Technical Report (or Literature Review) | Write a 1500-2000-word research-based technical report (or literature review) relevant to your studies. It should consolidate and present information about your selected topic in a manner consistent with a technical report (or literature review). It should clearly identify its purpose (e.g., reviewing a design, or investigating a topic) and demonstrate its meeting its stated purpose in a clear and straightforward manner (i.e., maintain a unity of thought). All sources in your paper must be quoted and cited. There must be at least 10 cited sources accessed through the library (databases, periodicals, books). | 30% |
| Project 3: Research Presentation | After completing your research paper, you will have an opportunity to turn it into a 5-minute oral presentation supported by a PowerPoint slideshow. Your PowerPoint slideshow should balance text with images that support what you have to say. All images in your presentation must be made/taken by you. On the day of your presentation, you must be prepared with your PowerPoint saved on a flash drive and one other medium (e.g., cloud-based storage) and dressed in business casual attire. | 20% |
For Project 2, you have an option about the kind of technical document that you will be creating. You should choose the type of deliverable based on what will best serve your purposes as a communicator in your career path.
The two options are technical report and literature review. These are similar kinds of documents, because both explore a complex topic for the benefit of an audience needing to gain understanding of the topic presented in an efficient and straightforward manner.
However, they differ in the focus of each document and some of the information that is presented in each. For example, a technical report focuses on the operation, history, and markets of a single technology or system, while a literature review focuses on the discourse surrounding a technology, system, or idea.
Explicit differences between the two kinds of documents are included below. Follow these examples for your research project’s layout and design, and content:
Example of Technical Reports on David McMurrey’s Online Technical Writing, https://www.prismnet.com/~hcexres/textbook/models.html
Examples of Literature Review on the Purdue OWL, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20090212013008_560.pdf
