Memo

Date:
To:
From:
Subject:

October 13, 2015

Jennifer Amis, Arrowhead Park Early College High School, Principal
Kael Boss, APECHS Student
Chase Ferrone, APECHS Student
Technical Writing Subject Research Workshop Activity

Purpose
The purpose of our proposal is to request permission to conduct a workshop in which
students of the sophomore and junior classes will advance their knowledge in the field of
researching their subject more thoroughly when composing technically written
documents.
Summary
Upon examination of recent student essays, it has been recognized that sophomore and
junior class students that had written technical documents had not conducted sufficient
overall research for their document topics.
We propose a workshop shall be conducted during school hours that will cover the topic
of conducting appropriate research when writing a technical document. We chose to do it
during school hours for the reason that not all students are able to arrive before school
hours, as well as after hours, as busses are run on a schedule that some students cannot
deviate from. The workshop will cover Chapter 5: Researching Your Subject in the
textbook, Practical Strategies For Technical Communication, as well as contain two
activities of the span of two days, along with informal lectures alongside the presentation
of the chapter. The workshop will replace the students English or Language Arts classes
for the 2 days that follow.
Introduction
On October 2nd, 2015, Standardized Testing District Officials came to APECHS and
reviewed and analyzed student technical writing capabilities as well as a selection of
essays and other works. They concluded that the writing exhibited insufficient research
and topic development.
Currently, Mike Markel, the author of the technical writing textbook Practical Strategies
For Technical Communication, has written a chapter on ways of choosing as well as
conducting different types of research on topics as well as methods of sufficiently
developing the topics themselves. For these reasons, we advocate we conduct a 2-day
workshop that covers this chapter with a presentation including a set of activities.

Proposed Tasks
If Jennifer Amis approves the tasks listed below, we will perform them in an orderly
fashion that will take up as minimal class time as possible.

Day 1: Begin Topic Research Presentation, Complete First Activity

The first order of the presentation would be to introduce students to the chapter
and the purposes of research and topic development. The chapter covers many
developed sections regarding this topic, 3 of which we will cover in the first day,
the first being, Understanding The Difference Between Academic And
Workplace Research. This section covers the difference between the two types
of research and what type is appropriate to use in certain situations.The following
section that will be presented will be Understanding The Research Process.
This process covers the process in which research is most effectively conducted
and points about each that explains each piece of the process more thoroughly, in
hopes to increase comprehension of the section. The third and final section that
will be covered is the Choosing Appropriate Research Methods section. I this
particular section, tools and methods of research are introduced as well as types
of research that are most appropriate for certain topics. For example, primary and
secondary research. After the first 3 topics are finished being presented the first
activity will be introduced and explained to the students. In the activity, the
students will apply the new information that they learned to choose the
appropriate type of research for given topics, but not conduct actual research just
yet.
Day 2: Continue Topic Research Presentation, Complete Second Activity
Day two will focus on teaching students the difference between primary and
secondary research and how to use each effectively. Beginning with the
Conducting Secondary Research, students will be introduced to different
research tools and nonconventional sources such as online catalogs, abstract
services, and various forms of social media. Next, students will be taught how to
evaluate their sources and determine if they are accurate, unbiased,
comprehensive, appropriately technical, curent,and clear. The last major section
taught, Conducting Primary Research, addresses more hands on research, like
observations, experiments, field research, interviews, inquiries, and
questionnaires. The topics will be briefly explained and the students will learn
how and when to use those types of research.
Schedule
Each workshop will be conducted in all sophomore and junior English classes. The
workshops last the duration of the class for the two consecutive days. From the time of
approval of this request, we will inform the teachers of the workshop and will give them
one week to accommodate to the change in scheduling.

Experience
We are students if APECHS who are concerned about the lack of writing skill among the
sophomore and junior class. Due to our advanced classes, we have the ability to teach and
conduct a successful workshop.
References

Markel, Michael H. "Researching Your Subject." Practical Strategies for Technical

Communication. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. Print.