WRC 2214: Business Writing // Hauman // fall 2018

CAC: Millennials
Purpose: This project is the second step in the larger CAC Millennial Engagement Campaign
Project. This project is meant to give you background in understanding research into our target
audience: 18-30-year olds (please note that I titled this assignment before the CAC clarified they
were actually interested in a population broader than just Millennials).

Goals:
• gain foundational knowledge needed to eventually create recommendations and
guidelines for the CAC
• use online research tools to deepen your understanding of 18-30-year olds
• evaluate resources and synthesize information from a variety of sources
• practice delivering information in front of an audience

The process: As with the CAC: Investigation assignment, you will be in one of four groups,
which are the same groups you worked with before and will continue working with for the
remainder of the semester to complete the CAC project. Also like before, each group will
research a more focused area related to 18-30-year olds that will help us begin to understand
how to best reach out to this particular audience. The group(s)/topic for each group are:

1. Millennials and nonprofits

2. Gen Z and nonprofits
3. Millennials and Gen Z re: anti-poverty work
4. Distinctions and similarities between Millennials and Gen Z

Notes on terms for and definitions of generations: While there is some disagreement on the
exact birth dates for Millennials and Gen Z (and even disagreement on naming these
generations), it’s fairly common to see Millennials defined as those born between 1981 and
1996, and for Gen Zers to be defined as those born in 1997 and later. Of course, if CAC is
interested in 18-30-year olds, that is not inclusive of all of either generation; it’s largely
Millennials (those born 1988-1996) and some Gen Zers (those born 1997-2000). Of course, the
CAC will likely not be able to implement our recommendations immediately, so we do not need
to use 1988 or 2000 as a hard cutoff dates. In particular, it makes sense to more broadly
consider folks born into the early 2000s. And as you research, you may find it’s even hard to
narrow the population so specifically (i.e., to remove Millennials born before 1988 from the
reported data). All of this is to say that you should do your best to find credible, targeted
research, and you should be clear what years, terms, and definitions your research uses, but
you should not become so overly concerned with birth years that you believe there is some
“exactly right” information out there you are unable to locate.

As your group researches and prepares for your presentation, be sure to find information you
can use to fully answer/illustrate your answer(s) to the following questions:
• What is the most important information you can find within your focus area?
• What did you learn that surprised you?
• How might what you learned about your focus area help us with our work this semester?
• Did you find any examples of and/or recommendations for how to best reach out to (or
what not to do when attempting to reach out to) 18-30-year olds?
• What questions do you have after conducting this research with your group?
 WRC 2214: Business Writing // Hauman // fall 2018

Please also feel free to present any information you feel needs to be shared but that does not fit
into one of the categories listed above.

Important Date: Thurs. 10/18: In-class group presentations

Deliverables and Submission Information: Your group should prepare a visual of some sort
(e.g., handout, Prezi or PowerPoint, blog page/post) that you will use to guide your presentation.
This visual should include (re)sources you found useful and to which those not in your group
can turn to find more information (e.g., links to websites from which you pulled information,
screenshots of important images you found such as an Instagram post or specific section of a
website). One person from your group will submit your group’s visual to a shared Google
Drive folder by 11 am on Thursday, October 18.

Rubric for Visual and Presentation

Categories Specifics Strong Weak Comments
Provides clear explanations and
illustrations to fully answer each of the
5 questions
Information is taken from relevant and
Content
reputable sources
Provides sources for information
included in visual/presentation and
makes these easy to locate if possible
Creates connections between ideas
Arrangement Provides clear organizational cues to
help guide readers
Writing/speaking is clear and concise
Emphasizes a “you attitude”
Style & Polish
Free of grammar, spelling, mechanical
errors that interfere with meaning
Choice of genre and medium works
well for delivering content
Genre/Medium
Content meets genre/medium
expectations