Retrospective Memo

W231 Professional Writing Skills Retrospective Memo

To: Debbie Oesch-Minor

From: Brooklyn Robison, W231 10:30 Tuesday/Thursday

Date: 28 April 2022

Subject: Significant takeaways from The Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention’s (CHIP) recommendation report: the local survey, the research process, and the final presentation

This memo reflects the past 10 weeks of the semester. The local study survey, connecting our research to make final recommendations, and the presentation given at CHIP’s office will be discussed while using techniques and examples from the 11th edition of Business and Administrative Communication by Kitty Locker.

The local study survey: Challenges with the target participants and results

While creating the survey, the team used the Locker strategies suggested for creating and analyzing a survey. These strategies are:

Who did the survey and who paid for it?
How many people were surveyed and how were they chosen?
How was the survey conducted?
What was the response rate?
What questions were asked? (Locker, p. 497)

The team originally wanted the population for the survey to be CHIP’s mailing list and donors. We had to change this due to restrictions on the survey, and we instead had to conduct the survey on the convenience sample. This sample was our classmates at IUPUI. We had around 50 responses from this sample, and the results were still relevant to our research.

Types of questions asked in the survey: Why the team chose the questions

The survey questions were relevant to people who had donated time and/or money to a nonprofit organization. Some questions were open questions, and some were closed questions. We asked questions such as:

What inclines you to donate to a nonprofit organization?
What attracts you as a donor to pick an organization to donate to?
What type of charity event would you be more inclined to participate in?
Would you like to be recognized for your donation?

The big finds from the survey showed that most people donated and picked the nonprofit because of personal or family experiences. It also showed that people would prefer adult only galas, raffle events, or family zoo days for charity events and 40% of participants would like to be recognized for their donations.

Recognizing W231 course goals related to the local study survey

The results from the survey helped us build our recommendations because we were able to see what donors what when they are donating to a nonprofit organization. Creating the survey and analyzing the results acknowledged the course goal of “thinking critically about rhetorical concerns”. The team was able to create questions relevant to the team’s report and analyze the data in a non-biased, ethical, and accurate way.

Research on nonprofits: Gaining information to help support the team’s reliability

At first, the research part of building the recommendation report was difficult for the team. There were many unknowns, so we had to build our knowledge from the bottom up. We used IUPUI’s research databases such as EBSCOhost and ProQuest to focus on learning about:

What a nonprofit is
Backbone organizations
Funding for nonprofits
What inclines people to donate to a nonprofit

Using Locker search techniques to achieve helpful results

The team used Boolean search strategies that were suggested in the textbook. Locker states “to use a computer database efficiently, identify the concepts you’re interested in and choose key words that will help you find relevant sources” (Locker, p. 492).

Our client used the term backbone organization to represent CHIP. With this, we needed to widen our knowledge of nonprofits. To do this, the team searched specific terms such as:

Backbone organization
Coalition for homelessness
Homelessness prevention
Nonprofit organizations
Donating to nonprofit organizations

Learning to pick certain websites from others: The importance of being picky in research

The information found from these searches helped build our credibility as a team, and the IUPUI research databases helped keep the sources reliable and trustworthy. I also used Locker’s “Criteria for Evaluating Websites” (Locker, p. 495) to ensure this.

It was most important to use the objectivity section of this criteria because the team was looking for evidence to support similar ideas that we had. This helped the team find specific sources that supported us, had reliable authors, and had relevant evidence included.

Final presentation at CHIP’s local office: Using Locker skills to create a professional experience

On March 27, 2022, at 3:30, I presented the final recommendation report to CHIP’s board of directors and employees. Unfortunately, my other teammates could not attend. Since the start of our connection with the client, she wanted the team to present the report to the board of directors. They had never had anyone do this for their organization, so it was important to them.

Before the presentation, I prepared myself by practicing and observing Locker techniques. When practicing and presenting, I was sure to:

Stand still in one place

Remain calm
Keep my hands together in front of me or out to my side
Control my voice to be the same volume
Not read directly from the screen
Make eye contact with the audience

The importance of eye contact: Building rapport with the audience

Locker notes how important eye contact is during a presentation. “The point of making eye contact is to establish one-on-one contact with the individual members of your audience.” (Locker, p. 635). I took note of this for the presentation.

I made eye contact around the room; the more I did this, the more the audience nodded or smiled. They seemed more engaged when the presenter made eye contact, and I used this to make my case that the team created a serious and relevant report. Maintaining eye contact also helped build a relationship with you-attitude toward the end of the presentation because the audience felt like they could ask questions.

How W231 course goals were used during the presentation

The presentation for CHIP’s board of directors also identified the course goal “identify yourself as a writer in professional situations”. When identifying as a writer in front of the audience, it helped build credibility for the team and our recommendations. This also showed the audience that I could work well with a team and developed a professional attitude towards writing.

I had never done a presentation like this one before, so I was sure to:

Dress in business attire
Smile and make eye contact during the presentation
Hold myself as a professional
Be open to questions or comments

“Understanding what it means to write in professional situations” was also acknowledged for the final presentation. I adapted the presentation and the dialogue for who I was presenting for. During the presentation in the classroom to our client, I used more relaxed language. However, during the presentation to CHIP’s board of directors I used professional body language and tone.

References

Locker, K. (2014). Business and administrative communication (11th edition). McGraw-Hill Higher Education (US) https://alibris.vitalsource.com/books/0077637151