Informative report

Our Time LineThis Thursday, December 8:
Assignment 5: Short Report due to
Turnitin
Submit early and review your
originality report on Turnitin.
Report Workshop on campus Today
 Submit complete copy of your report to BrSpace
 Earn up to two bonus points towards your final grade.
 Graded for completion (see checklist):
Format – memo (aligned), subject line, page 2 and 3 headers, full block, 11- or 12-point font
 Direct strategy – direct response opening and forward-looking closing
 All major sections: present in introduction, body, and summary section
 Headings: Three or four descriptive talking headings, Title Case, and parallel
 Complete discussion: presenting three or four ways e-bikes will help Nova Scotia meet its
sustainability goals
 In-text citations formatted correctly throughout body sections using signal phrases and APA
 References page formatted correctly following APA and featuring minimum three credible
sources

Complete memo headers.
Memo Format – align all items
 To:
 From:
 Date:
 Subject:
Karla Ryder, Her job title
Your name, Your job title
December 8, 2022
Identifies Report’s Focus not Report Type
❑ Report is three pages with headers on Page 2 and Page 3
❑ Recipient’s Name / Date / Page Number
❑ Third page is your References page.
Karla Ryder
December 8, 2022
Remember your Page 2 and Page 3 headers.
Page 2
APA Documentation
Internal
documentation
In-text citations (sentence-level references in report )
+ References list (lists all sources referenced in report) External
documentation
Complete documentation
Features of good signal phrases
 Identify who is speaking (first and last name) or author’s name and
their affiliation/role
 Identify publication year (if not included in your parenthetical note)
 Italicize magazine and newspaper names like Progressive Grocer, Forbes
 Do not include website urls in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical
note: “According to landscapemanagement.net or (www.forbes.com)
Example of authors
 According to Neville Stein (2017), a business expert with over 20 years’
experience and consulting founder of Neville Stein, employees’ happiness for
at work is key to retention. The top three motivators people want from their
job are…
 Phil Hardwood, a landscape industry manager, finds that the way to
overcome labour shortages is to adjust to this new generation entering the
work force (2019).
 Journalist Janet McKay….(2022).
 Janet McKay (2022), a reporter with Forbes, highlighted…
Example
 According to Annabelle King, part of the family run candy store Sticky,
they garnered over five million followers by posting videos of
employees having fun during the candy making process (as cited in
Teyeb, 2021).
Citing text in your body.
Here author and year appear at the
end of sentence.
Example 3:
In a recent article titled, “12 Security Awareness
Training Topics You Need to Know,”…
paraphrased material… (Bolland, 2020).
What if I’m quoting or paraphrasing someone
mentioned in the article? How do I cite?
 In that same article, we hear from Anil Kaul,
CEO of a data analysis company, who says
that….. (as cited in Bolland, 2020).
 Paul Furtado, an Ontario-based senior
Note that the period (.) appears after the
parenthesis.
analyst, confirms that small businesses are
vulnerable to….. (as cited in Martin, 2019).
Pronoun lesson: Use the pronoun “its” when referring to a company and
its practices and actions.
APA Documentation
 External Documentation= Your list of References
 Every source mentioned in your body must appear here.
 Entry must match up with in-text citation
 Check for accuracy: especially publication year.
List in alphabetical order
Note spacing
Note hanging indents
References
Butler, E. (2019, August 9). Who are we building bike lanes for anyway? Halifax Examiner.

Who are we building bike lanes for, anyway?

Dunne, J. (2019, June 8). Love them or hate them, research offers financial cases for big city bike lanes. CBC.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/biking-lanes-business-health-1.5165954
Hollingsworth, P. (2021, September 8). HRM considers tree removal to make room for bike lanes. CTV News.
https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/hrm-considers-tree-removal-to-make-room-for-bike-lanes-1.5578067
Interim bikeway improvement measures coming to several corridors. (2022, August 31). CityNews.
https://halifax.citynews.ca/local-news/interim-bikeway-improvement-measures-coming-to-several-corridors-5761895
Solomon, L. (2018, January 2). Rip out the bike lanes–before more innocent people get hurt. The Financial Post.
https://financialpost.com/opinion/lawrence-solomon-rip-out-the-bike-lanes-before-more-innocent-people-get-hurt
List in alphabetical order
Note spacing
Note hanging indents
References
Bonsor, K. , & Johnson, R. (2016). How facial recognition systems work. How Stuff Works Tech.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/facialrecognition.htm
Chung, E. (2016, March 16). Face-reading tech could make shopping more convenient—
and creepier. CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/facial-recognition-stores
1.387754
Revealed: How facial recognition has invaded shops—and your privacy. (2016, March 3). The
Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com
Stastna, K. (2014, November 8). How facial recognition technology is creeping into daily life.
CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/ how-facial
-recognition-technology-is-creeping-into-daily-life-1.2824623
Who’s tracking you in public? (2016, February). Consumer Reports, 31(1), 40-45.
Body
❑Use correct APA style in-text citations throughout discussion.
❑Use “talking,” parallel headings.
❑ Parallel / title case/ bold
❑Organize topics logically, introducing each with topic sentences.
❑Ensure content is clear and relevant to your reader
Building Well-Organized Paragraphs
Paragraphs may be composed of three kinds of sentences:
• Topic sentence: identifies and introduces your strategy or paragraph topic
• Supporting sentences present explain and present evidence:
describe, illustrates, explains, or strengthens your idea with facts, statistics,
expert opinion and other proof
• Evaluative sentence: summarizes or highlights value or benefit to Nova
Scotia’s goals
Copyright © 2019 by Nelson Education Ltd.
5-18
Use the “you” pronoun correctly.
 You = Your reader, Karla Ryder, throughout this report.
 Avoid using “you” when you are speaking about employees, people in
general or some other actor.
 The Problem:
Sarah Smith (2019) explains that one trend that’s gaining popularity during the
pandemic is hosting monthly social events for employees. You can attend these
events and meet other employees.
The Fix: Replace with a noun. In this case, “our employees” or “our staff”
“our workers” “ we”
Using the “you” pronoun correctly
In this sentence, you are speaking to Karla:
Not only does cycling improve your physical health, but it also improves
your mental health.
Replace with a more inclusive pronoun.
Avoid using unclear pronoun
references.
 The pronoun “this” becomes unclear when it’s not followed by a noun.
 Use “Search” feature to locate in your report.
Example:
 Small businesses should be concerned about this because it could pop
up on any employee’s computer at any time.
The Fix: Add a noun or identify what’s being described.
 Small businesses should be concerned about this kind of cyber attack
because it could pop up on any employee’s computer at any time.
Direct Strategy Short Report
Direct response opening
 Here is the report you requested….
 As you requested…
Begins your introduction: identifies your report and its purpose
Body:
 Presents three or four ways e-bikes…
 Organized under “talking” descriptive headings
Summary
Forward-looking close
Complete Introduction
Descriptive “Talking” Headings
Topic Sentences and Transitions
Let’s check out our A5 checklist:
 Opening and Introduction (no heading):
□ Uses the direct response strategy opening
□ States the purpose and significance of the report topic
□ Indicates types of research sources used
□ Previews report’s organization and topics and sections covered
Introduction – No heading.
❑ Begins with a direct response opening and purpose statement.
“Here is the report…
“At your request, I …
“As you requested, here is the report investigating/presenting/
Purpose statement announces what your report does – why it’s being written
Include a sentence what issue or problem your report will help solve.
❑ Indicate types of research sources you consulted.
❑ Preview topics and sections discussed and order you will present them.
Introduction - An effective purpose statement…
 1) States the purpose with an action verb identifies the report’s focus
 Example: The purpose of this report is to investigate/ present/ discover
 An effective significance statement…
 2)Explains briefly why you’re reporting on this topic: why it matters
 Acknowledges the problem, challenge, or question the report aims to solve
or address. Briefly describe in your own words.
Summary is a high level overview
A summation of major facts and evidence derived from findings.
No new information or research is introduced here.
□ Use Summary as the heading for this section
□ Summarize main points — present the highlights
Re-state each way e-bikes….and the major benefit(s) of each strategy
□ Relate your findings back to the initial issue you were asked to
investigate; Re-state the goal of your report – the challenge it aims to address
□ Include forward-looking close directed at Karla and the larger project your
report contributes to – next step to implementing?
Use confident language
 In your Summary section, avoid ending on a weak note with phrases
like
 “I hope this information…”
 “I believe this strategy…”
 “I feel this information will be useful…”
 “I think this information will be good …”
Active voice and conciseness
 In this report, I’ll be discussing…
 In this report, I’ll discuss…
 In this report, I discuss…
Use precise language avoid…
 Avoid non-specific, uninformative language like
“Another important thing to consider is…”
“This is just some of the stuff we might add..”
Why are these descriptors a problem?