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Operation Weed & Seed
This report is to be a situation analysis for the Texarkana, AR
Weed & Seed (T-BON) in its association with area Safe Havens.
Use information and insights gained from our tour of these four Safe Havens,
materials distributed in class, and any other information that you
can find, such as:
Materials that were distributed in class in association with
the local Weed & Seed should be treated as confidential;
they are not to be shared with anyone outside of our class.
Our client is interested in ensuring that these Safe Havens are sustainable as a group
beyond the limit of the Weed & Seed grant.
As a group, could they be more effective in providing community services?
Could they better work in ways that are non-competing, that are more complementary
or synergistic?
Prior to a formal analysis, the above questions do not suggest that anything is wrong,
but rather suggest that we don't yet have complete answers.
In assessing how each Safe Haven fits within a larger community,
consider the following sorts of issues:
- What services are unique to each Safe Haven?
- What services are complementary to each Safe Haven?
- What services are duplicated? Necessarily, or unnecessarily?
- How is each Safe Haven differentiated from the others?
- What is each Safe Haven's strengths and weaknesses?
What resources are sustainable?
- What environmental threats and opportunities impact each Safe Haven?
What environmental threats and opportunities impact these Safe Havens as a group?
The attached generic outline might provide some guidance
with regard to structuring an environmental analysis,
but strict adherence to this outline is not expected
where not appropriate for our client.
This is not a creative writing assignment; it is a technical
writing assignment.
Length is expected to be no more than about 25
double spaced pages of text (exclusive of appendices).
All reports must have some sort of introduction that
explains the nature, focus, and objective of the report to
the reader.
The body of all reports must in some way
address opportunities and threats in the
environment and address the strengths and
weaknesses of these organizations individually and as a group.
All reports
must also end with some sort of recommendation.
That is, the report should lead to some speculation
regarding the outlook for our client's project,
the direction which should be set for the final phases of this project,
and possibly some suggestions regarding how it is that
your suggestions could be implemented.
Although some sort of recommendation is required,
most of the text of the report will be associated
with a scan and assessment of the current
environment that logically leads to a recommendation.
Note that a report that ends with a
negative outlook can be as valuable as a report that
ends with a positive outlook.
The Assignment:
- For this project, you may work in teams of your own choosing with
no more than six members per team.
All members of a team will receive the same grade.
(The professor does reserve the obligation to differentiate grades in rare
situations where a student is perceived to have made a substantially less
contribution to the final deliverables than other students on a team.
Hopefully, however, a team would first fire a team member and simply not
include that person's name with the deliverables.)
The deliverables will be a written report and a presentation from each team.
- This is a real world assignment.
The initial draft of the written report will be
scored in large part on the professor's perception of the
usefulness and acceptability of the report to the real
client within the framework that this is to be a situation
analysis.
A common problem is that students tend to include
irrelevant and inappropriate material in a report to show
evidence that some particular concept has been learned in
the course.
Note that a minimal requirement is that
reports be relatively free of problems of grammar, spelling,
typing, and such.
Do not fabricate material for the sake of
creating a report.
Remember that this is not a
creative writing assignment but is a technical writing
assignment.
- The exact format of the finished report is of the team's
own choosing.
Although a general format for a situation
analysis is attached for guidance, it is unlikely that you could
follow this exactly exactly.
Other published report formats
commonly called "situation analysis,"
"market analysis,"
"environmental analysis," "business plan,"
and such might or might not be appropriate and acceptable.
No two finished
reports would be the same, and it is unlikely that a report
could ever be constructed to exactly fit an imposed outline.
- ALL facts in the report must be substantiated except
those that are obviously common knowledge.
This necessarily
requires that the source of information be cited (footnoted).
Watch for statements that lend themselves to red-ink comments
such as, "says who" or "I disagree."
For example, if a statement
is made that the local economy is likely to get better or
worse over the next five years, then the report MUST
indicate the source of this expectation.
Additionally,
related questions associated with substantiating this
statement might have to be answered, e.g., Who expects
this? How did this person or organization or publication
arrive at this expectation? How many others agree with
this expectation? How many others disagree? If the
speculation is your own, be sure that it is substantiated
with charts, graphs, tables, or figures that indicate the
source of the information contained therein.
- You are required to cite all sources of information.
A less obtrusive method of citing in a business report is to
list the references at the end of the report in a numbered
list: List all sources at the end of the report in
alphabetical order. Number them in this order, starting the
list with number 1.
Whenever a statement is made that must
reference that source, indicate the source by a number in
parentheses after the statement, like this (12).
Note that
the first time in a report that a source is referenced, the
number is not necessarily (1), the second is not necessarily
(2), etc.
Also note that the same source may appear multiple
times in the same report, like this (23).
If several sources
support the same statement, they should all be included like
this (4, 7, 12, 15); a greater number of sources often
strengthens an assertion.
If several statements are made
in the same paragraph that use the same source, list that
source only once after all such statements within a single
paragraph.
That is, do not source this (8) and this again
(8) for two separate issues that are included in the same
statement.
- Neatness (defined as good grammar, punctuation, spelling,
etc.), however, is always important in business writing.
A minimal requirement of the report is that it be free of
blemishes in grammar, spelling, and such.
- Left justification with a ragged
right edge is preferred for readability.
Please do not
use any sort of report folders; use plain white paper
with a single staple in the top left corner.
You are
asked to submit a report that is no more than 25
pages in length (exclusive of appendices),
but you are not asked to necessarily reach that limit.
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