Midterm Exam-JTC300

Minh Anh Nguyen

JTC300

Midterm Exam

1. What is the goal of writing a proposal? Outline how and when it is done.

(25 points)

The goal of a proposal is to persuade the readers to do something such as getting a potential customer to purchase or hire services, or to persuade your employer or some foundation to fund a project. A proposal offers a plan to fill a need, and readers will evaluate the plan according to how well it is written, providing answers for these questions: what is the proposal about? What is your projected solution? How and when it will be implemented? How much will it cost?  Another goal of the written proposal is to organize your own thought processes  by identifying a specific goal, establishing that pursuing that goal is worthwhile, developing a concrete strategy for meeting that  goal, and verifying that the proposed strategy is likely to achieve  the stated goals.

The goal of the writer is not only to persuade the reader to do what is being requested, but also to make the reader believe that the solution is practical and appropriate. Any questions that readers might pose should be anticipated and answered in a way that reflects the position of the proposal. The writer also considers all sides of the arguments in providing other alternative solutions to the problem, but showing how the one chosen is superior to the others.  The writer needs to take the positions of all their readers into account and use appropriate materials and language to appeal to them all.  To achieve the goal of preparing a good proposal, the writer might need to provide some background information outside of his or her specific area of expertise. The proposal may sometimes be written in non-technical language, depending on the audience.  It might include a glossary of terms that explains technical language or have attached appendices that explain technical information used in the body of the proposal. The format must be well organized and easy to understand and read.

Three types of proposals are empirical, feasibility, and technical manuals. Each type of proposals has its own techniques and requirements. An empirical proposal requires a topic, the empirical/theoretical background, hypotheses, and any practical and policy implications of the research. Feasibility proposals requires the writer to include the nature of the problem, the plans of action that the writer is advocating, the procedure or policy that the writer wish to replace, and the benefits to be derived from solving the problem.  A technical manual proposal explains the problem and why a manual is important or necessary. Therefore, the structure of any given proposal is dependent on the type of proposal that the writer would be presenting. The most basic composition of a proposal is divided in three main parts. These are the introduction, the body of material to be presented, and the conclusion. The introduction gives  background information and summarizes previous work in the area, states the purpose of the proposal and summarizes the problem the writer intends to solve, and describes his or her plan to achieve a solution to that problem, including the benefits the readers or potential investors will receive from the solution and the cost of that solution. The body of the proposal should explain the complete details of the solution plan: how the job will be done, broken into separate tasks; what method or procedure will be used to do each step, including the equipment, material, and personnel that would be required; when the work will begin; and when the job will be completed. It should also present a detailed cost breakdown for the entire job. The conclusion provides a listing and discussion of the potential benefits that the readers will get from the successful solution and urges the readers to action.  The proposal also includes the bibliography, references, budget, and appendices which are used in the proposal, and information on the qualifications of the writer.

Minh Anh Nguyen

JTC300

Midterm Exam

2. Compare and contrast qualitative and quantitative research. Give a real-life example

of how they could work together. (25 points)

Qualitative and quantitative researches are two types of primary research which are effective and useful for looking at a situation. Qualitative research is primarily exploratory research. According to the JTC300 class notes, qualitative research helps explain why or how something works and focuses on the behavioral characteristics of something. It typically involves looking at a smaller group and includes observations of behavior and interviews.  It includes records of thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, etc., and aids in understanding things at a deeper level but on a smaller scale. It also has the potential to be more subjective because the researcher could interpret something differently from the way the person meant it. Qualitative research is used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dives deeper into the problem to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research.

In contrast, quantitative research measures what or how many. It is usually involves numerical records, such as results from experiments, surveys, etc. It is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and to generalize results from a larger sample group. It uses measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research.

The main differences between quantitative and qualitative research consist in respect to data sampling, data analysis and data collection.  For example, consider an onsite job interview. Such an interview can vary from being highly structured and guided by open-ended questions to being a casual conversational interview. During the interview process, a several members in the team are involved in conducting the interview. The interviewers and the hiring manager pay close attention to the interviewee’s attitudes and thoughts. They also try to see whether or not the interviewee understands the required context or material in depth. The interviewers typically would ask some technical questions and the interviewee will need to use some math, formulas, numbers, and data analysis to solve the problem. This process would provide strong evidence that such a candidate is well suited to work with the team. This type of job interview is common for any engineering position.  This example shows how quantitative and qualitative research approaches could work together in real life. 

Minh Anh Nguyen

JTC300

Midterm Exam

3. Explain why this sentence is true and give a real-life example. “Your writing is only

as good as your sources.” (25 points)

The sentence “Your writing is only as good as your sources” means that my writings do not come from my own thoughts and experiences, but also typically rely on observations and experiences by others. My thoughts could be from what I have learned in movies or stories. My experiences are the best research because they came from a primary source and I collected them on my own. But, my experiences are limited in scope; this is one of the reasons why I do literature searches to find out what others have experienced when faced with the same problem.  In the research and engineering field, no one can complete all the research on their own; therefore, I need to use secondary sources or research programs which are done by other researchers. I would need to cite the source correctly and make sure the research focus is appropriate to the problem I am working to solve. 

 Sometimes, sources that I have found on the internets proved to be unreliable but I did not know this at first glance. If I used these sources as part of my support for any arguments, ideas or projects without vetting their reliability, my paper will not look good to the readers.  My audiences will lose interest in reading my paper because they will consider that I do not understand the problem, that I haven’t done a sufficiently careful background search, or that I don’t know what I am talking about.  I will lose my reputation, credibility and trust from my audiences because they will not want to read a paper that is not written based on expert and justified sources. Therefore, I must check to see whether or not the sources are trustworthy, before I use them in my paper I must check to see if the author is considered an expert in the field and if the author’s reputation is good. The reputation of the writer is affected by the reputation of their sources.

Minh Anh Nguyen

JTC300

Midterm Exam

4. Explain why an audience analysis is helpful to someone starting a writing project.

Describe the steps you would take to conduct an audience analysis. (25 points)

It is important that the writer understands his or her audience because this information will help him or her write more effective paper. Audience analysis is a key to understanding what should go into each section of writing. Writers should consider their audiences’ needs in their research, content, tone, style, wording, and background information. If writers understand what the readers want, need, know, and feel about a particular topic, then the writer can easily capture the audience’s attention in his or her writing style.  Writers who analyze their audiences find that it will help them make the necessary decisions about what they will write. Writers always have a specific reason for writing, and this purpose includes what the authors intend to accomplish in the writing and how the authors want the readers to use the information. This is true regardless of whether the writer is writing a speech, a scientific article, and instructions for installing software.  

In college writing, my purpose for writing is usually to explain something to my readers and to convince them of my way of thinking.  My primary readers are teacher and classmates, and they are multicultural. So my readers will expect certain patterns of thought in my writing and they will need a clear discussion of statistical data, methods and formulas to be convinced.  After I determine the nature of my audience and my purpose, I will determine how this information affects my planning and writing decisions. For example, I must decide what kinds and levels of details and how much information I should include in my paper. I need to decide how to organize my information so that it will attract my audiences’ attention.  I also must decide what writing strategies, words, tone, and style that I should use to communicate with my audiences.