Task 3: Planning and Conducting Research

The research process can often be challenging. The internet provides writers with a wealth of sources, but not all sources are equally credible or appropriate for use in a professional context. Having a research strategy will help writers simplify the research process and anticipate (and overcome) potential challenges, resulting in a robust collection of valid and reliable sources to support their writing.

In this task, you will assemble components that can be used to support a strong proposal, which you will create in the next task. The full proposal will be written using a professional tone and should identify solutions to a problem, recommend a plan of action, request funding for a product or project, or address another similar persuasive goal. For this task, you will build a foundation for the proposal by identifying your topic, developing and executing a research strategy, and analyzing the sources you find.

A.  Create the foundation for a proposal by doing the following:

Note: You may use the attached “Proposal Preparation Template” to complete and submit part A.  The originality score for this task will be higher due to matches to the template. Only non-template text will be considered when evaluating submission originality.

1.  Identify the topic for your proposal.

Note: The eventual proposal should be relevant to a professional setting and identify solutions to a problem, recommend a plan of action, request funding for a product or project, or address another similar persuasive goal.

2.  Explain your plan for finding credible and relevant sources to support your proposal by answering at least one of the following questions:

•  Which platforms and databases should be searched?

•  Which publications and sites are likely to yield appropriate sources for this topic?

•  Which search terms and phrases are likely to yield appropriate sources for this topic?

3.  List at least six credible and relevant sources found during the research process. For each source, do the following:

a.  Explain any factors in the source that could contribute to bias. If no bias is found, explain how bias is avoided.

b.  Establish the credibility of the author, organization, or publication.

c.  Explain the relevance of the source to your chosen topic.

4.  Choose the three strongest sources from part A3 and explain the rationale for your choices.

5.  Reflect on the research and source selection process by answering at least one of the following questions:

•  What changed, if anything, about the research plan during the research process?

•  What was the most successful research strategy?

•  What did you learn during the evaluation process for each source?

•  How will this experience affect your future research processes?

B.  Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.

C.  Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.