Description

This assignment is step four in completing the white paper that is the final product of this assignment series. This step in the process is an individual assignment where you will complete the critical review of the article you found that will become part of the final white paper.

Learning Objectives

In this assignment you will:

• Communicate technical information to a non-technical audience.
• Complete an audience analysis and justification on the paper you are reviewing by discussing the use of the language and organization of the text of the document.
• Evaluate the graphics (visual) elements to enhance the communication of the document you are reviewing.
• Document in detail research that incorporates a statistical method(s) into defining and evaluating a problem you are interested within your field.

Assignment Preparation

• Review the Communication Assignment Series 1 Overview to understand how Communication Assignment 1.4 fits into the broader assignment series and will contribute to the final project.
• Read* Chapter 3 Guidelines for Writing Noise-Free Engineering Documents pages 37-50 from A Guide to Writing as an Engineer. This work emphasizes why and to who you write professional documents as well as some of the things that you do help make your writing clear and easy to follow for your audience.
• Read* Chapter 3 Strategies for Reporting with Visuals from Writing in Engineering: A Brief Guide. This brief chapter discusses what you will need to know to use graphics in your review and to critique the use of graphics in the article you are reviewing.

*Unlike some other reading you do for courses, you need to read this work for application NOT to memorize for a test. So as you interact with this material, determine a way that it can be most helpful to be able to apply what it contains.

Assignment Steps

You will review your article as needed to complete the following review. This review is to be part of a marketing white paper. Because you are writing for an external audience be sure the tone, level of technical complexity, and readability of your document are appropriate for this type of professional document. What do I mean? You are addressing professionals but not engineers or computer scientists:

• be specific and precise in what you say, they do not have time to guess what you are saying. Be sure your text is well written by reading it out loud to yourself and completing an advanced grammar check.
• Talk to them in words they will understand, and avoid or define technical language.
• Organize what you are staying so that the audience understands and follows your ideas. Use topic sentences (Links to an external site.).

Title of your review

While this will be at the top of your review, it will likely be easier to create after you have completed the rest of the elements. The title must concisely and precisely let an audience know what you are doing and what the topic is. Titles that are clear, brief, and interesting are more likely to get someone to read what is below them. Hint: You are not doing the research, you are reviewing it with a particular focus.

Title of the journal article, the authors, and the journal it was published in.

State this in a sentence.

Byline

On the line below your title put “by” with your name after it.

Study Objective

This is a concise statement of the purpose of the study in your article. The information you need for this is generally found in the abstract and the end of the introduction.

Study Outcome

This is a concise statement of the findings of the study in your article. The information you need for this is generally found in the abstract and the findings/conclusion/analysis section of the article.

Data used for the Research

The section describes the data used for the research, this does not include the analysis done on the data as part of the research. The information you need for this section is found in the methods section of the document. It should include answers to most if not all of the following questions:

• Where was the data obtained from? This only applies to research articles where the researchers obtained data from an external source.
• How was the data collected? This applies to research articles where the researchers collected the data themselves. It usually includes where or from what the data were collected, how much data are included, what types of data are collected.

Statistical Analysis Review

In this section, you will document the statistical method that was used in the study. The information you need for this section is found in the methods section of the article. While you will want to provide some context on how the statistics you are reviewing fit into the research, this is not intended to be a step-by-step review of the entire research process. Use as many of the foundational terms from the first two conceptual assignments as apply to your work and include:

• Identify the statistical method(s) used in this work in terms of the foundational probability and statistics terms discussed in your first two concept assignments (CA2.1 and CA2.2)
• Identify the statistical method(s) used in the study, what that method does (in general) and why that was useful in this research
• Identify what researchers learned because of using the statistical method(s).

Evaluation of the Article’s Text

In this section, you will evaluate the audience to whom the article communicates. You will use the tone and language of the document to identify and document what audience(s) will be able to understand and value this article. How can you tell this? Is the article effective at communicating the material to them? Then, evaluate if this audience is appropriate for this material. Could this material, in a modified format, be valuable to another audience? If so, what would need to change to address that audience effectively? If not, why would it not be appropriate for other audiences?

Evaluation of the Article’s Graphics

In this section, you will evaluate the effectiveness of the types of graphics used in the document and their placement relative to their discussion in the text. Identify what types of graphics are used, being specific about types of graphs (Links to an external site.) used, and their effectiveness for the information they were conveying. Do all the graphics have numbers and titles? Do all graphics have the labels needed to identify all their elements? Are they well done and of an appropriate size to be readable? Could they be communicated in a more clear way? What way do you think that would be?

Are the graphics located in the article in close proximity to where the topic they support is discussed? Does their location in the article make them more or less useful to the topic being discussed?

If your article does not have graphics, discuss what could have been included to make the work more clear. Be specific in types of graphics. Where in the article they should be located, and why?

Contribution of Research

In this section, you will talk to your potential client and inform them of the significance of this research and how this statistical tool can be of value to them in meeting their goals and objectives. The contribution of the research is generally found in the discussion/conclusion/implications for the field section of the article.

Revision and Editing

This review will be your case contribution to your group’s white paper. As such, it needs to be well written. Format the document clearly and consistently and be sure it is written well. I recommend that you read your document out loud to yourself to make sure what you are saying is complete and the ideas flow. When you are happy with it, complete a grammar and spelling check before handing it in.

References

This section will use APA formatting (Links to an external site.) for the reference list. You will have the reference for the article you are reviewing and any other resources you use (ex. you might use a statistics encyclopedia to help you describe the statistics method in you article. The library has several that are available as e-books.).