The cornerstone project of this quarter is the Industry Trend Report. (see below) Please read that assignment post thoroughly and note the due date.

Provide a brief business memo.Preview the document that commits to an Industry that you would like to research. This should ideally be an industry in which you see yourself working as a career. Some examples include the following:

Civil Engineering Services
Accounting Services
Sustainable Lighting Design and Technology
Snack Food Packaging
Value-Added Produce
Automobile Racing Technology
Off-Shore Wind Power Technology
Brokerage Services
Health Care Services

Think about where you see yourself, but most importantly find something of interest to you. You will become the expert on this industry. Please note: this should be an industry, not a profession or a job, so while it would be appropriate to research “Health Care Services,” it would not be appropriate to research “Nursing.” If you want to be a lawyer you might do “Legal Services” but in this case you’d be researching lawyering not as a profession but as a business. Ask/answer: How do private law firms work? They are all partnerships for some reason, but why? How big is the industry? How many people are employed? How many firms? How many are big, medium, and small firms? Likewise, people who are interested in being Nurses should look to something like Medical Technology, or Hospital Administration (you could further narrow this by saying Public (or Private) Hospital Administration.

While the vast majority of students select some enterprise or industry from the private sector, remember that you won’t be researching a specific business. Web services, okay; Google, not okay except as a major player in Web Services.

Those who want to do non-profits, or public administration, may do so, but you have to treat it as you would any other enterprise: who, what, where, how much, how many? How do they receive funding? How do they manage budgetary matters? What public-private partnerships are they pursuing or encouraging through policy.

“Politics” would not be an appropriate topic generally speaking, but I can imagine an approach that would look at the operations of the federal government from an organizational, financial, or employer-related levels. I will grant that someone somewhere at the FDA is handling the business, accounts, human resources, and funding processes of that government agency, so if you really want to do something like this, make sure to reach out to me for some do’s and don’ts.

The memo should be addressed to me, and need not be longer than a brief paragraph of 50-100 words. Please be sure to have read Purdue OWL on the format of Business Memos.

Industry Trend Report:

Genre: Business people compile reports on many topics for various audiences and purposes. The primary goal of any report (journalism too), is to provide information that is accessible, focusing on some relevant concern to the business, and compiled into a usable report.

Formal Report: Short reports (1-4 pages) are usually written as business memos, but for longer, weightier subjects, formal reports provide a professional, branded design with title page, table of contents, executive summary, and various sections that are readable out of order.

Purpose: This assignment (ITR) will be an avenue to improve your research, and report-writing skills. It will also give you a head start in researching a field you are interested in entering. That research will include both library and internet research as well as original research–observations, interviews, etc. Your goal is to create a report that you can be proud to show a future employer in the field. If you can’t reach that goal now, at least strive for it–and you will learn as much as possible.

The Situation
Your goal should be to inform a non-specialized, but educated audience (me) about the trends in your industry of choice. Your purpose should be display the breadth and depth of your knowledge, recognizing that someone within the field–a prospective employer, for example–will be reading this at some future date. It’s important that you see yourself as putting forward a professional tone and level of expertise, while also taking care of the needs of your non-specialized audience. This is how you can take care of the Multiple AudiencesPreview the document you are likely to find in most business or organizational situations.