Internal Formal Report with Visual Background “You’re a finance co-op [student] working

Internal Formal Report with Visual

Background
“You’re a finance co-op [student] working in the executive office of a successful [Canadian] public relations firm. The three partners who own the firm rely on an investment advisor to advise them on managing their assets, but sometimes they decide on their own to add or remove companies from their investment portfolio. They’re interested in catching one of the current technology waves. Should they buy some shares in Yelp? Groupon? WebMD? Uber? Something else? A combo?” (Rentz, Lentz, and Campagna, “Problem-Solving Case” #27, p. 487)

Assignment

Prepare a formal report in which you recommend three possible companies in which the partners might invest. This is an internal formal report for a firm and its partners (feel free to invent names). Remember that investing is, in a way, an endorsement of company in which you invest, so the evaluation of possible investment targets is not entirely about potential profit.

Include a visual that helps your report achieve its main goals: establishing your credibility, informing the partners, and persuading the partners that your choices are best. The visual must be of your own design and appropriately integrated into the main text of the document.

Resources

Rentz, Lentz, and Campagna, especially Chapters 3 (designing documents, pp. 87-94), 4 (visuals), 6 (positive relationships), 10 (persuasive messages), and 12 (reports); lecture notes up to and including Unit 12

Primary Audience for Assignment #3

The three partners of your firm (remember this: the report should not include basic details about the company and what it does)

Assignment Format

Formal report with visual. Follow the format, conventions, and suggestions in Rentz, Lentz, and Campagna (pp. 447-70). For a model, look at “Identifying the Communication Gaps at Workware: Results of a 2020 Employee Survey” (pp. 452-70), although that report is far longer than yours will be (and arises out of a very different situation). Think of this basic outline as a possible structure of your report (Week 10/Unit 10 will contain a full discussion):

title page

memorandum of transmittal

table of contents

list of figures

executive summary

body [usually with its own sections]

notes, references, works cited, as applicable

[appendices, if applicable]

This structure entails some repetition, particularly in the memorandum of transmittal, the executive summary, and the conclusion in the body of the report. Submit as MSWord document (no PDFs).

Research Component

You must use outside sources. For this assignment, these sources will, in all likelihood, be primarily web-based sources (company websites, investing websites, etc.). Whenever you use any material that is not from the course, you must cite it properly. On the proper citation of sources, see Rentz, Lentz, and Campagna, Reference Chapter B. MLA style is recommended; for MLA style, see also the sample essay in Appendix B of The Canadian Writer’s Handbook: Second Essentials Edition.

Word Count

The main body of your report (excluding the memorandum of transmittal, the executive summary, and the works cited) should be 1200-1400 words. That means that the body of the report cannot be less than 1200 words and cannot be more than 1400 words.