• This project asks you to do workplace research into a local problem impacting USF or the surrounding community. Your goal for this project is to describe a local problem in detail using as much information as you can gather from as many different sources as are useful. That means you are looking at research gathered by others (e.g., government agencies, non-profit organizations, professional and academic experts, as well as local sources from USF or the immediate community), but also you will gather your own data by asking impacted population for their perspective. You will produce a memo that reports your findings, giving readers a robust understanding of the local problem you have researched

• Background information: Put the problem in context. What does the audience need to know to understand why the problem is a problem?
• Explanation of the problem at USF/In the local community: Describe the local problem in detail. What is happening here?
• Causes of the problem: Describe the factors contributing to the problem’s occurrence. Why is the problem happening?
• Impacted Population: Describe the people most directly impacted by the problem. Who is the problem happening to? Be specific. Target a local population that could benefit from intervention.

To conduct your research you may wish to use any of the following methods and resources, or anything else that helps you explain the scope of your problem:

• Newspapers (local, university, national)
• Reports from government agencies, universities, and/or NGOs
• Scholarly research
• Facts and statistics compiled by government agencies and/or NGOs or USF
• Interviews with experts and/or impacted individuals
• Surveys (social media makes doing surveys easy)

Deliverables

Major Deliverable Students please understand that the audience determines the appropriate style.

• A report in memo format that describes your problem in detail using all the research you have conducted. The memo should be 3-5pp long and have the following section headings:
  • The citation style you choose should be based on the needs and expectations of your audience. You may want to get some ideas by looking around online to see how citations were handled in reports on similar topics. But your audience should determine what citation style you select.
  • Be sure to offer consistent usage of citations throughout the report
  • Background Information
  • Explanation of the Problem at USF/In the Local Community
  • Causes of the Problem
  • Impacted Population
  • Citations (footnotes, endnotes, hyperlinks, etc.)

Supplemental Deliverables

• Research Plan: A memo that identifies the problem you have selected and your plans for researching it, including research methods and potential sources for each required topic listed above