Group Project Proposal

Due by email at 3:00 P.M. on Sunday, March 2. Must be sent as an attachment in .doc, .docx, or .rtf format.

Each group needs to submit only one proposal for the group. Your group leader should send the proposal to me, and I’ll send my response to the group leader, who can then forward the response to the entire group.

Like with your proposals for the research-based ethics essay, the goal of the proposal is again to begin a dialogue between us. I want to have an idea of what your group is working on and of any questions or problems you are having.

Your proposal will consist of four short sections:

Section 1: What business, campus unit, or non-profit organization will your group be working with? Remember, you have to receive written permission from the group that you’re working with and only one group can work with any one business. Have you received permission from the business you picked? If not, what are your backup choices? Finally, will you need to arrange meetings with the owner or manager of the business to get information for your project?

Section 2: Provide a brief breakdown of each group member’s responsibilities? Who will be doing what? I want to see that the workload will be distributed roughly evenly throughout the group. Also, remember as a group to create your own deadlines and to take advantage of your group members’ strengths. For example, if someone in your group is good at making graphs or charts, then you should have that person work on that material.

Section 3: What types of sources is your group going to use? Where are you finding your sources? What types of information do you need to generate yourselves? What information, depending on the business’ cooperation, do you need from the business?

Section 4: Ask at least two specific questions you have about this assignment. I will respond to your questions the best I can. Please do not ask questions such as “What do we need to do to get an A on this project?”; instead, your questions should be about content or structure: “How much space should we dedicate to introducing our green philosophy?” or “Where in this business plan should we express our own opinions?”

Evaluation: Like other homework assignments, your proposal will be graded on a check-plus, check, check-minus, no credit scale. All group members will get the same grade.

Research-Based Ethics Essay Proposal (Due: Sun, 2/3 by email*) – Directions

The purpose of the topic proposal is to open up lines of discussion between you and me. This proposal gives you an opportunity to outline your argument and ideas for your 5 page essay, and it gives me the chance to respond to your ideas, advise you of potential problems you face, and give you ideas.

This assignment is due by 1:00 P.M. on Sunday, February 3. You may turn in this assignment early, as soon as you have it ready, and I will get my feedback to you that much sooner.

*Assignment should be submitted via e-mail as an attachment. Please be sure that your file is saved as a .doc/.docx (Microsoft Word format) or a .rtf (rich text format) file. I will use the comments feature in Microsoft Word and return your proposals to you via e-mail. The proposal gives you an opportunity to spell out your ideas before you begin your rough draft, and it gives me a chance to provide you with any kind of feedback that I deem useful to you.

Directions: Your proposal will be approximately 1 page single-spaced and consist of three paragraphs that contain the following information.

In the first paragraph, identify the ethical system that you’re applying to the work in your essay. The way you define ethics–based on both your own ideas and the definitions and examples that you find–will influence the way you write about the situation. As the assignment sheet suggests, you should choose a specific ethical framework (shareholder theory, stakeholder theory, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, environmental ethics, and so on) to set up your analysis. Explain why you have chosen the specific ethical system (or combination of ethical systems) that will use in the essay.

The second paragraph should summarize the specific situation within the play or film that you will discuss. Describe why you picked this situation and how it represents an ethical dilemma. Point to specific parts of the play where this situation stands out. Also, in this paragraph, give your working thesis statement; what is your argument? As you work on the essay, you may decide to revise your thesis; in fact, you should probably revise your thesis to address complexities that come up in your research. Chapter 5 of Business Writing and pages 289-90 of The St. Martin’s Handbook provide you with some useful advice on writing thesis statements.

In your final paragraph, write two specific questions you have about this assignment. I will respond to your questions the best I can. Please do not ask questions such as “What do I need to do to get an A on this project?”; instead, your questions should be about content or structure: “How can I represent another side of this argument?” or “Where in my essay should I present opposing viewpoints to my own?”

Evaluation: Like other homework assignments, your proposal will be graded on a check-plus, check, check-minus, no credit scale.