English 421—White Paper Project
Step 6: Project Assessment Memo

As you near the end of your work on the second project, prepare a two-page (single-spaced) reflective memo, analyzing your research, white paper, presentation, and the process you used to complete them.

Your Project Assessment Memo should answer at least one question from each of the following sections, which are tied to the major goals of the assignment. Additional thoughts are also welcome.

Globalization Topic

• How much did you know about globalization before beginning this project?
• How is the topic relevant (if at all) to your life/ major?
• What other sorts of umbrella topics do you think would be interesting and appropriate for a future technical/business writing courese?

Process

• How did you go about choosing your topic?
• What steps in the project did you find easiest/ hardest? Most/least enjoyable?
• What was the most challenging document to produce (or revise) and why?
• Briefly describe and explain one of the significant revisions you made to your white paper.
• If you used RefWorks or the citation manager in Word 2007, what was your experience? 

Research

• Briefly describe the research process you used. How did you locate your library/ internet sources?
• Which resources/ databases proved to be the most beneficial for you? Explain.

Collaboration

• What made you decide to work on your own or as one of a group? Would you make the same choice again?
• If you were part of a group, how did you split up the work? How satisfied were you with the collaboration?
• On which of your documents did you get the most helpful feedback? The least? Explain.
• What was one way that peer feedback helped you improve your work?
• How did responding to the work of others help you improve your own work?

Project Management

• What percentage of the project timeline do you think you spent on planning? Gathering information? Writing? Revision?
• How well do you feel you planned your work on this project?
• If you got sidetracked or behind, what aspects of this project slowed you down?
• Next time you do a research report or white paper, what would you do the same? differently?

Visuals & Design

• What is the most visually effective aspect of your deliverables?
• What visual aspects might you change next time?
• Have you deliberately adapted a standard template or layout (cover page, for example) in an unusual or creative way? If so, how and why?

I encourage you to bring a rough draft of your Project Assessment Memo to class on Monday, March 24. It is due in a revised form when you turn in your completed Employment Project on Wednesday, March 26.