Topic: Using Exercise #1 (p. 231 Denning text) – Write a persuasive Popular Press paper about an organizational communication issue/problem.
The Story of Change provides a structure to influence people through writing. You can think of the format as the order to present information.
Minor project 2 should be formatted following the structure on p. 231.
You may find that it does not make sense to answer all of the questions under “Will the Change.” You need to discern what is appropriate based on your topic.
Technical requirements:
1. Choose a popular press publication and write your project following their writing guidelines.
2. Word count: based on publishing/writing guidelines of outlet you choose
Submission requirements – Along with the article submit the following:
1. Name of publication
2. Provide publishing/writing guidelines (I do not have time to hunt for this information during grading. It should be easy for me to understand. At minimum, I need to know all of the information below:).
a. If the writing guidelines do not include this information, you will need to provide this information:
1.Writing style,
2. Word count,
3. Average number of sentences per paragraph,
4. Tone (formal or casual/conversational)
And answer these questions: 1.) Do they use headings? 2.) Do they allow 1st person?
**You should be able to determine this by analyzing a few similar articles that they have published.
***If you cannot find the writing guidelines, pick another publication – there are millions of them.
Tips:
1. Do not write a research paper
2. Do not choose a publication that says it is “peer-reviewed” or “refereed” – This means it is not Popular Press
3. Do not use the sentences in the Story of Change as headings. This format should be invisible to the reader. You are structuring an article based on this format only.
4. Positive messages are better received – speak in a positive manner to influence the reader to want to change.
For example, if you say, “Leaders often speak down to….” – It is unlikely that you will influence anyone to change. In this case, leaders are the problem. You need to speak in a manner that will influence leaders, not talk negatively about them. Here are possible titles for articles that speak to this problem, but in a positive tone:
“5 Strategies to Create Open Communication”
“Developing Trust through Collaboration”
“Developing Employee Engagement through Open Dialogue”
Speak “to” leaders, not about them.
5. Popular press articles are typically conversational – make sure your article matches the same tone as the publication
6. Discern if it is appropriate to use a personal story. Personal stories may not resonate with the reader. The reader may wonder if your story is credible or demonstrates that you are an expert on the topic. Does the publication even allow personal stories? When in doubt, check with me.
Elements considered in grading:
1. Quality of content – Is it an appropriate topic? Is it based on quality research?
2. Writing style – Does it follow Denning’s “Story of Change” structure? Does it match the writing style of published articles in the publication that you chose? [Note: If they do not use in-text citations, you should not either. You MUST create an article that models one of their published articles. If in doubt, ask me for guidance.]
3. Popular press – Is it a popular press publication? If it is not popular press, you will have to redo this project.
4. Provide all necessary information to evaluate a match with writing guidelines
If you have a good topic and quality content, it is equally important to determine if your article actually looks, feels, and sounds like their other articles.
