Your boss, who was impressed by your memo, has asked you to identify a single significant issue in your industry and prepare a research-based position paper on how your company can most effectively address the issue. The issue may be one of the trends you identified in project 2, or it may be an overarching issue related to the trends. Use your research to find out how the issue has been addressed by other companies in the past and how experts in the field recommend addressing it.
This assignment is designed to refresh your research and citation skills so that you are fully prepared for the next courses in your program. You will find, access, and analyze information from a variety of sources that include library databases, online trade and professional journals, and timely industry online web resources. You will also refine your ability to provide in-text citations and references in accurate APA format.
Paper Guidelines:
Your paper should open with an introductory paragraph that identifies a specific problem or issue and makes a claim about its significance in your industry. The rest of your paper will develop an argument that supports this claim. Please review the helpful information about writing an argument paper in UMGC’s Effective Writing Center’s writing tutorial.
Body paragraphs need to describe and justify your proposed solution and explain how it relates to how other companies or experts have addressed the same problem or issue based on your research. Use information from your sources to support your ideas while ensuring that your own voice and ideas control the paper. Be sure to include a parenthetical citation (Author’s last name, year of publication) at the end of every sentence that includes words, ideas, or data from a source.
While presenting your own argument, you should also anticipate and refute counter-arguments or alternative approaches. By showing that you understand other approaches and being very clear about how your approach is preferable, you will be more likely to convince readers to take your advice.
You should end your paper with a concluding paragraph that reiterates your recommendation and reminds readers of the most important points you want them to remember. You should not introduce new information in your conclusion.
Present your research-based position in an essay of 4-5 double-spaced pages (ca. 1,000-1,250 words) in 12-point Times New Roman font. Include at least five sources in your list of references. Cite each source you list as a reference at least once by using parenthetical citations in the body of your paper. Use APA format for the paper, including the References page.