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PROJECT 2 STEP 1
PROJECT 2 STEP 1
For this project, you will be creating a situation audit of your own organization. You will prepare to conduct your audit over the next 12 steps of this project, during which you will review various aspects of your organization, including its mission, goals, and values. You will be given the opportunity to submit different parts of your audit for instructor feedback prior to submitting your final situation audit. Read the full description of the final deliverable and the steps to completion.
Begin your situation audit by going to Step 1: Organize Your Work.
When you submit your project, your work will be evaluated using the competencies listed below. You can use the list below to self-check your work before submission.
1.3: Provide sufficient, correctly cited support that substantiates the writer’s ideas.
1.6: Follow conventions of Standard Written English.
6.3: Analyze an organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses for strategic value.
6.4: Develop and recommend strategies for an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage.
8.1: Evaluate major business/organizational systems and processes and make recommendations for improvement.
8.3: Identify and distinguish among organizational structural types and their respective implications for performance.
9.1: Design organizational structures, systems, and processes that support the strategic goals of the organization.
9.2: Evaluate how human capital serves as a source of competitive advantage.
10.2: Analyze financial statements to evaluate and optimize organizational performance.
10.3: Determine optimal financial decisions in pursuit of an organization’s goals.
Step 1: Organize Your Work
Student Expectations
Students are expected to find the information required to address the specific questions they are required to answer at each step of the project. The primary purpose of Project 2 is for students to demonstrate they understand and can apply the key MBA concepts and course materials found throughout Project 2 to their particular organization. Project 2 is not complete until the key MBA concepts and course materials provided within each step have been applied, as applicable, to the student’s organization.
It is the student’s obligation to demonstrate (1) an understanding of the organization selected for analysis and (2) explain, apply, and integrate the key MBA concepts found in provided course materials to their organization. Examples of how the MBA concepts and course materials apply to an organization are expected. All sources used should be properly (APA) cited in-text and listed in a reference section.
Final Deliverable Instructions: A Situation Audit and Preliminary Analysis of Key Factors
Your boss has tasked you with preparing a situation audit that presents an overview of your organization (or an approved alternative). In this report, you’ll focus on analyzing several key internal factors that, taken together, provide a portrait of your organization. The information you will rely on for this report must be publicly available or available for review by faculty, as necessary.
Format Requirements
Use the Situation Audit Template provided below. Your Situation Audit report will be 18 to 22 double-spaced pages, excluding a required cover page, a brief executive summary, and a list of references. See Executive Summaries for guidance on writing this section. You may also use appendices for helpful supplementary information, but these will not be included in the page limit for this report. Use APA formatting for in-text citations and references.
Academic Integrity
As you proceed through the steps to completion, be sure to read the materials provided in the embedded links—all are related to your project work. Cite any ideas you use from these materials in all course work you submit. By giving credit to the ideas of others in your work, you will build credibility in the minds of your readers and make your original thoughts stand out.
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
—Sir Isaac Newton
Now that you have a better understanding of the project requirements, follow these guidelines:
Read over these brief guidelines about conducting research on your organization. Discuss with your instructor any limiting factors you may encounter as you write this report. After you’ve discussed these issues with your instructor, if you believe it’s best for you to research an organization other than your own, please read this information about using an outside organization.
If necessary, schedule any meetings in advance with your organization’s personnel to obtain the necessary information.
Use the step-by-step Situation Audit Template as your outline and guide for the entire report, start to finish.
Next, proceed to Step 2, where you will write an overview description of your organization.
conducting research on your organization= Conducting Research on Your Organization
If at any point in this project you find yourself wanting information about your organization that is not publicly available, it is important to discuss the situation and your proposed solution with your professor. Your professor will help you explore the best approach for your particular organization and situation. One possible outcome of this discussion may be an agreement to make some minor modifications to the project report. Modifications must be approved by your professor.
In most cases, you will want to discuss your project with your employer and explain that you are completing this organizational profile as one requirement for your MBA. You should explain that this assignment does not require you to disclose any proprietary or sensitive information about the organization. Our experience is that managers are generally happy to support their employees and also look forward to benefiting from the results of projects like this one.
You will likely want to begin by reviewing annual reports and other publicly available information. You will have other opportunities in this program to apply what you are learning to your organization, and it is therefore important that you take care in planning and implementing your research for this project and in communicating about it with others.
using an outside organization= Using an Outside Organization
Requirement: Consult with your instructor
If you are not currently employed or believe your employer is not an appropriate choice for this project, you must contact your professor immediately and book a time to discuss the possible alternatives. If either of these situations apply, you must receive approval from your professor before proceeding with any steps in this project.
If you are not currently employed, it will be important to consult with your professor and obtain prior approval to complete this project for a specific organization you believe may be appropriate. Here are some guidelines to help you prepare for your discussion with your professor:
After reviewing the project requirements, find and select a possible alternative organization. Briefly describe the organization and your relationship with it.
Explain your rationale for believing the organization is a good choice.
Identify and make note of specific challenges you envisage encountering if the professor supports your suggested choice of organization for this project. Explain your plan for addressing these challenges.
If you are employed but believe you may not be able to use your organization for this project here are some guidelines to help you prepare for your discussion with your professor:
Review the project deliverables carefully and make note of those for which you expect you will not be able to get the needed information.
Identify an alternative organization you believe would work for this project and jot down the key points that support your conclusion.
Consider both the advantages and possible disadvantages of doing this assignment on an alternative organization. Note that this project requires no gathering or sharing of confidential or sensitive information so it is usually easy to address and resolve concerns.
Situation Audit Template =Situation Audit Template
Your situation audit report should include the following elements:
cover page—not included in page limit
executive summary—1 page; not included in page limit
introduction—1 page
fact sheet—1 page; see Step 2
mission, vision, values and goals—1 page; see Step 3
stragegy and objectives—1 page; see Step 4
strategy types and competitive advantage—2 to 3 pages; see Step 5
organizational size and structure—2 to 3 pages; see Step 6
critical resources—2 to 3 pages; see Step 7
leadership, governance, and management—2 to 3 pages; see Step 8
strengths and weaknesses—1 to 2 pages; see Step 9
learning and change—1 to 2 pages; see Step 10
conclusions and recommendations—1 page; see Step 11
references—not included in page limit
addenda—if needed, is not included in page limit
submit—see Step 12
Note: The Situation Audit Report is expected to be 18 to 22 pages, excluding the cover page, executive summary, and references. The page ranges listed above are guidelines. The student can decide how many pages to allocate to a given topic so long as the report does not exceed the maximum number of pages allowed. However, where the suggested page ranges are longer, the intent is to highlight the areas of the report deemed to require more analysis. These particular areas of the report go beyond a statement of organizational facts. They require significant academic readings and a grasp of relevant concepts, which are expected to be integrated into the student’s analysis. Please carefully read the Student Expectations section in Step 1, Organize Your Work.
In developing the report, students should follow the exact order of the template using the same headings to separate sections of the report. Each step is to be included in the final submission. APA format must be followed throughout. See Writing Skills under Grading in the Syllabus for writing expectations. In Step 1, Organize Your Work, please read carefully the section entitled, Student Expectations.
The Garden of Words
Literature
Students Name
Institution of Affiliation
Course Title
Date
The Garden of Words
The story ‘The Garden of Words’ revolves around Takao Akizuki. Takao is a typical high school student that has inspirations and dreams of becoming a shoemaker. The passion of becoming a shoemaker drives him to drop out of school so that he can focus solely on honing his craft. When visiting a garden themed park, it starts to rain, and so he takes cover under a small shelter. Here he comes across a woman who seems to be little older and introduces herself as Yukari Yukino. As the two of them begin to talk, Takao’s feelings for her begins to develop. They continue to meet in the same spot regularly, but only on the rainy days and as according to the narrator, the rainy days will not last forever, and once they end, the fate of these two shall be met. The Garden of words has been animated and as well as illustrated through graphics. In the comparison and contrasting of the two works; manga and anime, we get some similarities as well as some differences that are evident in both contexts. In the analysis, I shall be looking at the background and visuals, sounds, contrast, color, animations and the verbal communication.
In the context of animation, the individual blades of grass, leaves, the raindrops and the best of all the incidence to which Takao draws out his shoe patterns. The animation of the individual blades of the grass is made possible to communicate the mood of the story as they are made in such a manner that they are swinging making the place look lively and full of life. The animations remove the boredom that could have otherwise resulted if the film was shot in a calm environment. The raindrops are also part of the animation, each of the drops is animated as it falls from the sky and hits the ground. The animation of the raindrops is made in such a way that they fall majestically creating a nearly genuine situation to which the viewer may tend to seem like it is the immediate environment that he is. Furthermore, the animations have been extended to show the actions that the characters are involved. The best of the animations is the instance to which Takao draws his show pattern. He makes it so real that you can even think like it’s a real shooting. Additional animations such as walking have also been included in the animation making it more like just a normal film. On the other side of the pictorial representation in Manga, we do not expect any animations in the graphics. The only thing that we can deduce is an illustration if the items such as falling raindrops. There are no much animations in Manga.
Comparing the background and the visuals in the anime and manga, we happen to see some great similarities as well as differences. For the similarities, both of them are composed of stunning beauty, revealing the smooth part of nature along with its aesthetics. The green leaves and trees, water splashing and lighting, are all made in high definitions with such a high resolution and contrast; this makes the background of the animation to be fantastic and much enjoyable. On the other side of manga, the graphical representation is clear with a god coloration that indicates the setting of the story. Somehow the pictorial representation tends to differ with the animation in the sense that some of them are done in black and white that somehow distorts the pictorial background though there is higher contrast.
In the animation, there are sounds very prominent with the rhythm-matching even to the raindrops. The music creates a romantic mood to which is experienced by the two lovebirds during the time they are taking cover over the rains. Music is usually incorporated into a text also to create a relaxed mood. In the animation, the music sounds try to communicate the different episodes along with the splashing of the rain. On the other side of manga, however, the graphical representation does not has any sounds or music and therefore leaves the reader to analyze the mood by himself and thus create a big difference between the graphics and the animation.
In the animation of the Garden of words, there are verbal exchanges that assist the reader to deeply understand the context of the story while in the comic representation there is no sounds nor verbal exchange but instead texts are used to indicate communication between the characters. Despite having several items that differ, both the animation and the graphics both have incorporated cartoons to stand on the post of the characters and only differs from them being animated to perform the different functions and play the same character as the owner. Color is another issue that is evident in the Garden of words, both the pictorial and the animation have colors that really blend to the environment dictating the setting of the story. The color green provides enough evidence that the play was done in a park where the natural setting that depicts the beginning of new dawn to Takoa. Color in the pictorial part of manga has some variations to which range from colored to black and white sometimes confusing the reader leaving him to make some inferences.Work Cited
Abel, Jessica, and Matt Madden. Drawing Words and Writing Pictures: Making Comics: Manga, Graphic Novels, and Beyond. Macmillan, 2008.
Jose, Lissy. “The Multiplicity of Screens And Its Impact on Filmic Narration: A Study on The Feature Films Of Makoto Shinkai.” Open Issue: 11.
Project 1 Rhetorical Analysis of
Project 1: Rhetorical Analysis of “Sinking Cities: “Miami”
Prompt:Now that you are familiar with rhetorical appeals, you will compose a 3-4 page essay that identifies, analyzes, and evaluates the evidence in PBS’ “Sinking Cities: Miami.” You first need to consider how the documentary’s visuals/sounds/text affected the way you think about climate change. Then, locate different pieces of evidence from the documentary to support your perspective on climate change in Miami.
Tips:
Evidence can be screenshots, direct quotes, or descriptions of sounds from the documentary.
Utilize evidence that covers all four rhetorical appeals to write a strong analysis.
Emphasize your perspective and how the documentary affected your view on climate change in Miami.
Do not simply identify which appeals are used in the documentary. You are being asked to make a larger, critical argument about the documentary.
Resources:PBS’ “Sinking Cities: Miami” documentaryhttps://www.pbs.org/video/sinking-cities-miami-bcdxzj/
Rules and Guidelines:
All essays must conform to the MLA style of writing to be accepted/graded.
Spellcheck and proofread your work to ensure credibility and a passing grade.
Cover the required length and matter of the essay.
Only use direct quotes when citing texts or speech from the documentary.
You can only use a maximum of 3 screenshots as evidence.
Place screenshots in the proper space to support your argument.
Do not use any outside sources in your work including dictionaries or encyclopedias.
Submitting late work will deduct half a letter grade from your overall score.
See the syllabus for deadlines and dropbox locations for each essay section.