Skill 4: Putting It All Together

Students use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose by:

• Organizing the information logically for its intended purpose
• Integrating information from a variety of media, if necessary
• Communicating the information effectively to the intended audience

Ideas for Effective Assignments

1. Ask students to assemble background information on a company or organization in preparation for a hypothetical report, job interview, or stock purchase, etc.

    

2. Ask students to conduct the research for a pro/con paper except for writing the final draft. At various times throughout the semester, require students to turn in 1.) a choice of topic; 2.) an annotated bibliography; 3.) a thesis statement; 4.) an outline; 5.) an introduction and conclusion.

    

3. Ask students to describe a career and then research the career choice. What are the leading companies in that area? Why? What is the best company to work for and why? What are the employment policies and benefits of that company? Expected salary range?

    

4. Nominate someone for a Nobel Peace Prize (or other award). Learn about the award or prize, the jury, the selection criteria. Justify the nomination.

    

5. Students follow a piece of legislation through Congress. What groups are lobbying for or against the legislation and why? How does campaign financing or special interests affect the final decision?

    

6. Assign each student a medical diagnosis. Have them act as responsible patients by investigating both the diagnosis and the prescribed treatment. Results presented in a two-page paper should cover: a description of the condition and its symptoms; its etiology; its prognosis; the effectiveness of the prescribed treatment, its side effects, along with the evidence; and a comparison of the relative effectiveness of alternate treatments. All research is cited on a works cited page.

    

7. Ask students to write a newspaper story describing an event (political, social, cultural, whatever suits the needs of the course) based on their research. Ask the different groups of students to research the same event in different sources and compare the newspaper stories that result.

    

8. Ask students to write a series of reports as if they were embedded journalists at an historical event, conflict, scientific discovery, political event, or other relevant situation. Have students base their factual reporting as well as their analysis of the events in the context of the time period based on their research of the event. Ask students to include a works cited page.

    

9. Contrast journal articles or editorials from recent publications reflecting conservative and liberal tendencies. Ask students to contrast coverage of a particular presidential debate or speech.

    

10. Ask students to adopt a persona and write letters or journal entries that person might have written. Ask students to include a works cited page.

     

11. Ask students to write a grant proposal to a specific funding agency including a supporting literature review, budget, particular outstanding problems in the field to be addressed by the grant, and why there is a need. Ask students to include a works cited page.

     

12. Ask students to follow a particular foreign policy situation as it develops. Who are the organizations involved? What is the history of the issue? What are the ideological conflicts? Ask students to include a works cited page.

     

13. Ask groups of students to stage a news conference on a subject relevant to course content using well know people of any relevant time period. (A verbatim transcript of a real news conference can serve as a model for a simulated news conference.) What questions would contemporaries have asked? What questions would we now have? How would contemporary answers have differed from those that might be given today? Ask each group to include a works cited page.

     

14. Ask students to compare film or book reviews from several sources including newspapers, critical journal articles, popular magazine articles, online sources, and TV/radio programs. Ask them to formulate their own review taking into account the general reception the work has received.

     

15. Ask students to investigate the most energy efficient automobiles, water heaters, appliances, etc. and ask them to justify that product purchase for use in a hypothetical business. Ask them to include the standards for that product in regard to energy efficiency, the industry outlook for potential standards changes, the cost benefit of purchase, the pro’s and con’s of all manufacturers, and their product rankings.