Home button

 

Collaborative project 2

Three very precocious and initiative-taking students who created a brochure as the "two-to-three page document" for the first collaborative project preempted my original intent for this project (that you take that material and whittle it down and refine it into brochure format). I didn't see that coming! So as a Plan B, which I actually like more, we're going to have you work in teams competing in constructing documents promoting the Middle Georgia State Bachelor of Arts in English program.

I just this week got delivery of 150 professionally printed brochures on glossy paper designed by an undergraduate Professional Writing student promoting our Professional Writing minor (a simple but professional-caliber design). From what I've seen of all your design work thus far, I am certain that you will produce even more impressive work. If all goes well, we will hope to have one or perhaps even both of your designs professionally printed, giving one or both design teams published credit for the work.

As I noted on the first collaborative project, read all instructions carefully, ideally printed on paper and with highlighter in hand.

The deliverable: a tri-fold brochure (six-panel brochure, front and back on 8.5 x 11 inch paper), encouraging existing and prospective Middle Georgia State undergraduates to pursue our B.A. degree in English.

Team  assignments:

Mariam Qureshi, team leader
Rian Williams
Josef Vice

Jennifer Huynh, team leader
Tanya Hickman
Sherita Sims-Jones

Deadline: 9:00 p.m. Tuesday, October 9th.

Research: while you should, of course, look into what the B.A. in English degree actually involves at Middle Georgia State (its curriculum, e.g.), your primary aim in the brochure is promotion, or persuasion (refresh your memory on Tech Comm. chapter 8), so probably your most important research should seek out the skills people gain through undergraduate English degrees, and even more, how those skills can translate into successful careers.

Formatting/document design: plan on color printing and use the MGA Dept. of English sub-branding logo and other material at your disposal in the MGA Branding Guidelines pdf.

Audience profile sheet: As part of the planning process, each team is to complete the Modified Profile Sheet you used in the first collaborative project( You may amend or refine the profile sheet however you like, deleting sections that don’t apply and adding others as you like. Above all, articulate the sort of audience(s) the document will have on the MGA campus.

Be especially attentive considering audiences that will be skeptical about you (the writers), the subject of the document, and the document itself. Put some time into these essential issues up front in the planning of your brochure.

Methods of communication: again wholly up to you, with the one proviso that you have a minimum of two video-conference meetings over the course of the week (Skype, Google Hangouts, etc.). I would arrange to have an initial meeting as early as feasibly possible—by Friday at the absolute latest. At a bare minimum, do set up a three-way telephone call for the initial meeting. In that first meeting, in addition to agreeing upon tasks, deciding who does what, and making a work schedule for the project, determining the most efficient method of sharing your work with one another—you may use the same collaborative tool you used in the first project, or you may try something new (Google docs, Dropbox, etc.). If you were comfortable with your setup in the first project and still have access, it is okay (and sensible) to use the same platform with project too.

However, this time, I'd like to monitor your progress—I'll peek in just a couple of times silently—so please send me an invitation to join your collaborative online workspace. I don't need editing permissions. Don't let my potential presence change anything you do at all: I guarantee you I will not be "spying" on your activities; I'll most likely check in once early and once later just to see what kinds of processes you have in place.

No reflective component this time.

Submission instructions: As with collaborative project 1, all six of you, individually, should submit 1) your team's final document and 2) your team's audience profile sheet, both in PDF format, to the appropriate D2L assignments dropbox.

If you use either InDesign or Publisher, please have one person from your team submit just one copy of the design file also.

That's it! Go get 'em! As always, let me know if I can help in any way.