You are a senior consultant for GreenComs, a communications company that specializes in assisting non-government organizations (NGOs) in developing effective communications strategies.

Final Report
Word Limit: 2000 words (maximum, not including Table of Contents, References, Letter of Transmittal, Executive Summary, Appendices, Tables and Figures).
Description & Context:
You are a senior consultant for GreenComs, a communications company that specializes in assisting non-government organizations (NGOs) in developing effective communications strategies.
At a recent fundraiser for the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) (www.ancientforestalliance.org) you met with an acting board member. She suggested that the organization’s social media and mobile communications need to be improved and asked you to perform an audit of the organization’s social media and mobile communications.

NOTE: Submit as a word document. APA formatting for this course has these requirements: Double-spaced and Times New Roman, 12-point font. First line of each paragraph is indented ½ an inch. No extra space between paragraphs or sections; unjustified, right (or ragged) margins.

Research:
This report requires research. You MUST quote FOUR different secondary sources. One of the sources MUST be Chapter 14 of the Textbook. You will be graded on your use of secondary sources and you MUST use proper APA format in your report. The sources you use MUST be cited (either by direct quote or parenthetically) within the body of the report – likely in the Best Practices section.

For your report, you are also expected to make recommendations on the organization’s social media and mobile communications. You will need to use research to determine what those recommendations are, and you must make recommendations on what the organization is currently doing.

For that reason, you will need to audit the social media of the organization, so that you can make recommendations based on the reality of how and what the organization actually communicates on its social media platforms. In other words, your recommendations should be actions that the organization could take to legitimately improve their communications.

Secondary research, from the textbook and three other sources will provide you with insight into what to look for when appraising the AFA’s communications.

As mentioned before, for the Final Report, make sure you are familiar with APA citation format, especially for sources found on the internet. The APA has an official blog that has a search function. Additionally, OWL Purdue does a very good job providing guidance on APA.

APA Blog: http://blog.apastyle.org/
OWL Purdue: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Format:

4th Edition: Consult your textbook, pages 457-461, the report should have all the elements listed on page 458.

5th Edition: Consult your textbook, pages 448-451

E-Book: Elements of Formal Reports

Here is a Checklist:

Front Matter
Letter of Transmittal
Title Page
Executive Summary
Table of Contents
List of Tables/Figures/Illustrations*

*You must have at least 1 Figure and 1 Table in your report

*Check APA for Table & Figure title/caption format HERE.

Body of Report
The body of the report can include additional headings and sub-headings, but MUST include the following sections.

Introduction

The introduction should clearly outline the purpose of the report. The audience of the report is the organization, so you should be writing with them in mind.

NOTE: Do not use the heading Introduction in APA.

Current Social Media Use

This section includes a brief overview of the organization’s current use of social media, this sub-section of the discusses, in general terms, the organization’s use of social media. What platforms it uses, what kind of content it generally produces, what engagement it achieves.

This section is based on your research of the organization’s actual social media use.

Current Best Practices

This section is based on your research, and I expect citations and references in this section. You will outline what you consider to be the most important best practices of social media use for organizations. You can choose to focus on one platform (for example, Facebook), or you can discuss general practices, or several different platforms. The point of this discussion is to provide relevant information about what makes good social media communications.

Assessment of AFAs Social Media Use

This section will outline how good or bad AFA’s social media is, as it measures up against current best practices that you’ve researched and expressed in the previous section.

Conclusions

This section outlines the conclusions you’ve found for the AFA’s current social media use.

Recommendations

From the points of your conclusion, create FIVE key recommendations for your organization. The recommendations should be in the following form:
BOLDED STATEMENT STARTING WITH VERB: Short 1-2 sentence description about why the recommendation is necessary.

For example:

CREATE A UNIFIED VOICE ACROSS PLATFORMS. Currently, the speaking voice of your organization is markedly different on Twitter than on Facebook. A unified voice that speaks to key messages will provide better brand consistency.

Tables and Figures

You must include at least one table and one figure in your report. You must label and title your tables and figures according to APA format.

Back Matter

Appendices (if necessary)
References
Evaluation. Evaluation of this assignment follows the “Evaluation of Written Assignments” system as outlined in this handbook and in the Assignment Rubric and Conversion Matrix document. Content will be assessed on format, tone, approach, and all aspects of formal professional and technical writing, as outlined in course materials and in the textbook.
Evaluation of Written Assignments
All the written message assignments will be graded using the same criteria. Grading codes will be used to help identify instances within the text where an error occurred or point of improvement could be made. These will be inserted as comments. Penalties will be applied according to the parameters outlined in the Assignment Rubric and Conversion Matrix.
Total penalties plus any bonuses will then be translated to a grade using the Assignment Rubric and Conversion Matrix document.
Code Descriptions
c – The “c” code is used CONTENT errors or omissions:
1) Not following the instructions regarding the intellectual content, purposes, genre, topic, or scope of the assignment, i.e. missing sections; missing assigned content for sections; i.e. insufficient number of sources/items/tables/figures required; misunderstanding key concepts; i.e. misusing key concept terminology.
x – The “x” code is used for GRAMMAR errors.
a – The “a” code is used for ARGUMENT errors or omissions:
1) Weaknesses with overall argument or logic, i.e. missing or vague claims; missing or insufficient data or analysis, unclear or illogical reasoning in figures, tables, or paragraphs, cited sources not clearly or logically integrated, unclear or illogical wording
o – The “o” code is used ORGANIZATIONAL errors or omissions:
1) Significant weaknesses in macro-structure (not following instructions for the structure and order of ideas; missing necessary transitions between paragraphs, ideas that don’t belong in a section, unnecessary repetition; formatting problems; internal flow/structure problems within sections, paragraphs, or lists; figure/table caption formatting; minor elements of document formatting; unclear wording of subheadings, problems with document structure due to formatting, spacing, etc.
r – The “r” code is used for REFERENCE errors or omissions:
1) Citation errors; reference formatting; failure to cite; unethical use of citations and/or references

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