Memorandum

To: ENG 1800 Students

From: Krista Soria
Date: October 15, 2014
Subject: Progress Report
Purpose
The purpose of this memorandum is to provide you with a progress report regarding my
research for the feasibility project. In this memo I will provide you with evidence that I
have located, explain my trials and errors with the research process, and evaluate my
research found to date.
Summary
I have been researching whether it is feasible for students to earn an A in technical
writing. My research included both secondary and primary research, although this memo
primarily describes my secondary research results. I have conducted research through the
UAA Consortium Library databases to locate six articles that will benefit me in
answering whether it is feasible for students to earn an A in technical writing.
My study is currently on schedule and I have successfully located six references I will
use in my final report. I should experience no challenges in completing my final report by
December 15, 2014.
Introduction
On September 15, 2014, I received permission to proceed with researching my feasibility
project. I then initiated my secondary research process by searching for peer reviewed
published articles and books in the UAA Consortium Librarys online databases. This
topic is important because students who do well in courses such as technical writing are
more likely to do well in advanced levels of technical writing courses (Anderson, 2008).
I began by searching in Academic Search Premier, a database which was not very useful
for me. I searched the terms technical writing and found over 5,000 hits. After I
narrowed my search to technical writing and college I narrowed my search to 25 hits;
however, after briefly examining the 25 sources, I concluded that they were not useful to
my original feasibility topic.
Therefore, I decided to switch to another database, ERIC. In this database I used the same
search criteria as located above; however, this time I included academic achievement
among my search terms. I found over 300 sources, and the first 10 were immediately
helpful to me. I also narrowed by search by the year of publication because I wanted very
recent documents under which to substantiate my claims of a problem and an opportunity.
Furthermore, I narrowed my search to full-text, peer-reviewed articles again using the
ERIC database. With this criteria narrowed, I immediately found sources that perfectly fit
my topic.

Finally, I evaluated my resources(aim for three detailed paragraphs to describe your

methodology).
Results of Research
First, I will discuss my completed work below which outlines the specific references I
have located that will assist me in answering whether or not it is feasible for students to
earn an A in technical writing. Next I will discuss the future work that needs to be
conducted in order to complete my feasibility report.
Completed Work
After narrowing down my search criteria, I located seven articles and one book which
will be of help. In one of the articles, Smith (2007) wrote that it is possible to get an A
in Technical Writing if you work diligently, turn in your work on time, and dont miss
class (p. 72). Such an expert claim will assist me with my feasibility research.
Additionally, I located one important statistic that will serve me well: only 35% of all
Technical Writing students earn an A or higher in Krista Sorias class (Jones, 2007, p.
87). This information is actually contrary to prior research conducted by Samuels which
indicates that over half of all students earn As in Krista Sorias class (2003). Therefore,
I will examine this information in more depth to judge the accuracy of Jones initial
claims.
Finally, I found that one particular journal will be of assistance to me: Writing Well in
Technical Writing Courses. This journal appears to have over 30 articles written on the
topic of how to be successful in technical writing courses. Therefore, I expect to
research this particular journal in depth to determine whether there may be additional
resources found within its contents.
Future Work
The UAA Consortium Library had all of the article resources I located in PDF and HTML
format, so, I will not be required to inter-library loan them. The book I located, Writing
Well in English Courses, was not located here at the Hamline Library; therefore, I had to
inter-library loan the book and it is expected to arrive in four days. Once it is received, I
will read it to determine if it will be useful in helping me to understand whether or not it
is feasible for students to earn an A in technical writing.
(Add a few more steps here)
Conclusion
With some added assistance from the reference librarian at UAA, I was able to narrow
down my search and find some helpful resources; however, I may need to research more
information as some of the statistics I located confound each other. I hope to locate two
more books as wellthis is a personal goal. (add about a full paragraph here)

References
Below I have listed the citations for the resources I have located so far (note that youll
need to list six references and also use APA):
Jones, K. M. (2007). English rules! Writing Well in Technical Writing Courses, 98,
65-68.
Smith, J. S. (2004). Writing well in English courses. New York, NY: Jossey-Bass.
Smith, J. S. (2007). My English article. Writing Well in Technical Writing Courses, 24,
55-65.
Williams, K. H. (2006). Technical writing 101: A way to get an A. New York, NY:
Smith and Smith.