Memo AssignmentGoals
This assignment is designed to assess your mastery of some key concepts acquired throughout the course as well as your ability to apply those concepts to a case (supplied in the form of a movie). The assignment will also provide you with the opportunity to delve into an aspect that you are particularly familiar with or interested in. Moreover, by following a guided writing template, you will be able to acquire and perfect your analytic writing habits.
Grading Criteria
The assignment will be graded using the Memo Rubric, which consists of the following criteria:
- Analytic depth of the problem analysis (50%)
- Extent to which the problem is laid out based on evidence depicted in the case, detailing its symptoms, consequences, and causes.
- Extent to which the diagnosis of the problem refers to concepts and materials acquired in class (including lectures, textbook, and other or supplemental readings).
- Analytic depth of the solution analysis (25%)
- Extent to which proposed solution(s) is/are based on case-related evidence and supported by administrative or policy research (including lectures, textbook, and other or supplemental readings).
- Extent to which course materials, which may include acquired concepts, class discussions, course or additional readings, are applied to propose solution(s) by critically assessing their pros and cons.
- Writing and format (25%)
- Quality of writing: stringent, to the point, non-qualifying, analytical writing (see Memo Writing Guidelines)
- Quality of document formatting, including memo header (name, date, subject line), inclusion of page numbers, consistent headings and font throughout.
- Consistent and style-conforming of formatting of sources
Instructions:
Choose Your Topic within the movie: Thirteen Days (2000) - executive politics during Cuban Missile Crisis
Draft a Memorandum
Draft a memorandum that details a policy or management problem in terms of the type of phenomena and concepts that you will have encountered in class. Be sure to focus on one problem and refrain from trying to explain it all. Also based on trends and reforms discussed in this course, outline one or several solutions to that problem. Your solution can also consist of a set of measures designed to act in concert. Be sure to outline what your solution is expected to accomplish, and why, and what pitfalls it may entail. Outline and explain the proposed solution(s) by referring to relevant course materials and/or readings.
Memo Specifications/Guidelines
Your memo should be written in compliance with the following specifications:
- Rely on theHow to Write a Memo document for guidance on writing and to assess your own work as you progress.
- Pretend you are drafting this memo as a program/policy analyst (From:) for a relevant agency or organization (To:).
- Rely on the outline provided below to structure and draft your memo.
- The body of your memo should count about 3000-4000 words. (Depending on font and other formatting choices, that's about 6-8 pages; but please rely on the word count as a guiding metric.)
- Your memo should make reference to at least five course readings. (You can count eachchapterof the textbook or another course readings as a separate reading.)
- In addition, your memo should rely on at least five valid external sources. Academic, government, or think tank publications - found online or in print - will be valued more highly than open sources (pure web or daily news content). Blogs, Wikipedia, industry/advocacy websites etc. are not considered valid sources but they may point to valid sources such as reports or studies.
- Please use APA (in-text) citation format and attach a list of your references. You can find more on APA here:https://subjectguides.library.american.edu/citation
- If applicable, include visuals and supplemental materials you refer to in the text as appendices. (Those do not count towards the word count.)