Getting Started with Google Docs

Google Docsis a free, web-based office suite offered byGooglewithin itsGoogleDrive service. It was formerly a storage service as well, but has since been replaced byGoogleDrive. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating with other users live.  The following links will provide instructions for creating a Gmail account and creating, sharing and storing documents!  https://drive.google.com/

Watch this video first for overview of Google Docs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRqUE6IHTEA

Google Docs How to Tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMqdex3KDQM

How to create a Gmail account

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Gmail-Account

Sharing in Google Docs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POIR37Hmydg

Introduction to Google Docs (pdf file)

http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/download/nwp_file/10707/Letters_Help_Guide_1.pdf?x-r=pcfile_d

Google Drive and Doc Tutorials

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/googledriveanddocs

Justification/Recommendation Report: Speedier Service at Stellato Family Pizza* (Obj. 5)

You work for Carmine Stellato, the owner of Stellato Family Pizza, a small, casual pizza shop he founded 33 years ago. Its signature items are eight-inch-diameter individual pizzas. The pizza shop also serves mozzarella sticks, wings, and assorted beverages.

The pizza shop is located in the warehouse district of Indianapolis, where it originally served truckers who delivered their meat, fruits, and vegetables in the middle of the night and then whisked off to the next city. Truckers loved the satisfying and filling pizza because it provided them with lots of energy on those tedious late-night runs. Later the pizza shop caught on with the nightclub crowd and with students who studied late. The shop opens at 10 p.m. and closes at 6 a.m.

The concept was a resounding success. However, success brings competition. Three imitators opened their pizza shops within a five-mile radius of Stellato Family Pizza. You know that the family has been using the same delivery system for years, and you know service could be faster. You also notice that new pizza shops are receiving orders via smartphones.

The current system at Stellato’s begins with a counter clerk recording the customer’s order and table number on a ticket. The customer pays, and the counter person gives the order to the pizza makers. The pizza makers remove the dough from the refrigerator, shape it, add the sauce and other ingredients, put the pie in the oven, and remove it from the oven when baked. The counter clerk then takes the order to the customer’s table. Stellato Family Pizza has three counter clerks, two pizza makers, and one cash register that the counter clerks share. It takes two minutes to prep a pizza before it can go in the oven. The pizza shop uses an outdated Rankin Model D85 pizza deck oven, which cooks a pizza in seven minutes.

You think the entire system is inefficient, and when you discuss the problem with Mr. Stellato, he says, “Although the original ways are familiar to me, I see that the time for improvement has come.”

You suggest observing the three competitors’ systems of serving customers to understand why their service is faster. Currently, the average time it takes a customer to receive an order at Stellato Family Pizza is 16 minutes. The following are notes from your observations of the competitors.

DeNunzio Pizza

• Similar menu

• Orders are taken using an electronic system that includes the customer’s number

• Customers pay immediately

• Customers pick up their orders after their numbers have been called

• Two counter clerks at one register; two pizza makers

• Preprepared dough; prep time: one minute

• One state-of-the art Elite Chef Model BFE-28 convection oven—five minutes to cook a pizza

• Average time a customer waits to receive an order: ten minutes

Capriotti’s

• Similar menu

• Order takers call out the menu item as the order is taken

• Customers pay immediately

• Customers wait at the counter to pick up their orders

• Three counter employees at three registers; two pizza makers

• Preprepared dough; prep time: one minute

• One state-of-the art Elite Chef Model BFE-28 convection oven—five minutes to cook a pizza

• Average time a customer waits to receive an order: eight minutes

Hip Hop Pizza Shop

• Similar menu

• Tickets are used to record the customers’ orders

• Customers pay immediately

• Counter staff employees take the order to customers’ tables

• Three counter staff employees, two pizza makers, and one cash register

• Pizza prep the same as Stellato Family Pizza: two minutes

• One DeLong Model FC30 pizza deck oven—six minutes to cook a pizza

• Average time a customer waits to receive an order: 15 minutes

Your Task. Now it is up to you to analyze the data you have collected. In a short memo report to Carmine Stellato, present your findings, discuss your conclusions, and make recommendations, including a recommendation on how Stellato’s might gain a competitive edge by enabling its customers to use some of the most recent technology to order their food. You may want to present the data using visual aids, but you also realize that you must emphasize the important findings by presenting them in an easy-to-read list.

11-2cPreparing a Work Plan

After analyzing the problem, anticipating the audience, and factoring the problem, you are ready to prepare a work plan. A good work plan includes the following:

·  Statement of the problem (based on key background/contextual information)

·  Statement of the purpose including scope with limitations and significance

·  Research strategy including a description of potential sources and methods of collecting data

·  Tentative outline that factors the problem into manageable chunks

·  Work schedule

Preparing a plan encourages you to evaluate your resources, set priorities, outline a course of action, and establish a schedule. Having a plan keeps you on track and provides management a means of measuring your progress.

A work plan gives a complete picture of a project. Because the usefulness and quality of any report rest primarily on its data, you will want to develop a clear research strategy, which includes allocating plenty of time to locate sources of information. For firsthand information you might interview people, prepare a survey, or even conduct a scientific experiment. For secondary information you will probably search electronic materials on the Internet and printed materials such as books and magazines. Your work plan describes how you expect to generate or collect data. Because data collection is a major part of report writing, the next section of this chapter treats the topic more fully.

Figure 11.6 shows a complete work plan for a proposal pitched by social marketing company BzzAgent’s advertising executive Dave Balter to his client Lee Jeans. A work plan is useful because it outlines the issues to be investigated. Notice that considerable thought and discussion and even some preliminary research are necessary to be able to develop a useful work plan.

Figure 11.6Work Plan for a Formal Report

[img border=”0″ width=”21″ height=”21″ src=”file:///C:/Users/JACKIE~1/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.png” alt=”Enlarge Image” v_shapes=”Picture 1″>

© Cengage Learning 2015

Although this tentative outline guides the investigation, it does not determine the content or order of the final report. You may, for example, study five possible solutions to a problem. If two prove to be useless, your report may discuss only the three winners. Moreover, you will organize the report to accomplish your goal and satisfy the audience. A busy executive who is familiar with a topic may prefer to read the conclusions and recommendations before a discussion of the findings. If someone authorizes the report, be sure to review the work plan with that person (your manager, client, or professor, for example) before proceeding with the project.

Chapters

Identifying Secondary Sources and Conducting Primary Research

Learning Objective3

Locate and evaluate secondary sources such as databases and Web resources, and understand how to conduct credible primary research.

Research, or the gathering of information, is one of the most important steps in writing a report. As the philosopher Goethe once said: “The greater part of all mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims. They have undertaken to build a tower, and spend no more labor on the foundation than would be necessary to erect a hut.” Think of your report as a tower. Because a report is only as good as its foundation—the questions you ask and the data you gather to answer those questions—the remainder of this chapter describes the fundamental work of finding, documenting, and illustrating data.

Chicago is the “Windy City” and New Orleans is the “Big Easy,” but what is Glendale, California? Boring. That’s what municipal branding firm North Star Destination Strategies found after conducting a yearlong study on the inconspicuous neighbor of Pasadena and Burbank. To improve Glendale’s image, North Star recommended that city council leaders adopt “Your Life. Animated,” a marketing-and-development campaign designed to rebrand Glendale as the home of DreamWorks Animation, the creative studio behind such delightful movies as Shrek and Kung Fu Panda. Which type of research data would be best at helping cities evaluate their strengths and weaknesses?[img border=”0″ width=”12″ height=”12″ src=”file:///C:/Users/JACKIE~1/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.png” alt=”http://ng.cengage.com/static/nbapps/glossary/images/footstar.png” v_shapes=”Picture 2″>

Figure 11.6 shows a complete work plan for a proposal pitched by social marketing company BzzAgent’s advertising executive Dave Balter to his client Lee Jeans. A work plan is useful because it outlines the issues to be investigated. Notice that considerable thought and discussion and even some preliminary research are necessary to be able to develop a useful work plan.

Figure 11.6Work Plan for a Formal Report

© Photos 12/Alamy

As you analyze a report’s purpose and audience and prepare your research strategy, you will identify and assess the data you need to support your argument or explain your topic. As you do, you will answer questions about your objectives and audience: Will the audience need a lot of background or contextual information? Will your readers value or trust statistics, case studies, or expert opinions? Will they want to see data from interviews or surveys? Will summaries of focus groups be useful? Should you rely on organizational data? Figure 11.7 lists five forms of data and provides questions to guide you in making your research accurate and productive.

Figure 11.7

Gathering and Selecting Report Data

[img border=”0″ width=”21″ height=”21″ src=”file:///C:/Users/JACKIE~1/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.png” alt=”Enlarge Table” v_shapes=”Picture 3″>

© Cengage Learning 2015

Applying the 3-x-3 Writing Process to Contemporary Reports

11-2aAnalyzing the Problem and Purpose

The first step in writing a report is understanding the problem or assignment clearly. For complex reports, prepare a written problem statement to clarify the task. In analyzing her report task, Emily had many questions: Is the problem that Pharmgen is spending too much money on leased cars? Does Pharmgen wish to invest in owning a fleet of cars? Is Joshua unhappy with the paperwork involved in reimbursing sales reps when they use their own cars? Does he suspect that reps are submitting inflated mileage figures? Before starting research for the report, Emily talked with Joshua to define the problem. She learned several dimensions of the situation and wrote the following statement to clarify the problem—both for herself and for Joshua.