COMM 2203 NET
Formal Report on a Sustainability Project Idea for BCIT: Imagine that your short report idea for
the BCIT Revolving Fund for Sustainability Initiatives was quite successful, and you have been
invited to submit a more detailed report to the Selection Committee. The Selection Committee
has mentioned that you can either work with two or three other students who had similar ideas
and combine your research into a team formal report, or you can develop an formal report
individually.
Report Research
By completing your short report earlier this term, you have completed the research phase of your
report, and you are not required to do additional research. Be sure to cite your research properly,
using both in-text citations in the body of the report and a References list at the end of the report.
If you work with a team, remember that it is fine for the body of the report to reflect the different
research and ideas of the individual team members.
Report Body and Length
The Selection Committee has said that you do not need to include a budget or any detailed
costing or payback figures (after you submit your final report, they will pass it to the Finance and
Operations Committees to assess the fiscal requirements of your proposal). You also do not need
to provide detailed figures or rationale on the 5-year payback cycle required by the Revolving
Fund. Each team member (or individual report writer) will contribute at least 3-4 pages to
Discussion (Body) section of the report. For example, an individual writer’s report body will be
minimum 3-4 pages; if the team has three members, the body of the report will be about 9-12
pages. If the team has four members, the body of the report will be about 12-15 pages, etc.
PLEASE NOTE that the “Body” (or the “Discussion”) section of the report refers to the
everything after the Introduction and before the Conclusion.
Report Outline and Focus
Your report outline should be based on the sample Working/Report Outline in the textbook, and
your formal report should follow the sample formal report in that chapter (Appendix E).
However, you do not need to include the Cost Analysis section. Therefore, your report basically
describes the research and the proposed solution(s) (sustainability ideas). Because this is the
“idea” phase of this project, you do not need to have detailed measurements or specifications of
BCIT property, buildings, or budgets, or express detailed knowledge of BCIT operations. Focus
on the key elements of your sustainability idea(s), with an emphasis on the benefits. For the
report format, follow the sample formal report in Appendix E.
Teamwork Clarifications
If yours is a team project, your report will compile the individual contributions of all team
members. Each person contributes individually to the body of the report, and each person writes
one of the report supplements (report supplements are the Executive Summary, the Introduction,
the Conclusions & Recommendations, and the Cover Letter, as well as the “packaging” which
includes the title page, table of contents, and the References). Please include in the Table of
Contents who wrote which parts.
Editing Clarifications
If you are an individual report writer, you are responsible for the entire editing process,
including, content revisions, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, formatting, etc.
If you are developing the report in a team, as well as drafting your sections of the report, you will
contribute to the overall editing process of your team report, as follows:
• one person will volunteer to be the coordinator (confirm who is writing which parts and follow
up with people on when and how to submit their parts; please alert me if people do not meet their
deadlines)
• one person will volunteer to be the compiler (monitor the submissions of all the individual parts
and compile them into one document which is paginated, uniform in style, and which has a table
of contents; note: you need to be very good with MS Word to be the compiler).
• the remaining one or two people will be the peer editor(s) (review the finished product for
mistakes and make the edits to the final document; these are minor edits, spelling mistakes, typos
etc, not substantial changes; this job will be very time sensitive as it will be done at the “last
minute” and requires detail-oriented people).
All formal reports must be submitted to the Chair of the Revolving Fund for Sustainability
Initiatives (RFSI) Selection Committee, Izabela Lazar.**
Reminders
As noted on our schedule, all team members must deliver their completed report parts to the
compiler by the end of week 10.
Once the compiler has combined and formatted the report, the compiler will deliver it to the peer
editor(s). The editor(s) should deliver the final product to me, but the compiler should be
available to help with any MS Word issues.
** While the organizations and resources mentioned in this case are real, and the RFSI is funding
projects at BCIT, the details of this case are fictional, and your report will not be sent to the RFSI
Selection Committee.
