Last year, a group of first-year students produced a Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) report for an ENGL 211 class. It was intended to help administrators think about funding strategies for Ferris. The SWOT Report examines Ferris State University’s funding strategies, and intends to serve the Ferris administration. [Note: the section of the report you will revise is also available here as a Microsoft Word document.] Your job is to revise a handful of their paragraphs and make them clear, grammatical, etc. You are NOT revising the entire report.

1. The First Task: A revision of the report’s description of how increased enrollment can actually raise tuition rates at Ferris. The crux of this description is the third, fourth, and fifth paragraphs of the "Strengths" section. This portion of the report is unclear, but it is crucial to understanding the larger framework that governs costs and benefits.
   • Read the entire SWOT report. Note that it is extremely rough and would not be appropriate to send to most administrators unless it was heavily revised.
   • Review the Grading Criteria linked to this page in the gray column to the right.
   • Be certain that your revision becomes its own, separate paper that would be understandable to someone who has not read the entire SWOT analysis and who is not in our class.
   • Length = 1-2 pages
   
   Again, you are ONLY revising the indicated paragraphs.
   
   
2. Second Task: An analysis of the student's approach to their audience; read the entire report written by the ENGL 211 students and evaluate it in terms of how it recognizes the audience for which it is written, i.e., academic administrators. How does the report signal its understanding of the audience for which it writes? Does the audience implied in the class’s writing strategies – organization, style, genre, etc. – fit the real audience? You may wish to consult other links in the report, and to consult the administrative report written late last term.
   • Remember to think about how the students recognized -- appropriately or not -- the following aspects of the audience:
     • Expertise
     • Power
     • Openness to information
     • Actual Need
     • Perceived Need
   • Evaluate the writing techniques and strategies deployed by the students in terms, especially for purposes of:
     • Credibility
     • Persuasion
     • Information