Part of your comprehensive assessment project (CAP) includes a paper, approximately 10-pages double-spaced. Your 10-page paper can be a traditional academic paper, such as a literature review (bibliographic essay), which may or may not incorporate application examples.

OR it can be a 10-page, double-spaced critical analysis of a "practical application" project that you created for a class.

Whichever approach you take, your "paper" must be approved first by your comprehensive exam director, then distributed to committee members at least two weeks before your comprehensive exam.

The project or projects used should be work that you completed in a class, not be an entirely new project or new projects; however, you, in consultation with your director, may want to revise what you submitted for the class project a bit for it to be suitable for the CAP.

Traditional Academic Paper

This "academic" paper can consist of a variety of options. For example, you might use a paper and annotated bibliography from a class, revised and (if needed) extended so that the two documents total at least 10-pages double-spaced. See the documents indicated in the list below for examples of course projects that could be classified as an traditional academic paper.

Sample traditional academic paper ...

• "Virtual Learning or Virtually Learning? An Overview of E-Learning Debates in the Mid-Ohio Valley," rtf file  |  pdf file 
• "Face to Face with Assessment,"  rtf file  |  pdf file
  
• "Preparing Technical Communicators for Ethical Challenges," click here 
  
• "Layout and Design: The Historical Background and Current Implications of the Shift from Verbal to Visual Rhetoric." Discusses evolution of writing tools and the ways in which that evolution caused the shift from verbal to visual rhetoric: click here 
  

To begin deciding what your paper might evolve from, review the suggestions that follow:

• Engl 6740/6741: Internship in TPC ... report/paper
  
• Engl 7746: Training in Professional Communication ... literature review and training materials
  
• Engl 7765: Writing Public Policy ... final project
• Engl 7730: Research Methods in TPC ... annotated bib and/or bibliographic essay (literature review)
• Engl 7701: Research in TPC ... research agenda (combination of projects 1 & 2)
  

The projects just suggested are NOT the only choices. Many of the tpc courses include projects which might serve for this type of paper.

Critical Analysis

Your 10-page paper can be a critical analysis of an application project completed in one of your classes.

In your critical analysis, you should analyze the project rhetorically and reflect on the project(s). Consider as appropriate such aspects as background, purpose, audience, content, organization, style, visuals, and format/layout, as well as cultural dynamics. Projects can be print documents or online ones such web site. Projects can be ones prepared collaboratively.

You do not necessarily have to revise your project, but in your critical analysis, you should demonstrate that you understand what revisions are needed and why.

Sample critical analysis ...

• "Adult Learning Theory and Training Strategies: Review of an E-mail Tutorial" [critical analysis paper based on two projects for Engl 7746]  rtf file  |  pdf file 
  
• "Reducing the Decibels: The Story of a Web Site Renovation" [critical analysis paper based on project created in Engl 7746: Training in Professional Communication]
  
• " The Characteristics of a Document and the Audiences It Serves " [3 projects discussed in terms of Hunt, Kevin. "Establishing a Presence on the World Wide Web: A Rhetorical Approach." Technical Communication 43.4 (1996): 376-87 ... Note that a more detailed discussion of one project is acceptable.]