Step Two


STEP 2

 


 

Your Purpose

     We will create a feasibility study on ways to improve funding for Wayne State's green sustainability initiative and how it is handled in the current committee.  The Office of Sustainability was created on 2011.  However, lately, the progression on making Wayne State University greener has been very slow due to lack of funding.  Wayne State does not have the funding to create new greener changes.  How the money is being distributed to the Office of Sustainability is a mystery and funds received per year is very small. Our goal is to provide with two to three potential projects to help support the funding and the process.  We will find ways to increase the funding for new projects and come up with a feasible committee and its structure.  The audience is composed of Larry Fedor (Director of Energy Management), the Board of Governors, and the Facilities Planning and Management Group.

 

Creating a Useful Communication 

     The task of our communication is to help our reader analyze alternatives for energy conservation.  After the analysis, our reader will be able to choose an alternative solution in order to solve or improve the problem. The information that our reader wants will be very specific. Our reader will want to know our conclusions about the issue, our recommendations to solve the problem and what will happen if they follow our recommendations. They will want to know how much money will be invested and the benefits of the investment (both the short-term and long-term). The reader will be able to search for the information with the "Sequential reading from Beginning to End" and "Reading for Key Points" strategies which will be organizing the document. The reader will use the information to compare alternatives of the solutions that could be implemented in order to solve the problem while saving money.

 

Creating a Persuasive Communication

     When looking to create a persuasive communication we need to look at our readers attitude toward three major concepts. Those three concepts include their attitude toward the subject, their attitude toward us as writers, and their attitude toward our organization. Their are two ways to categorize their attitudes. The first is positive, and if their attitude is positive it means their goals are in line with ours and it should be more about bringing out the positive feelings they already have and strengthening those feelings. If their attitude is negative toward any of these subjects, then the process becomes a little different. Overcoming negative attitudes includes "expressing-and then addressing-the negative points your readers would raise." Also, we would need to provide enough supporting evidence to counter and change the reader's established attitude. Our reader's attitude toward our subject is positively in line with our attitude and mission; however, their feeling of urgency in this project is too low. We need to reinforce the positive feelings they already have toward this problem, and do a better job of instilling that sense of urgency in order to take the next step towards solving the issue. For both of the second two subjects, our readers attitude towards us and our readers attitude toward our organization, their attitudes can be seen as almost identical. "We" are students, and their attitude toward us can be looked at in the same way our "organization" because it is considered to be an organization of students. Their attitudes toward both of these can be considered positive as well. We both have a desire to improve something here at the school, and they want the best for their students. However, on the other hand we can be viewed as "only students" to some of them, which could ruin our credibility in some ways. So, we as students, need to ensure they hold on to the positive feelings they have for us while making our report feasible, sufficient, and as persuasive as possible to be sure that we are taken seriously by some of the readers we are trying to reach.

 

 

Reader's Profile

     The success of papers suggesting or evaluating the implementation of new ideas may be judged on the accomplishments that result directly from the papers conclusions.  Understanding the reader(s) in such a manner that writing to them directly becomes a powerful persuasive tool.  Our main readers are located in the Office of Campus Sustainability.  Larry Fodor is the Director of Utilities and Energy Management.  Daryl Pierson is the Sustainability Coordinator.  These two men are whom we are writing to.  Fodor and Pierson are in positions where they, most likely, tackle the problems of eliminating wasteful habits around campus.  In our reporting we will need to take this into account.  Explaining the problems in depth, may be a waste of our reader’s time.  It, too, may be insulting to the reader to take such in depth criticism from a group of students writing a class assignment.  These gentlemen live the problems that we will highlight every day.  The paper should have a tone of helpfulness.  It is fair to say that the issues are well known, but the solutions may not be.  Concentrating on the solutions that will lower the negative impact of the campus on the environment and writing in a manner that is respectful to the work of Fodor and Pierson is the course best taken.  Additionally, the secondary reader can not be dismissed.  Enough information needs to be presented in the paper to satisfy the secondary reader (i.e. Jared Grogan), but not at the cost of alienating the primary readers.

 

 

Context

     When proposing our ideas to the audiences, we will have to consider current events in and around Wayne State.  Wayne State recently renovated the Student Center so cost will have an impact to our study.  We would have to present each of our cases strongly with examples of different institutions and facilities that already have the same concepts implemented and their benefits.  For example, if the use of wind generators become an option, then providing similar examples from other facilities that have major positive impacts to their carbon foot printing will be of great help to our study.  Also in our report, we will have to be careful on what we say.  If we provide any information the Wayne State council department does not want us to say, it may hurt Wayne State's reputation and image.  Careful checking with the legal ruling pertaining to our study maybe necessary.   

 

Ethical Treatment to Stakeholders

     For every project of this nature there will be several different stakeholders invoked with it. For the switch it off campaign one stakeholder is the Wayne State director of utilities and management, Larry Fodor as well as Daryl Pierson the Sustainability Coordinator. Some other stakeholders are the students and faculty members that would be directly affected by the new implementations. As well as the faculty in charge of the school budgeting because of the costs of the changes as well as money saved from changes in which would be made. Other stakeholders involved would be the Universities maintenance crew because there may be products implemented that they may need to learn how to fix any problems that come from it. Lastly, the president of Wayne State, Roy Wilson is also a stakeholder for this en devour in that he will have the final say on whether or not it would be worth it for the university to make these changes. For the most part, these stakeholders will see this impact them by the school budget being used. They would want to be sure that the costs in creating these changes will be easily made up for by the benefits of them. If there is not a clear improvement that would come out of it then they would have little to no interest in it. In regards to the maintenance staff, they may see it as possibly more work for them learning the changes but could be easier on them in the long run.