Progress Report for initial goals

Midterm Progress Report

 

This assignment is intended to give you a chance to check in with the work you have done both inside and outside of the classroom based on the goals set for you earlier in the semester. This knowledge will be helpful as you continue into the second half of the semester with additional projects. While the format of this report is pretty flexible, and you can choose any one of a number of organizational strategies, you will still gain additional practice in planning, structuring, writing, and editing an effective memo and report. 

 

Task

Compose a Progress report of at least two pages (single-spaced) in which you discuss the seven goals set for you earlier in the semester, along with the additional goals you set for yourself. For each goal, you should identify what aspects of your progress have allowed you to meet a goal, or how you are working on meeting that goal. Some goals may still be “in progress” so do not feel as though this report needs to justify how you have met every single goal in only a few weeks. As for all reports, the information provided should be substantive, but presented clearly and concisely.

 

Audience

Consider me the audience for this memo; the best strategy is to assume that you must persuade me into recognizing your work as progress towards accomplishing your goals. While no outside research is needed, you must still provide concrete examples for your audience in order to prove your claims.

 

Purpose

The purpose of this memo is to check-in on your progress midway through the semester. With other coursework and outside responsibilities, progress in one given class can often go unnoticed. Be honest with yourself and with your audience so that you can truly understand your progress at this point.

 

Organizational strategies

One successful strategy has been to group the goals into “Goals met” and “Goals in Progress,” and under each section, list each specific goal (maybe bolding or italicizing to set it off) and underneath that goal listing the evidence or discussing the progress. 

 

You can do that in a fairly concise paragraph (understanding that this type of subject matter doesn’t necessarily lend itself to being quite as concise as the issues memo, for example), or some people use bullets (i.e. “received 130/150 on issues memo, demonstrating growing understanding of conventions of professional writing.”)

 

The second strategy has been to group goals into “Class Goals” and “Student Goals” or “My Goals” and follow the above.And then of course you will have the two shorter sections of “Group Feedback” and “Class Feedback.”This may mean you have a long memo.  That’s fine.  It’s better to have it span several pages and deal with each goal than to try to work them all together into paragraphs in an attempt to take up less room.