4.3. Getting Started
You will need to create a Google Doc and make sure it is shareable so you can work as a group and participate in Peer Review. The team’s point person should create the Doc and share the link with the team. You will also post a shareable, editable link in the SWOT Report Peer Review Forum to which your peers can respond.
Once you have a shared document, start with your research and, as a group, form a bulleted list for each section. That way, you will know how each section connects to the others when writing. You can also use these bullet points as topic sentences within the sections. Do not just say that an organization has strengths or weaknesses, etc. Instead, say what the key strength, etc. is and how it relates to the problem you identified. For example:
Incorrect: Amazon has a number of weakness they will need to address to make their company more successful.
Possible revision: Amazon has come under scrutiny for their labor practices since Chris Smalls brought them to public attention in the past year.
As always, note the expressions that your examples use. How do they start each section? How do they transition between sections. Especially because this is a collaborative project, you will need to pay special attention, not only to the transitions within sections, but to the transitions between sections. The report should read as if one person wrote it.
Once you’ve drafted each section and gone through peer review, go back and write an introduction and conclusion. Your introduction should identify the problem you are trying to solve. Review the Formatting Guidelines for more details. You conclusion should help the company to move forward. While it is not necessarily your job to fix the problem, you should show the company how your research can help them identify solutions and address the problem.
Erin Cheslow 