Posted: July 21st, 2017

Analytical Report Requirements

You work for Thompson Real Estate, a small privately-owned company located in Austin, Texas. Your company has a team of 10 insurance salespersons who travel around the area to meet with clients, making sales of new policies to new clients and reviewing policies of old clients. You are the administrative assistant to Rachel Thompson, the owner of the company. Ms. Thompson recently told you that the company needs to purchase wireless smartphones for each of the 10 salespersons to improve communications within the company. She has asked that you research wireless smartphone providers.

She tells you that the service plan and phone you recommend must at least meet the following criteria:

1. The service plan must cover your main sales areas: Dallas/Fort Worth, Waco, Austin, and San Antonio.

2. The smartphone, as a minimum, must have the following features (it may have additional feature):

a. Internet access

b. Email capability

c. Photography capabilities

d. Caller I.D.

e. Conference call capability

f. Call forwarding

g. Call log

h. Phone book

i. Voice messaging

j. Text messaging

k. One-number dialing

l. Rapid battery charging

m. At least 2 hour talk time

n. At least 12 hours standby time

o. Keypad lock

p. Bluetooth

q. GPS

Thompson tells you that although finding the lowest rates and prices is important, she is not setting a limit.

She wants you to submit a formal analytical report to her in which you discuss and evaluate different service providers and phones. Your report MUST contain the following information:

1. Evaluate three (3) different service providers in order to recommend which of the three providers you believe offers the best service plan and coverage for your company. Be sure that when you are evaluating each provider you state the specific name of each provider’s specific service plan and discuss the details of each plan, covering both the pros and cons of each plan. Be DIRECT in stating which provider of the three is the one that you recommend as the best choice for Thompson Real Estate to use and explain why you selected the one that you did.

2. Once you recommend the BEST service provider, evaluate the pros and cons of three (3) different smartphones offered by THAT provider. Each phone MUST be run by a different operating system: a) Apple iOS, b) Android, and c) Windows Phone operating system.

For EACH of the three smartphones,

a. Name the brand and the model number,

b. Evaluate the features available on the phone,

c. Examine the performance reviews of each phone,

d. Include a discussion of the pros and cons of the phone’s operating

system.

After you have evaluated the three different smartphones, be DIRECT in stating which ONE of the three smartphones is the BEST smartphone for Thompson Real Estate to purchase and justify your choice.

AND

3. Finally, for the service provider that you selected as your top choice, you are to include an ITEMIZED budget that lists ALL the costs involved and includes a TOTAL cost for outfitting ALL of the 10 salespersons with the smartphone and plan that you have chosen as best. Be sure that your budget includes cost of the recommended smartphone, monthly cost of the recommended service plan, costs of any additional service features that you believe should be added to the service plan, and costs of any additional equipment (cases, chargers, etc.) that you believe the salespersons may need for the smartphone.

Analytical Report Requirements

1. Must be at least 4 -5 double spaced typed pages, not including the References page and supplements. The report may be longer than 5 pages if necessary.

IMPORTANT: Your report should contain textual discussion of your findings and recommendations. DO NOT JUST PILE TABLES AND/OR FIGURES ON TOP OF EACH OTHER AND CONSIDER THAT AS YOUR DISCUSSION. REMEMBER, VISUALS SUPPORT BUT DO NOT REPLACE TEXTUAL DISCUSSION OF YOUR INFORMATION.

2. Must include all of the report components listed below in the section entitled “How to Organize Your Formal Analytical Report Document.” These elements must be in correct order.

3. Must use APA parenthetical documentation to cite a minimum of 4 sources WITHIN the report. Each of the required 4 sources must be written by a different author/company (NOTE: This means that if you use ONLY 4 sources within your report, you MAY NOT have two sources from Consumer Reports etc.). You may use more than 4 sources if you wish.

4. Must be documented correctly using APA style (Must have both APA parenthetical citations within the report and a correctly formatted References page at the end of the report). NOTE: Refer to the Sample APA Documented Paper in the External Links section of this course to see an example of how sources are cited and documented using APA format.

WARNING: Any report that does not meet the minimum requirements may not receive a passing grade. PLEASE pay close attention to APA documentation!!!!! You MUST cite at least 4 sources within the paper using APA documentation (not doing so automatically will earn a grade of “F” for the paper). Any source cited in the paper (except for personal communications) must be listed on the References page. For APA style, personal communications are cited only within the paper itself.

By working through Unit 4, Lessons 1 – 4, you will be able to complete this assignment.

How to Organize Your Formal Analytical Report — follow the order listed below. Follow the examples shown in your textbook for how to set up the supplement pages and for how to number the pages of the report.

Supplements (Front Matter) that PrecedeYour Report (See Unit 4, Lesson 4: Adding Supplements)

NOTE: Supplements that precede the report are numbered using lower-case Roman numerals while the report itself and supplements that follow the report are numbered using regular numbers.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT PAGE NUMBERING: Your report will need to include a running head and page numbering. You may not be able to use automatic page numbering to do this. You will need to manually type in the heading and page number on each page. Page numbering should probably be the very last thing that you do after you have completed the report.

1. Memo of Transmittal (required) — (do not number this page and do not use a header or automatic page numbering on this page)

a. Make up a company logo for Thompson Real Estate.

b. Address the memo to Rachel Thompson, owner of Thompson Real Estate.

c. The memo should be from you. Your job title is Administrative Assistant.

2. Title Page(required) — (do not number this page but count it as page i).

a. Manually type a Running head at the top left of the page (see the example on page 520 of your textbook)

b. Note that the report is for Rachel Thompson, Owner of Thompson Real Estate

c. Note that your job title is Administrative Assistant (not English Student)

3. Table of Contents (required) — (Do not number this page but count it as page ii). Manually type your Running head in the top left-hand side of this page

4. List of Tables and Figures (if needed)

a. Needed if you have more than 4 visuals.

b. If included, place the list at the bottom of your Table of Contents page as shown on page 521 of your textbook.

5. Abstract (required)

a. Number your Abstract as page iii.

b. Manually type your Running head in the top left-hand corner of the page and manually type the page number iii in the top right-hand corner of the page.

The Analytical Report (required)

6. The Analytical Report itself

a. The report must be a minimum of 4 – 5 double spaced typed pages, not including the References page and supplements.

b. Be sure your report has a clearly designated introductory section, middle section, and a conclusion section.

c. Use HEADINGS throughout the report (REQUIRED). Any headings used in the report should be listed on your Table of Contents and vice versa.

d. Use your Running head and page numbering throughout the rest of the report, including your References page and any appendices that you may have.

e. Begin numbering your report with page 1 and number consecutively throughout the rest of the report, including References page and any appendices that you may have included.

f. Be sure to correctly document a minimum of 4 sources within the report using correct APA parenthetical citations.

WARNING:FAILURE TO CITE AND DOCUMENT WITHIN THE PAPER AT LEAST 4 SOURCES USING CORRECT APA FORMAT WILL RESULT IN A GRADE OF “F” ON YOUR REPORT!!!!!!!! FOLLOW THE APA FORMATS GIVEN IN YOUR TEXTBOOK ANDTHE ONLINE LECTURE UNIT 4: LESSON 2. DO NOT USE APA FORMATS SHOWN IN ANY OTHER SOURCE SINCE MY GRADING OF YOUR PARENTHETICAL CITATIONS AND REFERENCES PAGE CITATIONS IS BASED ON YOUR TEXTBOOK AND THE ONLINE LECTURE.

Supplements that Follow Your Report (End Matter) (See Unit 4, Lesson 4: Adding Supplements)

7. References(required) –REPORTS HAVING NO REFERENCES PAGE WILL RECEIVE A GRADE OF “F.”

a. Use correct APA format to list the sources you cited in your report on the References page. You MUST use at least 4 sources. You may use more than 4 sources if you wish. ANY SOURCE LISTED ON THE REFERENCES PAGE MUST BE CITED WITHIN THE REPORT ITSELF USING APA PARENTHETICAL CITATIONS. FOLLOW THE APA FORMATS SHOWN IN YOUR TEXTBOOK AND ONLINE LECTURE UNIT 4: LESSON 2. DO NOT FOLLOW APA FORMATS SHOWN IN ANY OTHER SOURCE.

b. You are required to cite a minimum of 4 sources within your report using correct APA parenthetical citations. Remember, ANY source cited WITHIN the report must be listed on your References page and vice versa.

WARNING:FAILURE TO USE CORRECT APA PARENTHETICAL CITATIONS TO CITE AND DOCUMENT WITHIN THE PAPER AT LEAST 4 SOURCES WILL RESULT IN A GRADE OF “F” ON YOUR REPORT !!!!!!!!

c. Your list of references is a separate page unto itself. Place your list of references after the page that contains your conclusion and/or recommendation section of the report.

d. Be sure to include your Running head on your References page.

e. Number the references page appropriately. For example, if your conclusion and/or recommendations are on page 5 of your report, the References page is page 6.

THREE SERVICES I HAVE PICKED: AT&T, VERIZON, AND TMOBILE THREE CELL PHONES: IPHONE 7, SAMSUNG GALAXY 8, ALDACTEL IDOL 4S WITH WINDOWS