Document Planner

One of the best ways to get a quick start on a research project is to draft a Document Planner. Regardless of what you are researching, your audience, purpose, and methodology will significantly affect how you shape the final product. By determining these rhetorical constraints early in a research project, you can better ensure the ultimate effectiveness of a document However, because you can anticipate changing your research goals as you learn more about your topic, you may find it more useful to consider the Document Planner to be a living document. In other words, when you are confronting an intellectually challenging topic, you will probably need to continually revise your document planner to more effectively account for what you’re learning and for what you are hoping to accomplish.

Title:

Establish a Reasonable Schedule

Due date for conducting necessary background research

Due date for networking with appropriate resource people

Due date for writing first draft of document proposal

Due date for writing second drafts of a document

Final due date

Context

What important articles have been written about this topic? Where have these texts appeared? What new ideas can you contribute to this scholarly conversation? On whose academic shoulders do you stand? Can past research inform your writing project?  What important texts have been written about the topic, if any?  How can past research inform how you narrow your topic?  What new ideas can you contribute?  What motivates you to explore this project?  What are the unique elements of this writing situation?  Is your context formal, semiformal, informal? 

Purpose

What is the specific outcome your writing seeks to achieve—to entertain, inform, evaluate, persuade? Clearly define your purpose in as narrow terms as possible. What is your argument/story?

Audience

What do you know about your audience? How can you find out more about them? What do you want your reader to do, understand, or feel? What counterarguments or questions should you anticipate?  How interested in the subject or emotionally involved is the reader?

Media

What media should you employ--academic writing, an oral presentation, a Web site, email, Instant Messenger, a magazine column, a video documentary?  Why?

Voice, Tone, or Persona

What voice, tone, and persona should you project as a consequence of your communication situation? For example, should you attempt to appear objective and detached, passionate and angry, or clever and satirical? 

Methodology

On whose methodological shoulders do you stand?  What sources must you cite to support your methodological approach?

Discourse Conversation Length, Format and Design

How long should your project be? How can visual language underscore your message?  What figures and tables or other formatting techniques are commonly used?  What form of documentation is required?