Developing a Country Report

A WebQuest for 10^th Grade

Keyboarding-Writing Reports

Phil Rigney, Jan Prather

Introduction

In 1978, the John Deere Corporation very nearly filed for bankruptcy. They survived however, through innovation in product and by reinventing their company. John Deere established a finance company that loaned money to struggling farmers to buy John Deere farm machinery. They also began producing a new line of lawn care equipment, and secured the PGA contract for all regulation golf courses in the United States. These innovations enabled John Deere not only to survive, but to increase sales and assure their position as an industry leader.

As an employee of the marketing department you have been assigned to research, prepare a written report, and make a recommendation to the director of marketing as to whether John Deere should perform a formal marketing survey on your country.

Task

Prepare to persuade your boss to invest or not to invest in a formal marketing survey of your assigned country. Your goal is to learn what economic, political, legal, environmental, and social or cultural factors affect the profitability of a company in a given circumstance.

You will perform this task individually.

Your assignment is to research the economic, political, legal, environmental, and social or cultural environments of your country, and to evaluate the positive or negative impact of these conditions on your company’s ability to make a profit in the assigned country. Then summarize these factors for your boss using a separate paragraph for each condition.

Finally, include in your report a separate paragraph offering your recommendation for investing or not investing in a formal marketing survey of your assigned country, and be sure that your recommendation is supported in the preceding summative paragraphs.

Process

J The first thing you will want to do is study the evaluation rubric. As you outline your report, make sure you are completing all parts of the rubric.

J Start by reading the material available at Countries of the World website.

J Other resources to consult are the CIA World Fact Book website, Facts on File website.

J Summarize the economic, political, legal, environmental, and social or cultural environments.

o (Optional step) prepare a hand written rough draft and/or a typed rough draft of information found. Note: Teacher will review typed drafts only at student’s request.

J Make a recommendation as to the business potential of your country for your company.

J Open a new word document

J Go to page set up

J Set document settings for

o Double space

o 1” left, right and bottom margins

o 2” top margin for page one, and 1” top margin for all following pages

J minimum of 6 paragraphs

J minimum of 2 pages including work cited page

J observe all other MLA standard formatting instructions

Submit your final report to your teacher for a test grade worth 40% of your 6 weeks grade.

You will have five (5) days to complete this report. Classroom time will be available.

Evaluation

Research Report: Country Report

Teacher name: Mr. Rigney

Student Name ___________________

CATEGORY	Excellent 4	Good 3	Satisfactory 2	Needs Improvement 1
Mechanics	No grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors.	Almost no grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors	A few grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.	Many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
Organization	Information is very organized with well-constructed paragraphs and subheadings.	Information is organized with well-constructed paragraphs.	Information is organized, but paragraphs are not well-constructed.	The information appears to be disorganized. 8)
Quality of Information	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It includes several supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It provides 1-2 supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. No details and/or examples are given.	Information has little or nothing to do with the main topic.
Amount of Information	All topics are addressed and all questions answered with at least 2 sentences about each.	All topics are addressed and most questions answered with at least 2 sentences about each.	All topics are addressed, and most questions answered with 1 sentence about each.	One or more topics were not addressed.
Internet Use	Successfully uses suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance.	Usually able to use suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance.	Occasionally able to use suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance.	Needs assistance or supervision to use suggested internet links and/or to navigate within these sites.
Sources	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented in the desired format.	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented, but a few are not in the desired format.	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented, but many are not in the desired format.	Some sources are not accurately documented.

Conclusion

Upon completing this exercise you have gained a deeper understanding of the factors to consider in taking responsibility, and making decisions in a business environment that can have long term positive or negative consequences for a fortune 500 company.

Credits and References

Please visit The WebQuest Page and the Design Patterns to obtain the latest version of this template and to view other examples of WebQuests.

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Last updated on June 20, 2003. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page