Identify (2) text topics that either currently make or sometime this year will make a significant impact in either your professional or personal life.

rubuic attached

GRADING CRITERIA FOR DISCOVERY PAPERS

Overview:

• Each student paper will have an individual focus as it will be based on (2) student-selected, quality management text topics. These (2) topics will be identified as highly significant to the student, either professionally or personally.   The discovery process purpose is to increase each student’s level of awareness regarding the impact that quality has in his/her life.

Criteria – Content:

• Create discovery paper content from only the following sources – the textbook, your own thoughts, and your experiences (business/personal).
• Identify (2) text topics that either currently make or sometime this year will make a significant impact in either your professional or personal life. You can choose topics with only professional significance, only personal significance, or with a combination of both professional and personal significance.
• Select “individual”, not “collective” topics:
• Acceptable examples:  A) One of Deming’s 14 Points for Management (ex:  management commitment). B) one differentiation strategy to achieve a competitive advantage ( ex:  high agility). C) one specific customer or supplier practice (ex: manage customer relationships). D) one process improvement method ( ex.: Lean Thinking). E) a specific continuous improvement tool (ex: flowchart). F) a specific type of team ( ex: virtual team). G) employee engagement. H) a specific leadership style. I) one element of a performance excellence culture (see bullets – pp. 456-457).
• Not acceptable examples:  A) Any quality “principle” (TQ principles or customer-supplier principles – too general). B) ISO. C) the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. D) Deming’s Profound Knowledge. E) Deming’s 14 Points for Management as a whole. (If in doubt regarding acceptable topics, contact the instructor.)
• Focus not only on the particular significance of each of the (2) topics to you personally and/or professionally, but also on how each of these two topics relate to each other.
• Refer to the attached Grading Rubric ( see below) for additional content grading criteria.

Criteria – Logistics:

• To maximize earning full points for this assignment, your paper must have:
• Content Length: minimum of 2 full  pages ( not 1-1/2  pages) – maximum of 3 (not 3-1/4) pages.
• An introductory paragraph and a concluding paragraph. each stating your main points.
• Two-thirds of this assignment be your own thoughts; one-third be text topic reference.
• Paraphrasing instead of copying the text word for word in your writing. (Keep direct quotes to a minimum.)
• Double spacing throughout ( i.e., only one blank line between any two lines of text)
• Size 12 font
• (4) 1″ margins  ( you may need to reset your margins)
• Identifying data.  If you put identifying data  (name, course name/number, date, assignment title) on your first content page, be sure to write sufficient content to achieve your minimal number of pages yet not write more than the maximum number of pages allowed.
• Only the course text as an outside resource – no other resources.
• In-text citations. The first time you refer to a given text topic in this paper, identify the page number where you found this topic by placing that number in parentheses at the end of the reference. Example: ” customer focus (37)”.   Thereafter, no additional citations are needed when you again reference this topic. If you discuss (8) text topics in this paper ( 3 main topics & 5 supporting topics), you’ll need (8) in-text citations. Avoid plagiarism:  If you quote the text word-for-word, put quotation marks around the directly quoted phrase. Place the text page number for that directly quoted phrase in parentheses at the end of the quote. Example: “People define quality in many ways” (Evans 6).
• Note requirements in grading rubric attached.