Q Final Report Assignment Description Final Report Overview The Final Report is a comprehensive application of everything that has been covered in the course. Your assignment is to prepare a formal business report according to the requirements described below. Imagine that you are a consultant hired by the Knights Investment Group (KIG) to analyze a company and make a recommendation about whether or not KIG should acquire it. As part of the final formal report assignment, you will submit three companies of your choice to me for consideration. You and I will work together to choose the best option, and you should weigh my recommendation heavily when making your final decision. You may choose any company of any size for consideration, as long as it is a public company that issues annual reports. Typically, in the past, smaller public companies that you personally know something about have tended to fare better for students. But, some larger companies have also been analyzed and students have done well on those too. Working together, we can find the right one for your project. Content Requirements Your report will offer a recommendation regarding acquisition and provide an abstract, a table of contents, an executive summary, background information about the company, an assessment of the company’s future performance, a description of the analysis methodology, supporting details and data, and references. You should also adhere to the following technical and substance guidelines. Technical Requirements Checklist The final project must include the following: o at least 2,500 words excluding front and back matter; do not exceed 3000 words o 1-inch margins on all sides, Times New Roman 12-point font o at least one table or chart AND two other figures in the body of the report. Each should include a caption, credit to the source, and explanation in the text as to why that figure, graphic, table, chart, or other illustration is pertinent to your argument about this company o double-spaced or single-spaced text; make a choice that is defensible in terms of the design and usability concepts you have read about o neat appearance, well organized, easy to read, appropriate headings and/or sections as described above in “content requirements” o professional presentation—text and graphics are easy to read and appropriately sized; there is good use of white space; the report fits with genre expectations for a formal report o a minimum of five parenthetical references within the body of report in proper APA citation format; use a References page at the end of the document with proper APA formatting o no more than 20% of your paper should be direct quotes. Any direct quotes should be used to support your own analysis and recommendations. Do not copy large sections of content verbatim from other sources. This is to be your research, your argument for or against acquisition, and your substantiation of the evidence to back up your argument o incorporate all of the elements of a formal report including formatting, sections, headings, and any other visual or textual elements associated with formal reports o use good document design and usability principles for headings, sections, bold text, etc. IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure that you fully understand APA citation guidelines. You must properly cite your required five (or more) references within the body of the report--including quotation marks for direct quotes--and at the end in a references section. You must also cite where you obtained facts, ideas, images, and any other content, even if they are not direct quotes. Failure to properly cite sources can result in serious charges of plagiarism and academic fraud, which could result in severe disciplinary action. Don't take a chance. Cite your references correctly. Grading criteria Content Requirements: 120 points Technical Requirements: 25 points Grammar, Spelling, Style: 25 points Visual and graphic elements: 10 points Total: 180 points