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Research Dossier

Finding a research topic is important because it has to be something you can relate to.
Having an interest in the topic allows you to have the motivation and passion to work diligently
and effectively. So it was important for me to find a topic that I can dive deep into because I
wanted to enjoy researching the topic so that the quality of my work could be excellent. The
top I went with relates to business because I have always been fascinated with the way a
business can go from struggling to survive, to being one of the most successful ones out there.
In the case for my research topic, it’s the opposite. I chose to research the reasons businesses
go from being super successful to ultimately failing in the end. It’s amazing to see that
companies can fail so quickly with the wrong choices. Being more specific, I want to delve into
communication and rhetorical situation. A major part of a company is the communication
between experts inside like the way an engineer communicates with the entrepreneurs. If a
business fails, it is plausible that it’s because people within the company cannot see eye to eye
and a collaborative consensus on business decisions cannot be made making the company
suffer with either bad decisions or for being slow making the decisions. Rhetorical Situation can
also be the cause of a failure in a business because as time passes, situations that brought
customers might expire making people have less desire or interest in that business. One
example could be a change in weather can affect the sale of clothing. If it gets hot outside, the
environment changes, so sales in jackets drastically drops. All these scenarios have always been
interesting to me ever since I was a kid. This topic is something that I will enjoy researching so
my work should be accurate because I will have the motivation to take the time to research
well. So far I’ve accomplished a little bit. I have a large number of sources to go through like
studies, journals, and websites and I also have a good understanding of where I want to take
this and I have keywords. If I take a look at the BEAM method, I can see that my sources do
cover all of it. The B stands for background and for that I have the history of Apple inc. because
Apple is a company that became the first trillion-dollar American company but has now lost half
of that. So understanding the background of Apple will help me understand what it is that
makes businesses fail. Apple is a company I will be using as a case study because their situation
is unique and I think it will help me find what I’m looking for. The E stands for evidence and I
have studies that I can use for evidence. Analysis is what A stands for and I have articles that
have the same questions as me that have very good points which covers that part of it. And
lastly, the M stands for Methods which also is covered. One roadblock I encountered was that I
had trouble with my initial topic because it made it hard to go into detail on the subject and it
was hard to find research on it. My original idea was to center the whole piece around Apple
and take a look at why they have crashed recently but there was nowhere I could take that and
no research was done on it because it is fairly recent. So I decided to look at companies as a
whole and I will use Apple as an example. Looking at all companies in general allows me to have
way more research available allowing me to have great quality of work.
ENC Research Map

Research Questions:
 What is Apple doing wrong in terms of their business communications that’s cause a
drop in their stock?
 How does the rhetorical situation affect their sales?
Keywords: “Business Communication”, “Rhetorical Situation”, “Stock Decline”, “Company and
Consumer connection”, “Apple consumers as a discourse community”

Kinds of research: I will be mostly using scholarly text and internet source and I hope to conduct
an interview making sure I get a good mix of primary and secondary sources. I can use the
internet to find research studies and an interview to look at a personal view of the situation.
Time table
FEBRUARY * = research (done throughout), Conferences = TBA

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

5 R. Map
6 7 8*
Peer Rev.

10 R. Map 11 13
9 Revised Library 12 RR 14 RR 15*
Research
DUE!! 4-6 pm map

20 Digital
16 17 18 19 21 RR 22*
paper trail

25
27 Peer
23 24 Research 26 28
review
Dossier

MARCH

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Final
research RR 1*
dossier
S P R I N G
B R E A K !!

9 10 11 12 RR 13 14 RR 15*

16 20
17 RR 18 19 RR 21 RR 22*

25 26
28 PSA
23 24 Math Survey 27 29*
Revised
mid-term draft due

31 1stWS
Peer review
30 Draft, Re.
workshop
Cycle

APRIL

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

3 Final
Pitch TED Draft
1 2 4 5
Talk rhetorical
analysis

12 Peer
6 7 8 9 10 11 Review
Draft 1

17
18 Class 19 Final
13 14 15 16 Workshop Present. Draft
draft

21 Class 22 DUE!!
20 23 24 25 26
Present. @ 12 am

28 30
27 29
e-portfolio TED talks
Annotated Bibliography
Interview with my father who is a stock specialist

Edwards, Jim. “Apple Will No Longer Report IPhone Numbers after Growth Went to 0%,
and Analysts Are Now Worried IPhone Sales May Decline.” Business Insider, Business
Insider, 2 Nov. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/apple-will-no-longer-report-iphone-
sales-unit-numbers-2018-11 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

“The Apple Is Rotting: IPhone Sales Decline, $1 Trillion Valuation at Risk.” Money &
Markets, 2 Nov. 2018, moneyandmarkets.com/apple-iphone-sales-decline/.

Macalope. “X Marks the Spot: Tracking Apple's Decline.” Macworld, Macworld, 1 Feb.
2018, www.macworld.com/article/3252772/iphone-ipad/x-marks-the-spot-tracking-
apple-s-decline.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Martellaro, John. “Sadly, Mac Sales Starting to Indicate an Overall Decline.” Tim Cook
Soundly Rejects Politics of the NCPPR, Suggests Group Sell Apple's Stock – The Mac
Observer, 2 Nov. 2018, www.macobserver.com/columns-opinions/editorial/mac-sales-
decline/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Lovejoy, Ben, et al. “Commentators Weigh in on Whether Apple Can 'Defy Gravity' in a
Declining Smartphone Market.” 9to5Mac, 9to5Mac, 7 Dec. 2018,
9to5mac.com/2018/12/07/declining-smartphone-market/.

“Business Failure.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Jan. 2019,


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_failure.

Malone, Michael S. Infinite Loop: How Apple, the World's Most Insanely Great
Computer Company, Went Insane. 1998.

Morley, Donald Dean. Organizational Communication and Culture: A Study of 10 Italian


HighTechnology Comp, pp. 1–16.,
journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/002194369703400303.
“How Does the Stock Market Work? • A Guide for Beginners.” Benzinga, Benzinga, 27 Nov.
2018, www.benzinga.com/investing/how-does-the-stock-market-work/.

Amadeo, Kimberly. “How the Stock Market Works.” The Balance Small Business, The Balance,
www.thebalance.com/how-does-the-stock-market-work-3306244.

Jackson, Anna-Louise, and Arielle O'Shea. “What Is the Stock Market and How Does It Work?”
NerdWallet, NerdWallet, 3 Dec. 2018, www.nerdwallet.com/blog/investing/what-is-the-stock-
market/.

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