The Topic: A Specific University of Louisiana at Lafayette Facility

Your task in this project is to prepare a critical report on a campus facility that your group will select by lot. Basically, you must appraise the facility, taking into consideration its purpose, making a judgment as to how well it suits that purpose, and making whatever recommendations your group decides would improve not only the building but its use.

Describe both the physical features of the facility, its campus location, and what goes on in it. Also, present a history of the building, noting especially whether it is still used for the purpose(s) for which it was originally built, and, if not, what kinds of changes had to be made to adapt the facility to its present use. If the building is still used for its original purpose, focus your critique on how well the facility design meets the current requirements of that purpose. If modifications seem in order, make recommendations accordingly.

Report Features

Identify your intended audience at the outset as that will partially determine the features of the report. For example, if your report is directed to students, you will not likely be making recommendations for changes. Instead, consider such matters as whether or not the building is student-friendly and why or why not. If, on the other hand, your audience is someone with the authority to propose changes, you might well stress exactly what improvements you think would optimize the facility and its purpose.

In any case, at the very least, your report should incorporate a schematic of the facility and other graphics, especially photos, relevant to the main points of your critical evaluation. The report obviously requires your group to visit the building and to make inquiries of the folks in charge.

A Cautionary Tale

Obviously, this assignment will take considerable time, and for that reason it is imperative that your group get started on it as soon as the group is formed. Although your group may do some of the work during class time, you will be pressed to put more time into this assignment than class time alone will allow. You must plan accordingly.

This project asks your group to engage in honest critical thinking and to support its conclusions with solid evidence. This project may well be your most important one: it engages original and creative thinking, and it requires that you describe, evaluate, and recommend. It should be even more challenging than your proposal, to which it might bear similarities.

You should not offer pie-in-the-sky recommendations (such as imploding the structure and starting anew), nor should you treat this project as a trivial, ho-hum, meaningless, end-of-the-semester exercise. It is an important component of English 365, and your group's input could have very practical results. Take the assignment very seriously.

You need only turn in one copy for your group, but it must include an ms. and c-r version plus a cover page to satisfy the assignment.