Needs Assessment
Paper details:
Locate and summarize at least two articles related to conducting a needs assessment of graduate MSW students and their writing skills. As discussed in class, there are many prongs to this project including self-perception, actual skills and experiences of students, faculty and prospective employees. A needs assessment commonly will include a rationale regarding why conducting such a study and its outcomes are important, a full assessment of the stakeholders, and then a recommendation once the findings are released. Therefore, you have great latitude regarding the subject of your particular literature search. It could be studies that have already been conducted wherein writing skills are examined, commentary about the importance of professional writing, or instruments that measure writing skills in one way or another.
Include in your summary the pertinent information that you imagine that a reader might want to know, i.e. what the goal was, who were the stakeholders, what need was being assessed, how it was assessed, and what were the outcomes (for an article that describes a study). If your article is not an actual study, but more a commentary on the importance of writing, you would provide information about the main points the author was trying to make. You should be able to do this in two pages (one for each article). If you go over that, it’s fine, but try to be succinct and don’t bury your reader in details that don’t contribute to making your points. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me.