Contacting and Expert

“I Need an Expert!”

Merriam-Webster defines an expert as someone who possesses “a special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject.” The key word here is “mastery,” which means to be considered an expert, a person should have spent a considerable amount of time effectively studying, performing, and pretty much, breathing his or her respective subject area(s) over a significant period of time. So, keeping this definition in mind, students will be contacting an expert in a field related to student “A Modern Proposal” projects. Experts may be activists, professors, lawmakers, non-profit agency representatives, program directors, or other qualified individuals actively participating in the field of interest.

Each student in the group must contact an expert in the field. Contact may be via email, phone, or live interview.

When preparing initial contact, students should include the following:

· A proper introduction, stating name, age and school;
· Purpose, an overview of the project;
· Topics to be covered;
· Politely inquiring if it would be ok to continue a correspondence and/or interview;
· Plans for the information once interview is completed.

Once students have received a response from the interviewee/correspondent:

· Thank him/her;
· If necessary, ask the interviewee to check your information and quotations for accuracy;
· Offer to send the interviewee a copy of your writing;
· Politely ask the interviewee if he/she would be willing to be a guest speaker

Requirements:
1. Students must contact one person/agency on each side of the issue.
2. Initial contacts must be via email. Students will earn credit for their efforts by
submitting a hardcopy of the email to Paul.
3. Students will also need to include these sources in their final paper.