| Course | DBAX 9103C Business Consulting Research Project Stage 3 |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 1 |
| Paper type | Reporting discussion |
| Length | About 520 words, 3 pages |
| Format | Discussion post, APA 7 citations |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for DBAX 9103C Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Reporting When the Subjects Will Read the Report
Writing for Readers Who Are Also in the Report: Reworking One Draft Paragraph From a Consulting Study at a Family-Owned Sign Company So It Reports What Was Found Without Pointing at the Evening Shift
The Draft Paragraph
My consulting client is a family-owned company in Tulsa that designs, builds and installs commercial signs, from channel letters to pylon signs, for retail chains, banks and churches. It employs about 85 people, including a day fabrication crew, a smaller evening crew that paints and wires signs, and installation crews. On-time installations fell from 92 percent to 74 percent over eighteen months. Colleagues at the company will read my report, and some of them are in it. Here is a paragraph I drafted from my field notes:
"Production stalls at the evening shift. Evening crew members described confusion about priorities, and the shift lead admitted that paint jobs are sometimes started in the wrong order. Signs often wait overnight for wiring because only one evening worker is a licensed electrician."
What Is Wrong With It
Every sentence in the paragraph is accurate, and the paragraph is still unfair. It locates the problem in the evening shift before the report has shown where delays actually accumulate. The production records, which I examined after drafting it, show that signs wait longer for permit approval and engineering drawings than for anything the evening crew does. The paragraph also identifies two people: there is one evening shift lead and one licensed electrician on evenings, so anyone at the company will know who "admitted" and who is the bottleneck.
Reworking It
A fairer version would report where time is lost across the whole process first, then place the evening shift within it: "Across 214 jobs completed in the study period, the longest waits occurred before fabrication began, while permits and engineering drawings were pending. Within fabrication, signs waited a median of one night for electrical assembly when the work fell to the evening shift." That version keeps the evening finding, places it in proportion and identifies no individual. Tracy (2010) lists relational ethics, attending to the effects of research on those it describes, as a marker of quality in qualitative work, and Saunders et al. (2015) show how hard true anonymity is in small settings.
Why It Matters to the Client
The owner has already said, in a progress meeting, that the evening crew is the problem. A paragraph like my first draft would confirm that belief and might cost two people their jobs before the real delays are addressed. Block (2011) argues that a consultant's findings must be stated in a way the client can act on without turning the report into a verdict on individuals; my revision tries to do that.
Question for Classmates
Which paragraph in your draft would read differently to someone who is described in it?
Reply to Corinne
Corinne, your report on a title agency names "the Broken Arrow examiner." If there is only one, is that anonymized?
Reply to Ezra
Ezra, you lead with the owner's view of the problem. Would the employees you interviewed recognize their own account in that framing?
References
Block, P. (2011). Flawless consulting: A guide to getting your expertise used (3rd ed.). Pfeiffer.
Saunders, B., Kitzinger, J., & Kitzinger, C. (2015). Anonymising interview data: Challenges and compromise in practice. Qualitative Research, 15(5), 616-632. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794114550439
Tracy, S. J. (2010). Qualitative quality: Eight "big-tent" criteria for excellent qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(10), 837-851. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800410383121
DBAX 9103C Week 1 instructions, in plain terms
The opening thread of the stage asks you to pick one paragraph from your draft findings that the people in it will read, and to quote it as you first wrote it. Say who in the client organization would recognize themselves or a colleague in it. Explain what the paragraph does to those readers: whether it blames a group before the evidence has been laid out, or whether a role description identifies a single person. Then rewrite the paragraph so the finding survives while the unfairness goes, and say what the revision changed and why. Ground the change in sources on qualitative quality or anonymity. Finish by asking classmates to look at their own drafts the same way, and answer two of them by naming a specific phrase that could identify someone.
How the DBAX 9103C Week 1 example is put together
The example post opens with the client in two sentences and the fall in on-time installations from 92 to 74 percent, then quotes a three-sentence draft that says production stalls at the evening shift. A section explains why the paragraph is unfair even though nothing in it is false: it locates the problem before the job records do, and with one evening lead and one licensed electrician, "admitted" and "bottleneck" each point at a person. The revision begins with the 214 jobs and the long waits before fabrication, then gives the evening wiring delay its true size. A short section explains what the paragraph would do in a client meeting where the owner already blames the crew. The replies go to Corinne, whose "Broken Arrow examiner" is one person, and Ezra, who leads with the owner's framing.
Reading the DBAX 9103C Week 1 rubric
Instructors reward a post that shows the problem in the student's own words before fixing it, so the quoted draft carries real weight. The strongest posts then say exactly which words do the harm: a verb that implies confession, a role held by one person, an order of sentences that assigns blame. A revision earns credit only when the finding is still there afterward; deleting the evening result to protect the crew would trade one fault for another. Citations should do work, such as Tracy on relational ethics or Saunders and colleagues on the limits of anonymity in small places. Replies count when they point to a phrase in the classmate's paragraph and ask whether it singles someone out. Vague praise for a classmate's sensitivity earns little in this thread.
DBAX 9103C Week 1 help from the desk
The most common slip in this DBAX 9103C thread is choosing a paragraph that is already careful, which leaves nothing to fix and nothing to discuss. Pick the one that made you slightly uneasy when you wrote it. Read it as the person it describes would, not as your chair would. Check every role noun against the organization chart: if only one person holds the role, the noun is a name. Look at sentence order, because a finding stated before its context reads as a verdict. Keep the revised paragraph about the same length as the original, since a much longer version usually means you have padded around the finding instead of reframing it. If your own draft is not ready, a worked version for your client can be written from your notes and the prompt.
Get a DBAX 9103C Week 1 example written to your instructions
Paste the Week 1 thread prompt and its rubric, plus any classmate posts your replies must answer this week. The post with its three readings, the revision and both replies arrives within 24-48h; your first request is free. The Tulsa sign company in it is invented, which means nobody from your own organization is quoted, paraphrased or placed on a shift.
More DBAX 9103C papers and DBA samples
- DBAX 9103C Week 2: Work Account
- DBAX 9103C Week 3: Disruption Record
- DBAX 9103C Week 4: Anonymization Note
- DBAX 9103C Week 5: Supplied Records Appraisal
- DBAX 9103C Week 6: Findings Section
- DBAX 9103C Week 7: Meeting Remarks Paper
- DBAX 9103C Week 8: Unwelcome Findings Paper
- DBAX 9103C Week 9: Access Limits Statement
- DBAX 9103C Week 10: Fairness Read Replies
- DBAX 9103C Week 11: Stage 3 Field Report
- DBAX 9103 Week 1: Results Paragraph Discussion
- DBAX 9102C Week 1: Evidence Transfer Discussion
- DBAX 9102 Week 1: Burden of Proof Discussion
- DBAX 9101C Week 1: Client Framing Discussion
DBAX 9103C Week 1 questions, answered
Where can I find a free DBAX 9103C Week 1 sample paper?
The finished discussion post sits on this page, with its draft paragraph, the revision and both replies, and you can read it without signing up or paying.
What is unfair about the draft paragraph in the DBAX 9103C Week 1 post?
It blames the evening shift before showing where jobs actually wait, and two role descriptions each fit only one person at the company.
How does the revised paragraph keep the evening finding?
It reports the waits across all 214 jobs first and then states the one-night wiring delay at its real size, with no individual identified.
Why does the owner's view matter in Week 1?
The owner already blames the evening crew, so an unfair paragraph would confirm that belief and could cost two people their jobs.
What do the two replies ask?
One asks whether a single examiner can be anonymous; the other asks whether interviewees would recognize their account under the owner's framing.