1. Research Project Presentation
“Purchasing as a vocation”

2. Take NOTE: This project is a research essay of 3000 to 5000 words.
(approximately an 3000 to 5000 Word count -  8 to 10 pages or so including your Q&A).  Please do not go over 6000 words.  This essay is single spaced and separated by paragraphs of no more than 20 sentences each.

3. Research Paper - Purchasing as a VOCATION
What does vocation mean? - have a passion for the work you do, it means making your work your life’s mission, purpose, or function.
Common vocations: doctors, lawyers, priests, trades people etc.

4. Research Paper (purchasing as a vocation)
Component 1 Primary Research - (5 marks) the development of a set of interview questions (10 open ended questions "can you describe...."      - avoid direct yes/no questions "do you work in purchasing") and set up an interview date with someone who does purchasing for a living and interview them with your question set.  Compile the Q&A together.  The use the information you collected through this Q&A to discuss what you learned in your essay.
Component 2  Secondary Research - (5 marks) Additional 3rd Party research -   Conduct some 3rd party research on the field of procurement; use Secondary Research collected from  journals, web, library, and other articles.  This research should be used to support your work and claims about about the field of study.   Learn everything you can about this interesting field of work.  
Component 3-THE ESSAY (10 marks)    Use both your primary and secondary research collected above  to write a paper on purchasing as a vocation.  Incorporate the Q&A you developed into your essay by talking about the pro's and con's you have uncovered about this field through the interview process with a real person.    Use your secondary research to show both sides of arguments.   Please ensure to site  and support any work referenced. Hardcopy will need to be formally bound! 

5. Submit a completed paper by the due date to the assignment tool provided
Compile the 3 Component parts into “1 document” for submission.   Your table of contents should read:
1. Essay section (with the essay to follow)
2. Research section:
Primary research- included or attached.  then
Secondary research - included or attached

6. Frequently asked questions
Do I really have to interview a real purchasing person?
YES, this is how you collect and consolidate your primary research.
Where do I get the secondary research?
Library, internet, research journals, case studies, and text books
How to I bring the interview Q&A together with my research to write the essay?
When you collect the answers to questions (primary research) that interest you about the field of study, you can then use that information to support finding that you collect from secondary research (library). This level of detail allows to write an interesting essay.
How do I know what questions to ask?
Keep your questions “open” to allow the person to speak freely and elaborate on the answers.
Do you provide us with any of the questions?
Yes, next page

7. Some Question ideas: (you need about 20 questions)
What are the primary job function you perform on a daily basis, and why?
How many people do you have to interact with in any given day?
How many vendors, customers do you work with in a month say?
Why did you pick this particular field of work?
Approximately what size of budget do you work with?
What is the general approval process for large, small and medium contract purchases?
What would you consider the most important information I should consider when choosing this field to work in?
When writing the essay:
Talk about how you met the person you interviewed and how you felt the interview went.
How did the course materials contribute to your knowledge? 
Did the person you interviewed confirm some, all or none of the information you research through the library, textbook of case studies.
What types of activities are done when working in procurement, and why?
What are the benefit to the organization?
Would purchasing be a field of interest for you?
Etc.
Stay away form the yes/no traps!