Business Communication 8th Edition by Amy Newman,Scot Ober

Exercise 20

Use primary sources to write a report about student housing.
Darlene Anderson, a real estate developer and president of Anderson and Associates, is exploring the feasibility of building a large student-apartment complex on a lot her firm owns two blocks from campus. Even though the city planning commission believes there is already enough student housing, Anderson thinks she can succeed if she addresses specific problems of present housing. She has asked you, her executive assistant, to survey students to determine their views on off-campus living.
Specifically, she wants you to develop a ranked listing of the most important attributes of student housing. How important to students are such criteria as price, location (access to campus, shopping, public transportation, and entertainment), space and layout, furnishings (furnished versus unfurnished), social activities, parking, pets policy, and so on?
In addition, the architect has drawn a plan that features the following options: private hotel-like rooms (sleeping and sitting area and private bath but no kitchen); private oneroom efficiency apartments; one-bedroom, two-person apartments; and four-bedroom, four-person apartments. Which of these arrangements would students most likely rent, given their present economic situations? Would another alternative be more appealing to them?
Develop a questionnaire and administer it either in hard copy or online to a sample of students. Then analyze the data and write a report for Anderson.