Week 3, you conducted research into your academic program to learn more about what skills you would get from your courses, and how you might leverage what you learned to secure an internship or job in your field of interest. Last week you explored education and training requirements, job tasks, and other information about your career of interest. Now you will conduct research to find the current career trends in your desired industry and provide a brief summary of your findings. This assignment will be in the form of a professional email to your department head, Ms. Smith.     
Writing Prompt 
Imagine you recently began working in a department that supports your companys strategic planning for growth in the industry. Your company has been struggling recently because new competitors have entered the market. Your department head, Ms. Smith, has asked you to conduct research to inform future marketing directions for the company. 
She has asked you to write a detailed email that identifies the three top marketing trends in the industry to share with the marketing team. If she likes your work on this initial research, she will ask you to write a position paper on the most important issue related to these trends. She is hoping to use your research to prepare your department to launch a new strategic plan. 
This is your first real task for your new job. You think you have a sense of the industry but know you need to do more research to be accurate in your analysis. The ability to spot trends in your industry is an important skill, and your boss wants to spend energy and capital on new growth areas, products, and services.  
To begin your research, access your CareerQuest account and review the available resources. Use Vault or any other online resource to conduct additional industry research.  
Your assignment is to produce a well-researched email in which you identify three trends in your industry and discuss each one briefly.
Assignment Instructions 

Compose a professional email (about 300 words) providing a response to the prompt above. You may use this template to format your email.  
Use the career planning resources in CareerQuest and additional industry websites to research information to include in your response.  
Demonstrate communication skills by effectively presenting the information in your response.