Assignment #1 Article Review Policy makers, analysts, researchers, practitioners and other involved in the research and policy process are often asked to review information and make judgments about the contents, quality, and findings of a report in short periods of time. Policy makers and others often have to respond to issues and reports with real time constrains, in the middle of trying to accomplish many other tasks, and often do not have the time to be able to sit [for days] to read and review reports [in detail]. This assignment is designed to help you practice and assess your ability to read, synthesize, review, explain the findings of a report and make recommendations about how to react to it. Please read the report Working Without Laws: A Survey of Employment and Labor Law Violations in New York City and prepare a 2.5 single space page memo that helps your audience better understand and react to the report (if it helps you can assume you are preparing an memo for someone that works as the head of a government agency or other high-level policy making position). If you (or your boss) were asked to comment on the report and whether you support the work presented or not: what would you say? In your review make sure that you go over these key issues (answer all the following questions): 1. Explain why the report was done and what the report was trying to accomplish with the data collected and presented. 2. Discuss the main findings of the report and the strongest arguments that are made. 3. Discuss the data that is used in the report and make an assessment of the quality of the information. Is it relevant, complete, and believable? What are the various sources of the data used in the report? Why did they collect new data? What methods did they use? 4. Are there challenges or problems with the data or the information collected and presented? If you were in charge of collecting the data, what other methodologies would you have used? Why? 5. What are some of the arguments that can be made to criticize the report? Is the report balanced? Does the report have any identifiable or potential biases? 6. What are the main policies or policy changes recommended in the report? As a policy maker, discuss the ways in which you could use the report to determine priorities in public policy? What would you prioritize? Why?