During the Employment Project, you will learn strategies for seeking and securing employment or an internship, with particular attention to the documents people normally use to represent themselves and their prospects to potential employers. This project asks you to work individually, but there will also be chances for you to work with your peers to exchange ideas and feedback in your blogs.
Locate a real and specific job or internship for which you are qualified and prepare the application materials for it. If you already have a good job, find one that would be an advance for you, then prepare application materials for that position. Step 1 of the project asks you to learn about and use various web-based resources for job seekers and ultimately to select one real job to pursue. Step 2 asks you to prepare the all-important cover letter (i.e., "Job Application Letter"). Step 3 asks you to prepare a print resume suitable for such a position. In Step 4, you will assess your experience in a "Project Assessment Document." In the process of completing each step, you will work closely with your peers and your instructor to shape your writing so that it represents you and your experience fully and effectively.
This project emphasizes several important goals that all professional writers should bear in mind and that are consistent with those of the Professional Writing Program at Purdue. In the Employment Project, you will learn to shape your writing for very specific situations and purposes:
Writing in Context
Project Management
Document Design
Make rhetorical design decisions about workplace documents, including
Teamwork
Learn and apply strategies for successful teamwork and collaboration, such as
Research
Understand and use various research methods to produce professional documents, including
Step 1: Skills Inventory, Job Description and Job Ad Analysis . Start this step by completing the Job Search Activity 12-1 (p. 221) in The Thomson Handbook. In a blog post, respond to each of the questions with a few sentences, or a list. Then, using the resources listed on page 222 of The Thomson Handbook ("Using Print, Campus and Internet Resources"), find two job ads, produce an exact copy of each, then select one that you would apply for. Put the ads in a blog post. Then do some analysis and reflection, In a separate blog entry respond to the Job Ad Analysis form. Your skills inventory, job announcement, job ad analysis response, and cover note should all be posted by the dates listed on the course calendar.
Step 2: Job Application Letter. The job application letter is critical to your efforts to secure a job, perhaps as critical as your resume itself. For Project 1, your letter should be no longer than one or two pages (one is preferable in most cases), following the suggestions and models discussed during class. You should submit the draft of your application letter to your blog for peer review by midnight on ________. Your letter should be attached to a blog post that includes a cover note that follows guidelines for Eliciting Good Response and the PDF version of the letter. (Read these directions for converting your documents to PDF format if you have any questions about the process.) Use the tag "Job Application letter." See the Calendar for Week 3 for additional details. Review the sample in The Thomson Handbook, p 225. Your letter should be context-specific and should contain the required five parts (heading, greeting, opening, persuasion, closing) in the format shown.
Step 3: Print-Based Resume. Your printable resume (one or more pages in length, depending upon the type of job and the depth of your experience) should adapt features drawn from the samples discussed in class or available for review at the Online Writing Lab. It's critical that you shape your resume to the specific job or internship you have chosen to apply for (that it's suited to the context), so be sure to include only the relevant aspects of your professional experience. As in the Job Application Letter, your writing needs to be error-free, concise, and presented in an easily readable format. Draft due for peer review: ________ by midnight. Your resume draft should be posted to your blog as a PDF attachment to a blog message that explains the nature of the attachment and invites peer feedback. Read these directions for converting your documents to PDF format if you have any questions about the process. You should also review the principles, guidelines, and resume samples in The Thomson Handbook (Chapter 12, pages 226-232). Pay special attention to the Project Checklist "Evaluating Your Resume's Content" and "Evaluating Your Resume's Design" on pages 228-229. Ask yourself these questions as you prepare your final draft.
Step 4: Project Assessment Document: As you near the end of your work on the Employment Project (and no later than ________, prepare a 500-word overview and analysis of your deliverables and the process you used to complete them. Your Project Assessment Document should answer most of the following questions, each of which is tied to the major goals of the assignment:
Writing in Context
How did the particular job you applied for affect how you wrote your letter? Did it change or affect how you presented yourself? How did applying for this position help you understand aspects of your experience you might need to develop more?
Project Management
What was the most challenging document to produce and why? Briefly describe and explain one of the significant revisions you made to this document after your initial draft.
How well did you plan your work on this project? What might you have done differently?
Research
Which research resource proved to be the most beneficial for you? The least? Explain. What did you learn about the particular job field before composing your application letter?
Teamwork
What was one way that peer feedback helped you improve your work? How did responding to the work of others help you improve your own work?
Document Design
What is the most effective aspect of your deliverables in terms of presentation or design? Have you deliberately adapted a standard form in an unusual or creative way? If so, why?
Your Project Assessment Document is due when you turn in your completed Employment Project on ___________ by midnight.
Completing Your Project: By _________, post to your blog a cover note for your final drafts of your cover letter and resume. Your cover note should include links to your Step 1 and Step 4 documents as well. Read these directions for converting your documents to PDF format if you have any questions about the process.
The Employment Project is worth 25% of your course grade. The breakdown for each of its components is as follows: Step 1: Inventory and Job Ad Analysis (20%); Step 2: Job Application Letter (30%); Step 3: Print Resume (30%); Step 4: Project Assessment Document (20%).
When grading your project, your instructor will pay particular attention to see whether you have effectively adapted your documents to the job for which you have applied. Your writing will need to be precise, accurate, and well-suited to the context (the job/field) and to the rhetorical occasion (in terms of tone, style, and content). In this case, a generic, catch-all resume and cover letter will not satisfy the requirements of the project.
You will have opportunities to revise your work throughout the process and will be permitted to revise once again after receiving your grade on the project, subject to these restrictions: 1) Your revision should be substantial (a few fixes alone are not enough to raise a grade); 2) you turn in your completed revision within one week of the date it was returned to you with a grade; 3) you include submission notes that specify precisely what you did to improve your work, including whether or not you made use of the OWL's online or on-site tutoring.
Before you decide on a job ad, make sure that it provides you with sufficient information about the ideal candidate for the company or organization. A primary objective of this assignment is to tailor your employment documents to the specific needs of the employer. If your ad does not give you sufficient information about your potential employer’s needs, the objective of the project is defeated before you have even begun. If you are uncertain whether or not your job ad is appropriate, do not hesitate to ask.
For this assignment, you must have a keen awareness of what your potential employer needs in an applicant, and you must create a professional identity that proves you can fulfill and exceed these expectations.
Some answers require a paragraph of 4-6 sentences while others require a short answer or a list. The short answer will be a sentence or two. The list will be a list of keywords or terms. See parentheses after each question to know if you should respond with a paragraph, short answer, or list. Ultimately, these paragraphs will make it easier to draft and complete your job application letter, as well as your resume.
Reflection
1. Why did you choose this job ad? Do you feel that you are qualified for the position? (paragraph)
2. How long has the ad been posted? If it has been posted for a long period of time, are you sure that the position is still available? How? (short answer)
3. Where is the company located? Are you willing to move if it is out of state or in a foreign country? (short answer)
4. Why is living in the area that the company is located appealing to you? (paragraph)
Job Ad Analysis
1. What skills is your prospective employer seeking, from most important to least important? (list)
2. What exceptional skills do you have that prove you to be
invaluable to this company or organization? Remember that your resume is not a record of what you’ve done, but a persuasive document that proves indisputably that you are the best person for the job. (list)
3. As an exercise, list the skills, professional experience, personality traits, etc., the job ad is asking for in the left column, and in the right, write paragraphs that elaborate on and illustrate your skills, experience, etc.
| Your prospective employer (list) | You (paragraphs) |
History of the Company / Organization
1. Did you know anything about the company before you saw the job ad? (short answer)
2. Does the company have a website? What is the URL? (short answer)
3. What is the mission statement of the company? (paragraph)
4. What are keywords on the website that you can use in your cover letter and interview? (list)
5. Write a few sentences about the history of the company. Remember that it is essential for you to learn as much about the company as possible; you can use such knowledge for your cover letter and interview. (paragraph)
6. Based on your research, what is your personal sense about the company? What do you feel the company values? (paragraph)
7. Does Purdue’s Center for Career Opportunities have a networking system with this company? (short answer)
8. Do you have any personal connections to this company? Do you know anyone who works there? Does anyone in your family or friends of your family work there? (short answer)
In composing your response, you might find it easier to first just to go through and address all the questions on a sheet of paper or in a document file. Your tone should be informal but professional and not overly casual. A friendly voice in feedback is good; many writer's are more comfortable at accepting cricitism of their work when it come from a good-natured, sympathetic responder.
Also, when talking about specific areas of the author's text, be sure to include specific quotation within your feedback. Take advantage of the fact that you can easily copy and paste to point directly to what you are referring to from the draft. (Try using Firefox or Safari's "tabbed browsing" to keep multiple windows easily available during this type of peer review.).
In composing your response, you might find it easier to first just to go through and address all the questions on a sheet of paper or in a document file. Your tone should be informal but professional and not overly casual. A friendly voice in feedback is good; many writer's are more comfortable at accepting cricitism of their work when it come from a good-natured, sympathetic responder.
Also, when talking about specific areas of the author's text, be sure to include specific quotation within your feedback. Take advantage of the fact that you can easily copy and paste to point directly to what you are referring to from the draft. (Try using Firefox or Safari's "tabbed browsing" to keep multiple windows easily available during this type of peer review.).
The focus of Project 2 is the white paper, a common report genre in the professional world. White papers are used in business, industrial, and governmental contexts to sum up the gist of what’s known about a subject. During this project you will learn about
At the beginning of this project, you will be placed by your instructor into a group with fellow students. Each of the major components of this project will be completed in collaboration with group members. Individuals must also keep a project log at their course blog following these guidelines. Everyone will also be asked to email a peer collaborative evaluation form (Word format) independently to the instructor when Project 2 is due. To find out more about the purpose and form of white papers, review the discussion in The Thomson Handbook, Chapter 12, "Writing for Business and the Workplace" (pp. 235-36).
Learning about the genre of white papers. You'll spend some time in the early part of the project reading sample white papers and about new writing and communication technologies so that you can get comfortable with the genre and the general topic. You will see that although you may not be familiar with all of these new technologies (or things like "open source") yet, you'll learn about it quickly. In fact, you already know much more about it than you realize since this English 421Y website uses Drupal, which is itself open source software. (You may be viewing it in Firefox, also an open source project.) The point of the white paper genre is to represent the critically important information about a specific topic (such as a technology), not to argue, sell, or promote (though those may be ancillary purposes)
Rhetorical Situation: The primary audience for your writing will consist of peers and other technical writing experts interested in finding out how new writing technologies can help their organizations in college or the workplace. A subsidiary audience is other people interested in these new technologies (the early adopters in the public sphere), even entrepreneurs who may see (or desire) new applications for these technologies for business, education, and enterprise purposes. The purpose of your white paper writing should be to provide essential and accurate background information and sources on a specifci topic for interested readers so that they are well informed and ready to make up their minds about the value or usefulness of a technology.
Writing That Matters : Students whose work focuses on open source software or technologies may be able to publish their work at the Open Source Development and Documentation Project. If your work focuses on writing and communication technologies, we will encourage you to submit your work to the professional writing program for showcasing on our resources website for subsequent use by future students, instructors, and the public. Your projects will also form the basis of your work for Project 3.
This project emphasizes several important goals that all professional writers should bear in mind and that are consistent with those of the Professional Writing Program at Purdue.
Writing in Context
Project Management
Document Design
Make rhetorical design decisions about technical documents including
Teamwork
Learn and apply strategies for successful teamwork, such as
Research
Understand and use the research methods and strategies necessary to the production of professional documents, including
Technology
Use and evaluate the writing technologies frequently used in the workplace, such as emailing, instant messaging, image editing, video editing, presentation design and delivery, HTML editing, Web browsing, content management, and desktop publishing technologies.
Successful collaboration will be a critical component of this project. Follow guidelines for successful collaboration as described in The Thomson Handbook (see and discussed in other course readings and messages. To summarize, you should
Your individual grade for this project will be based the work produced by your team and the quality of your contribution to the project, as determined by your project evaluation forms and project logs. Project 2 is worth 20% of your overall course grade.
For Project 3, you will work collaboratively in project teams on a client-based service-learning project that teaches you to manage complex writing challenges in real contexts that matter. You will learn principles of project management, collaboration, document cycling, usability testing and study, and client-based research. Because you will work with real clients--either in the community or online, you will also learn important principles of professional and ethical communication. The goal will be to start with the White Paper Projects produced already this semester and then, after user-testing and usability study, produce a user-guide that teaches a critical and (perhaps) complex application of the technology to an interested client. You will begin the project by thinking of and contacting clients who may benefit from having such your report, which will consist of several components, including a short multmedia, web-based presentation. For some background reading and context, review Chapter 29, "Writing and Rhetoric on the Web" (641) in The Thomson Handbook, which presents some information on usability and accessibility issues. See especially the "Accessibility and Usability Resources" on page 658.
Learning about usability studies: You'll spend some time in the early part of the project reading about usability studies and why they're useful for testing and user documentation, in addition to the development and design process in any industry.
Building on the past: You'll use the white papers produced for Project 2 as your starting point and then select your topic as some specific aspect (use) related to it. For example, if a white paper focuses on Google Docs, you might propose conducting a usability study and producing user documentation for using that tool for collaboration in technical writing context, or about how to use Google Docs to produce good PDF files. Those white papers will give you a base to build on.
Rhetorical Situation: The primary audience for your writing will consist of client whom you contact at the outset of your project. Your goal is to produce user documentation, conduct a usability study, and then package and submit everything to the client as a report by the end of the project. You may also receive permission to include the white paper project that was your starting point. A subsidiary audience is other people interested in these new technologies (the early adopters in the public sphere), even entrepreneurs who may see (or desire) new applications for these technologies for business, education, and enterprise purposes.
Writing That Matters : As with Project 2, students whose work focuses on open source software or technologies may be able to publish their work at the Open Source Development and Documentation Project. If the work focuses on writing and communication technologies, we will encourage you to submit your work to the professional writing program for showcasing on our resources website for subsequent use by future students, instructors, and the public.
This project emphasizes several important goals that all professional writers should bear in mind and that are consistent with those of the Professional Writing Program at Purdue.
Writing in Context
Project Management
Document Design
Teamwork
Learn and apply strategies for successful teamwork, such as
Research
Understand and use the research methods and strategies necessary to the production of professional documents, including
Technology
Use and evaluate the writing technologies frequently used in the workplace, such as emailing, instant messaging, image editing, video editing, presentation design and delivery, HTML editing, Web browsing, content management, and desktop publishing technologies.
Successful collaboration will be a critical component of this project. Follow guidelines for successful collaboration as described in The Thomson Handbook (see and discussed in other course readings and messages. To summarize, you should
Your individual grade for this project will be based the work produced by your team and the quality of your contribution to the project, as determined by your project evaluation forms and project logs. Project 2 is worth 25% of your overall course grade.