project summary
You will be asked to respond to job announcements that I will provide you with a cover letter and resume. In addition to this, I would like you to provide me with a general resume that is designed for a general audience and not specifically for your given job announcement.
deliverables
Step 1: Cover Letter: The cover letter (or job application letter) is critical to your efforts to secure a job offer, perhaps as critical as your resume itself. It requires that you highlight your qualifications, but it also allows you to demonstrate your personality. It should be no longer than one page and is due on June 17th.
Step 2: Job Announcement Resume: The resume you write to respond to a job announcement should follow the same general principles of all resumes, but it must also be unique. Highlight your best qualifications, individuate yourself, and demonstrate some creativity in writing and design. The resume must efficiently communicate all your information in one page and is due on June 20th.
Step 3: General Resume: A general resume (or job fair resume) must be capable of appealing to a wide variety of audiences from different areas of your field. Though you still want it to be unique to you, it will generally be more conservative in its design. Other than that, you still must highlight your best qualifications in one page. This resume is due on June 20th as well.
goals
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? |
Process: |
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. |
Research: |
Which research resource proved to be the most beneficial for you? The least? Explain. |
Collaboration: |
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? |
Project Management: |
How well did you plan your work on this project? What might you have done differently? |
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? |
grading
The breakdown for each of of the following components is as follows:
Step 1: Cover Letter |
55 pts |
Step 2: Job Announcement Resume |
55 pts |
Step 3: General Resume |
15 pts |
Total |
125 pts |
grading criteria
When I assign grades to your cover letter and job announcement resume, I 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 situation (in terms of tone, style, and content). A generic, catch-all cover letter and job announcement resume will not satisfy the requirements of the project. On the other hand, your general resume must be capable of being distributed to multiple businesses within your field, and I will be looking to see how well you are able to highlight your general qualifications while still appealing to your reader.
revision
You will be allowed to revise the Application Project one time after I have handed it back to you. In order to be eligible to revise, you must see me for a conference and turn in the revision no later than one week after it was returned to you. Your final grade will be the average of the grades you receive on the two drafts.