Employment Project

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.

project prompt and summary

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 me to shape your writing so that it represents you and your experience fully and effectively.

project goals

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
Analyze professional cultures, social contexts, and audiences to determine how they shape the various purposes and forms of workplace writing, such as persuasion, organizational communication, and public discourse, with an emphasis on

• writing for general audiences and decision makers

Writing Process
Develop and understand various strategies for planning, researching, drafting, revising, and editing documents that respond effectively and ethically to professional situations and audiences.

Research
Understand and use various research methods to produce professional documents

• analyzing professional contexts
• assessing and using information resources

Document Design
Learning the generic conventions of the design of workplace documents including

• understanding and implementing various principles of format and layout
• interpreting and arguing with visual information.

deliverables

Step 1: Skills Inventory, 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") and the course calendar, find a job ad and copy and paste it (or provide the link) in a blog post. In the same blog entry, write a one-paragraph description of the position in your own words (see the sample in The Thomson Handbook, p. 223-224), and a two-paragraph discussion of why you have chosen this position and why you believe you are qualified for it. Be sure to match your specific skills and experience with kew words from the job ad. Your skills inventory, job announcement, and job ad analysis should be posted to your blog by Friday, June 13, by midnight EST. See the Calendar for Week 2 for additional details.

Step 2: Print-Based Resume. Your printable resume (one page in length) should adapt features drawn from the samples presented online 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. Your writing needs to be error-free, concise, and presented in an easily readable format. Draft due for peer review: Wednesday, June 18, 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 3: 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 Monday, June 23. 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.) 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 4: Project Assessment Document: As you near the end of your work on the Employment Project, prepare a two-page 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?

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?

Your Project Assessment Document is due when you turn in your completed Employment Project on Thursday, June 26, by midnight. Your final submission will include the following items, in a single PDF file, in this order:

1. Job ad that you have replied to (Step 1)
2. Discussion of job ad (Step 1)
3. Job Application Letter
4. Resume
5. Project Assessment Document.

Attach this file to a blog post with the subject "Employment Project Final" and include brief submission notes explaining the nature of the attachment. The file should be in PDF format, and the file name should follow this naming convention:: lastname-EmploymentProject.pdf. Read these directions for converting your documents to PDF format if you have any questions about the process. Final Employment Project Due Thursday, June 26th.

grading

The Employment Project is worth 20% of your course grade. The breakdown for each of its components is as follows:

• Step 1: Skills Inventory and Job Ad Analysis: 10%
• Step 2: Print Resume: 40%
• Step 3: Job Application Letter: 40%
• Step 4: Project Assessment Document 10%

grading criteria

When grading your project, 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 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. Specifically, the following criteria will apply:

• All documents conform to the design principles established by the genre and course readings.
• Documents are catered to a specific job at a specific company, and reflect how the applicant would correspond with the company goals and environment.
• Resume is well formatted, includes all necessary components, and reflects knowledge of resume conventions.
• Resume job descriptions are concise, specific, catered to job ad keywords, and utilize parallel verbage.
• Cover letter is concise, specific, and professional. Cover letter builds on and adds to the information in the resume, reflecting job ad keywords to present the applicant comprehensively as a desirable addition to the company.
• Documents are professional and error free.
• Documents could function within a professional environment. If you could not send the resume and cover letter to the prospective employer and stand a good chance at getting an interview, the project will not receive an A.

revision

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) you make substantial revisions (a few fixes alone are not enough to raise a grade); 2) you turn in your revised project within one week of the date that it was returned to you with a grade; 3) you include submission notes that specify precisely what you did to improve your work.

Corporate Communication Project

The Corporate Communication Project asks students to examine and respond to a real world corporate crisis—the grounding of several JetBlue airplanes due to ice storms in February 2007. After analyzing the situation through several texts, students will write a press release and business letter from the company that addresses the crisis.

Project Prompt and Summary

Students will read articles about JetBlue's crisis and visit the page of The JetBlue Customer Bill of Rights, JetBlue's official response. After reading and analyzing this material, students will write a press release to the general public and a letter to JetBlue customers. After completing these documents, students will analyze the official JetBlue communication in comparison to their own rhetorical strategies.

Deliverables

Step 1: Press Release. Following the models provided, students will write a press release from JetBlue to the general public addressing the crisis. Students must decide the tone, content, vocabularly and rhetorical strategy that will be both commercially and ethically effective. The press release should be between 250-500 words and follow the standards of clarity, conciseness, correctness, audience awareness, and professionalism discussed in the course. The rough draft for peer editing is due Monday, June 30th.

Step 2: Business Letter. Based on the principles outlined in the Thomson Handbook, students will write a business letter from JetBlue to the customers affected by the crisis. As with the press release, students must decide the tone, content, vocabularly and rhetorical strategy that will be both commercially and ethically effective. The letter will be a single page and follow the conventions of the genre as well as the standards of clarity, conciseness, correctness, audience awareness, and professionalism discussed in the course. The rough draft for peer editing is due Thursday, July 3rd.

Step 3: JetBlue Text Analysis: After completing their own documents, students will analyze JetBlue's official letter to customers to determine how its rhetorical strategy compares with their own. Students should first contrast the difference between the two documents and then discuss the different effects that each will have on an audience. Finally, students should determine which documents would be more effective and how they would revise their own work after seeing this document. The Analysis is due along with the final project on Wednesday, July 9th.

Instructors' Note: Obviously, because press releases and business letters are provided, the temptation exists to borrow heavily from these documents while writing your own. However, the project requires you to produce an original document as a learning experience, so I will be watching for blatant similarities between the official and student versions of these texts.

Grading

The Corporate Communication Project is worth 20% of your course grade. The breakdown for each of its components is as follows: Step 1: Press Release (30%); Step 2: Business Letter (30%); Step 3: Analysis (40%);

grading criteria

The Corporate Communication Project will be graded based on its rhetorical effectiveness, professionalism, and ethical consideration. The instructor will grade based on the following criteria:

• The project responds appropriately to its various audiences.
• The project demonstrates awareness of the specific context and addresses it appropriately.
• The project follows the principles of professional, clear, correct, concise writing as elaborated in the course.
• The project follows genre and length conventions.
• The project shows a careful consideration of the professional ethical implications of their writing.
• The analysis provides insightful examination of the differences between documents, using specifics to discuss the rheorical and ethical effectiveness of each.
• The project is ready to function in the appropriate professional environment.

 

Revision

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.

Service Learning Project

During the Service Learning Project, students will learn how to work collaboratively to produce a professional project for a real world client. Groups of 3-5 students will produce specific documents for a local non-profit organization determined by the instructor. While producing these documents, students will demonstrate their understanding of audience awareness, research, documentation, ethos, professionalism, conciseness, document design.

 

Project Prompt and Summary

 

The instructor will form student groups and assign each group professional documents based on the demands of a specific non-profit agency. Based on an analysis of the non-profit agency, an understanding of their specific requirements, and comprehension of the course principles, the groups will research and produce the necessary documents. Because each group will be producing the same documents as the other groups in its section, clients will vote at the end of the project to select the documents they will use. This means that there is a competitive element to this project.

Deliverables

Step 1: Group Gantt Chart. In a thoroughly executed Gantt chart, students should lay out group goals, a time table for the completion of each goal, and the individual responsibilities of each member. Each Gantt chart must include all duties and deliverables necessary for project completion as well as color coding and a key that specifies which group member will complete each duty. There are many resources online to help you produce your chart, including instructions for using Microsoft Excel to make it. Just Google "gantt chart" for more information. Due Friday, July 11th.

Step 2: Group Activity Reports. Groups are also responsible for weekly activity reports (250 words) in order to keep the instructor informed of the progress that the group has made over the week. Activity reports (submitted as professional emails) are due by midnight, each Sunday, starting with week five (week five's report is due Sunday, July 13, and so on) and concluding in week eight. Please always give this email the subject "Group # Activity Report."

Step 3: Weekly Individual Work Blogs. Because the course and the professional world stress the value of documenting work, individual students are required to keep weekly work blogs of the tasks they have completed. These blogs (200 words each) should briefly and professionally describe work completed by the author and how this work contributed to the goals of the group. Work blogs (posted to the "Work blogs" category) are due by midnight, each Friday, starting with week five (week five’s activity report is due Friday, July 11th, week six's is due Friday, July 18, and so on) and concluding in week eight. Please label all work blogs "LASTNAME Work Blog Week #."

Step 4: Group Document Drafts: Because these documents are for a professional client, several drafts are required to ensure quality. Groups will turn in a draft of the project in weeks six and seven, July 16th and 22th. Each draft should demonstrate significant progress towards completion of the project.

Step 5: Group Peer Review: Each group will have their project peer reviewed by members of the other section. Your instructor will partner your group with a group in the other section. Each group member should post a 200 word review comment to that project by midnight of Wednesday, July 23th. For peer review to run smoothly, it is vital that each group posts its draft by midnight of Tuesday, July 22th.

Step 6: Group Final Draft: A final draft of the project is due at the end of the course. The final draft should meet all of the standards specified by the client and be ready for professional use. Final drafts are due Wednesday, July 30th.

Step 7: Individual Assessment: At the end of the project, each student will fill out the Project Assessment Form and the Peer Evaluation Form. These Forms are due Friday, August 1st.

Grading

The Service Learning Project is worth 20% of your course grade. The group portion of the project is worth 80% of project grade, and the individual portion is worth 20%. The breakdown for each of its components is as follows: Step 1: Group Gantt Chart (5%); Step 2: Group Weekly Activity Reports (10%); Step 3: Individual Work Blogs (10%); Step 4: Group Drafts (10%); Step 5: Group Peer Review (5%); Step 6: Group Final (50%); Step 7: Individual Assessment (10%).

Grading Criteria

For the service learning project, the client will contribute to the final grading process. The client will select one project for professional use, and that project will be the only project that receives an A. Other projects will receive an A- or less based on the following criteria:

• The project conforms to the demands and needs expressed by the client.
• The project effectively addresses its specific multiple audiences.
• The project follows the principles of professional, clear, correct, concise, writing as elaborated in the course.
• The project demonstrates awareness of design principles discussed in the course.
• The project is ready to function in the appropriate professional environment.

 

 

Revision

The final course project cannot be revised because of time constraints. However, multiple drafts will ensure that groups get plenty of feedback to improve their projects.