Instructions

• First Draft Due: Mon, 3/2
• Final Draft Due: Mon, 3/11

For this first formal assignment, you are doing a “mini” job search in your field, choosing a specific job ad, and creating/revising Career Materials (a Cover Letter and Resume) in response.

Below are detailed guidelines for this assignment:

• Cover Letter: Your letter should be one page (4 paragraphs: Introduction, Conclusion, plus paragraph about education, and paragraph about experience), and should follow the formatting and guidelines discussed in in class. Remember that the Cover Letter is not simply a re-statement of the skills/experience you list in your resume, but instead a narrative that pieces together your various qualifications (expanding a few key points from your resume) and persuades your audience (in this case, the employers) to give you an interview &/or hire you.

Check out these guidelines and sample cover letters (Job-Application Letters)
(from Markel’s Technical Communication, 10th edition).

• Resume: 1-2 pages (preferable to get it on 1 page, unless you have a substantial amount relevant experience). Make sure that you’re only including skills, experiences, and other information relevant to this particular job.

Check out these guidelines and sample Resumes (from Markel’s Technical Communication, 10th edition).

• Personal Information: For both the Cover Letter and Resume, you can use a “fake” address and phone number for yourself, since this letter will be shared with everyone in the class.

• Audience/Purpose/Context: Remember to consider your “audience” (who the Cover Letter and Resume are addressed to) for this particular job, and to adjust your approach/tone/content accordingly. Make sure to read the “job ad” carefully, looking at required/must-have qualifications and desired/ideal qualifications, and craft your Cover Letter and Resume in response (knowing what to prioritize on there based on your own strengths). Use active (not passive) voice and clear language, and make absolutely sure your materials are error-free.

• Revision: Your Career Materials should be significantly revised from your first draft of them (based on the reading, in-class discussions, peer review, and individual conferences with me). You should make both global revisions (re-thinking/adding to content, organization, paragraph development) as well as local revisions (editing, proofreading, formatting).

• Reflection: You must include (as the first page of your final document), a one-page, single-spaced reflection letter (addressed to me) that discusses, thoughtfully and in detail, your composing/revision process for this assignment, changes you made (and why), what you have learned from draft to draft (and how you incorporate feedback from our class discussions and peer review), what you have learned, what you think the strengths of the assignment are, what you are still struggling with, etc.

Grading: You will be graded accordingly to the quality of your final product of the Career Materials, the thorough/critical process of your revision, and the thoughtfulness of your reflection.

Submission: You should submit your final Career Materials through an upload form here on our Open Lab site.

Your final draft should be submitted in the following order: your Reflection Letter as the first page, Cover Letter as the second page, followed by your Resume (1-2 pages), and the Job Ad (link of URL + text – you can screenshot it).

Tags: Assignment Instructions