Assignment 2: Correspondence

Assignment
For your first formal assignment (Career Materials) you’ve spent time researching jobs in your field and assessing/reflecting on your qualifications/skills/education/preparedness for the industry you will be entering when you graduate with your degree. For this second formal assignment, you will be extending this work by composing/revising a memo to all students in your department, and a formal letter specifically to your department chair at City Tech, informing them about the state of the job market and graduates’ preparedness for their field.  Below are detailed guidelines for this assignment:

  • Pre-Draft: “City Tech Education & Career Preparedness” Post (due Tu 9/23), expand/revise freewriting and groupwork done in class on W 9/17
  • Memo: This should be a one-page document, addressed to students in the department (and their interests) with appropriate formatting/content (to be discussed in class).
  • Letter: Two pages, addressed to department chair (cc’d to higher administration at college: Provost and President).
  • Personal Information: For both the Memo and Letter, you can use a “fake” address and phone number for yourself, since this letter will be shared with everyone in the class on Dropbox. [Please note that, if you provided your real contact info. on the first draft of the materials, you may wish to go back and edit both the version in Dropbox, so your real info. is not publicly available.]
  • Audience/Purpose/Context: Remember to consider your “audience” (who the Memo and Letter are addressed to) and purpose (why are these documents being written?) for this particular assignment, and to adjust your approach/tone/content accordingly. Make sure to read the City Tech curriculum (and other college’s curricula) and Job Ads carefully, looking at required/must-have qualifications and desired/ideal qualifications, and craft your Memo and Letter in response (knowing what to prioritize on there based on the information find). Use active (not passive) voice and clear language, and make absolutely sure your materials are error-free.
  • Revision: Your Correspondence 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 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
Assignment 2: Correspondence is worth 5% of your overall course grade. You will be graded accordingly to the quality of your final product of the Correspondence, the thorough/critical process of your revision, and the thoughtfulness of your reflection.


Submission
You must submit your Correspondence in the following ways.

For your first draft (due W 10-1-14), submit to Dropbox & bring four printed copies to class. If you do not submit your first draft on time (or have the printed materials in class with you), then you forfeit your right to all feedback (including peer review, and individual comments/conferences with the Professor). You will not be able to print in class, or to leave during class time to go to the lab to print. Make sure to come to class prepared.

For the Final draft (due W 10/8/14):

  • upload to Dropbox as a single PDF file, with Reflection Letter first, then Memo, then Letter (in the folder “Correspondence,” Final Draft (due W 10-8-14) … make sure to follow the appropriate labeling and file format guidelines (you can review them on our course site here)
  • Bring one printed copy to class (to be collected when we next meet for class, on W 10-8-14), in a folder as a “portfolio” (include your “City Tech Education & Career Preparedness” post, first draft of materials, final draft of materials, and Assignment Reflection Letter”

*If your complete, revised Career Materials are not submitted both electronically and as a printed copy by the start of class (11:30am) on the due dates listed above, you will receive no credit for the assignment. As with all assignments for our course, late submissions will not be accepted.