By noon on the 26th, please post a copy of:

• A cover letter (if you’re about to be on the market) or a draft unit plan
• An updated CV (this is ALWAYS useful, even if you’re not on the job market)

If you would like to attach or send pdfs or word docs, that’s fine.

Here are some resources and some info:

Job descriptions may call for the following documents:

1. Cover letter (always! The most important document!)
2. CV (always)
3. Writing Sample (the second most important document in tenure-track jobs)
4. Teaching materials (teaching portfolio/ particular teaching sample—this will be the second most important document in a teaching-focused job.)
5. Diversity Statement
6. Teaching statement

Cover Letter: The most important document (BY FAR) is the cover letter.  For Comp jobs, and any job in the English Dept, this is about 2 pages.  This document: https://grad.illinois.edu/sites/default/files/pdfs/academiccoverletters.pdf  gives a pretty good outline of the format.  I would also add—show a little personality, man! I will share my letter (HallCityTechLetter) with you, not because I think it’s the greatest, but because it’s what I’ve got and, I did get the job. Please do not show this to anyone outside of this group.  I’m also asking for other cover letters to show when we meet.

Here is a screencast video I made of the ins and outs of cover letters IN GREAT AND EXCRUCIATING DETAIL. You don’t need to watch it, but if you’re on the market, I think it will be useful to you.  (note: I misspoke a bit, you should still have service on your CV. Just not ONLY on your CV. Mention it briefly in your cover letter as well).

CV: The site theprofessorisin.com is great, but is a lot to parse through.  She has a good post on CV’s here: https://theprofessorisin.com/2016/08/19/dr-karens-rules-of-the-academic-cv/. Sometimes there is a page limit on CVs, but generally speaking, these are long and extensive. Here is another good resource: https://grad.illinois.edu/sites/default/files/pdfs/cvsamples.pdf

Writing Sample: The writing sample is important! The advice is this: Submit your best writing. It needs to be pertinent to the field (you will not get hired for a Technical Writing position if you submit a chapter on Chaucer) and you should not go over the page limit. It should also not be out of date.

Teaching Materials: they could ask for any number of things.  Make them look nice, make them clear, make sure the committee will not be confused what this lesson, unit, course, etc… will look like for students. But also (this is what other CUNY writing program administrators told me!) they are looking for something innovative and cool—some new thinking. A caveat: don’t turn in the model courses—these are the property of FYW. Myself and a few other faculty members wrote them. Most CUNY departments know this.

Diversity Statement: Committees want to know you’d be a good fit for their student body and faculty. I, personally, do not want to read a diversity statement with an us/ them vibe. Here are some good resources: http://facultydiversity.ucsd.edu/_files/c2d-guidelines.pdf and https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2016/06/10/how-write-effective-diversity-statement-essay

Final notes: Label your files clearly!  Don’t just label them “cover letter” because there are 7000 files labeled the same.  Label them HallCityTechCover or something clear.  Also, I always send pdfs because Word can change formatting.

Other resources:  

This guy (in communications) posted his materials and that was kind and useful: https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/job-market-materials

Cheryl Ball on additional materials: https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2013/11/18/essay-requests-additional-materials-academic-job-searches