ENL 266 Job Packet Assignment Sheet

MEMORANDUM

Date:

To: English 266 students

From:

Re:Resume/Job application project assignment

For the resume/job packet assignment, you will put together documents used to apply for a job, drafting traditional and foundational documents based on actual job listings. This project has two parts: the documents created in the job application process (cover letters and resume) and a justification memo to me that describes and analyzes the documents you created.

Part I: Resume & Cover Letters

For Part I, write a resume and two cover letters. Adapt your cover letters to two specific job postings for an internship or summer job. Each of these documents should be 1-page in length, written and adapted to specific organizations and job or internship announcements.

Part II: Justification Memo

For Part II, write a cover memo to me that describes the ways in which you have specifically adapted your resume and letters to the organization and its job announcement. In the cover memo, you need to convince me that your resume and cover letters meet the needs of the organization. To do so, talk specifically about each document, giving concrete examples, details, and exact quotes to support your claim that you’ve done your job well. In other words, don’t retell the job description, but analyze your documents for the ways in which you adapted it to the job description.

Outcomes and Evaluation

The purposes of this assignment are many:

To analyze audience and purpose
To create documents that meet the needs of an audience
To organize and chunk information for readers
To use headings and other devices to make content easily accessible

The chapters that support these purposes include:

Chapter 1: Communicating in the workplace
Chapter 2: The technical writing process today
Chapter 5: Letters, memos, & emails
Chapter 9: Activity reports (Option A)
Chapter 15: Starting your career (Option B)
Chapter 16: Organizing and drafting
Chapter 18: Designing documents and interfaces

Be sure to reference these chapters and use its vocabulary in your justification memo. Your project will be evaluated for content, organization, style, design, and mechanics as follows:

Content / Has appropriate amount of information for audience. Avoids generalizations. Gives specific and descriptive information that meets reader’s needs and reinforces reader’s benefits. Makes claims and supports those claims with evidence.
Organization / Organizes information into logical and coherent sections, paragraphs, and lists etc. Introduces and concludes the document and each section and paragraph. Includes forecasting statements (document level) and topic sentences (paragraph level). Paragraph length is appropriate—not too long or short.
Style / Has a professional tone. Uses you-attitude and positive emphasis. Is concise and to the point. Avoids assumptions about the reader.
Design / Formatting is parallel and length appropriate. Makes good use white space and fonts. Uses headings, sub-headings, bold-face, italics, spacing, bullets to make page easily scanned. Documents are not templates.
Mechanics / Is written in mechanically and grammatically sound American English.

The grade you receive will follow the general grade criteria outlined on page 3 of our syllabus. If you have any questions about this assignment, please ask.

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