WRITING PROJECT 1: APPLICATIONS

Task: Find both a job and a graduate/professional school related to your major or career goals. Find out what each
audience expects in an application and prepare a cover letter/letter of intent and resume/curriculum vitae (CV) for
each. You will then write a short reflection paper explaining why you chose the job and program you did, how you
ascertained the expectations of each audience, and how you navigated the differences between the applications.
Goals: For this project, you will learn how to locate career-track jobs and graduate programs appropriate for your
field of study and personal/professional goals. You will also learn how to compose in multiple genres related to job
and graduate/professional school applications. Finally, you will learn how to determine what different employers and
admissions committees look for in strong candidates, and how to tailor your rhetorical choices to different audiences.
Specifics:
The Applications: You should start by considering your professional, academic, and life goals. What are some future
career possibilities within your major that you would like to pursue? Where would you like to live after graduation?
What other life factors (family, schedule, etc.) will you have to take into consideration? You should then locate a
career-track job and a graduate/professional program (grad school, law school, medical school, MBA program, etc.)
that could help you fulfill your goals.1 Each of these positions should require some form of cover letter/letter of
intent/personal statement and some form of resume/CV. You will then write the letter and resume/CV for each
application (4 documents total). We will talk about how to locate appropriate jobs and programs, as well as how to
compose these documents. Use your real information as much as possible, as these documents will be useful for you
in the future!
The Reflection Paper: In your reflection paper, you will explain to me your process in finding and applying for your
selected job and graduate/professional program. This paper should address the following questions (though not
necessarily in this order):
1. How did you find the job and program you selected? Why did you decide to apply for these particular
positions?
2. How would each of these positions further your personal, academic, and/or career goals?
3. How did you tailor your application to each position? How did you figure out how you were supposed to
construct these documents? What did you do to research the company or school? How did you incorporate
this knowledge into your application materials?
4. How do the 2 applications differ? What did you emphasize in each application and why? Can you draw any
conclusions about the differences between job applications and graduate/professional school applications
based on your documents?
This portion should be at least 500 words. Please include information on where to find the different sources you
consulted in your project (no need for a formal Works Cited pageweb links are fine).
You Will Turn In: links to the job2 and graduate/professional program and any sources consulted, a cover
letter/letter of intent and resume/CV for each application, and your reflection paper
Due Date: Thurs, Feb 25 at 11:59 pm via BB

You dont need to be qualified for this job/program yet, but you should try to find a job and program for which you would be
qualified when you graduate.
2
You should take a screenshot of the job application requirements or type them up in case the posting closes before I can grade your
work.
1

All submissions will be processed by SafeAssign anti-plagiarism software.