Submit Portfolio Four (proposal letter, letter of transmittal, long technical report including front matter and reference page) to the assignment drop box by its due date. No late assignments will be accepted! Read Chapters 5, 11, 12, 13, & 14 in your text to help you with this.
LETTER PROPOSAL
Purpose:As our text states, "A proposal is a detailed plan of action that a writer submits to a reader or group of readers for approval" (544). Proposals are written for many different reasons and for many different audiences. But the long and short of it remains that the purpose for writing any proposal is to produce a persuasive document.
For this assignment, you will prepare one of the simplest forms of proposals. Your proposal, written in the form of a letter, will be short -- only 1-2 pages (which means, of course, that every word is important).
Focus:To successfully complete this assignment, you will need to be creative or at least be able to imagine that you are working now in the job of your dreams. Your company/institution has asked you to go to the USM campus in order to encourage students to gear their studies toward a career in your field. To complete the job your company has asked you to do, you are writing to me, an English professor at USM, and asking if you can make a presentation in my English 101 classroom. You must persuade me that you would be a welcome addition to my class room, in other words that you would not be wasting time, and that your career field has something to offer students. And so your proposal will be a letter persuading me to allow you do a career presentation in my college classroom for the purpose of recruiting students to enter your career field.
Organization:Because you are writing this proposal as a business letter, be sure to include all of the elements of a professional letter (use the full-block format and include the date line, inside address, salutation, etc.) You can find detailed information on writing/formatting a business letter in our textbook. The text of your proposal letter should include the following parts:
- introductory paragraph(s) stating the reason for writing (Purpose)
In this first section of your proposal, introduce your organization or yourself, identify your proposal, and indicate what you are requesting. Include information explaining why this university/instructor/class was selected
- needs paragraph(s) (this might also be identified as the Scope of the Problem)
This second section should describe the problem (i.e., that students need to be planning for the future and tailoring courses to meet the requirements for future employment) and how your presentation will contribute to a solution. You will describe the need for your presentation in broad (but supported) terms, your objectives in specific terms
- a solution paragraph (Methods or Procedures)
In this final section you should describe what specific issues, points or areas you hope to discuss in your presentation. Describe how your presentation will be organized and make requests for any materials or equipment that you will need in order to make your presentation.
Style and Conventions:You will produce a document free from grammatical errors. It should follow the conventions of Standard English.Points will be deducted heavily for grammatical and spelling errors!
LONG REPORT
Purpose:Long reports may be required of you no matter what your career field may be.
This assignment requires you to prepare a long report that not only investigates your career field but that might persuade others to enter your field. Just as you did when preparing the proposal, you should assume the identity of a professional in your chosen field who is "recruiting." For the sake of this assignment, pretend that I have agreed to let you come into my classroom to discuss your career, but first, I want to see a report about your career field that includes the information that you would be presenting to my students. You write the report as if it were the presentation that you will be making to students in order to persuade them to enter your career field. Chapter 16 of our text should help you to prepare your work.
Your Long Report should:
- Be a minimum of eight pages long (this is the report itself--the 8 pages does not include the cover sheet, references, letters or any other parts). The entire portfolio should include all of the parts of a long report: Front Matter (letter of transmittal, title page, table of contents, list of illustrations and abstract), Text of Report (introduction, background, problem, purpose statement, scope, conclusions/recommendations) and Back Matter (References cited)
- Include visual aides (charts, photographs, graphs). Text may either wrap around the visuals or visuals may be inserted in key sections of the text.
- Use sources to document your arguments. Your sources should include at least one from each of the following listed below (the minimum number of sources to use is FIVE!) Please use the MLA style of documentation:
Academic sources: You'll probably have to go the library for these; however, a textbook in this subject area is also fine. You can also use a database via computer. TryEbscohost. You can access this database through the USM library
Journalistic print sources: Newspapers, bulletins, company brochures.
On line sources: any commercial/academic web site. Please don't use someone's personal web page since you don't know how credible their information is.
Personal interviews: I strongly suggest that you interview one or more people who actually work in your dream job. The information you obtain from these interviews will help you to imagine yourself in the job and will give you specific details to use concerning your hypothetical position in a company. You can also cite what they've said in your report.
Once again, you must use MLA format to cite your sources within this report.This includes correctly citing sources on the Reference page as well as parenthetical citations within the body of your report.For help with direct quotations and MLA format, see Tips for Portfolio Two listed within the Basic How-To Guide for the course.
Organization:
Here is a list of ideas for information that you might want to share in your report:
- A Little History of Career or Field
How has the career evolved- past, present, and looking into the future?
- Roles and Responsibilities
What do you do? Who do you work with? What do you like the best?
What kind of personal traits, interests, and styles match this job?
What does a career ladder look like from entry jobs to professional levels?
- Education Requirements and Opportunities
What is the basic education and training required for entry to professional levels?
What education and training are needed or available to advance and grow in the field?
How does technology impact and serve as a tool in your job and in the field?
What other jobs and careers could you go into?
What other industries or fields could you work in?
- Learning More About This Career
What volunteer or work experience would help students learn more?
What studies, classes, degrees, and training programs are suggested?
What hobbies, books, college visits, or company tours would be helpful?
What do you value and enjoy the most in this job or career?
How does the job or career impact being a parent or family member?
Has the job or career helped you make a difference in the community?
Provide information about how much money you make and any variables depending on which section of the country you may work.
Some may want information on how you financed college and further education.
Style and Conventions:Proofread! Proofread! Proofread!This document should be free of grammatical errors.One point will be deducted for every five grammar errors!