What: Write an essay that
- details your career goals
- provides information about a particular company or industry for which you'd like to work
- identifies marketable skills needed for employment in the company or industry
- describes steps you plan to take in order to obtain the identified skills
Read actively to locate, evaluate, and integrate information needed to address each bulleted item. Compose multiple drafts of the assignment, revising until form, organization, syntax, diction, style, and tone are appropriate for a given audience and purpose, and then edit for grammar, punctuation, and clarity of delivery.
Why: The purpose of this essay is to present information on a particular company or industry for which you are interested in working, and then offer a written plan of action to accomplish your career goal based on needs identified in research findings. This assignment requires use of rhetorical appeals and business terminology, and it helps you understand writing as a process that demands substantive revision and editing.
Preparing a Persuasive Analytical Essay is beneficial in other ways, too.
- Research obtained can help you become a wise consumer of opportunities afforded by your college experience. If you have insight into products, services, and jobs an industry provides, you can chose coursework, internships, and volunteer tasks that help develop marketable skills for that industry.
- This kind of project can assist you in making informed decisions regarding career goals. You might learn something, for example, that leads you to rethink your overall job strategy or to pursue an employment angle you hadn't considered.
- The work done for this essay can prepare you for an interview with a company. Your research will enable you to ask specific questions about the workplace, while helping you impress the employer with your understanding of the company's mission and needs. It might also guide your knowledge of entry-level salaries, work hours and expectations, relocation options, and so forth.
How:
1) Brainstorm you career goals and companies within your intended industry.
2) Narrow the focus of your essay to a particular company or industry, and create a working thesis statement that identifies the company/industry, your targeted job within it, and possible steps you'll need to take to meet your career goal.
3) Begin preliminary research to develop your knowledge of the company's products, services, history, corporate structure, and job prospects.
4) Create an outline for your paper, if needed, to organize the following sections:
o introduction
o personal career goals
o company information
o marketable skills required for employment in the company
o personal plans to obtain marketable skills for future employment at company
o conclusion
5) Find and use at least three source materials in the construction of your essay; include in-text citations and an APA References page.
6) Revise the document several times to develop organization, clarity, research content, and persuasive analyses.
- Organize your essay so readers can easily follow the development of your thesis statement throughout its body paragraphs.
- Analyze supporting evidence and details presented in each body paragraph so readers understand how they support the paragraph's main point and how they connect with the essay's thesis statement.
7) Edit for spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
8) The final draft must be between 5 and 7 typed pages (plus a title and reference page), double-spaced, with 1-inch margins. Use Times New Roman, size 12 font.