4.18 Personal Statement + Introductory letters

In class today you worked on your personal statements and introductory letters.  While we referred to guidelines at the links - today's real lesson was that your personal statement + introductory letter needed to address the particular demands of your profession and of the group/institution you were writing to.

For example, we did a sample rhetorical analysis for Yasmin's personal statement.  We thought about the purpose of her statement (what she wanted her statement to do); the audience, and the form.

For her purpose - she wanted to identify herself has having the right "politics" with respect to dogs, to demonstrate her writing abilities, and to distinguish herself as creative and a self-starter

Audience: staff at Bark magazine - and she had to do some thinking about who they were and what they expected (for example - what is THEIR idea of good writing?) in order to get down the details for her purpose.

The form of her personal statement would be determined partly by general reading patterns for this kind of document (first and last sentences are what really counts because that is what the reader sees on a quick read = but the WHOLE document needs to stand up to careful reading if you make it to later stages for consideration), and partly by Yasmin's sense of which information about herself she wanted to highlight.

Finishing the portfolio:
After the break we went through the portfolio site (sample portfolio to the left) and spoke page by page about how to present your work.  See the sample portfolio + the portfolio assignment sheet for complete directions.

Presentation schedule. You also signed up for presentations on your portfolios.  So far, the schedule is as follows:
April 25:  Liana, Corinne, Marietta, Nahimot, Alison
May 2:  Daniel, Jessica, Allison, Sara
May 9: Yasmin, Allyson

Sarah, Bridget, Arlette, and Erin can fill in the blanks next week.

The last part of class was devoted to identifying your writing samples, and analyzing what you wanted to put in your introductory letter.  Again, these choices will depend on your future profession.  See sample portfolio/assignment sheet for information about reflective writing/introductions associated with each piece.

For next week:
We will begin class with presentations - and the remainder of the class will be devoted to workshopping.

4.11=> next class will be Introductory letters + personal statements

In class today we talked about resumes.  Links to the OWL sites discussing resumes are posted earlier.  Our use of Wysoki + Lynch's criteria for a rhetorical analysis of a sample resume made pretty clear how important audience considerations are for writing a resume. As Yasmin pointed out - there ISN'T going to be one rule for the "right" way to create your resume = it is going to depend on your audience.

Next week we will continue working on your portfolio.  Write drafts for an introductory letter and for a personal statement.  They may or may not be for the same application.  For example, if you want to write an introductory letter for an internship at a law firm, but would also like some help with your personal statement for law school => go for it!   Useful links (as discussed in class) are listed below.


Introductory letters
Cover letter = jobs
sample job letter
Cover letter = academic

Personal statements

Good class today = and see you next week.  I will get your process essays back to you ASAP.

schedule for rest of the term

W April 11
discuss reading= workshop portfolio= resumes

presentation on letters and personal statements

W Apr 18

workshop  letters and personal statements

Sign-up sheet for final presentations

get started on writing samples

W Apr 25  Sign up for conferences on portfolios

Presentations

workshop
W  May 2presentations 
workshop

W May 9

final presentations

portfolio due at end of class

Resumes!

Use the framework from Wysoki & Lynch to evaluate your resume

1. What is your purpose?  What are you communicating?  What do you want to achieve?

2. What will your audience be expecting?  How can you turn those expectations to your advantage?

3. How will the place & time of the communication affect its outcome?

4.  What are the strategies that will help you achieve your ends?

5.  What do audiences tend to expect about this genre/medium?  Can you choose a different medium?

6.  How will your audience respond to the organization?  Is there a better organization?

7.  Test!

See Purdue OWL resume design

Try the 20 second test

The quadrant test

Look at your use of headings + fonts

4.4 History of Writing & Final Project

We started out with a discussion of what we considered the important accomplishments of representational technologies.  Our list included the facilitation of:

• global trade (for the individual as well as for companies)
• tracking economic exchanges
• record keeping
• personal communications
• access to writing & self-representation for EVERYBODY (not just the rich)
• the professionalism/quality of those self representations
• direct access to audiences

As we reflected on these accomplishments of writing technologies, we started to think about what drove the kinds of inventions that brought about changes in writing processes and practices.  We noted that what we want out of our writing "hardware" and "software" includes:

• ease of use
• speed (immediacy )
• autonomy for the user
• multti-channel experiences (as if it is "real") = immersion in the feel of 'being there"
• interaction

We then made a quick timeline of the history of revisions to communication technologies - and in light of that timeline = you chose 3 inventions that you saw as the most important in bringing about the cultural changes or accomplishments that we identified at the beginning of class. (You sent me an email with your perspective on this discussion).

The second half of class was spent reading through the portfolio assignment.  The timeline for the assignment is as follows:
April 4 : Your focus/career for your portfolio + identify preliminary list of writing genres to submit with your portfolio
April 18: Workshop resumes
April 25: Workshop introductory letter and personal statements
May 2: Workshop longer writing samples + reflective writing
May 9: Complete portfolio due


In addition to completing the writing, each one of you will be required to make a presentation on your portoflio and writing in your profession.  This is part of the workshopping prcess and will begin April 18.  I will pass around a sign-up sheet next week.

For next week:
Write: resumes for your chosen profession: general resume + a "dream" resume; after workshopping your resumes - you will work on the reflective writing to bridge the two.
Read: "A Rhetorical Process for Designing Compositions," Anne Wysoki & Dennis Lynch