Career Profile Paper

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Career Profile Paper
Page requirements: 5-7 pages, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, Times New Roman, 12 pt.

Writing Task
For this paper, you will write both an informative and persuasive profile about a career you’re interested in, ideally a profession you might have some day, and then you will present the information in a clear and effective manner to a high schooler interested in the career. Your paper will present information about this field by highlighting the necessary education, important experiences, benefits, and the typical communication tasks of individuals employed in this career.

Once you have compiled sufficient information and done enough research, you will organize it all into a document that is informative, subtly persuasive, interesting, and thought provoking. The challenge will be creating a clear, yet subtly persuasive thesis within the first paragraph while at the same time presenting all the useful and necessary information your audience needs when considering their career options.

Here are questions that should focus the profile. Of course, you need to brainstorm additional questions. These questions are just to get you started:

Education/Background:
    What courses, majors, and college-based experiences are important for being successful in this career?
    What specific knowledge and skills does a professional in this career have to have to be successful?
    What skills, characteristics, strategies, or habits of mind are most important for this career?
Experiences:
    What are the most rewarding aspects about this career?
    What are the most challenging aspects of this career?
    What experiences prior to starting the career could be useful?
Communication Skills:
    How much time is spent writing and speaking in this career?
    What types of writing and speaking do professionals usually have to do in this career? (memos, letters, emails, presentations, proposals, reports, interviews, discussions, client meetings, etc.)
   
Audience
Guidance counselors from high schools across Illinois have asked college students to create career profiles they can use as resources in their career centers. What will make your profile an important resource is creating a document that it is more than just dry facts about a career.  It should be a lively, entertaining profile, one that provides a realistic perspective on what students need to consider if they pursue this career. Aside from the informative profile, your paper needs to be subtly persuasive. You need to have a clear thesis that subtly persuades your audience of the merit the career you have chosen possesses.

I would strongly advise not choosing a career you already have because you will fall into the tendency of using what you know over what you have researched (the “I” or “me” focused language you want to avoid). If you do choose that career to research because there is still so much that you want to learn about it, that is great, but you must refrain from using that “I” language in your paper. Your paper needs to be written in third person because these counselors hope to use your paper in their career centers. As such, the information needs to be accessible to a larger audience (all high schoolers interested in that career), and the language needs to be reader-focused(third person since it’s not just aimed at one reader) to reflect that.

Using Sources and the Works Cited Page  You need to use the library’s databases, books from the library, or reputable Web-based sources for the paper (see your Resources/Links section if you need help finding the library database). For this assignment, you must have 3-5 sources, though no more than 5. You will use MLA format for this assignment. You must submit a Works Cited page of all the sources you’ve used, and this should be included as the last page of your paper, not as a separate attached document (see MLA sample page in links on schedule). All in-text citations need to be formatted correctly as well. If you are unsure whether or not you need to cite something, whether it be a paraphrase or explanation of a term, use your resources and then ask me BEFORE submitting the paper. Plagiarism will result in an “0” on the assignment.

IMPORTANT: Since this is your first major paper, I need to know that you know how to use source information correctly and effectively. You will complete the Outline Assignment described below as well as a short summary of one of your articles. The summary will include a brief description of the main points of the article and end with the thesis (overall argument) of the article.

Chapter 6 in your textbook, Technical Communication, details how to work with sources and research them correctly. Be sure to complete the Chapter 6 Outline Assignment and review the Prezi before beginning this assignment.

Long (block) quotations (more than four lines) are not permitted. As a general rule, your papers should not be more than 20% source information total (direct quotations or paraphrase).


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A Successful Career Profile Paper

    Is informative, subtly persuasive, easy-to-read, engaging, and thought provoking.
    Provides an introduction that is likely to grab the attention of readers.
    Asserts a subtly persuasive thesis early on to orient the reader and explain what students interested in this career need to think about and/or why the career might be rewarding/intriguing. (example thesis: Though the education required may be extensive, the daily interactions with a wide variety of people and the seemingly unlimited opportunities for growth and development make teaching English at the college level a fulfilling career.)
    Offers students significant ideas to consider in regard to their future education, experiences, and writing tasks.
    Paraphrases and integrates quotations from sources effectively, smoothly, and ethically through appropriate introductory phrases and in-text citations in MLA Style.
    Has focused and unified paragraphs that relate specific and concrete details about the background, education, and writing needed for this profession in a highly developed and articulate manner.
    Exhibits strong concision, cohesion, transitions, and sentence variety in length and type.
    Provides a medium level of tone and diction—not too formal but not too informal.
    Uses 3rd person point of view throughout and does not use 1st person (“I,” “my,” “mine,” “we,” “us”) or 2nd person point of view (“you,” “your”) unless quoting a source.
    Cites and documents sources ethically and effectively using MLA Style.
    Provides a properly documented MLA Works Cited page.
    Provides a separate source information list page (see IMPORTANT section above) that includes paragraphs, sections, quotations, or other areas from sources used in the paper.
    Does not have editing errors that distract the reader or disrupt the meaning of sentences
    Is relatively free of mechanical and proofreading errors

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