Resume and Cover Letter

Assignment: Resume and Cover Letter

ENG 3100, Fall 2016
October 11, 2016
Overview
If there is one place in our lives that we will all encounter the need for effective business communication it is in
the search for employment. Regardless of the direction you pursue after your college education, you will
undoubtedly be called upon to create a job packet that illustrates your knowledge and skills. While the specific
requirements may change from position to position, the resume and the cover letter are two genres that hold
steady across a wide variety of occupations. For that reason, this assignment will give you the opportunity to
begin thinking about how you should market yourself toward a specific job advertisement.
Your Task
For this project, you will prepare a resume and cover letter to showcase your skills and abilities. These
documents should be tailored for a specific job or a summer internship opportunity. There is no such thing
as a generic resumeat least not one that is effective in catching the attention of your audience. For this task,
you resume should contain only what is currently truenot what you envision yourself doing later in your
college or professional life. Using the experiences that youve already gained, your resume and cover letter will
present a persuasive picture of who you are now and how you would be a perfect fit for the job or internship of
your choice.
To succeed you will need to:
Carefully consider your prior education and workplace experience in order to determine the general and
specific skills you bring with you.
Analyze a job or internship ad of your choice in order to determine what that organization/company is
seeking.
Take time to consider the visual design of your document including an effective use of white space.
Create detailed, polished, and targeted documents (your resume & cover letter) designed to show your
fit for a particular job or internship.
Compose a detailed reflective memo describing your thought process and rationale.
Include a copy of the job ad you select with your final submission.
Select one of the three resume approaches specified in Chapter 18: Chronological, Functional, or the
Combination format.
Reflective Memo (one page)
For this reflective memo, you are responsible for analyzing the job ad you select. In this written analysis you
should share what information you think is most important for an applicant to know. You should also note the
specific and general characteristics or traits that the job ad requires or prefers. From there, you should continue
on to how you decided to approach your cover letter and resume in response. In other words, what choices did
you make and how did you tailor your job documents to that specific audience? This should be more than a one
or two paragraph analysis; it should be a detailed look at your compositional process in order to showcase your
rationale. Talk about the visual design of your documents and the way youve positioned past experiences to
satisfy some or all of the requirements for the job or internship.
Format (Resume)
Use one of the three formats for resumes found in Chapter 18: Chronological, Functional, Combination.
Limit your resume to one full page. In the future your resume may expand onto a second page, but for
now you are creating a targeted document that shows your background and abilities at a glance.
However, I emphasize again that it should be a full page.
For this assignment you have freedom of choice over your margins and fontthough this should be a
very professional document. Additionally, under no circumstances are you to use a template found
online or in Word or elsewhere. You can look at templates for resumes, but you cannot simply

Resume and Cover Letter

download a template and fill it in. A large part of this assignment is designed to teach you how to
manipulate text, fonts, and white space effectively.
Polish and proofread. Whereas spelling and mechanics may be on the lower end of importance for other
writing in this class, a typo can be the difference between you and another equally qualified individual.

Format (Cover Letter)

Use block letter format found on page 578 Figure A.3
Your cover letter should be a minimum of one very-tightly formatted page , but you can choose to
extend it onto a second page if you require the space.
You should choose the same or a similar font as you used for your resume.
TL;DR
Find an ad for a job or internship program within your field.
Study its preferred and required qualifications.
Compose a resume and cover letter tailored for that position.
Submit a Reflective Memo with the Final Draft.
Due Dates
Draft One:
Final Draft:
Portfolio Draft:

Tuesday, October 18
Thursday, October 27
Due with ePortfolio; Wednesday, August 3 by midnight

Resume and Cover Letter

Assignment Assessment Rubric

Project
Component
Re sume:
Does the resume contain the
necessary contact information
(name, address, phone number,
email)?
Is the objective suited to the
position?
Is all education information listed
(colleges, major and minor,
scholarships, academic honors,
expected graduation date,
relevant workshops, courses,
certificates, GPA)
Is previous employment listed in
a consistent format?
Are skills highlighted using
strong action verbs?
Does the language of the resume
echo language used in the ad?
Are all entries concise, easy to
read, and informative?
Are headings visually consistent?
Is the resume readable at a
glance?
Cove r Letter:
Does the letter contain an
opening that refers to the position
advertised?
Does the body highlight
qualifications and expand upon
resume listings?
Does the conclusion include an
action ending that expresses
interest in interviewing?
Is the tone appropriate
(persuasive but not demanding or
entitled)?
Is block format used?
Me chanics and Tone:
Are the documents free of
mechanical errors or problems?
Are the documents free to typos?
Are the document visually
appealing with good use of white
space?
Me mo:
Does your memo talk about the
job ad and its requirements?
Does your memo go into detail
about how you tailored your
documents for this specific
position?
Is your memo formatted
correctly?

Needs Work

OK

Good