ENGL 227 Week 1 Assignment

ENGL 227 Week 1 Assignment

Objectives

Some students may not have a great deal of experience formatting business documents, but almost all of us have written a resume. Therefore, most of us have a good idea of how important the layout and design of this business document can be.  Chapter 18 in Business Communication Today covers the three traditional formats of resumes:

• Chronological Resume(click link to see a sample reverse chronological resume) — the work history and educational history are each listed starting with the most recent.
• Functional Resume — the focus is on skills and experiences — what was done rather than when it was done.
• Combination Resume — this method combines the formats of the reverse chronological and functional resume formats.

Guidelines

To Create a Reverse Chronological Resume for a Targeted Audience:

1. Go to your DeVry portal at http://my.devry.edu and click on My Compass to My Career to access all of the self-directed resources available to you through Career Services.* You may do a job search within My Compass to My Career by clicking on My Planner from the top of the screen and then select Jobs That Interest Me from the drop down menu. For more information on how to access job leads inside My Compass to My Career, please review the guide here: Career Services Tools and Resources. You may also search other job search sites such as careerbuilder.com (see table 18.1 on p 507 of our etext for job search websites). For students new to a field, search http://onetonline.org for job titles/descriptions for a wide range of career fields. Then conduct a job search as directed using job titles you found at http://onetonline.org/.

1. Locate a position in your field of study that you realistically could apply for now or when you graduate.
2. Review the resumé evaluation checklist found in Doc Sharing and access another great tool called Resumé Wizard inside My Compass to My Careerto help you build a keyword enriched resumé. You can access the My Compass to My Career Guide above. (Do NOT submit the checklist to your dropbox.)
3. Draft a reverse chronological resumé targeted at the job posting you selected.
4. Submit the completed resumé andcopy of the actual job description (not a link) to the dropbox by the due date.

NOTE: Your resume should be original. Although you may use a sample for layout/design, do not copy wording from any source. If you are using a previous version of your resume, make sure you update and fine-tune it so that it is improved.

A successful resume will:

• Be written for a targeted audience, i.e., the job posting the student selected.
• Include an introductory section such as Career Objective or Qualification/Professional Summary that reflects the student’s skills and experiences relative to the description in the job posting.
• List employment and education history presented in reverse chronological order.
• Summarize the student’s work experience in four to five points under each position held, focusing on concrete, measurable duties and/or accomplishments.
• Present work experience, skills, and achievements in original terminology.
• Use parallel active verbs (see page 515 in e-text for suggestions).
• Not use first person singular.
• Use appropriate headings and appropriate design elements (e.g., white space, bold, underline, italics, varying font sizes***) to improve readability. ***Note: Students should not attempt to use all of these elements in one document.
• Make efforts to limit the resume to one page.
• Demonstrate proper writing conventions, including correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar.
• Use appropriate headings and appropriate design elements (e.g., white space, bold, underline, italics, varying font sizes***) to improve readability. ***Note: Students should not attempt to use all of these elements in one document.

Grading Rubrics

Submit your assignment to the Dropbox, located at the top of this page. For instructions on how to use the Dropbox, read these step-by-step instructions.

See the Syllabus section “Due Dates for Assignments & Exams” for due date information.

The resume includes an introductory section such as Career Objective or Qualification/Professional Summary.  Section is written clearly and appropriate to writer’s degree and field.