Thursday, January 5, 2012

College Writing: homework for 6 Jan. 2012

Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful vacation and a time of rest over Christmas break. Below, you can find today's homework assignment (January 6) and the research paper assignment details.

Homework:

finish worksheet*
1-page typed, double-spaced abstract (quiz grade)
topic selection and working thesis

*Below are the URLs for this assignment; you may find it easier to click on these links instead of typing them in yourself.

URL for #2: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
for #3: go to http://typelogic.com and click on your personality type
for #4: take the quiz from #2, then click on “Identify your career with Jung Career Indicator”
for #5: browse to http://www.personalitypage.com/html/careers.html and click on your personality type


Career Research Paper

Your Task: Write a research proposal, then research and write about careers of your choice. Choose and research either (A) 2-3 related jobs within the same field (e.g. fashion, healthcare, computing) or (B) choose and research 2 unrelated jobs in which you have a strong interest.

Your research paper should include the following:
An introduction that gives an overview of each job you chose
A detailed description of each job—its nature and responsibilities
Career outlook (how hard is it to get a job in this field?)
Remuneration (pay and other benefits)
Necessary education and training; steps needed to get the job
A description of the advantages and disadvantages of each job
A conclusion explaining which job is most suited to you and why; how the job would be suited to your personality and interests; your skills that would help you in this job, shortcomings that you will need to overcome, and a plan for how you would go about getting this particular job.

Steps:
Investigate careers and make a list of all those that seem interesting to you.
Select a career, narrow your choices down to 2-3, and generate a working thesis.
Do preliminary reading; make a works cited page.
Take notes on all information to be used.
Write a detailed outline.
Type a rough draft with parenthetical citations and a works cited page.
Based on your research, decide whether you want to keep your original thesis or change it; write a final thesis.
Revise the rough draft based on comments from your peers and teacher.
Type the final paper with parenthetical citations and works cited page.


Requirements:
- Research Proposal to include: general topic, specific topic, methods for primary and secondary research, sources you plan to consult
Length: 5-6 double-spaced,* typewritten pages in regular 12 point, Times New Roman font, with 1-inch (2.54 cm) margins. All formatting should conform to MLA standards.
Sources: Works Cited page in MLA style with a minimum of four sources. To get an A in the research category of your rubric, you must use at least six sources, and more than one source must be either a print source (e.g. book or print encyclopedia) or a primary source (e.g. interview). Wikipedia may not be used as a source, but you may use Wikipedia to find other, more reputable sources (scroll down to the bottom of the page and look at the list of sources on the Wikipedia page).
*Your double-spaced paper should have a total of at least 22-23 lines per page. If you only have 18 or less lines per page, reduce your line spacing.


Major Due Dates:
- Friday, 6 January: begin initial topic selection
- Monday, 9 January: topic selection, working thesis, and Works Cited page due
- Tuesday, 10 January: outline and notes due
- Wednesday, 11 January: Rough draft due; peer and teacher conferences
- Thursday, 12 January: Complete research paper due

Examples of related topics:

Sports:
Professional athlete
Coach or referee
Trainer
Sports management & finance
Sports retail
Broadcasting

Writing:
Journalist
Technical writer
Freelance writer
Screenwriter

Health care:
Nurse
Chiropractor
Anesthesiologist
Surgeon
EMT

Computing and electronics:
Tech support
Network specialist
Computer programmer
Electronics sales associate

Engineering:
Software engineering
Mechanical engineering
Civil engineering
Aerospace engineering
Quality control

Research Choices – A Handout on Sources

“Primary, Library, and Internet Research” (477-502), Chapter 32 in The College Writer, goes into more detail on each of the sources mentioned below.

Types of Sources:
-- Primary: Original source with firsthand information.
-- Secondary: Information about your topic that is not directly from the person who experienced it.

Types of Primary Research:
--Surveys, questionnaires, quotes, interviews from original sources or experts in the field (that you then analyze)
--Field research (your personal observations and recorded data that you observed directly)***
--Journal entry recorded about something you or the other person witnessed or experienced
--Experiment results that you organized

Types of Secondary Research:
--Website sources from organizations or people who know about your topic
--Encyclopedias
--Statistical resources
--Guides and handbooks
--Academic journal, newspaper, or magazine articles

***This category of research is something commonly used for graduate and undergraduate college students in many different fields, from education to sciences and psychology.


Resources:

US Dept. of Labor Statistics’s Occupational Outlook Handbook: http://www.bls.gov/oco/
http://www.wetfeet.com/careers-industries
http://www.mit.myplan.com/
http://gecd.mit.edu/

Helpful hint: Many colleges and universities have career centers with websites; anything you find on a college website is a reputable source, and these career centers can be helpful to you in your research.



Research Paper Topic Selection

Some careers that sound interesting to me are (list several):





I am narrowing it down to my preferred choices of

1)

2)

3)

because _____________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________.

Some sources that I intend to use to do my research are

1)

2)

3)

4)

My working thesis is (explain why you think this career is a good match for you):
________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

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