Blog #2

Blog #2: Reading Response and Draft of Cover Letter
Due Friday, January 18th, at 11am (Reminder: We meet in the AML, Avery 101, on Friday.  Be sure to have an electronic or print copy of your résumé.)

Three parts to this blog:

Part 1: Initial DRAFT of Cover Letter
Draft at least one paragraph of a cover letter for a future job (or grad school or anything else for which you might need to apply).  We'll continue drafting and revising in class on Friday.  If you have a specific job ad (description of grad school, etc.), please bring that to class, too.

Note: Remember that this is a revision class, so feel free to use all or part of a cover letter that you've already written--just be sure to identify when you wrote it and for what class (if any). 

Part 2: Reading Response to Preface, Ch. 1, and/or Ch. 2 of Style
Select 1-2 concepts from the reading that were particularly useful or interesting for you.  How will these concepts help you as you draft and revise your cover letter?  If no concepts seemed helpful, why not?  As always, the more details you can give, the more helpful your responses will be to us and to you.

Length: For your reading response section, again aim for about 250 words or 2-3 paragraphs (you could do one paragraph per chapter). 

Part 3: Revision of Part 1
After reflecting on how the chapters in Style will help you with your writing, revise one or two of the sentences your wrote for Part 1 (or Part 2).  Specifically, try to apply the concept of choosing the most "active" verb for your sentence, as discussed in Ch. 2.  Keep experimenting with colons, semicolons, and dashes, if applicable to this first paragraph of your cover letter.


Response:  For your response, you should continue the conversation the author started in Part 2.  You should also try to comment on their revised sentences in Part 3.  Examples:

• Why do you think the revised sentence is an improvement over the original sentence? 
•  Do you have another suggestion for revision? 
• Can you suggest another revision? 

(Just wanted to model that revising for active verbs like the book suggests takes some time--it's definitely a different step than drafting.)

Due: Respond to everyone in your peer group, including yourself (for your own blog, either respond to one or both of your peers' responses or simply revise another part of your initial post), by Monday morning at 11am (although no class that day due to MLK Holiday).

Length: Again, a paragraph is good.  Try to work on either active verbs (feel free to use the strikethrough option to show us your revision process) or colons/semicolons/dashes in your response.