ENG 301 1.T: Welcome. Let’s Talk about Jobs

Posted on August 22, 2022 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • Syllabus
  • Ross 1240 Computer Lab
  • Project One Overview
  • Email Assignment
  • Brumberger and Lauer Assignment

Syllabus Review

Yeah, sure, starting with the syllabus is cliche. But this course probably works a bit differently than others you’ve taken for a couple of reasons. First, because I use labor-based grading. Second, because this course is designed less as a vehicle to teach you something, and more as a vehicle for you to develop a skill.

Ross 1240 Computer Lab

Starting next week, we’ll be meeting every Thursday in the Ross 1240 computer lab. Tuesday’s we’ll continue to meet here in CAND 2260.

Icebreaker

Let’s try a thing.

Brumberger and Lauer on Jobs

Our first project is rooted Eva Brumberger and Claire Lauer’s article “The Evolution of Technical Communication: An Analysis of Industry Job Postings.” I developed this project in conjunction with research I conducted as I was developing professional writing courses for UNC’s Writing minor. I was charged with developing 3 courses that would help both Writing minors and English majors be better prepared for the job market. This charge led me to research job advertisements for English majors, and Brumberger and Lauer (2015) stands as the most recent and comprehensive study I found.

However, their article focuses on “technical communication.” This designation can have many meanings–sometimes it is merely a synonym for professional writing. But not in their case–they use it (as do I) in the more precise sense of developing documentation (instruction manuals), product testing (usability reports), and working with scientific experts to communicate scientific/technical knowledge. Our department doesn’t have someone with those specializations–so as much as I appreciate their research, I wanted something a bit more relevant to a smaller department. Their research speaks more to folks at large research institutions with Professional and Technical Writing major, more specialized faculty, and software licenses such as MadCap Flare or Adobe RoboHelp. We are a much smaller department with 5 tenure-track faculty (and none of us, I think, would claim Professional or Technical writing as a core specialization–we have experts in Rhetorical Theory, Public Rhetorics, Cultural Rhetorics, Compositionists, etc). So the question that drove my own research, which you will learn to recreate, is: what skills, technologies, characteristics can UNC focus on to maximize your preparation for today’s job market?

In answering that question, I’ve turned my attention to Professional Writing jobs outside of technical writing. During my research, I came across a specialized job listing site–mediabistro.com. From their “About Us” page:

Mediabistro is the premier media job listings site and career destination for savvy media professionals. Whether you’re searching for new job opportunities, striving to advance your career, or looking to learn new skills and develop valuable expertise, we are here to strengthen and support your professional journey. We have the tools and resources to help you navigate your own path and find career happiness.

In addition to job postings, mediabistro.com offers resume services and courses on professionalization and personal brand building. Rather than turning to a more popular site like monster.com, I used mediabistro.com because it focuses specifically on jobs involving writing and communication.

I spent the month of June 2018 scanning every job ad posted to mediabistro.com. I filtered out jobs that:

  • Called for experience in television production (especially those that required years of on-air experience)
  • Called for extensive experience as a field journalist (although I retained jobs open to those without journalistic experience; a few jobs were looking for bloggers or content contributers)
  • Required degrees in finance or accounting
  • Required extensive experience with Google Ads and/or other Customer Relationship Management (CRM) softwares (Salesforce was particularly popular)
  • Required applicants bring a client log with them
  • Required management or hiring experience (the term management is quite slippery in adverts; sometimes it means “manage a team” and clearly indicates the need for leadership experience. Sometimes it means “manage our twitter account” and isn’t, per se, a leadership position)
  • Required backend coding skills
  • Required extensive graphic design portfolios (I did retain entry level graphic design jobs)
  • Required 5 or more years of experience
  • Telemarketing jobs, part-time jobs, or unpaid internships

After filtering out these jobs, I was left with a corpus of 375 jobs.

Over the next two weeks, you will “code” 20 jobs from this corpus. We will talk about qualitative coding in class on Wednesday. In addition to familiarizing you with the job market, and the tech, skills, and characteristics for which employers seek, you will also learn a staple Professional writing/ qualitative research method: corpus coding (and a few methods that go with it, such as norming a coding scheme and ensuring the reliability and validity of data).

Here are the stages / parts of the Job Analysis Project (which we will be working on for approximately the next month).

Job Corpus. This is the collection of job ads (from June 2018) from which you will choose 20. Then you will code those job ads.

Job Coding Scheme. Here is a link to the coding scheme. I have slightly modified the scheme used by Brumberger and Lauer. After we read Brumberger and Lauer, I spend two classes coding ads a class (norming sessions). This familiarizes them with coding and qualitative research methods. When there is disagreement on a code, we take a class vote.

Collective Job Code Spreadsheet. Students highlight text in the google doc job ads and insert their codes as comments so that other students can review them. The more students that input codes, the better! This creates the data they need for their report. So, after students code a job ad (inserting comments in the Google Doc), they should insert a link to that document (from the corpus) into the spreadsheet (the job title) and put their codes into the spreadsheet too. (I know this sounds complicated, but I can probably show you this in 3 minutes).

Personal Research Data Spreadsheet. Students make their own, personal copy of that file. They then select the jobs from the spreadsheet that they want to use in their report and make another spreadsheet that they can use to produce graphs. I do this in Google Sheets, you could also probably do it in Excel (Sheets is just more convenient to share and easier, IMO, to use). If you need help turning tabular data into a graph, I can show you quickly (it literally just takes a right-click, then playing around with some menu features for labeling axis and formatting).

Job Report Rubric. Because professional writing is so different than academic writing, I spend a lot of time familiarizing y’all with the rubric. We do this by assessing papers as a class and comparing our evaluations. Below are some sample papers; we will use the rubric to score some sample reports before we finally draft, share, and revise the final reports. Trust me, you can do this.

So, that’s a lot of stuff–but like I said, that will comprise nearly the first month of class and I’ll be here to walk you through every step.

Let’s try coding a job advertisement or two.

Homework For Thursday / Tuesday

For your first assignment, I would like you to send me an introductory email. Your email should be a professional, yet friendly, introductory business email. You should probably Google some guidelines for how to write that email.

Pro-tip: when writing an email to a faculty member, it is helpful to consult this chart [especially if you don’t know how faculty rank works / you don’t know a lot about who is teaching your class].

DO NOT USE CANVAS TO SEND ME THIS EMAIL. I cannot reliably respond to emails sent via Canvas, nor can I include them in emails to our community partners. So, part of this exercise is asking you to send me an email from your preferred email address, one that you check regularly. It is okay to use your unco email for this, if that is the one you prefer. But please cc your other, non-unco email into the message so that I have access to both.

My email address is marc.santos@unco.edu.

Your email should do a few things:

  • introduces yourself (and your academic/professional trajectory, major? minor? what year? future plans?)
  • explains your interest in the course (what are you hoping to learn? why are you here?)
  • details any professional or creative writing experience you have
  • details any social media or graphic design experience you have (including software proficiencies). Personal social media experience counts, too
  • asks me a question (about the class, about myself, about the job market, the writing minor, or about life, liberty, and/or the pursuit of happiness)

Also note the Brumberger and Lauer, “The Evolution of Technical Communication: An Analysis of Industry Job Postings” assignment in Canvas. The Canvas assignment has details on the reading response post (you can find the Brumberger and Lauer reading in the files section of Canvas). I will talk a bit more about the B&L reading and your required discussion post in class on Thursday–the reading and discussion post are due prior to next Tuesday’s class.

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ENG 123 1.M: First Day

Posted on August 16, 2022 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • Syllabus & Intro [15 minutes]
  • Article Overview 25 minutes]
  • Homework [5 minutes]
  • Take a Walk [10 minutes]

Syllabus

Hi I’m Dr. Marc C. Santos. You may call me Marc, Santos, Dr. Santos, or Professor Santos. Do not call me Mr. Santos.

Here’s a helpful infographic.

Okay, now let’s read the syllabus. Let’s read the syllabus.
Things to highlight:

  • Teaching research before argument
  • Labor-based grading and Canvas

Let’s talk methodology.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Alright, here’s a link to our workspace. I’d like to take 8 minutes and have you read one of the articles on the list. After which, I’ll give you a few minutes to plan a response to the following three prompts:

  • I read…
  • It was about…
  • One interesting, surprising, questionable thing was…

Quick Take: How to Read an (Academic) Article

When I assign a reading, I expect you to:

  1. Print out a copy of the article. Don’t try to read something on which you will write on screen
  2. As you read, have a pen at the ready. Don’t use a highlighter. Underline, mark the margin, or place a question mark as you go
  3. Every time you underline or mark the margin, write a comment at the top of the page. Studies show that writing things down helps us remember them. It also helps us start inventing the material we will need to write a summary or comparison. Don’t read passively, but actively. Don’t consume, engage.

Homework

Read another article from the workspace linked above for Wednesday’s class. Note: you can chose an article from a different topic if you want. No one is locked into a topic after one class.

Write a 200 word summary of the article. The summary should:

  • Identify the thesis of the article
  • Explain the methods the author used to support her claims and/or explain important methods used by others who the writer cites in support of her claims
  • Identify a debate, controversy, point of contention in the article
  • Note use the words “thesis,” “argument,” “findings,” or “method(s)”

Note that we will meet in Ross Hall 1240 computer lab on Wednesday.

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ENG 301 16.R: Jeff Buckley Time

Posted on April 28, 2022 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • Expected Grades: Reflection on Labor-Based Grading
  • Constructing a Linkedin Profile
  • Developing a Web/Portfolio
  • Final Resume and Cover Letters

Reflection on Labor-Based Grading

This semester, I have been participating in a Teaching for Inclusion and Equity program and have submitted an article on anti-racist, labor-based assessment for publication. This class was my second attempt at a completely labor-based system, and I have mixed feelings regarding the results. On the one hand, I should say that the quality of the job reports and the community engagement materials were both quite high. (You would know if they weren’t, since I would have re-written whatever you turned in and given you a C for making me do that).

My central argument for labor-based grading is to create an environment that is explicitly less stressful. I told you on the first day, when I introduced it, that if you just hand everything in, and it looks like you tried, then you would earn a B on the course, and I laid out the criteria for doing extra work and earning an A. The “extra” experiences are meant to be ones that almost act as mentoring and professionalization activities–what some might identify as the “hidden curriculum” of a university. Often the academic success of white/encultured/affluent students over that of non-white/first-generation/less-fortunate students concerns awareness of and willingness to use these resources.

But, to my surprise, very few people took advantage of these additional opportunities. So, um, why?

Let me share a reflection I wrote for my TIE program yesterday and we can talk.

Building a Linkedin Profile

Let’s just say that this video by Professor Heather Austin provides perspective.

  • Basics: Get a Headshot
  • Slogan: Max of 300 words
  • About: Split into Summary (Who you are, who you help, how you help them) and the Expertise (block of resume-style skills). Keep paragraphs short.
  • Skills: Pick the “big” three. Then a handful more.
  • Experience: Be descriptive

Resources:

Find me on Linkedin: Marc C. Santos (www.linkedin.com/in/marc-c-santos-967a8a17)

Developing a Web Portfolio

Final Job Materials

I will be reviewing cover letter drafts tomorrow morning. After that, I will open up a Canvas assignment for revised materials (resumes and cover letters) due next Friday.

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ENG 651 Week 15: Resumes, Cover Letters, Linkedin

Posted on April 19, 2022 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • Grades
  • Next Week’s Class
  • Peer Review Resumes (?)
  • Drafting Cover Letters
  • Building a Linkedin Profile

Grades and Next Week’s Class

I have updated the gradebook to reflect the assignment values listed in the syllabus. If you would like to revise any assignments between now and when grades are due, let me know.

ABO Book

Let’s start off with some basic advice. Writer’s checklist. Focused paragraphs.

But let’s talk follow-up (FlexJobs). But first, a scene.

A few other resources:

How I Conceptualize Cover Letters

As we discussed last week (and I imagine we will discuss further tonight), a big challenge with resumes concerns constructing a document that can beat a machine and at the same time engage a human. It is a balancing act.

At least that is one hurdle with which we don’t need to deal with cover letters. The challenge of the cover letter is to convey, in a few short paragraphs, the value (explicitly?) and energy (implicitly?) you will add to an organization. In addition to being a high stakes writing sample, it is also an elevator pitch, an introduction, a first date, a sales proposal, an intellectual and professional biography. A lot has to happen quickly.

I’ll offer the following outline for cover letters:

  • First paragraph. First sentence: position for which you are applying. “Thesis statement” as to why you are a good fit and/or interested in the position [pay attention to the specifics in your add, look for tests/prompts/possibilities].
  • Second paragraph. Storytime. Chances are your thesis involves something you can do. Tell a story about the time you did the thing. Are you applying for a marketing job? Tell a story about how you developed content for a social media channel. Applying for a grant writing position? Tell a story about the time your under/graduate class partnered with a local non-profit and you researched/developed stuff and/or liaised with folks to do things. Ideally, your story should have a what I did–what effect that had narrative structure, but it doesn’t have to. The point here is to take one thing you discuss in the resume, the best thing, and turn it into a paragraph of meaningful prose.
  • Third paragraph. Do you have a second awesome story? Cool. Tell that too! If not, then think about how you can translate your academic success and abilities into language that shows you are a strong fit for the position. If the ad stresses personality, then can you use something like the psychometric test to sell yourself? Is there something that the ad indicates as a requirement that you can indicate you are familiar with (or something similar, that given your familiarity with Adobe Photoshop and Premiere, you are confident that you will be able to learn InDesign quickly and/or given your interest in expanding into digital marketing, you are currently enrolled in a HubSpot social media marketing certification course?)
  • Concluding paragraph. Open with a reiteration of your interest in the position. Close with the standard stuff–you look forward to an interview to further discuss your qualifications / the position (is it about them? Or about you?)

What does a story look like? Here’s one from Hannah Hehn:

In the past semester I earned the title Creative Director of The Crucible Literary Magazine. In this post I’ve overseen the production of our Fall 2021 issue, working with the editors, editor-in-chief, and social media directors on the content, layout, themes, and promotional materials for the edition. This semester we worked with a document design class here to design the cover and internal visuals as part of a contest. This entailed consulting with the design class as well as The Crucible’s President and Vice President extensively to make final decisions. Working individually played a large role as well, both in creating a possible internal design for the edition, and in editing the final products for printing within our tight deadlines.

And here’s one by Carl McDonald:

During my education, I took part in a team tasked with assisting a local nonprofit, Santa Cops of Weld County, to find and apply for grants. This project included locating grants through various grant databases, including the CRC America and the Foundation Directory Online, familiarizing ourselves with the grant application process, and writing the proposal itself. I focused my efforts on a Build-A-Bear Charitable Giving grant, which procured 120 stuffed bears for at-risk kids the following Christmas.

I also assisted Impact Locally, a nonprofit in Denver, in the same capacity as an intern this summer. I worked remotely, giving weekly updates about my research and progress. At the end of my internship, we were selected by Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger for a substantial grant to continue food distribution to the homeless through the Covid19 crisis.

Building a Linkedin Profile

Let’s just say that this video by Professor Heather Austin provides perspective.

  • Basics: Get a Headshot
  • Slogan: Max of 300 words
  • About: Split into Summary (Who you are, who you help, how you help them) and the Expertise (block of resume-style skills). Keep paragraphs short.
  • Skills: Pick the “big” three. Then a handful more.
  • Experience: Be descriptive

Resources:

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ENG 301 15.T: Cover Letters

Posted on April 19, 2022 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

Rest of Year Schedule

  • Today: Cover Letters
  • Thursday: Review Resume Drafts in Class [Please submit your resume by Wednesday at midnight]. Here is a link to the class notes on resumes.
  • Tuesday, April 26th, Cover letter drafts
  • Thursday, April 28th, Linkedin workshop

ABO Book

Let’s start off with some basic advice. Writer’s checklist. Focused paragraphs.

But let’s talk follow-up (FlexJobs). But first, a scene.

A few other resources:

How I Conceptualize Cover Letters

As we discussed last week (and I imagine we will discuss further tonight), a big challenge with resumes concerns constructing a document that can beat a machine and at the same time engage a human. It is a balancing act.

At least that is one hurdle with which we don’t need to deal with cover letters. The challenge of the cover letter is to convey, in a few short paragraphs, the value (explicitly?) and energy (implicitly?) you will add to an organization. In addition to being a high stakes writing sample, it is also an elevator pitch, an introduction, a first date, a sales proposal, an intellectual and professional biography. A lot has to happen quickly.

I’ll offer the following outline for cover letters:

  • First paragraph. First sentence: position for which you are applying. “Thesis statement” as to why you are a good fit and/or interested in the position [pay attention to the specifics in your add, look for tests/prompts/possibilities].
  • Second paragraph. Storytime. Chances are your thesis involves something you can do. Tell a story about the time you did the thing. Are you applying for a marketing job? Tell a story about how you developed content for a social media channel. Applying for a grant writing position? Tell a story about the time your under/graduate class partnered with a local non-profit and you researched/developed stuff and/or liaised with folks to do things. Ideally, your story should have a what I did–what effect that had narrative structure, but it doesn’t have to. The point here is to take one thing you discuss in the resume, the best thing, and turn it into a paragraph of meaningful prose.
  • Third paragraph. Do you have a second awesome story? Cool. Tell that too! If not, then think about how you can translate your academic success and abilities into language that shows you are a strong fit for the position. If the ad stresses personality, then can you use something like the psychometric test to sell yourself? Is there something that the ad indicates as a requirement that you can indicate you are familiar with (or something similar, that given your familiarity with Adobe Photoshop and Premiere, you are confident that you will be able to learn InDesign quickly and/or given your interest in expanding into digital marketing, you are currently enrolled in a HubSpot social media marketing certification course?)
  • Concluding paragraph. Open with a reiteration of your interest in the position. Close with the standard stuff–you look forward to an interview to further discuss your qualifications / the position (is it about them? Or about you?)

What does a story look like? Here’s one from Hannah Hehn:

In the past semester I earned the title Creative Director of The Crucible Literary Magazine. In this post I’ve overseen the production of our Fall 2021 issue, working with the editors, editor-in-chief, and social media directors on the content, layout, themes, and promotional materials for the edition. This semester we worked with a document design class here to design the cover and internal visuals as part of a contest. This entailed consulting with the design class as well as The Crucible’s President and Vice President extensively to make final decisions. Working individually played a large role as well, both in creating a possible internal design for the edition, and in editing the final products for printing within our tight deadlines.

And here’s one by Carl McDonald:

During my education, I took part in a team tasked with assisting a local nonprofit, Santa Cops of Weld County, to find and apply for grants. This project included locating grants through various grant databases, including the CRC America and the Foundation Directory Online, familiarizing ourselves with the grant application process, and writing the proposal itself. I focused my efforts on a Build-A-Bear Charitable Giving grant, which procured 120 stuffed bears for at-risk kids the following Christmas.

I also assisted Impact Locally, a nonprofit in Denver, in the same capacity as an intern this summer. I worked remotely, giving weekly updates about my research and progress. At the end of my internship, we were selected by Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger for a substantial grant to continue food distribution to the homeless through the Covid19 crisis.

Link to annotated sample letters.

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ENG 651 14: Resumes and Cover Letters

Posted on April 12, 2022 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Tonight’s Plan:

  • Review Job Coding
  • Review Your Job Ads
  • Generating Content for Your Resume (and Cover Letter)
  • Homework

Generating Content for a Professional Resume

Strategy: The Brain Dump. List all of the things you can do. Think of when/where you’ve done them. Let’s think about the coding sheet we used for the last project, and let’s pick out 4-6 skills that you think are your strong suit. List them. Brain Dump.

A few resources on translating academic work and teaching into professional job materials:

Wright & Dol. See article attachment; see sample resume description [could this go in a resume or a cover letter? Top of the resume for a person? Or bottom of a resume? Where to position this?]. See Wonderlic.

Another resource to help identify strengths/compatibility: Big Five personality test.

Here is my heuristic/template for starting a resume

How to Conceptualize Cover Letters

As we discussed last week (and I imagine we will discuss further tonight), a big challenge with resumes concerns constructing a document that can beat a machine and at the same time engage a human. It is a balancing act.

At least that is one hurdle with which we don’t need to deal with cover letters. The challenge of the cover letter is to convey, in a few short paragraphs, the value (explicitly?) and energy (implicitly?) you will add to an organization. In addition to being a high stakes writing sample, it is also an elevator pitch, an introduction, a first date, a sales proposal, an intellectual and professional biography. A lot has to happen quickly.

I’ll offer the following outline for cover letters:

  • First paragraph. First sentence: position for which you are applying. “Thesis statement” as to why you are a good fit and/or interested in the position [pay attention to the specifics in your add, look for tests/prompts/possibilities].
  • Second paragraph. Storytime. Chances are your thesis involves something you can do. Tell a story about the time you did the thing. Are you applying for a marketing job? Tell a story about how you developed content for a social media channel. Applying for a grant writing position? Tell a story about the time your under/graduate class partnered with a local non-profit and you researched/developed stuff and/or liaised with folks to do things. Ideally, your story should have a what I did–what effect that had narrative structure, but it doesn’t have to. The point here is to take one thing you discuss in the resume, the best thing, and turn it into a paragraph of meaningful prose.
  • Third paragraph. Do you have a second awesome story? Cool. Tell that too! If not, then think about how you can translate your academic success and abilities into language that shows you are a strong fit for the position. If the ad stresses personality, then can you use something like the psychometric test to sell yourself? Is there something that the ad indicates as a requirement that you can indicate you are familiar with (or something similar, that given your familiarity with Adobe Photoshop and Premiere, you are confident that you will be able to learn InDesign quickly and/or given your interest in expanding into digital marketing, you are currently enrolled in a HubSpot social media marketing certification course?)
  • Concluding paragraph. Open with a reiteration of your interest in the position. Close with the standard stuff–you look forward to an interview to further discuss your qualifications / the position (is it about them? Or about you?)
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ENG 301 13: Rhetorical Resumes

Posted on April 7, 2022 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Rhetorically Constructing Resumes

One reason I like analyzing job ads is that I think it helps you internalize some of the expectations and desires employers have. Over the years, I’ve gotten to the point where I can read an ad and identify cases where I can see that they don’t necessarily know exactly what they want–but I can think of another ad that probably speaks to their needs and desires. You probably won’t develop that sense just looking at 25 ads, but I do hope our first project made you a bit more comfortable analyzing an ad.

When I teach resumes at the undergraduate level, I emphasize the importance of an rhetorical approach. Rhetoric here means two things to me:

  • First, it means that I attempt to read what the other person wants, thinks, values, and prioritizes
  • Second, it means that I approach the situation without an expectation of control or mastery, that I understand that the situation calls for a calculation of risk

I contrast this rhetorical approach to the more “philosophical” approach that tends to drive the advice one would get from career services or from many resume books and websites. Philosophical approaches try to teach hard and fast rules for developing materials. Do this! Don’t do that! They are often more concerned with their own preferences; and thus overwrite the wide chaos one finds in ads with a more simple and controlled framework. They also tend to be more conservative when it comes to voice, tone, and content. I am skeptical of this kind of “cookie cutter” approach.

Rather, I think you should approach your job materials less in terms of a baking recipe and more in terms of a high stakes poker game. When you play poker, the cards you hold are important. But equally important is your ability to read your opponents, and to make sure that you adjust your play based on theirs. You cannot plan out a poker strategy before you play the game–you can have ideas, certainly–but those ideas have to be re-calibrated once the game starts and you begin familiarizing yourself with the players.

In terms of a job search and the construction your materials, it is useful to have drafted in advance material for a resume and a cover letter. But the resume and cover letter you send to a potential employer should always be transformed based on the position for which you apply. And these transformations shouldn’t be merely cosmetic–you should create content that you think speaks to that particular organizations needs.I’ve been on the job market twice in the past 15 years, and both times I started with a default letter and CV. This doesn’t mean I recommend writing a completely different letter for every job. I don’t, no one has time for that. [job letters-unc (teaching new media and tech writing), msu (digital rhetoric research), tamu (classical)]. But I do recommend spending time reading an ad carefully, thinking about how you arrange material, and making sure that the language you use in a letter matches up with the language you find not only on an ad, but also on an organization’s website (mission statement, about us, projects). Your resume and cover letter should show organizations how you can use research and rhetoric to craft more compelling prose.

Rhetoric is the art of adapting a message to a particular audience, of recognizing the affordances and advantages of a particular situation. It always involves elements of risk and chance. I believe job searches are particularly arbitrary–there is no system or pattern to what employers look for because every employer, every human resource director, is different, and brings to the process her own preferences, methods, and attitudes. The best we can do is to learn to analyze, listen, and think through possibilities–to be aware of the potential choices we have and to make precise calculations for every position to which we apply. While we can’t be certain, we can do our best to know our audience(s), and to tailor ourselves to their preferences.

Some Practical Advice that May Even Be Useful, in Some Situations, Some of the Time

Okay, with those rhetorical reservations in place, let me tentatively offer some advice. First, we need to make sure we are designing resumes that are ATS (applicant tracking system) compliant. This is probably the biggest change I have had to deal with in the 12 or so years that I have taught resumes–the increasing difficulty and prioritization of designing a document that 1) can “beat” the machine and 2) is still persuasive, compelling, and/or readable to a human being. The advice 10 years ago focused on the importance of keywords (previous link). So does the advice today . I think our Project 1 Coding Sheet is a great generic resource for identifying keywords–but be sure to code any advertisement to which you plan on applying to see if you can identify idiosyncratic language. Also, preparing resumes for ATS has implications for style and design. (Note: see tool at the bottom, see Common mistakes, short video)

So let’s assume that we’ve beaten the machine. Now our resume is in the hands (or more likely on the screen) of a human resource director or a manager who needs to wean a stack of 20-25 candidates down to a stack of 5 for interviews. Now we might have to beat the dreaded six second scan.. But beware keyword stuffing!

Let’s close this section with a review of some generic but staple resume advice–a few Squawkfox articles.

Resumes Part 2

New for 2022, Plain Text Resume

Sample Resumes.

Wright, Dol, and Collins (2011). See sample resume description [could this go in a resume or a cover letter? Top of the resume for a person? Or bottom of a resume? Where to position this?]. See Wonderlic.

Another resource to help identify strengths/compatibility: Big Five personality test.

Here is my heuristic/template for starting a resume

Volunteer / Potential Internship Opportunity

Greeley Game Night.

Homework Due Sunday, April 17th

Hi all. As you finish up your Community Engagement Projects, I have two small things for you to do. They are inter-related, so copying your answers for the first should help you complete the second.

  • First, complete the Project Reflection form [Note: this isn’t just a gotcha assignment; project postmortems are very common in the professional world, where you have a meeting after a major project’s completion to talk about process]
  • For the Deliverable #2 in Canvas, I’d like each team to submit a memo. The memo should list all team members, link to all team deliverables (anything from Deliverable #1 and anything finished since then). It should have some language that I can potentially copy/paste into my memo for clients regarding the project and the deliverables. Finally, it should have some instructions for how either a) an intern or b) another group next semester should approach/improve/extend/utilize your work. Again, you only need submit one of these per team. Again, a few of the questions in the reflection form should help generate this content.

Homework For Next Thursday

For next week’s class, I would like you to identify a job or internship for which you want to develop materials. Next week we will spend 20 minutes analyzing your ad and then 15 minutes generating content for a resume (I have a few heuristics to help with this process).

I will reserve the final 40 minutes of class next week for you to meet with your group and finalize your Deliverable #2.

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ENG 651 13: Advertising Job Advertisements, Rhetorically Constructing Resumes

Posted on April 5, 2022 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • Analyzing Job Ads
  • Rhetorically Constructing Resumes
  • CEP Check Ins (and Reflection)
  • Homework

Rhetorically Constructing Resumes

One reason I like analyzing job ads is that I think it helps you internalize some of the expectations and desires employers have. Over the years, I’ve gotten to the point where I can read an ad and identify cases where I can see that they don’t necessarily know exactly what they want–but I can think of another ad that probably speaks to their needs and desires. You probably won’t develop that sense just looking at X amount of ads, but this awareness should make you more familiar, and thus hopefully more confident, as you start developing your own materials.

When I teach resumes at the undergraduate level, I emphasize the importance of an rhetorical approach. I contrast this rhetorical approach to the more “philosophical” approach that tends to drive the advice one would get from career services or from many resume books and websites. Philosophical approaches try to teach hard and fast rules for developing materials. They tend to be more conservative when it comes to voice, tone, and content. I am skeptical of this kind of cookie cutter approach.

Rather, I think you want to approach your job materials less in terms of a baking recipe and more in terms of a high stakes poker game. When you play poker, the cards you hold are important. But equally important is your ability to read your opponents, and to make sure that you adjust your play based on theirs. You cannot plan out a poker strategy before you play the game–you can have ideas, certainly–but those ideas have to be re-calibrated once the game starts.

In terms of a job search and the construction your materials, it is useful to have drafted in advance material for a resume and a cover letter. But the resume and cover letter you send to a potential employer should always be transformed based on the position for which you apply. And these transformations shouldn’t be merely cosmetic–you should create content that you think speaks to that particular organizations needs. [Look at my job search letters]. This doesn’t mean I recommend writing a completely different letter for every job. I don’t, no one has time for that. But I do recommend spending time reading an ad carefully, thinking about how you arrange material, and making sure that the language you use in a letter matches up with the language you find not only on an ad, but also on an organization’s website (mission statement, about us, projects). Your resume and cover letter should show organizations how you can use research and rhetoric to craft more compelling prose. [job letters-unc (teaching), msu (new media), tamu (classical)].

Rhetoric is the art of adapting a message to a particular audience, of recognizing the affordances and advantages of a particular situation. It always involves elements of risk and chance. I believe job searches are particularly arbitrary–there is no system or pattern to what employers look for because every employer, every human resource director, is different, and brings to the process her own preferences, methods, and attitudes. The best we can do is to learn to analyze, listen, and think through possibilities–to be aware of the potential choices we have and to make precise calculations for every position to which we apply. While we can’t be certain, we can do our best to know our audience(s).

Some Practical Advice that May Even Be Useful, in Some Situations, Some of the Time

Okay, with those rhetorical reservations in place, let me tentatively offer some advice. First, we need to make sure we are designing resumes that are ATS (applicant tracking system) compliant. This is probably the biggest change I have had to deal with in the 12 or so years that I have taught resumes–the increasing difficulty and prioritization of designing a document that 1) can “beat” the machine and 2) is still persuasive, compelling, and/or readable to a human being. The advice 10 years ago focused on the importance of keywords (previous link). So does the advice today . I think our Coding Sheet is a great generic resource for identifying keywords–but be sure to code any advertisement to which you plan on applying to see if you can identify idiosyncratic language. Also, preparing resumes for ATS has implications for style and design. (Note: see tool at the bottom, see Common mistakes, short video)

So let’s assume that we’ve beaten the machine. Now our resume is in the hands (or more likely on the screen) of a human resource director or a manager who needs to wean a stack of 20-25 candidates down to a stack of 5 for interviews. Now we might have to beat the dreaded six second scan.. But beware keyword stuffing!

Let’s close this section with a review of some generic but staple resume advice–a few Squawkfox articles.

Homework

For next week, I’d like everyone to code and review the codes for 25 job ads from our corpus.

  • Austin [every advertisement ending in 2]
  • Amy [every advertisement ending in 3]
  • Cole [every advertisement ending in 4]
  • Emily [every advertisement ending in 5]
  • Erika [every advertisement ending in 6]
  • Jacob [every advertisement ending in 7]

Coding Resources:

Coding in Google Docs is fairly simple–you only need to insert a comment to add a new code, or leave a comment to query (challenge) and existing one. I have added an assignment in Canvas that asks you to identify at least three comments you left on ads (these can be shorthand and we will review in class next week).

Additionally, I would like everyone to identify a position (job application or internship) for which they would like to at least theoretically apply. Your position can come from Linkedin, Monster, Media Bistro, Handshake (UNC’s job/internship application portal), anywhere. I’ve set up a portal in Canvas to turn in your Potential Job Target.

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2022 Red Sox Predictions

Posted on April 3, 2022 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

I should start this year’s installment noting that I was horribly wrong about last season. So was every major projection system, most notably ZIPs, which had the Sox going 79-83. Not to be outdone, and anticipating a mid-season fire sale, I predicted one less win. Of course, the Sox dramatically over-performed and finished the season at 92-70, fantastically beating the Yankees in the postseason. Nice!

I’d point out, though, that the Sox went 50-31 in April, May, and June, as a bunch of veteran pitchers gave them much more than pretty much anyone thought possible. Garrett Richards, Martin Perez, and Nick Pivetta (more on him below) were all playing way over their career lines. Be it due to sticky stuff or good old regression, that ended, and the Sox went 42-39 the rest of the way. Less nice!

We enter the season after what I would call an underwhelming off-season. Yes, we got Trevor Story. I am trying to repress my questions about his road splits in Colorado (they are bad, real bad, as in a .750 OPS outside of Coors Field bad). His defense should be great at second base; he gives the Sox some insurance in case they are unable to resign Bogaerts this summer/next winter. But they lost Eduardo Rodriguez, their second best starter last season, and replaced him with the always injured James Paxton (who missed all of last year and won’t be ready to start the season) and Rich Hill (who really replaces Martin Perez-Hill is 43, also injury prone, and will attempt to push the boundaries of the “crafty lefty” archetype to its limits this year). And they lost Hunter Renfroe, who was probably better than you remember. They did not replace him (and, no, JBJ is not a replacement for Renfroe).

Vegas’ over/under for the Sox’s win total is 85.5. There’s part of me that looks at the rotation and wants to take the under, since so many things have to go right (especially given the strength of the division). However, I’ll take the over, but only slightly–let’s say 87 wins. That presumes that Sale gets healthy and gives you 25+ starts. That presumes Eovaldi stays healthy and gives you something close to last year’s Cy Young caliber season. And it presumes that they somehow find another quality starter along the way.

Pitching
Let’s start with what might be the biggest question mark–the rotation. First, the good news–Eovaldi is coming off a career best season, and the underlying numbers suggest there’s no reason he cannot repeat it. He’s a free agent at the end of the season, and speculation is that he likely won’t be coming back to the Sox (as I conclude below, they want to resign both Bogaerts and Devers, and that is going to take a mountain of money). In other words, Eovaldi has a lot of incentive to pitch his ass off again this year before he hits free agency.

Okay, that’s the good news. So, I’ve already indicated that I don’t think much of Paxton and Hill. Or at least, I’d rather have Rodriguez than both of those guys. Chris Sale starts the season on the injured list. Again. At least with Sale, we can point to his velocity numbers from last year and see that he was pretty close to his numbers from before his surgery. So at least there’s hope.

I have far less hope in Pivetta’s ability to repeat–let alone improve upon–last season. Also, Pivetta’s 2021 season probably wasn’t as good as you remember it. While he was electric in April, he was, well, bad for the rest of the year. Rarely do I point at ERA as reliable evidence, but in this case all the underlying numbers pretty much support it–so I offer his ERA by month as a shorthand for Pivetta’s 2021 season: 2.81, 4.82, 5.40, 4.84. 5.27, 3.60. Yes, he was good in September–but his walk, strikeout, and home run numbers tell us he just isn’t much more than an adequate #5 starter. He’ll start the season #2 in the rotation. Yikes.

Behind him, at #3, is Tanner Houck. I love Houck as a reliever, but am (honestly) uncertain about him in the rotation. Last season, the Sox did not let him go more than two times through the order (the two times he did turn it around a third time he got absolutely shelled for a 27.00 ERA, 8 outs against 8 runs allowed). One might argue that this is because he was bouncing between the rotation and the bullpen and thus they were limiting his workload, but I don’t buy it. Why? Because, even when starting, he was essentially a two-pitch pitcher. Technically he has 4 pitches, a four-seam fastball, a two-seam fastball, a slider, and a splitter. But he threw his splitter only 7% of the time last year, and it stunk (a -.68wFC on fangraphs–and, for those of you who don’t speak stat nerd, just trust me–that is terrible). He threw the two-seam a bit more often, 17% of the time, and while not terrible, it wasn’t good either. Combined with his four-seam fastball (which he threw 39% of the time), it scored as 0.85 wFC. So that 15% below league average effectiveness. Which leaves his slider, which he threw 37% of the time, and has a 1.73 career wFC. In other words, Houck is amazing when he comes in from the bullpen and uses his mediocre fastballs to set up his great slider. I’m just not convinced he can get through the order a third time with that trick. His ERA shows a dramatic jump the second time through (1.50 to 3.81), but his FIP and xFIP do not (2.04/2.66 vs. 2.09/2.95 respectively). So the Sox are banking on the advanced metrics here. This is something I’ll be tracking closely early in the season.

All in all, I’m not sold on this rotation. The bullpen seems okay? I love Whitlock, and it looks like he will thankfully stay in the pen for now. We have to hope that Barnes looks like the All-Star version of himself from the first half of last season (2.61 ERA) and not the cooked dude who finished the year (6.48!!! ERA). They’ve got another handful of guys that don’t excite me (this is not the Rays pen), but should be decent. The bullpen immediately improves if they can move Houck out of the rotation. It also improves tremendously if minor leaguer Jay Groome, who returned from injury and pitched well in A+ and AA last year, gets called up.

Position Players
The strength of the team is obviously the offense. Even with some of the questions I have below, they will feature Bogaerts and Devers, and both should be spectacular. Devers is now probably one of the top 25 best hitters in the game (he ranked 27th in wRC+ [which counts baserunning] and 20th in wOBA [which doesn’t] last season). Bogaerts is just an incredibly consistent hitter who balances discipline, contact, power, and baserunning. Those guys are surrounded by quality hitters in Martinez, Verdugo, Hernandez, and Story (I’m guessing Story is about an .800 OPS guy this year). That is a truly impressive top of the order, with a nice righty/lefty balance.

And then there’s Bobby “WTF is up with those splits” Dalbec. Woo boy. Let’s look at Dalbec’s first half vs. second half slash lines:

First half: .219/.264 /.409
Second half: .269/.344/.611

If you are like me, then you might look at that second half improvement and assume it was just luck. Like some BABIP nonsense. Nope. His BABIP spiked a bit in August (.378), but was almost identical across the two halves of the season (.312 vs .323). What did change? His walk rate and strikeout rate (which I noted was likely to be a problem in last year’s preview). First half: 4.7% BB rate and 36.8% K rate. Second half: 8.2 and 31.3%. Look, 31.3% is still bad, but coupled with the walk rate it tells a story of a guy who stopped swinging at terrible pitches outside the zone. What backs up this story? His isolated power numbers, which increased from .190 in the first half to .343 in the second half. Again, for those who aren’t stat nerds, a .343 ISO is fucking bonkers. Ted Williams’ career ISO is .289. Devers career ISO is .230. Now, I don’t think there’s any chance that Dalbec keeps that up. But he doesn’t have to. He could be 1/2 that good make solid contributions to this lineup. He’s my most intriguing player this year–especially because he has been hammering the ball in spring training.

The rest of the line up is a bit dicey. They lost Renfroe, who was a great right-handed, middle of the order bat last season. They replace him with–obstensibly–Jackie Bradley, a former favorite who looked absolutely done last year at the plate. I expected the Sox to sign an everyday left fielder (Conforto is still out there, though hurt). That would move Bradley into a bench role, which is probably a better fit for a team that hopes to contend. Jarren Duran could probably use more plate appearances at AAA, though he might make the club as a platoon player.

I love Christian Vasquez as a catcher and hope he has a bounce back year offensively, though he doesn’t need one to be a contributor to this team. His defense and leadership is valuable enough.

Rookies
In terms of rookies, I’ve already mentioned Groome. He’s their most likely impact pitcher. But 22 year old first baseman Tristan Casas is the organization’s top prospect right now. His minor league numbers (career .275/.380/.480) remind me of Joey Votto–great discipline and contact numbers with the potential for power. How much of that power actually comes awaits to be seen. I thought he was a lock to start at first base by June 1st, but Dalbec (at first) and Martinez (at DH) kind of block him. They could always take the defensive hit, move Martinez back to left field, and replace JBJ’s lineup spot with Casas.

Contract Extensions?
Okay, last point: Bogaerts and Devers’ futures. Bogaerts has an opt-out at the end of the year. He has already indicated he will *not* entertain moving to second base. His defense at shortstop is quite bad. But he is the face of the franchise, from all accounts a great person, and still only 29 years old. I’m anticipating a 5/150 contract extension similar to what Jose Altuve got from the Astros. Maybe they have to go 6/175 with a player option in there somewhere.

Devers is a different story. This year will be, unbelievably, only be his age 25 season. It certainly feels he’s been with the team longer than that! But he debuted at age 20. He’s got one year of arbitration left and then will enter free agency. His defense at third base is atrociously bad and I have no idea whether he would entertain a move to first base. However, as I indicated above, he is at worst the 25th best hitter in baseball and, if you offered him a ten year deal this season, you’d be buying his age 26-35 seasons. Those are going to cost you. Nolan Arrenado got 9/275 million. Manny Machado got 10/300. Devers is younger than those guys, but also not near their level on defense. I’ll project a slightly front-loaded 10/310, with a player opt out after year 5. But the Red Sox refused to offer Mookie Betts this kind of deal (topping out at 10/200). Will they be willing to offer it to Devers?

Okay, so this might be my longest season preview ever so I’m just going to stop writing now. Thanks to the four people who made it this far. Go Sox!

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ENG 651 Week 11: Community Engagement Reflection / Job Advertisements

Posted on March 22, 2022 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Today’s Plan:

  • Community Engagement Reflection
  • Coding Job Advertisements
  • Homework

Community Engagement Reflection (Hour #1)

Now that we are at least 1/2 way through with our community engagement project, I’d like you to engage in some direct reflection. I’ve put together a Google Doc to help guide with work. You should make a copy of the Google Doc.

The questions in the Google Doc grow out of the research on reflection that we examined in class before the break. I’d like to give everyone 20 minutes in class to work on this now, then we will discuss responses.

A final deliverable in this class will be to put together a more polished reflective document; similar in length and tone to the reflection Mattingly offers in her co-authored article with Rentz.

Coding Job Advertisements (Hour #2)

Before the break, Jacob and I started working on a research project focused on job advertisements, one that replicates the research by Brumberger and Lauer that we read earlier in the course. I’ve previously mentioned an opportunity to collaborate on this research article, and I wanted to give you a sense of what this work looks like. I have put together a small collection of job ads and a copy of our coding scheme.

Beyond familiarizing yourself with job expectations, this project would expose you to “qualitative coding,” which is a fundamental research method in the social sciences. Coding is also popular in professional domains, particularly usability and experience and marketing, both of which use focus groups conversations to collect audience impressions. That data gets coded for key terms, and then transformed into reports.

Group Meetings and Homework (Hour #3)

First, I’d like everyone to make a copy of the reflection document and spend a half hour working on that. Don’t feel like you have to start with the first question–start with whatever question is most central to your experience. Or whatever questions feels the easiest to answer.

Second, I’d like you to invest at least and two hours into your community engagement project. At the beginning of class, I will ask you to submit a quick memo to Canvas that details what you did during your two hours.

What makes this tricky is that y’all are in different places with your projects. Let me try to address this group by group:

  • Amy: I need a polished draft of the grant application by Monday at midnight. Bob asked about this over break and I stalled him. I want to review some work and send him something at the end of next week’s class.
  • Erika: Let’s talk
  • Cole and Emily: I emailed Michael, asking him if he could return an annotated copy of the draft with instructions guiding your revision (rather than simply revising the document himself). Let’s wait and see if he responds. If we don’t hear something by Friday, I’ll email y’all to figure out what to do next.
  • Jacob and Austin: Let’s review where things ended with Gwen and figure out your next move
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