Iowa State University: Business and Technical Communication
Essay Assignment
This assignment asks you to write an essay suitable for publication in a professional journal or newsletter. You will identify an issue that’s interesting to teachers and / or workplace professionals in business and technical communication and then pose a question you want to explore about that issue. Your essay will be an argument for a clearly stated position and should be presented in a logical, understandable, and engaging manner. Your essay should be targeted to a particular journal, which means that you need to read enough articles and essays in that journal to identify their general features.
Consider the following questions:
- What are the conventions of essays in the journal or newsletter you are targeting?
- What is the question you are addressing?
- What is the argument you are making?
Cover Memo
When you submit your essay, please include a cover sheet in which you identify the features of essay conventions that you consciously employed to make the essay appropriate for the intended journal or newsletter. This is the meta-cognitive element — you know not only what you’ve done but why you did it. Please indicate the journal or newsletter to which you plan to submit your revised essay.
5. What are students expected to do in their assignment?
A. put forward an original idea about a subject
B. provide support for a particular point of view on a topic
C. present an argument against an existing essay or article
D. offer a solution to an unresolved issue in a particular field
6. Along with their essay, students are asked to provide a note which
A. indicates the reason for their choice of topic.
B. identifies the background texts they have read.
C. justifies their choice of intended journal or newsletter.
D. specifies the essay-writing characteristics used in their assignment.
