A. Complete the text with the correct form of the verbs in brackets.
‘In-see-Ad?’
‘No, I’ve never heard of it.’
Soon after I ______________ (1. begin) the process of telling my family, friends, employer and even dentist that I ______________ (2. leave) the US to move to INSEAD’s Singapore campus and study on its MBA programme, I ______________ (3. discover) that my acquaintances in the US ______________ (4. tend) to be more provincial in their understanding of business schools.
In a few weeks from now, I ______________ (5. leave) my home in small-town New Jersey, US, to join the Singapore cohort. How did I, a young professional born, raised and educated in the US, make the decision to study for an international MBA?
I studied in North Carolina where I ______________ (6. develop) a keen interest in international affairs. During my undergraduate years, I ______________ (7. study) overseas in London. And later I ______________ (8. accept) the opportunity to work in Waterloo, Belgium, the European headquarters for Johnson & Johnson, where I managed technology solutions for J&J’s medical devices sector. I ______________ (9. return) to the North American headquarters where I created a similar platform.
While I ______________ (10. be) still in Belgium a senior manager had urged me to apply to INSEAD and I rapidly ______________ (11. realise) that the school was the place where I could continue my development towards an international career.
The existence of INSEAD’s Singapore campus ______________ (12. make) the school that much more compelling, because of my desire to have a global understanding of business, which up until then ______________ (13. only / include) North America and Europe.

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.