Writing 50E
Research Writing for Engineers
Help Link Index
Assignment Help Links
The links below can help you with your Writing 50E class assignments. They are organized by assignment number/letter. Please share! If you find other on-line resources that are useful to you, forward them to me so that I can list them here for your classmates.
Individual Assignments |
Team Assignments |
Assignment #1—Employment study
|
Assignment #A—Marketing study |
| Assignment #2—Resume | Assignment #B—Engineering proposal |
| Assignment #3—Cover letter | Assignment #C—Executive summary |
| Assignment #4—FMEA matrix | Assignment #D—Final proposal |
| Assignment #5—Progress report memo | |
| Assignment #6—Individual essay |
Assignment #1: Employment Study
Link for salary surveys
Refer to reserve materials at the UCSB Davidson Library for help with resumes. They contain plenty of helpful examples and tips. Be sure to write down the call numbers for each to help the library staff locate them.
101 Best Resumes for Grads [HF5383. B5342. 2003. #8981]
Best Resumes for College Students and New Grads [HF5383. K87. 2003. #8999]
If you are also interested in writing a curriculum vita (CV), see also:
Curriculum
Vitae Guide, by JobSearch, Inc.
A great guide to writing CVs, with templates and samples. This web page also
features links to other helpful sites.
How to
write a curriculum vitae, by the MIDAS (Multimedia Interactive Distance
Access Service) Project
A guide from the UK on writing CVs with useful examples, although I respectfully
disagree with the author's opinion that a CV's content should be limited to
"a maximum of 2 sides of A4 typed sheets." Not true! Some CVs,
especially those of academics, may extend to 20–30 pages. The main rule
is to put into a CV only what bears professionally upon your career. Given that
"what bears" will vary, so does the length of your CV.
How to write a curriculum
vitae, by PageWise, Inc.
A very brief how-to on writing CVs.
How to write a curriculum vitae,
by RWA Associates
Guidelines to writing CVs for doctors, but with good advice for anyone writing
a CV.
How
to Write a Cover Letter, by Northeastern University, College of Computer
Science Cooperative Education
Three examples of cover letters with helpful notes.
How
to Write A Winning Cover Letter, by Ruth Glover and Taunee Besson
Excellent advice on writing cover letters, but with no examples! Even so, the
tips offered here are well worth the time it takes to read them.
How
to write a cover letter?, by Houston Job Search
This is a nice little website, with excellent advice on writing letters and
useful links to other job-hunting tips.
How to
write a great letter, by William S. Frank
Tips on writing all kinds of business letters.
Assignment #5: Progress report memo
Proposal memo
The purpose of this assignment is to give a short progress report on your team's proposal. You will be writing a very brief, business-style memo. Please keep it short (one page).
Please be sure to use a standard memo format, with the word "Memo" or "Memorandum" at the top, "To," "From," "Subject," and "Date" fields, and your signature at the bottom or initialed next to the "From" field. Here are some helpful links for writing business memos:
Memo
Writing, by Purdue University Online Writing Lab
Excellent advice on memo writing from one of my all-time favorite websites.
This is an excellent place to start when writing business correspondence. It
also links back to OWL's home site where you'll find lots of other helpful info.
How
to Write a Business Memo, by Washington State University, Institute of International
Business
This has some good advice on writing a business memo and features an example
(sort of)
Assignment #A: Marketing Study
Company Directories (use to locate a company's website)
Yahoo.com
Business Directory
This is a huge list of business directories and is kept up-to-date. If you can't
find a business here, it probably doesn't exist!
Google.com
Business Directory
If you thought Yahoo had a big business directory, wait until you see this one!
It is marvelously organized by business type, which should help you find that
particular job you've been interested in.
Government Marketing Data and Research (use to learn more about the markets where your product is sold)
US Bureau of Labor and Statistics
US Census Bureau
American FactFinder
US Department of Commerce
FedWorld.gov
US Bureau of Economic Analysis
FedStats
University
of Maryland EconData
Commercial Marketing Data and Research Reports
KnowThis.com (marketing
virtual library)
USA Marketing Data on Demand
Internet Retailer: E-business strategies
for merchants and catalogers
NetRatings Inc. (internet media and
marketing research)
Nielsen Ratings
PJ Marketing Research: International
Case Studies, Reports, Essays and Quotes
Business Research
Strategies (Rutgers University)
Writing Help Links (general writing assistance):
Guide to Grammar and Writing, by Capital Community College Foundation
◊◊
KU Writing Center, by the University of Kansas
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CAD shareware
The links below access free CAD (computer aided design) shareware that you may find useful for generating drawings of your proposed ideas in Writing 50E. Please note that all of these require time to learn; thus, you should first generate hand-drawn paper sketches while you are learning the software.