This essay has two options: you can choose to research and write about an issue in your career or identity, or you can choose to research and write about a current issue in your field.
Students who choose to write about a distinct issue within their fields (or something field-adjacent, which means someone in an accounting career can write bout business, or someone studying to be a dental hygienist could write about health care) will also need to perform research within their field’s literature; interview practitioners in their field; and evaluate the changes that are happening in their field due to issues related to the economy, technology, personnel, psychology or sociology, etc.
Your goal is to identify an issue that you believe will affect you in your career of choice; this can range from caregiver fatigue in healthcare to immigration and law changes for those going into criminal justice, political science, or law. In this argumentative paper,
1. Identify the issue in depth through precise academic research,
2. Discuss current strategies that practitioners take to fight the issue, and
3. Highlight future implications to you as a worker, to the industry, etc.
Assignment Requirements:
1. 5-6 full pages of text
2. 6 sources, 3 of which must be scholarly (peer-review journal articles)
3. MLA or APA formatting (full paper–front pages, margins, in-text citations, and Work Cited/References page)
Title: IT Certification Vs. IT Degree
My Thesis:
As a data network engineer, it is better and more efficient to get certifications in data network than to go to college to have a better chance at job selection.
My Topic:
I am proposing that all college level information technology (IT) degree plans, only include those technological classes pertaining to the degree be needed. Within the time it takes in todays way of getting an IT degree, the technology would have changed and more follow on schooling would be needed to stay knowledgeable in the specific IT field. In todays job market, those who have certifications and experience in cybersecurity, web applications, and data network architectures are being selected over those that are getting degrees. The quickly growing need for more people to have IT backgrounds to combat the cyber threat in and out of our country is causing the need of certificates over degrees in order to fill the roles or jobs needed.
Essay Preparation List
1. Make sure to print out the Assignment Rubric and use it as a checklist (as well as the Essay Overview that appears in the weekly module and in the Assignments link). So many students skip important content that costs valuable points. Format is n easy one; if you don’t attempt any aspect of APA or MLA style, you lose points. But you didn’t have to!
2. Remember to craft thesis statements that are arguable. But don’t argue with the crowd. For example, if you say, “Murder is wrong,” well, that’s an opinion, but it’s a really weak thesis. Rarely will you find someone to disagree with that statement. The best thesis is the argument plus reasons: “College students in all majors should be required to take a series of personal finance classes because it will help them understand current personal economics, avoid predatory debt collectors, and prepare a solid financial platform for their future.”
3. Run the grammar and spell-checker.
4. Bookend sources in your body paragraphs: This means not just naming a source once, but showing where the borrowing begins and ends. I created videos that overview this concept. This is the most ethical way to use sources in academic writing.
5. Your References need to be primarily academic sources. This means avoiding Google as much as possible and using the NOVA library. When there, click on “Scholarly journals only” during your first and second (and third!) research expeditions. This doesn’t mean you can’t use general web searches, but don’t prioritize them.
6. Always check the credentials of any Web source. Don’t automatically trust a .com or .org. Find author names and check them out! Make sure they are trustworthy and experienced in the topic you’re writing about.
7. Your References list must be updated. Each source named in the References needs to be clearly named in the actual essay, preferably in body paragraphs. And every source in the file needs to be clearly named in the References. You lose credibility and evidence won’t count when a source is not named in the References. It’s akin to unintentional plagiarism, and it will haunt you in upcoming assignments if you don’t fix the problem. A way to fix it? Print out your hard copy essay and use a highlighter as you read each page. Highlight the in-text citation, then skip to the Reference and highlight it once it appears there, too. Any Reference not highlighted is not named in the body. That’s ok–you might have decided to not use it–so delete it from the References before you submit the file. Alternately, find the paragraph where that data goes and name your source.
8. Get feedback. I don’t have the ability to give everyone feedback on each draft unless you come to office hours or set up time for a phone conference.
9. Follow the feedback from drafts closely! I find myself making the same comments on many final submissions that I did on drafts. That can get tedious and take a reader out of the thrust of the argument. If you lose your readers, you lose your opportunity to persuade. The students who worked with me who had questions got all their questions answered–and had another round of audience interaction. These students didn’t write perfect essays (what’s that anyhow?) but they got very good grades on the assignment.
10. For undergraduate writing, don’t let a body paragraph go longer than a manuscript page. Readers get lost trying to remember the thrust of the paragraph. Break it up.
11. Ask more questions! The best students email, conference, email again, and fully engage in the process. You can do this!
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