The Career Focus centers on developing an organized, fully-realized essay about a career of your choice. You’ll work on finding information, data, statistics, and facts, then using that research to apply your own assertions and evaluation on not only the career, but how well you are suited for said career and how you plan to pursue said career.
The challenge here is to research the things about the career that go beyond the obvious. The salary and educational requirements aside, what are some of the other requirements or realities of the career? What personality traits are helpful? What are the opportunities for advancement?
Essentially, use the assignment to illustrate how you can think critically about your career pursuits. Also, challenge yourself to think outside the box: is there a superstar in your industry? A famous nurse or well-known psychologist? Is there a service or business that could use new ideas and innovation? Is there a business that doesn’t exist that you would like to start?
The Researched Career Essay is both explanatory and exploratory, making for an interesting and compelling mix of information and narrative elements that will illuminate your career choice for yourself and the reader.
The written portion of this should be about 1000 – 1700 words total.
The final draft and phases leading up to it should written and developed using MLA format. See the St. Petersburg College Libraries’ APA / MLA / CSE Citation Assistance: MLA Style LibGuide for MLA formatting guidelines.
Your final draft should follow the MLA Guidelines and include an introduction and conclusion, as well as several body paragraphs that develop and support your focus and thesis.
The essay body may include specific subtopics that detail and develop your thesis, and you will need to integrate source material into these body paragraphs. You will want to review the differences between quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing material. In addition, make sure your own thoughts are central, and that source material is used as support.
You must also have a Works Cited page at the end of your final draft and include at least three (3) resources.
