Development of an Engineering Internship Cover Letter

As I read the materials (which included drafts, skills brainstorming, and audience analysis) for the cover letter for an engineering internship, I noticed two strengths of his writing process. First, he was very aware of his audience. Second, his revisions, particularly the work experience paragraph, really enhanced the persuasion of the final document.

The fact that this applicant took the time to research his audience is obvious. In the audience analysis, he talks about the company seeking an intern who can work hard and wants to learn a broad knowledge of civil engineering. In the final draft of the cover letter, he tunes in to these two points. First, he explains how he was the most reliable intern at Mylan. Working during school is exemplary of a hard working person. Even more company specific is the broad engineering coursework he has already completed. He explains in the audience analysis that the company completes a variety of tasks, so their engineers don't focus on one aspect. He demonstrates his broad knowledge by listing relevant courses and computer software.

The final draft includes a lot more specific examples that make him sound much more convincing. In the rough draft, he spoke of running the family farm and a lawn business. While these jobs may mean he is hard working, they are hardly relevant to his desired position. He changed this information to focus on the completed Mylan internship, in which he learned a lot of company relevant skills such as team work. He could have also mentioned his leadership role in the road design project. I think the examples from his first draft were okay, but because he has relevant experience, it was a good choice to delete those first work examples.

About Jack Selzer's Professional Writer Observation

Although little research has been conducted on technical writing teaching practices, Jack Selzer provides a beneficial case study on an engineer. Kenneth Nelson spends a lot of time on the job writing proposals and other documents. Selzer analyzed every aspect of Nelson's writing process, including invention and revision, and provided a detailed analysis of his observations. The most interesting aspect of Selzer's article is the invention and drafting process.

Selzer found that Nelson spent 80% of his time inventing. To better understand Nelson's invention process, Selzer carefully read notes and any other preliminary writing that shaped the purpose and anticipated audience needs of the document. Nelson carefully plans his writing. When necessary, he researches existing formats of the company for which he is writing. For example, for an airport-development project, he read the company's Request for Qualifications report to discover preferred organization and information. Nelson also looks to similar documents, such as company brochures, to find the appropriate format. Nelson derived half of one proposal from past documents. Drafting only occupies 20% of the composition time. Material is divided into groups and subgroups to better organize information. An example of Selzer's observation is they way Nelson separates groups by writing a heading on a new sheet of paper when he wants to start a new group. Like other professional writers, Nelson spends a lot of time considering the purpose of a document and drafting the document.

Professional Writers: What They Know and What They Do

As a Professional Writing and Editing student, I've learned a lot about writing. Professional writers can perform a variety of tasks, such as writing, editing, researching, creating brochures and instruction manuals, talking with clients, and many other tasks. However, most writers follow the same principles. Many writers brainstorm and determine the purpose and audience before they begin writing. Another skill is the ability predict the audience's knowledge and to predict what information the audience seeks. Knowing correct grammar and spelling is helpful at this point, but evaluating and revising your own work is an important part of the writing process.

The two aspects of professional writing I most enjoy include editing and visual design. Editing is very audience specific since different documents need different types of editing. I enjoy pinpointing a problem to fix instead of taking on a daunting task. The visual design aspect breaks up the monotony of professional writing. With this task, I have the opportunity to focus on aspects other than topic sentences and punctuation.

I would like to learn more about how professional writers step out of their field. Do professional writers typically stay in one field or do they have the option of variety? If I don't have knowledge about a certain topic, for example engineering, how would I take a job that involved such a topic?