Written Communication (ELO Effective Communication): Feature Article on Jobs in Mental Health
Attention
Yes, you are going to be a little blue reporter!
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:
- Interview and/or job shadow a person who holds a position in the mental health field
- Contrast the content of the interview or job shadow with descriptions of the position available through the Department of Labor
- Demonstrate competency in writing
Teaching
You are a feature reporter for the Morning Sentinal newspaper. You have been tasked with writing a feature article about jobs in the mental health field. Your audience is the general population of Waterville, ME so you cannot assume that this population understands mental health jargon and terms.
The purpose of the feature article is to educate the public as to what these jobs entail, their working conditions, and what makes the jobs different from "official" sources of job descriptions (US Department of Labor).
Write a compelling, entertaining, descriptive, and educational article reflecting your interview and/or job shadow experience.
Assessment
Interview/Job Shadow Article
For this assignment you are going to use the app "Pages" to create a formatted article. Within the Pages app there are various templates for "Newsletters", I want you to use one of these newsletter templates to create the document for this assignment. You will export a PDF version of the document to Dropbox and then submit it to Blackboard.
Pages is a word processor app designed for the iPad
Pages may have already been installed on your iPad...otherwise you have to pay a bit for it. Well worth it as the primary word processor of choice on the iPad. If you research and find an alternative word processor you are free to use that as well...as long as the product is the same...a formatted "newsletter" document in PDF. |
Your submission will be evaluated based on the following rubric. Be sure that you use some creativity in this assignment.
| Title | Top of the page includes a title and a "by..." line. | required |
| Article | Article is compelling, entertaining, descriptive, and educational. It also includes a contrast between the Department of Labor description and the "real" job. |
required |
| Context and Purpose | Demonstrates attention to context (newspaper), audience (general public), and purpose (educate). | 20 pts |
| Content Development | Writing demonstrates the writer's deep understanding of the career being investigated. | 30 pts |
| Conventions | Writing is organized, formatted, and presented in a manner that is similar to other newspaper articles. | 10 pts |
| Sources and Evidence | High quality and credible resources are utilized to support points made in the article. | 10 pts |
| Mechanics | Article reflects a graceful flow of ideas integrated into a coherent message which is free of syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors | 30 pts |