documentdetails.docx

For final

Your document purpose is to persuade first year students in your field of the importance of probability and statistics to your field (department or program).  The tone of this document is to be professional, but accessible.  Important considerations for a well written document include:

· Flow at the document, paragraph and sentence level. 

· Using topic sentences in each section. 

· Using section headers and sub-headers, as identified below and shown in the example document.

You may refer to the  professional and general writing  resources page for tools to help with your writing. You may also work with the  Writing Studio Links to an external site. at the USF Library; this requires planning, as it is best to have an appointment to be assured of having someone to work with.  

You will include the following sections: 

· A Document Title. Document titles must briefly and precisely indicate the topic of the document. Ideally, it is also something that will catch the readers’ attention. 

· Introduction. The  introduction Links to an external site. must accomplish the following:

· Introduces the audience to the topic and its importance. Given the audience you are writing to, first-person is appropriate, as it is your experience as a more advanced student that makes you credible.  Consider as you finalize your introduction, that the USF students you are writing to are diverse in many ways, including in age, life/professional experience, and cultural background. You must speak to all of them, not just to the ones that are like you.

· Includes a  thesis statement Links to an external site. that makes the primary claim you will argue in this handout and what you will say about it.

· States how you will use the document to support your argument.

· Present this in a concise, clear paragraph that makes the reader want to read your handout.

After you complete the body of your document, review your introduction to make sure it accurately states what you accomplished with the document.  Revise the document as needed to make sure the introduction and the document body work together. 

· The Use of Statistics in [Your Field]. Using the information that you found in the preliminary phase of this assignment, develop this section. This section will start with an introductory paragraph giving students an overview of the different work aspects you will address. This is followed by 3 subsections (with sub-titles) describing the specific aspects of work for which statistics are used and then discussing specifically how probability or statistics enables the work to be accomplished.  This section must have in-text citations to demonstrate you have researched the topic using credible sources. 

· Probability and Statistics Literacy will Enhance Your Employability. Develop a written argument using the data provided to indicate how proficiency in probability and statistics will help to develop competency/competencies employers find look for when hiring recent college graduates. Select only the competency or competencies that are core learning outcomes to this course, (you may not use all of the competencies the webpages identify). Additionally you must incorporate numerical data from both web pages into the argument. 

· Conclusion. The conclusion is a summary of your ENTIRE document.  It summarizes what you have done to support you thesis, and includes a reworded restatement of your thesis. It ends with a reminder to the readers of the importance of all of this for their professional future.

· Reference List. The document will end with an  APA formatted reference list Links to an external site.    Links to an external site. with a minimum of four (4) references.  Each source on the reference list must have at least one  APA  formatted in-text citation Links to an external site. in your document. Citations are required any place in your document where you have used the ideas, data, or images of others. 

Word Count: 1000 - 1400 words (not including the reference list.) This is a guide and is most important at the lower end; if your document is shorter than 1000 words, it is likely that it is lacking the detail needed. 

For preliminary

Element 1: The Use of Statistics In [Your Field] * -  You may work with other students in your major on selecting uses, finding sources, and completing APA in-text citations and your reference list for this part of the assignment. However, writing your document MUST be completed individually. 

Review the  Probability and Statistics in Engineering and Computer Science  Download Probability and Statistics in Engineering and Computer Sciencearticle and resources to develop an understanding of the ways in which your field/major*** uses probability and statistics in the work done. Select 3 applications or tasks that are relevant to your field to research in more detail. To write this well you will need at least one source that helps you identify tasks that are accomplished using probability and statistics in your field, sources to help you describe the tasks, and sources to help you describe how probability and/or statistics are used to enable accomplishing the task. These sources should provide you with information that will allow you to develop 3 clearly presented examples of how probability and statistics are used in your field. 

· You must use** a minimum of  4 cited sources for this section. However, you must also have sources to support what you say, which may require you to use additional sources.  

*The Use of brackets indicates that you will replace the brackets and the words inside with ones that are appropriate to you and your work.

**Using a source means that you are synthesizing the ideas from the work of another into the original ideas you are putting forward in your work. You will have at least one in-text citation and reference list item using APA formatting for each source. Adding sources to the reference list without an in-text citation will result in no credit for that source.

***This section of the assignment has one required source. A minimum of three sources are required for this section which may come from the resources list or other CREDIBLE sources. Wikipedia may not be used as a source BUT its reference lists may be checked for credible sources. 

****USF College of Engineering Majors are departments or major topic areas in departments, they include: Biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, structural engineering, environmental engineering, transportation engineering, computer science, computer engineering, cybersecurity, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, and mechanical engineering

Work to Submit. Complete all of the required information for each source you will use.  

 

Element 2: Probability and Statistics Literacy will Enhance Your Employability. 

For this section of your document you will read, interpret, and use descriptive statistics to make an argument that proficiency with probability and statistics will help students get a job when they graduate using the sources provided, these are:

The Four Career Competencies Employers Value Most  Links to an external site. by NACE Staff 

Are College Graduates "Career Ready"?   Links to an external site.  by NACE Staff 

You must incorporate data from both sources, meaning you will have at least two points to make with the data as part of this section.  

Work to Submit: For this part of the assignment, you will complete the following for each source you use, including the four provided.

· An APA formatted reference list item

· An in-text citation formatted in APA format

· For each source, a brief explanation of

1. What data from each document you will use to support your argument. You must use numerical data from both documents. The data must be presented in a way that a reader will understand what it means without referencing the two web pages you are using. Do not use any statistical data that is not relevant to your argument. For the source you use for the definition of the competencies list the competency or competencies you believe you will enhance in the probability and statistics course. You may not select all as being relevant to this course, you must think about, and make a choice about which competencies are core learning outcomes of this course and make an argument to support that. 

2. How you will use the numerical data to support your argument. For the source you use for the definition of the competencies you will describe the way you will incorporate an understanding of the competency into your final document. 

 

 

Element 3: Reference List (You may work with your assigned groups to complete the reference list.) 

Work to Submit: Using the reference list items from above and any extra sources you plan to use, create an APA formatted reference list. You will have a minimum of 4 sources. It is important that your reference listings have the correct information, in the correct order, and that the items and list are formatted correctly.  For the reference section, make sure the listings are alphabetized so they can be easily found. Use the APA formatting resources in your reading to help you with this.  BEWARE: citation generators are often wrong; you can start with them BUT must revise any that are incorrect.  

 

Element 4: Engaging Your Audience 

For this section you will

1. Think about and describe a significant, shared aspirational goal or goals of young professionals entering the field. This goal will be something you can use to engage your readers as you start the document.  In the example you will see for architecture students this is to design iconic buildings.  

2. Develop a  thesis statement