6 Paragraph Paper

Provide an overview of the purpose paper.

There’s an old formula for writing papers or giving speeches: “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you’ve told them.” The introduction is where you’re going to tell us what you’re going to tell us. Just give a brief introductory statement here.

State your academic, career, personal, and over all purpose.

Instead of “purpose”, state an academic, career, and personal GOAL. That might be easier. An academic goal might be a certain degree you want to earn. A career goal might be the type of career you want to pursue. A personal goal can be anything personal: lose weight, learn a new language, quit smoking, etc.

What lead you to have these purposes? Briefly explain.

This is where you can give some background about what led you to this point in your life. Many students tell a brief story about something that might have had an impact on them in their childhood, etc. which inspired them toward these purposes.

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Paragraph II – Values____/20 points

Explain your values (Refer to Values assessment in My Plan).

YOU MUST REFER TO VALUES IN MY PLAN. Do not write about things that are not on the Career Values Assessment. While faith, family, and freedom are very noble values, they will not earn you points on this assignment. You must write about the values in the assessment.

Explain your academic values.

Explain your personal values.

Explain your career values.

Everyone will have the same six values in the values assessment, they are just in a different order of importance. They are all career values, however, you could also match some of them to your academic and personal life. You can mix and match and double dip as much as needed. If one value applies to all three, you may talk about it. List the value and explain how it is important to you academically, personally, and in your career.

Explain how these values help you fulfill your purpose?

Connect the values to your purpose you mentioned in paragraph 1.

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Paragraph III – Strengths ____/20 points

State your strengths

State all five strengths from the StrengthsQuest assessment. Do not mention any strengths not from the assessment.

Describe your top three strengths from the StrengthQuest assessment.

Only discuss in detail the top three, not all five. If you log into your account, you will see your five strengths. (See example below.) Click on each strength for detailed information about the strength. In the example below, you would click on Intellection, Responsibility, Learner, etc. These descriptions should help you write this part of the paper.

Why are these strengths important to you?

How will these strengths help you to fulfill your purpose?

Paragraph IV – Interests____/20 points

State your personal interest that connects to your purpose (Refer to Interest Inventory in My Plan).

Only discuss interests in MyPlan. Do not write about scrapbooking, horseback riding, etc. Just the interests in MyPlan. You will get two interests in your results. You only have to write about one. Write about which ever one you feel fits better with your purpose.

Why is this interest important to you?

How will this personal interest help you to accomplish your purpose?

These two questions are the same as Paragraph 2 above.

Paragraph V – Purpose Statement____/20 points

This is the most difficult paragraph in the paper. Think of this as the conclusion to your paper. Here is what Valencia suggests you write about, but if you write an overall conclusion, you should be ok:

_____Discuss strengths, values, and interests. Articulates goals that address both education and career aspirations.

_____Provide a logical and thoughtful rationale for choices based on assessments and clearly identified career options.

_____Present a clear main idea followed by specific and accurate support that is arranged in a coherent, ordered fashion.

Paragraph VI – Conclusions ____/10 points

Summarize the content of your paper. Ignore this. You already summarized in Paragraph V. Just do the following for Paragraph IV:

Discuss the impact this paper has had on your purpose.

Recommended Example: Discuss how the paper either solidified your conviction that you are on the right track, or helped you realize that you may need to change direction.