Personal Professional Profile

I need to get an idea of who you are and the level of your written and spoken English, so we will do this with a simple task/subject in which you are THE world expert: YOU:

My Personal/Professional Profile.

I want you to imagine that you are on the first day of your internship/placement/work experience OR on the first day of your first position post graduation….

Here’s the video instruction you should already have seen (BUT if we are NOT working at distance you don’t need to do the Audio element):

You bump into our boss (who interviewed you) at the coffee machine and the conversation goes like this:

« Hi there, remember me?  I interviewed you!  Call me ‘Tony’ from now on – we’re pretty informal here.  Could you do me a favour?  We have a tradition in which we put up on our intranet / website and in our magazine a ‘personal/professional profile‘ of all our new recruits so that colleagues and clients can get to know you. 

It needs to be of  2 x FULL pages  A4, 12pt text and may include up to two or 3 ‘smallish’ photos.   This is NOT your cv – we’ve already got that – (though you might need to repeat just a little of your academic and employent background) : a cv is, to be frank, little more than a boring list of events and dates…. rather we need this profile to give you ‘colour’, character and to make people want to meet you.  You can write personally, introduce anecdotes or humour to express your personality for example…. anything to avoid it being boring!  Use any style or format – just create impact!   

It has got to be web/ intranet ready – no-one is going to correct it or act as your editor, OK?.    Thanks. »  [NB.  If we are NOT in confinement we can do all this in class: you can read us a paragraph or two and you can submit a hard copy (paper version) of your PPP.  If we go back to confinement, I will still ask you to do the written version, but also to record a paragraph of 10 lines or so in video format.

You may imagine the post/position you occupy and the organisation -maybe your dream pst-graduation post -, but if you have a hard job doing this – look for a REAL job you might like to do.

Strong Recommendations:

• DO NOT, under any circumstances, use a translation tool like Google, Babelfish, Linguée etc and certainly NO Artificial Intelligence!  First it is cheating – it isn’t your work, so why should I give you a mark for it?  Secondly there is no possibility of you actually learning anything.  Thirdly, the style of language such tools produce is almost always incorrect and totally evident to the tutor.  Don’t be tempted, then!  You have been warned.
• DO use the following (especially the first two) – if you don’t you will simply be throwing away marks needlessly:
  • download a little piece of software called ‘Grammarly‘ .  It is free.  If you set it up in English for the purposes of this unit it will ‘look’ at everything you write in English whether it is using Word, PDF, Powerspoint, an email and it will offfer you corrections to your spelling and grammar. It also explains WHY, so you can actually learn from its suggested corrections.  It is like looking up a combined dictionary and grammar book and it is acceptable and is NOT cheating.  Please DO this – it can help your marks and your learning.
  • use a decent dictionary like WordReference, not only does it act as a dictionary, it gives you examples of the contexts in which certain words and phrases are used, it helps avoid faux-amis and it offers synonyms to help you avoid repetitions. This is considered acceptable and not to be cheating. Again, like Grammarly, if you take the time, it can help you learn and develop your vocabulary.
  • change the language in Word/Open Office etc to English…. then you get a spell-check correction facility which can help you.  Effectively it acts as a dictionary – this is acceptable and is NOT cheating.
• Do read your work OUT LOUD (à haute voix) – I know it sounds crazy, but it will help you. You hear the mistakes ‘bounce’ off the walls, you will ‘fall over’ errors and realise there is a problem somewhere. You will also begin to realise where your punctuation errors are creeping in as you will not have the proper ‘cues’ with which to read the work.   I am also going to ask you to read some of your work out in class to check on pronunciation etc, so doing some reading out loud beforehand might well help you…

TUTOR INSTRUCTIONS

Due date to be advised.  Format: printed on paper and in class. (and no later – or penalties will be applied!).

Marking (notation).   You will receive a mark for the written work.  I will endeavour to mark the hard copies within a week and give you personal and group feedback and encouragement.

What will I be looking for in your written work? –

• that it follows the specification.  Your boss has asked you to do something for him/her on your first – you should be looking to impress him/her by following instructions to the letter!
• that it looks good on the page.  this is to go on the web/intranet / in a magazine.  It creates an impression of your employer and of YOU.  Even before someone reads it, his/her eyes will take in the page to form a first impression…and as we know from the old adage: ‘You don’t get  second chance to make a first impression‘.  Think about the use of space, structure, the position of photos etc. (NB. according to the BBC, 85% of CVs are NEVER READ because the coverning letter is no good, or because the CV has no visual impact so there is not point in reading the content … if you can’t ‘sell’ yourself, you will hardly ‘sell’ the company will you?).   Also, you are going to work in industries which are very much oriented towards accuracy, interpretation, explanation and presentation… I am trying to rehearse you for this reality.
• that you use the tools I have recommended in the proofing (relecture) of your work to ‘catch & correct’ obvious errors.  Lazy, ‘I couldn’t be bothered to use the tools or to proof my work’, errors will be heavily penalised and will NOT PASS.
• that your meaning is abundantly clear in English even if there are a few errors in expression, tense or style etc.  The latter we can correct!

Looking forward to receiving your work!

TJ.