ENGL 828 ESSAY #3:
Lavonne Williams’ Working Future
ESSAY #3 TOPIC:
Read the following case, which concerns a young woman’s potential career choices, It will be
your job to evaluate her options and recommend the one you think is best. To do this, you must
do three things: 1) read the case, 2) read the assignment carefully to see exactly what you are
being asked to do, and 3) read the discussion sections.
Main Task: Discuss in detail the advantages and disadvantages of the different courses of
action open to Lavonne Williams and come to a conclusion as to which one you think she
should take and why.
Questions to Consider: here are a few of the most important questions you will have to consider
as you analyze Lavonne Williams’ problem and begin making your notes:

If she takes the job, what would seem to be her prospects for future promotion? What
specific evidence do we have that her prospects might be good? What specific
evidence do we have that they might not be good?



If she takes the job, how will her finances be affected?
If she takes the job, to what extent will her schoolwork be affected and how?
If she takes the internship, to what extent will her schoolwork be affected and how?
What benefits to her would the internship have?


If she takes the internship, how will her work hours be affected?
If she takes the internship, how would her finances be affected?
Rough draft due: 10/10
Final draft due: 10/16
Approximate length: 3-5 typewritten pages
“Lavonne Williams Working Future”
It is July, and Lavonne Williams has a decision to make. She has worked part-time (20
hours a week while in school, 40 hours a week during the summers) at the Burger Empire
outlet in her neighborhood, and she knows the operations of the place inside and out. In
addition to knowing how to prepare the food and serve the public, she has worked with the
manager on inventory control and ordering supplies, and she has served as acting manager
three times, once when the manager was ill, and twice when he was on vacation. Now she is
being offered the job of manager itself. She will receive $1,635 a month, before taxes; a huge
raise over the $8.50 an hour she now makes, and the regional supervisor has told her, the job
of station manager, as it is called in the chain, can be a stepping-stone to higher positions in
the company. The regional supervisor also told Lavonne that if she accepts the job, she will
be the youngest station manager in the company’s history.
As station manager, Lavonne will have to put in between 30 and 40 hours a week at the
outlet itself and, if she intends to do the job really well, another 5 to 10 hours working at
home, depending on the time of year. The salary is the same, regardless of hours worked.
New managers also have to attend monthly training sessions during their first year on the job,
and these sessions run all day Saturday. Twice-yearly regional meetings are held on Fridays
and Saturdays in February and August. The previous station manager, Lavonne’s boss, held
the job for almost five years before he quit to take a similar job with Burger King.
Lavonne will be a sophomore in the coming semester, and she intends to major in
political science. She has aspirations of “going into government,” but she doesn’t yet know
what form her career in government might take. By taking 15 units a semester, she has
finished her freshman English, speech, and math requirements and taken several lowerdivision courses in her major. Between work and school, she has had very little time for a
social life, but she has maintained a B+ average.
In one of her major courses, she met Professor Hamilton, an authority in the field of
public housing. The subject is one that especially interests Lavonne, since she spent part of
her childhood in public housing and has many friends who still live in housing projects.
Professor Hamilton has told her that he can almost certainly get her an internship in the city’s
Housing Authority, and has even introduced her to a Mr. Kellogg, the assistant director of the
Housing Authority who expressed great interest in having an intern with knowledge of the
city’s housing projects. The internship would probably require 15 to 20 hours of work a week
and would pay about $9.00 an hour. It would involve something like taking “problem
inventories” of the city’s housing projects – that it, visiting each project and drawing up lists
of the problems at each, carefully annotated and arranged in order of priorities.
Other matters Lavonne has on her mind:

She has been trying to save to buy a car, but has only a little over $500 in the
bank.

She is paying her own tuition and fees, without any help from her family, who
cannot afford to help pay her school costs.

She has financial aid from school, bit to keep it, she has to take 12 units a
semester, and it is good for only four years. On the other hand, her higher salary
would mean that she could get along without this aid, though it would be tight.
Lavonne now has to decide whether she will accept the promotion in the Burger Empire
chain. Her initial impulse was to say “Yes!” at once, but her natural caution held her back. The
money would be wonderful, and she likes the idea of being the youngest station manager in the
company’s history; she is an ambitious person, and that kind of distinction appeals to her
ambition. But she is also very impressed that her professor thinks so well of her that he is
recommending her to a fairly important city official for an internship.
What should she do?
Rubric for Essay #3
1. Does the introduction tell what the essay will be about and why the subject
is important?
________ of 15
2. Does the paper stay on topic and reach the minimum required length?
________ of 15
3. Does the paper have a clear, arguable thesis?
________ of 10
4. Is the essay divided into body paragraphs that cover single subjects?
________ of 25
6. Does the paper contain clear and correct sentences?
________ of 15
7. Did the writer proofread carefully for typos and mechanics?
________ of 10
8. Is there a conclusion explaining what Lavonne should do and why?
________ of 10
________ of 100