ERIE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
TITLE III
English Composition Assignment
Interdisciplinary Course Materials
Business Administration
Course:
Topic:
Project Title:
English 020/ 021/023 Developmental English
Argument essays
Planning for Retirement
Project description: This project will unfold in three basic phases: (1) Students will be asked to
decide on a career (if they have not already done this) and research the retirement options offered
by potential employers (including 401(K) and 403(B)). (2) Students will research independent
savings strategies (Mutual Funds, etc) that could be used in conjunction with their employer’s
retirement package. (3) Once students have conducted the necessary research they will devise a
feasible retirement plan and provide reasonable support for this plan presented in essay format.
Course Outline Topic: Students will compose a unified, coherent composition regarding their
own personal plan for retirement. Through this assignment students will gain a deeper
understanding of retirement planning, and will learn to evaluate their options through potential
employers and independent savings strategies. Students will extend their skills in evaluation &
inference-making, and will gain the tangible benefit of a reasonable retirement plan.
Author: Peter C Fernbach
Curriculum Expert: Gus Brennan, Business Administration
Semester Created: Spring 2008
A. Essential Question: How do we plan for retirement in an age of financial insecurity?
B. Introduction: In the day and age of financial insecurity it is becoming more important
every day to plan for one’s financial future. While we are encouraged to plan for our
futures and retirement, how many of us have actually done it? Although retirement seems
like a distant horizon, the earlier you learn to plan, the better your chances for financial
security.
C. Basic Directions: This project will unfold in three basic phases:
(1) First, you will look into the retirement packages that are currently being offered by
their potential employers. Recently many employers have defaulted on previously
promised pension packages, including such large corporations as United Airlines, making
many employers wary of offering too much in the way of retirement benefits. In some
cases you may be disappointed with what they thought would be an employer offering a
stable retirement, in other cases you may be pleasantly surprised.
(2) Whether your potential future employer offers a desirable benefits package or not you
will be required to research their independent savings options also. You are encouraged
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Title III Grant
to look into a number of savings options: 401(K), 403(B), Mutual Funds, etc. You are
also encouraged to contact financial planning organizations to get a better idea of your
options.
(3) Once you have conducted research into their retirement options students will compose
a unified, coherent essay describing their plan for retirement. This could include an
‘ideal’ plan, a ‘reasonable’ plan, and/or a ‘worst case scenario’ plan.
D. Things to Learn or Consider before Starting the Project: We will research the
retirement packages that are currently being offered by employers. Students will get an
overview supplement regarding retirement investing ala Gus Brennan (included).
Students will also get an introduction to retirement planning from such websites as
About.com at http://retireplan.about.com .
E. The Project Assignment: This project will unfold in three basic phases as mentioned
before:
1) Introduction: Our introduction to retirement planning will be both general and
individualized as we will look at basic retirement planning guides and will also be
looking into individual employers. Therefore, students will gain broad overview from
which they can select their individualized options.
2) Research into Independent Savings Strategies: Students should be aware that there
are many savings plans outside of pension programs including plans that can be
supplemented by employers and those completely independent of an individual’s
employer.
3) Retirement Planning Essay - The final composition will essentially be a persuasive
essay convincing me that they have a reasonable plan for retirement. Steps I and II in
the project should lend themselves as research for this final essay. Students should
use the knowledge accrued in order to justify the strategy that they have devised.
F. Student Resources:
1) Your textbook will provide examples of “argument essays.” While these may not
provide arguments about marketing strategies, they will give you a general idea of the
rhetorical, organizational, and formatting strategies you will want to employ in your
own writing. Also, a number of other rhetorical modes might be helpful in
constructing this essay: classification, compare/contrast, exemplification, etc.
2) A part of our introduction into market research will come from About.com at
http://retireplan.about.com
3) The included materials will help students understand retirement planning.
4) When considering the final written product students may want to consult the Online
Writing Lab from Purdue University (http://owl.english.purdue.edu). This website
offers a plethora of valuable information on all sorts of issues in writing.
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G. Faculty Resources:
1) Most developmental composition textbooks provide valuable information about,
and examples of argumentative, classificatory, compare/contrast, process oriented
writing. These will help guide students in their writing process.
2) Many financial management firms will be happy to provide a guest lecture.
3) For phase I of this project any media outlet including television or magazines will
be a good resource.
H. Grading Rubric:
1) Participation 20 %
2) Rough Draft 10% Done or not done
3) Final product 70%
For each grading category (represented in rows) students will be given a grade 0-20, each of
which will be added up for a final score out of a possible 100.
Excellent
Adequate
Not Adequate
Ideas are clear and
Ideas are clear, but
Ideas are unclear and
Ideas (0-20)
Topic, thesis, focus, insightful,
conventional or
demonstrate a lack of
purpose, audience
consistently
general and support
focus.
supporting a thought- the overall purpose of
provoking thesis.
the paper.
Development is
Development(0-20) Abundant details and Development is
Details, evidence,
examples that arouse
sufficient, but general, insufficient, providing
support, logic
audience interest and
providing adequate,
scarce or inappropriate
provide relevant and
but not riveting
evidence and support
adequate support.
support
Organization is
Organization is
Organization(0-20) Organization is
Structure,
coherent and effective coherent, but weak at
incoherent and
coherence, unity,
in supporting the
times, perhaps
fragmentary, lacking
transitions
overall purpose of the exhibiting abrupt
details, evidence, and
paper.
transitions between
examples.
paragraphs or ideas.
Readable, but
Style is incoherent and
Style & Mechanics Style is rhetorically
effective and exhibits unremarkable in tone, inappropriate, and
(0-20)
Sentence structure,
varied sentence
sometimes including
exhibits serious errors
word choice, tone,
structure, precise
distracting, but not
in grammar or word
grammar, spelling,
word choice and
serious errors.
choice.
punctuation
correct grammar.
Format is correct and Format is mostly
Format is faulty and
Format (0-20)
Presentation,
all guidelines have
correct and most
guidelines are not met.
sources, MLA
been followed.
guidelines are met
format
Final
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Erie Community College
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