Sample 1

The assignment was to write an imaginary or real letter to the admissions administration of a
graduate school you want to apply to. I decided to write an imaginary one to an imaginary law
school or school that has a law program (I took this class during the beginning of my junior year
of college).

13306 Noble Place

Chino, California 91710
June, 5 2014
Admissions Department
University of (insert here)
(street number, street)
(city, state, and zip code)
Dear Admissions official:
I am interested in taking part in your graduate program. Specifically I would like to
become a tort law lawyer and study constitutional law at your institution. My short term goals
are to teach English and intern for respected law institutions. I hope that, given the chance, I will
be able to grow closer to my goals and be enriched by what your program has to offer.
I was home schooled as a kid from the first grade through high-school. My experience
being home schooled taught me how to be disciplined, self-motivated, and to think critically. I
also learned to communicate with those around me in a clear and concise fashion. I took an
interest in the art of apologetics (the defense of beliefs and ideas) and in writing during my early
years in high school. About a year ago I discovered that I have a keen interest in practicing
apologetics within the forum of law. Considering how the art of apologetics is already practiced
by professional lawyers I saw law as a perfect fit for both my interests and my skills.
I have a BA in English: Language and Literature and a minor in Political Science from
the California Polytechnic University of Pomona. During my studies at the university I focused
on the structure and efficient use of language to complement my aspirations in writing as well as
studying the inner workings of the American legal system to complement my aspirations in law. I
received the Deans Honor List award five times, four times at Chaffey Community College and
once at Cal Poly as well as a Certificate of Achievement from Chaffey. I also volunteered for a
non-profit law firm called the Pacific Justice Institute while in college. During my internship at
the law firm I helped the organization promote itself by studying their past cases.
Thank you for taking time to look at my request. I hope to hear from you soon, and,
perhaps, be given the chance to talk to you about my qualifications.
Sincerely,

Joshua P. Vasquez

Sample 2
This assignment was to write a real or imaginary cover letter applying for a job you want or
imagine yourself applying to. I decided to write an imaginary cover letter to a school seeking to
apply to a teachers assistant or substitute teacher position.

Joshua P. Vasquez
13306 Noble Place
Chino, California 91710
June 14, 2014
Chairman Wilson (Fictional name)
Unified School District of Pomona
(street number, street)
(city, state, and zip code)
Dear Chairman:
I would like to apply for a job opening that a friend, a TA at your school, has told me
about. I hope that you will consider my application and, possibly, grant me an interview.
Growing up, school taught me how to be disciplined, self-motivated, and to think
critically. I also learned how to communicate with those around me in a clear and concise
fashion. I would like to be able to pass on such skills, and much more, to the next generation of
young students who reside within your district. I hope that my communication skills will allow
me to better teach the students and encourage them to learn according to their full potential.
I have a BA in English: Language and Literature and a minor in Political Science from
the California Polytechnic University of Pomona. During my studies at the university I focused
on the structure and efficient use of language as well as studying the inner workings of the
American legal system. I have also taken a few internship courses that have allowed me to teach
in the school environment and helped me understand how lead class of students efficiently. I
received the Deans Honor List award five times, four times at Chaffey Community College and
once at Cal Poly as well as a Certificate of Achievement from Chaffey.
My passion lies in writing. I discovered the depths of enrichment that writing allows one
to experience during my sophomore year of high school. I also realize that currently there is a
major literacy crisis in our schools. It is my sincere hope to help all of our students improve their
literacy and give our districts children a fighting chance in the world outside the classroom.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,

Joshua P. Vasquez

Sample 3
The assignment was to write an email recommending policy on the topic of drug screening
employees. You could take either side of the issue, but were expected to take a stance and then
suggest policy that would help support your stance and the effective implementation of it. There
is an extra page below the sample that we had to submit to the professor as well in order to
briefly defend our position on the issue by taking into consideration possible counter arguments
to our position. It is titled counter arguments.

To: Life Systems, Inc. President Maria Tonti

Subject: Drug Testing
Dear President:
I would like to express my gratitude for the work you have done at our company.
Recently the decision to randomly drug test our employees was made and as a manager I agree
with the decision. However, there are many employees that are certain to protest this measure
passed by the board of directors.
In order to ease tensions between our employees and the Human Resources Department I
suggest that we be cautious to make exceptions for those who are on medications and/or specify
to the employees what kind of drugs will be tested for. While some will still protest, it will ease
the minds of other employees not involved in any illegal drug use. Also, those who protest the
policy will likely defend recreational drug use. By explaining to the employees the negative
effects of such substances and their reputation we would be able to justify to the employees, if
not win them over, the implementing of our policy.
I hope that this input may be helpful to you and perhaps even improve the current policy
if that is possible. Thank you for taking the time to consider my feedback.
Sincerely, Joshua P. Vasquez

Counter arguments
One counter argument is that this would be a violation of the workers right to use
drugs. This is invalid considering it is illegal and thus they have no right to it. Another argument
is that this would be a violation of search and seizure restriction laws. This argument also fails
considering that employers are legally allowed to drug test their employees given that ample
warning is given in advance, like a memo announcing the policy. Those who are diametrically
opposed to being drug tested may quit. Those who stay are legally submitting themselves to the
testing policy. Also, considering that some will be taking legal drugs they will argue that we
are discriminating against them. This is not the case as it is still necessary to make sure that while
taking these drugs the users are well within legal limits.

Sample 4
The assignment was to write a policy proposal email to the head of a fictional company called
Rent-A-Genius. The fictional company supposedly rents out the services of people with very
high IQs to help them come up with ideas among other things. The policy letter is supposed to
address concern about a recent study saying that radiation from cell-phones damages brain tissue
over long periods of time. The policy is made to address customer concerns over their
employees use of cellphones while in the workplace.

To: President of Rent-A-Genius Inc.

Subject: Cell phone policy recommendation
Dear President:
I have reviewed the news article you sent me and have concluded that, while there is no
immediate threat to our employees, it would nonetheless be prudent to establish a policy to
safeguard our employees against potential hazards to their health and intellect. This policy would
serve two purposes: one would be to protect our companys reputation by showing our customers
that we safeguard the cognitive capabilities of our employees, and the second would be to
actually protect our employees.
The policy I recommend is this: All employees are to refrain from putting their cell
phones to their ears. They should text if it is practical or if they must make phone calls to use
their phones speaker phone options and/or use corded headphones. They can also use landlines.
This will not inconvenience our employees too much and it will show our customers our
dedication to protecting the quality of our geniuses work.
I hope that you will find this policy acceptable. If there are any questions you have, call
me at my office at (xxx) xxx-xxxx. I will be glad to discuss the matter further with you.
Sincerely,
Joshua P. Vasquez

Sample 5
The assignment was to write a letter to President Obama concerning a recent speech (at the time)
he made defending a policy he planned to implement to withhold grants from colleges that
refuse to lower their tuition. I was not in favor of the proposed policy and so I wrote a letter of
concern.

Dear President Obama:

I am a student currently studying at a Cal State university and I was troubled by the
recent address you made in Michigan about what you plan to do to reform the higher education
system. While I do believe that lowering tuition will help thousands of students, I do not believe
withholding government grants to colleges that dont lower their tuition rates will help the
students or institutions of higher learning. Given the diverse curriculums and goals of our various
universities, it is quite clear that not all colleges would be able to afford the tuition cuts that your
policy would require. You must understand that while higher education is expensive, many more
students will be denied the education they need if you withhold government grants than they
would if the tuition rates were slightly higher. The needless withholding of government grants
could destroy many good colleges. Please reconsider how this will affect the quality of our
higher education system and make it even more difficult to get a quality education.
Sincerely,
Joshua P. Vasquez

Sample 6
The assignment was to write a memo letter to the employees of a fictional company,
WEEDLYTONE. The memo announces a policy change mandating that employees have to
schedule half of all their accumulated vacation time to be used each year in the Attendance
Report by January 31st. The memo is supposed to announce the policy change in a way that will
justify it to the employees in a way that will satisfy them as much as possible.

Dear WEEDLYTONE Employees:

It has been recently decided that each employee will be required to schedule a minimum
of half of all vacation days in the Attendance Report by January 31st of each year. After
scheduled, any vacation days that are later postponed must be rescheduled immediately.
We understand that this policy will inconvenience many of you and we apologize for this.
However, this policy has been chosen for two reasons. The first of these reasons is to give the
company supervisors an idea of who will be on vacation at which times. This will allow the
supervisors to adjust the personnel ratios in order to insure that there is enough personnel staffing
the company at any given time. The second reason is that we at WEEDLYTONE want to insure
the health and well being of our employees.
Please be aware that there is a cap on the amount of rollover vacation days you can
accumulate. This policy will help insure that you get the most vacation days possible and we
hope that you will take advantage of the vacation time given to you.
Sincerely,
Mark Jones, President & CEO

Sample 7
The assignment was to write an email from a fictional manager to a fictional vice president of a
company about what to do about a recent event you had to terminate a contract with a cleaning
company due to their employees making unauthorized calls during work hours (they were being
lazy). In the letter we were supposed to give the fictional vice president a list of the options to
replace the now fired employees and recommend the one you believe would be most efficient.
The options were given to us before we wrote the fictional email and we were supposed to
choose one of the three.

To: Gavin MacIntyre, Vice President, Midwest Region

From: Nat Willard, Branch Manager, Milwaukee Area Offices
This morning I discovered that two employees of the Thomas Janitor Company were
making unauthorized long-distance phone calls using our telephones at the High Street building.
I promptly terminated the contract we had with their cleaning company. Considering that we
would need cleaning services for our workspace at the High Street building I considered several
options.
The first option would be to have the janitor that cleans our Greenwood Boulevard
building also clean the High Street building. However, this plan is not feasible considering that
the janitor would spend more time driving from one location to the other than he would spend
cleaning the two buildings.
The second option would be to hire a part-time or full-time employee to clean the High
Street building. However, this plan would cost the company too much money for such a simple
task.
The third option that came to mind would be to hire a new cleaning company. While we
havent had good experiences with our last company I can find no feasible alternative.
Therefore, I recommend we hire a new cleaning agency as soon as it can be arranged. I
thank you for your time and hope to receive your response soon.

Sample 8
The assignment was to create two graphs. One that was honest (that accurately portrayed the
data you were analyzing) and one that was dishonest (that inaccurately portrayed the data). The
data being analyzed was the amount of time you spent on all activities during the 5 day business
week. The goal of the assignment was to show the importance of recognizing data manipulation
in the graphs of many business reports and to be able to discern honest data manipulation and
dishonest data manipulation.

Time Spent 5 Day Week (Honest Chart)

miscellaneous
socializing
sleep
school
all hours
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

hours

5 day week (Dishonest Chart)

miscellaneous

socializing

sleep

school

20

25

30

35

hours

English 301
Joshua Vasquez
The self-evaluation of the time I spent each week (during my school life in 2014)
120 hours in a 5 day week
36 hours at school
40 hours sleeping
5 hours hygiene
2.5 hours chores
2.25 hours driving
22 hours socializing
12.25 hours self-entertainment/miscellaneous

40