University of South Florida Probability Questions

For this assignment–– IDL 1 Final ––you will develop a handout for first-year students in your field. The purpose of this handout is to persuade them that the competencies they will gain from the required probability and statistics course are essential to their professional future. It will include two sections. In the first section, you will describe and define aspects of the work in your field for which probability and statistics are required. Then you will discuss how probability and statistics tools enable each aspect of the work. In the second section you will develop a written argument discussing data presented in a table to suggest to them this proficiency will help them (and you) get a job upon graduation.

Your document purpose is to persuade first year students in your field of the importance of probability and statistics to your field (department or program). The linked example Download exampleprovides an example of content and the required appearance of the document. The tone of this document is to be professional, but accessible. Editing your work is a necessary step for assuring you have a well written document. Important elements of this include:

Flow

Using topic sentences in each section.

Using section headers and sub-headers, as identified below and shown in the example document.

Consistent document layout. Colors and fonts must be used consistently in the document.

You will include the following sections with section titles as stated:

A Document Title. Document titles must briefly and precisely indicate the topic of the document. Ideally, it is also something that will catch the readers’ attention. This does not require a section header.

Introduction. The introduction (Links to an external site.) must accomplish the following:

Introduces the audience to the topic and its importance. Given the audience you are writing to, first-person is appropriate, as it is your experience as a more advanced student that makes you credible. Consider as you finalize your introduction, that the USF students you are writing to are diverse in many ways, including in age, life/professional experience, and cultural background. You must speak to all of them, not just to the ones that are like you.

Includes a thesis statement (Links to an external site.) that makes the primary claim you will argue in this handout and what you will say about it.

States how you will use the document to support your argument.

Present this in a concise, clear paragraph that makes the reader want to read your handout.

After you complete the body of your document, review your introduction to make sure it accurately states what you accomplished with the document. Revise the document as needed to make sure the introduction and the document body work together.

The Use of Statistics in [Your Field]*. Using the information that you found in the preliminary phase of this assignment, develop this section. This section will start with an introductory paragraph giving students an overview of the different work aspects you will address. This is followed by 2-3 subsections (with sub-titles) describing the specific aspects of work for which statistics are used and then discussing specifically how probability or statistics enables the work to be accomplished. This section must have in-text citations to demonstrate you have researched the topic using credible sources.

Probability and Statistics Literacy will Enhance Your Employability. Using the data provided finalize the table you created and develop a written argument using the data to indicate how proficiency in probability and statistics will help to develop a skill employers find very important for recent college graduates to bring to the work force. In this section you will incorporate the numerical data into the argument.

Conclusion. The conclusion is a summary of your ENTIRE document. It summarizes what you have done to support you thesis, and includes a reworded restatement of your thesis. It ends with a reminder to the readers of the importance of all of this for their professional future.

Reference List. The document will end with an APA formatted reference list (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)with a minimum of four (4) references. Each source on the reference list must have at least one APA formatted in-text citation (Links to an external site.) in your document. Citations are required any place in your document where you have used the ideas, data*, or images of others.

*As the data in the ‘probability and statistics literacy will enhance your employability’ section has been created by your instructor you do not need a citation for it. The data provided presents the categories and levels of importance found in a study completed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE); so, what you will be arguing is in line with what employers indicated to NACE researchers.

Element 3: Revising, Editing, and Proofreading:

Professional documents must be readable, clear, well organized, and concise. They must also be free of errors. Two approaches may help you with finding typos, grammar errors, and wording issues. First, read your work aloud (Links to an external site.) to yourself after having stepped away from it for a while (ideally, a day). Doing this will help you catch wording errors or omissions and poorly constructed sentences. Second, you should use advanced grammar-checking software to review for grammar, punctuation, or other writing errors. The base paid platform of Grammarly is one option; however, others are available as well.

Extra Credit Option

Extra Credit Option – Extra credit can be earned on this assignment for finding and using additional sources. This means you must have both a reference list item for your work and at least one in-text citation.

1 point for 1-2 additional sources

2 points for 3 or more additional sources