Always get feedback on your rationale essay draft, from your mentor and/or from other students, if you are in an educational planning course with your peers. Getting a reader response is valuable to determine if you have analyzed and explained your academic choices clearly.

Also, do a final review of your rationale essay in conjunction with your degree plan, to make sure that they correspond.

Then finalize and submit your rationale essay by putting the pieces together.  To review, you should include discussion of:

• your goals and the contexts in which you’re pursuing your degree
• ESC guidelines and how you’ve addressed them
• SUNY general learning requirements and how you’ve addressed them
• other academic expectations (e.g., research into other colleges, discussion of degree structure and design: breath, integration, progression)
• professional expectations and how you’ve addressed them
• anything else you think appropriate in making your logical argument that you have an academically-valid degree that also meets your own goals and needs

Once you finish drafting your content, review your essay for language and spelling.  Make sure that all specific information from sources is cited as needed.

You may want to ask the following questions as one last way to finalize your draft. Have you explained the following clearly in your essay:

• What are my goals?
• What do I need to learn and what skills do I need to acquire to help me achieve those goals?
• How do I know this?  What research have I done to determine what I need? (guidelines & requirements)
• How does my proposed plan provide me with this knowledge and those skills?
• Do the different portions flow?
• Could any redundant pieces be combined?
• Did I cite any sources I used to find my information?
• Have I run a spelling and grammar check?
• Have I proofread, or had someone else proofread the essay?

Finally, create either a heading or a cover page with the following information:

• your name
• student ID number
• degree type (A.A., A.S., B.A., B.S., B.P.S.)
• area of study
• concentration title (if appropriate)
• date
• mentor name