Response to public speaking

I agree that public speaking can be a daunting task in any project, but I tend to agree with Joey and Sergiy on this topic. The more you expose yourself to public speaking, the easier it is to do. The trick is doing it more frequently. Whether it is giving actual presentations or speaking up in class, they all contribute to your public speaking ability. Like Sergiy I have to speak to coworkers everyday, but the more I do it, the more it becomes second nature. I don't even realize sometimes that I am giving a presentation anymore. Audience does play into this, if you are familiar with the group you are talking to, it makes it much easier. But even stranger anxiety can be overcome with enough practice. I have found that practicing ahead of time helps immensely, even if I am just presenting to a mirror with myself and stopwatch. Just following the steps of presenting information in a specific order with a time frame in mind will do wonders, and always allow a few extra minutes for questions and interruptions.

Chapter 17 & 18

Off the bat, chapter 17 was very helpful. I've never been that adept in the use of PowerPoint, or creating visual presentations. In the past I have always seemed to dodge the need for making the visual side of a presentation. So the hints and tips for the layout of the of the presentation were very insightful. I will definitely be using this chapter to help put together my presentation for the class. On the oral side of things I have never had much of a problem speaking in front of an audience. I have given presentation before as well as teaching swing dance to large audiences. I am able to cope with interruptions and answer questions fairly well. My main flaw is that I do tend to run on a bit when I speak. This is why I've found it important in the past to rehearse with a stopwatch before the presentation, and make sure I do not exceed given time limits.

Chapter 18 covered web design and layout. It went over making your site readable as well as easy on the eyes. The layout of the website along with where and how graphics are used are important to make the reader's experience navigating the site a pleasant one. Also the site should be easy to move around in, links should be clearly labeled and clear as to their purpose. Also there should be included a site map that a reader can refer to if they become lost or are looking for a specific section of the website and are unsure how to get there from their current page. I do not have much experience in creating a web page layout and I have no experience in writing HTML code for websites. But this chapter provides a valuable guide in starting a web page.

Response to Persuaders

The documentary "The Persuaders" was quite the eye opener. It is amazing the money and time spent on finding new ways to get the consumer's attention. I for one don't watch a lot of television, but the advertisement industry does not limit itself to just one medium. In the week since watching the documentary I have been amazed how much advertisements are out in the world. You see it on billboards, magazines, bumper stickers, the list goes on and on. I even saw two trucks driving with billboards, they spent over an hour circling a busy shopping center's parking lots, just to try to catch someone's attention. At my work we don't allow outside source to solicit on our property, but then I realized that is mainly because it gives competition to all the ads that the company itself has running inside its doors. I can't walk anywhere in the store without getting hit by a plethora of words all trying to make people want to buy. It's overwhelming at times, but it's such a way of life that most people don't even realized that their senses are being bombarded by it every day! It's enough to make you want to move away from it all and become a hermit off on some mountain.

Chapters 2, 9 & 10

Chapter 2 covered a very important part of the transition from school to work. It is a summary of your accomplishments, experiences and qualifications. A resume is one of the tools used to essentially sell yourself to potential employers.The chapter gives guidelines for drafting and completing your resume such as writing concisely, being specific and watching your verb tense. There are also examples of the different resumes types such as experiential and skills resumes. This chapter does an in depth job of covering every aspect of resume writing, how it appears, how it reads and what information to include.

Chapter 9 is about putting your best foot forward. In any experience it is best to have the first impression a person has of you to be a favorable one. This carries over into your writing, what is at the beginning of your communication will be your reader's first impression. Keeping this portion of your writing succinct and clear will start your reader out on the right foot. In the introduction of your communication you will want to give your reader an idea of what they can expect from the rest of the communication. Conversely chapter 10 covers the importance of ending your writing well. You do this by repeating your mains points and summarizing all other points and topics covered in the communication as well as proposing paths of action based on what you've written. You will also want to make it clear if anything is needed from the reader, a response to a specific issue or a feedback on an idea.

Response to Peter O'Connor's chapter post

Like you, I had never previously thought that the order in which I gave feedback to a peer review really mattered. In the past when I've been required to provide feedback to peer review, I've always known that you want to give some good points along with the bad. I think though, I always had it in my mind, that the point of a review is to fix the problems. But it is definitely more then that, you also want to reinforce the positive so that the writer knows what they do well, as well as what they could improve on.

Chapter 14 & 15

Revising and editing your writing is very important in ensuring that your finished product is as free from errors as possible. The three parts of revising are listed in chapter 14.
1. Identify possible improvements you could make in your draft.
2. Deciding which of the possible improvements to make.
3. Making the selected changes.
When checking your work, you want to always check from as many different views as possible. What would your target audience feel in reading this, how about your employer, does it properly reflect the company standards and values. The chapter then shifts to reviewing work from both the writer's point of view as well as the reviewer's. The book gives two very useful tables that rank the importance level of types of communications as well as what revisions are more important to revise.

Chapter 15 was a very interesting chapter, especially since it applies very directly to the group project we have in this class. When writing something such as an instruction manual, you want to be sure that what you are writing is clear to the audience involved, in order to do this a testing session can be used. In a test session, a draft of you work is given to a audience, who then has to complete the task by following what you have written. The results from these tests can be used for tweaking and fine tuning your writing to make it more understandable and usable to your audience. Results are gathered not only from observing the test subjects during the process but also in interviews with the subjects after the test.

Response to Journalism post by Sara Ross

I liked your take on sensationalism in the media, it makes sense. The world of media is a market place where rules of economics apply just as they do for any other market. It's all supply and demand, the media that can't supply what the public demands won't remain successful very long. If there wasn't a demand for sensational stories that shock or entertain, we wouldn't see them in the news. But society is entertainment focused, and media has to go where the business is. Whether or not there's a way to change the demand, I don't know, but it would be nice to see our society actually concerned about things other than what appeases them.

Post on Web 2.0

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article, it did a good job of covering the views and incentives of each side, but made some very crucial points in the process. While mainstream media may be a huge industry that has no competitors, it still is held in check by the very public it appeases. News programs have to make sure to check there facts, since putting the wrong facts out there could lead to lawsuits and settlements against them, not to mention the risk of losing viewers. While they may seem like they can put what they want on air for the world, they still are held in check by some laws and by the public themselves. Web 2.0, while it does empower the people to publish and post what they want, it gives such power without any restraint. Who is accountable if a anonymous poster begins smearing someone else with false facts, publishing them as truth? Sadly enough many people will believe what they read, if it made to print or got published online, well they must have checked their facts right? In the interested in receiving news and media that is more or less free of errors, there is a need for some sort of restraint. Mainstream media is held in check by the fact that if they put out something that is false, they could stand the chance of lawsuits costing millions of dollars. While I'm not saying the mainstream media is flawless, I would rather get my facts from them may be safer then getting my information from whichever blog happens to be posting their opinion on a topic.

Response to Vic Marcus' post on news

If I had a time each day that I knew I could sit down and catch up on the news I would, having a routine such as Vic's would definitely help me keep up on what's going on in the world. I liked that Vic identified the general layout of a news broadcast. I've never taken the time to see what the order of the news is when I watch it, which doesn't happen very often. I don't get cable at my home and there is a very poor selection of channels via the use of antennas. My method for catching the news right now is through the internet, but since I don't do this consistently, my ability to keep up with world and local events is sketchy at best.

Television News

I don't watch that much television at home, what I do see is usually in the break room at my work. I watched yesterday for a short portion and saw a report on KGW channel 8 about a double homicide that was now believed to be a murder/suicide. I did not get a chance to truly watch the entire news broadcast. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about TV news is something big and bad just happened. It seems like there's always more negative news than positive. I'm not saying there isn't both, it is possible that since the negative side grabs ones attention more that it's what is remembered most at the end of the news. I prefer to get my news updates through online news source, I find it less depressing at times to be able to read what you want to know about without the extras.

Response to Brandon Mitchells post on freelance writing

I liked your reference to Spiderman for a description of freelance writing. I can see how the freeing lifestyle of getting to write what you want when you want can be, especially if you have have need of extra time for super hero endeavors. I am obligated to point out that while freelance writing or photographing does support these ends, Superman does hold done a set position as a reported and manages to maintain his super hero lifestyle. Super heroes aside, I can see how being a freelancer could provide a source of incentive to work harder when the prospect of your paycheck size directly correlates to the amount of time and effort put into your writing. I think though that it can be freeing if you are successful, but if you don't get many pieces published, it could be the source of a lot of stress and frustration as well.

Freelance writing

I found the class on freelance writing intriguing. I have never viewed myself as a writer and would never have thought about writing articles to make money, but the class raised my interest a bit. I don’t believe I would ever want to write concerning career based subjects, I enjoy engineering, but I would rather work on projects than write about them. Maybe if it was a project I was invested in or involved in some way, I may feel the urge to attempt to get an article published about it. But for the most part that isn’t my thing. I got to thinking though, I am a amateur photographer and though I have thought about going into it as a career I always felt that it would take away some of the pleasure of the art if I was depending on it to provide a paycheck. The same thing for freelance writing, I don’t think I would write about work or career related topics, I deal with those every day, why would I want to write about them once I get home? Activities and hobbies I enjoy on the other hand, I think I could write about them. For example, I have been dancing for over 7 years; I range from swing dances to ballroom and many in between. In particular I have been getting involved in blues dancing over the last year and I would have no problems writing an article about the dance, events in the area or just about the scene itself. So even though I wouldn’t see myself as a writer, I think if it was about a hobby or interest that I have, it might be enough to tempt me off the bench and into the world of freelance writing.

Response to Rich Bowers

Your explanation of the difference between reader-centered voice and using your own voice. When I first read that chapter that point was not quite clear to me, it seemed at first as if you had to choose one or the other. If you are really trying to please your reader than bypass your own voice and write only for them. After reading your post I went and reread that portion of the chapter and was able to understand a little better what the message was.

Chapter 8 & 19

Chapter 8 covers how to create an effective writing style. Once again the reader centered approach is followed, after all you are writing for them not you. Start off by finding what it is your readers are interested in, tailoring your writing to this ends helps keep your writing clear and to the point. How you feel about the subject matter will come across in your writing, you must watch your tone and how you portray your feelings on the subject. If you are presenting a proposal for your bosses pet project that you aren't thrilled about, maybe you should not give a negative tone to the proposal just because you do not like it. Be sure to be adaptable to your readers, considering their backgrounds and experience and always avoid using stereotypes of any sort. The second part of the chapter talks about sentence structure, since this is one of the areas I struggle with I was very interest in the guidelines it gave. Writing with an "active voice" is a struggle for me as well, I have a tendency to write mainly in the past tense, or hop between the two when I write. The rest of the chapter really works on eliminating extras in your writing that is unnecessary, I appreciated the list of fancy verbs versus common verbs.

Chapter 19 covers project management and relations with clients during this process. It starts off with a list of things that should be known about the client before you undertake the project.

Things to know about your client:
- Client's organization
- Readers
- Usability and persuasive objectives
- Stakeholders
- Deadlines
- Preferences and requirements
- Resources
- Budget

After creating a clear picture of your clients and their expectations you must evaluate your view of the project, in order to choose the best course of action. The next step is to create a management plan for completing the project, then the fun start, the proposal. The proposal is not only a way to let the client know how you plan on doing this project for them, it is also how you ask for the written agreement to proceed with the project for them. The chapter ends off with a very detailed example of a proposal covering layout and content that should be in a good proposal.

Response to Robert Clemans Post on Rhetoric

I enjoyed your post on rhetoric, it did a great job of defining and giving specific examples of each type of rhetoric. Your writing was very direct and to the point you included a brief history and the examples were also clear and easy to identify the rhetoric involved. I continue to struggle to understand the difference between ethos and pathos sometimes, since it seems to me that if something was involving me specifically, it would be emotional to me. Comparing your examples helped me see the line that exists between the two type of rhetoric, that even though the ethos may be very personal, it doesn't necessarily have to be emotional.

Chapter 6 & 7

The book continues to guide the readers, as authors, to focus our writing and our research to focus on our readers, using them as a guide for how we approach our writing. Chapter 6 centers on tailoring your research around you readers, by doing this it helps to eliminate time that may be wasted on topics that may not quite fit into your readers interest. This ongoing process starts by defining your research before you actually start collecting source and information, once defined you can then compare what you need to research and find how it applies to your reader. Taking this approach will allow you to find source that you may have overlooked, but are of vital interest to your readers. You can also use your sources to find other sources, check the list of referenced materials from your current source, perhaps they found something that may be of use to you. As you research you topic always make sure to evaluate the information you find and make sure they adhere to the goals of you defined at the beginning of your research as well as checking if the information applies to your readers.

Chapter 7 tackles drafting your paper from the smallest of paragraphs up to the largest of chapters. Starting your paragraphs should always be about the topic covered in the paragraph, also if you are using any generalization they should also be up towards the beginning of the paragraphs. Putting the topic and generalization will increase they reader's ability to skim through the writing picking out the sections that are of interest to them. The process of your writing should always progress from most important to least important, that way what is important has a better chance of being read, not skipped over. Use of good organizational skills are vital to writing in a way that the reader's chances of finding what matters to them most.

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is as much and art form as it is a science. It is the ability to persuade your audience to seeing your point of view. To truly be proficient in rhetoric it is essential that you can appeal to all types of audience in ways that stir their emotions, makes the message personal to them and makes sense logically. Rhetoric is used every day in any form of communication, advertisements, political campaigns, business proposals and personal messages all use it. Use of rhetoric is how we achieve our goals, anything as large scale as a multi-million dollar business deal to simple request between friends. We appeal to whichever side of our audience we believe will pull the most weight in our favor. Ethos, pathos and logos are the three aspects of rhetoric they cover identity emotion and logic respectively. Through the use of these three aspects of persuasion, we have the tools needed to effectively communicate; the art of rhetoric is knowing how to use these aspects. It is not enough to be able to identify what is what, having the ability to shape peoples’ opinions and feeling through the use of rhetoric is where it’s true power lies.

Chapter Reading

This week’s reading assignment started out with chapter 4, Planning for Usability. It talks about how to plan out the structure and organization of your paper to make it easy to read, as well as easy to refer to. It covers how to create a table of contents to make it easier for readers to go directly to the information they need, reducing the extra frustration that can go along with not being able to find what they are looking for. Also, grouping information that is similar or pertains to the same topic in the same portion of the report will make your writing more user friendly. The chapter also mentions that you want to "Give the bottom line first" this goes for your overall paper as well as each section, whatever point needs to be made with that section, should be stated right up front to make for easier perusal.

Chapter 5 covers persuasion; it explains the goals, strategies and approaches to writing a persuasive paper. Persuasion can be used as a tool to reverse your reader's stance on the topic at hand, reinforce a current opinion held by your reader or shape their opinion on a subject that they have no previous knowledge or feelings about. In order to do this you need to plan ahead, you must know what your reader’s feelings on the subject is. Are they supportive or oppositional? What objections would they have? What is your reader's interest in the subject? Once you can answer these questions you will be well on your way to writing a solid paper that can sway them to your side of things. If you know that what you are proposing will be a costly investment to the reader, you'll want to be able to assure them that it will be worth the money. By the end of your paper the goal is to have laid to rest all concerns and apprehension, leaving your reader feeling confident in your proposal.

Chapter 16 is all about building effective communication and productivity in a team setting. Working by yourself may be hard, but working with a team can prove to be more difficult at times. Organization and planning are key to be successful in group related business and professional ventures. This chapter tackles how to get a team set up and keep it running on task through the duration of the project. First off you want to structure the team, pick a team leader, organizers, researchers, and so on. Everyone should know what the team's expectation of them will be. Once this has been decided a clear statement of the team's goals should be laid out. This is open for revisions as the scope may change during the process of the project, but this outline should always be available to refer back to in order to keep the team on track. Create a schedule of when tasks should be done and stick to it as much as possible. Throughout the term of the project meetings should be organized to keep the team up to date on the progress of the team as a whole as well as individual's progress. This will aid in keeping the project moving forward as well as providing a place for members to voice any issues they are having that someone else in the group may be able to help with. The book also gives pointers on how to conduct meetings as well as how one should act while in these project meetings.

Chapter 23 is about reader-centered instructions and how to write them. The four basic points the book uses are:

1. Writing clearly and succinctly
2. Use plenty of graphics
3. Design usable and attractive pages and screens
4 Test your instructions

The chapter covers how to organize your instructions in a well thought out and logic manor. Don't make assumption about what your readers may or may not know. Assume that they have never done this task before and write in a way that is clear and easy for them to understand. Use of graphics is helpful if not vital in helping your readers along the way. This was they don't have to try and interpret what exactly you are trying to write about and allows them to see what they are suppose to be doing. Make the layout of your instructions easy to read and navigate, not to cluttered or overbearing, your reader should be able to easily follow one step after the other to finish the task. In the end, you want to test the instructions on someone who has no previous knowledge of the task at hand. As a writer who already knows what you are doing, you may have left out some processes that you do naturally, but your readers may not have to experience or knowledge to do it without being told so. The rest of the chapter gives examples and details of how to go about doing this.

Response to Melissa Dawson's Blog Post

Very nice summary of the weekly readings, a thought that your list of all the guidelines was very handy as well. It helped me to grasp the full scope the of the chapter to see them listed out as they were. I enjoyed reading your thoughts on the intercultural aspect of writing, I realized after reading what you had written that I had overlooked some useful information when I had read the chapter. I think you also did a good job of referring back to the examples of possible cultural misunderstanding. After reading your post I went back and read those sections again and noticed quite a bit of new information that I had missed the first time. So thank your for your thoroughness in your post, it helped me get more out of my reading.

Reading Response for Chapter 3

Chapter 3 focuses on setting and defining goals for your writing. The guidelines at the beginning of the reading has guidelines on how to approach your readers as well as mapping out what you really want to convey to them. In order to effectively communicate you will need to know a little about the reader, what type of person are they, how well do you know them, what cultural difference may have a factor in how they read your message. With the rise of a more global workplace the ability to communicate effectively with someone from another culture is a must. I think the book does a thorough job of covering many aspects of intercultural communication, which will become even more necessary as we continue on a path to global business. Another point that stuck out to me was guideline 8, it states that you need to be aware of who all you readers will be. Realizing that even though you may write specifically to one person, that does not mean that it won't be shared with other people that may be working with your original reader. If you can identify that say possibly their manager may be looking over your communications or a different department, your writing can change to make your message clear to all readers involved.

Writing

Writing has never been my strong side, I have a hard time collecting my thoughts and putting them down in an orderly fashion that can be understood by others. I would much prefer to talk an issue out with someone than to try to convey all I need to say in print. When I do have to write, usually for school related reasons, I follow the path of the procrastinator. I found that the best results I get from my papers happen when the majority of the writing has been done within a couple of days from the due date. The urgency to finish my writing drives me and somehow I spend less time agonizing over little issues in my papers and allows me to focus on writing the paper as a whole. Another drawback I face is that my grammar and organizational skills are somewhat lacking and if I spend too much time proofreading and editing my papers, I will tend to edit more mistakes into my writing then I originally had. In short writing papers and reports is quite the ordeal for me, one which I never look forward to. I know that I have a very haphazard approach to writing, but it has served me decently so far. I am more than willing to learn how to improve in this area of writing; I just need some incentive and direction to pull it off.

Assigned Reading Response (Chapters 1, 20 & 22)

As I read chapter one of the textbook I began to gain a better understanding of what this course may be about. Coming into the course I was prepared to learn how to properly write reports and do my paperwork correctly. The feeling I got from the first chapter was that this course and book are focused more on preparing me to become a better communicator as a whole in the professional realm. Previously whenever I compose a message or communicate with teachers or other classmates I always have the message I want to send in mind, though the book points out that the reader should always be the main focus. A section that stood out to me was pointing out that your readers react to what they are reading in the moment that they read it. This section of the text warns against leading your communications with anything that would set the tone for the entire message, such as saying something derogatory that will immediately make your reader defensive to what you are saying.

Chapter 20 focused on writing with a reader centered approach, giving helpful tips on how to remove the focus from yourself and placing it on your reader. One section that I found interesting was guideline 2, where the text states that your main point should always come first, except if it might come across negatively. I had never thought of the order in which I wrote something had much significance beyond simple introduction, main body of text and conclusion. I also found the pointers and guides to writing memos and emails very useful as well.

I can relate the most to chapter 22 the most out of any of the readings so far. Many school projects I have been a part of all require proposals to be approved by the teacher. Some are more in depth than others, but all have specific information that needs to be conveyed. I appreciated the in depth approach the chapter takes in explaining and detailing what your proposal should contain and how they should be arranged.