What I've learned

So I guess this is the part where we all comment about how great this class is and how awesome our teacher is to get some browny points. The truth is, I really did learn a lot of beneficial things from this class that will help me in my future. This class improved my writing skills, thanks to Kats amazing purple pen, taught me to always write to my target reader(s), and a lot of little pointers along the way.

I liked that Kat put example papers up on the board. This helped me learn what she was looking for and what made a good memo/paper. It helped us all learn from eachother. Also, as much as I dislike reading textbooks, the textbook from this class did have a lot of good information and the guidelines were very clear and organized. This textbook is probably one that I will keep for future reference. I also liked that it reiterated the same message throughout the book, to always write for you intended reader or audience. I have been trying to apply this skill when writing my final papers for this semester and I feel that it has been helping.

I am glad that this is one of the first classes I have taken at this university because it will help me throughout my education as well as my future career.

Peer Response

Most of the class seems to have a little fear or nervousness about public speaking. What can help overcome this fear is getting to know the audience, being prepared, and of course practise practise practise. Public speaking does seem to get easier the more you do it.

I feel that group presentations are little easier because there is not so much pressure on you and the group can work together to help ease each others nerves. I feel that tonight when presenting our group projects, my anxiety will be low. However, I will have to overcome the nervousness of our research paper presentations coming up in December.

Chapter 17

Like most people, I do not like giving oral presentations. I get nervous and usually psych myself out. Chapter 17 listed some guidelines of how to give an effective oral presentation. I found several points that were very interesting and may be helpful for our upcoming presentations. The first was to plan the verbal and visual parts as a single package, which includes using graphics. I like using graphics because they help take the focus off me and they really do help the speaker be more professional, persuasive, and interesting. However, make sure that you talk to the audience and not your graphic. This is something that I have trouble with. My most preferred form of using a graphic of visual aid is power point or and an overhead. I like power point because the slides act like notes and using key words or points helps me explain my information more thoroughly.

The book also pointed out three different kinds of speeches; scripted talk, outlined talk, and impromptu. I have never liked scripted talk or impromptu. I feel that scripted talk can make a person sound monotone and boring. On the other hand, impromptu can be unorganized and very stressful because there is no preparation. My favorite and the only way I have ever done an oral presentation is by an outlined talk. This prepares you and makes it easier to add or take away certain parts of your presentation based on the reactions the of the audience. It also enables a speaker to be flexible and deliver in a natural speaking voice.

Anther tip the book gives is to try to speak in a natural conversation style, which is not the same as informal. It means to speak directly to your listeners while keeping it simple and natural. It also helps to speak with enthusiasm and use gestures. I have the hardest time with this because I get so nervous. It is hard for me to act natural. It has helped in the past when I have been passionate about my subject because it keeps your audience interested. However, it's easier said than done to accept the nervousness and work with it. I have heard this advice before and it has never helped. I think more than anything, public speaking becomes easier and less nerve wrecking the more you do it.

"The Persuaders"

The one thing that really surprised me was the company that had all the records of what we buy and some of our personal information that we give out when we buy something. It is crazy that company's can buy that information to get certain information about potential consumers. But if you think about it, we are all walking advertisements. Almost anything you buy has a certain logo on it. The shoes and clothes you wear, the phone you carry around, the drinks we buy, etc. And what we buys says a lot about ourselves. The Starbucks I drink every morning shows that I am a coffee drinker. The clothes I wear are mostly from the store that I work at. What kind of phone, whether it be simple and not to many gadgets, or has everything from playing songs to the Internet. What you buy can even interpret which stage of life you are in. A typical college student usually purchases a new lab top or computer, books from the school they attend, student loans, or maybe be too frivolous with their money. Either way, what you buy says a lot about you and what you are doing in life which is definitely something to think about the next time you make a purchase.

Chapter 2 response

I have not written a resume for myself since high school. I never enjoyed writing them but I think that was because I didn't have any true qualifications for the jobs I was applying for. Chapter 2 gave some interesting insights on writing resumes and some things that I will include in my next resume. I like that resumes are short and to the point. You must write concisely and be specific. I also think the organization is important because most employers scan through resumes. The important parts of your resume must stick out and the more visually appealing the better. One thing I did not know was that it is improper to use "I" which is probably because this leads to proper sentences and not straight and to the point fragments. I also thought it was interesting that references are to be included in resumes. I was always taught that references should be available upon request. However, I think that references should be included because they tell the employer a lot about you. One fear I have is that someday one of my resumes will be scanned by a computer which is more than likely to happen. I liked that the book gave suggestions for keywords to be included in resumes and that it is appropriate to have a keyword section. This may come in handy for future resumes. I think writing a resume now would be more enjoyable because I could refer to this chapter which gives excellent guidelines and examples and I actually have some good qualifications to put on a resume.

Response to Jeff Schafer

You brought up a good point about peer reviews. Assigned peer reviews can be tricky because your fellow peers may not want to hurt you feelings. They may tend to say more positive things about your paper than actually critiquing it, which is worse in the long run. However, I feel that if my dad or a close friend critiqued my paper they would be more honest and know that I would take the constructive criticism. Your fellow students may also not be your target audience so it is best to find people who stay in the guidelines of your target reader.

Revising and testing drafts

If you have been in any type of any English class, then odds are that your teacher will assign some form of peer editing or reviewing. Not only must you edit and revise your own paper but it does help to have another person review your work. I have never been as thorough as the guidelines in the book suggest, but I think that it had some interesting and useful tips. To read your draft from the perspective of your reader and identify if your work is usable and persuastive (an underlying concept in the book). I also think it is helpful to step away from your draft for a specified time and read your draft out loud and very slow. This helps to pick up on any confusing sentences or organizational problems. One more tip that I thought to be helpful was to review your draft once for substantive errors and once for mechanical errors. It's hard to read through a paper one time and fix all areas of error. Reading through your draft at least five times and concentrating on five different aspects could help to eliminate different kinds of errors.

Something that I have never done is testing drafts. It seems like it would be very helpful in the workplace whether it be a document explaining a step by step procedure or for sharing information across departments. I thought it was interesting to read the different ways that you can test for usability. The performance test can actually test the reader on whether they can perform the procedure after reading the document. If the reader is close to your target reader this can help you decide to have more specified details in a step or eliminate unnecessary steps. I like the location step because it tests whether your work is organized in an effective way. And last, the understanding test which is asking questions to see if your target reader comprehends the information. I will take into consideration the steps from chapters 14 and 15 the next time I have to edit a paper.