Blog III and IV (Summer A)

You’ve paid your dues, climbed the proverbial ladder, clawed your way through the human pile of talentless hacks, and now you’ve landed your dream job.  For the first part of this blog, you must write about your daily routine at your dream job.   Basically, answer these questions: (1) describe your job, (2) how much you are getting paid (realistically), and (3) your plan for retirement.  Once you have answered those three questions, think about the ethical considerations o f your job.  And then write about a real or fictional situation that involves a communication-related ethical dilemma.  As you describe the situation, try to bring personal, social, and, if applicable, conservation ethics into the conflict. At the end of the situation, leave your readers with a difficult question to answer.  

Proposal Projects

Suppose you are a professional technical writer for global company.  Your boss has asked you to write a persuasive document that can help the company's growth in developing countries. (What that persuasive style entails us up to you).  From what you have read in Chapter 2 of your text, write about your action plan for this assignment.  How will you gather your sources?  What tone will your document have?  What will you put in the beginning, middle, and end of your document?

To receive full points for Blog II, you must answer the above questions to best your ability.  Remember, get in the habit of showing, not telling in your writing. Best of luck.

Blog Posting Summer: A (Here we go again)

As you have read in Chapters 1 and 13, effective communication affects the productivity of a technical workplace.   Suppose you were to start your own company.  What would be your company’s mission statement?  What personal qualities would you look for in you employees?  Name some of the restrictions  you would place on workplace communication.

To receive full credit for this blog, you must do and answer the following: (1)Create your own company; (2)name the qualities a good employee, at your company, should have;  (3) write a one-sentence mission statement, disclosing your company’s purpose;  (4)name some your company’s restrictions on communication within your workplace.   Your response must be at least one full paragraph, meaning five to seven sentences.  Best of luck.

Blog I: Summer A

As you have read in Chapters 1 and 13, communication in a technical workplace is essential to productivity.   Suppose you were to start a technical company of your own.  What type of technical company would you start?  What qualities would look for in potential employees?  Name some of your rules in policies regarding company emails.  Would you terminate an employee because of an email outside of your policies?  How would you communicate an employee’s breach of your company’s polices?

To get full credit on this posting, you must create your own company and establish its purpose.  List the qualities you want in potential employers.  Then name a few of your disciplinary policies regarding inappropriate emails.  Finally, think of either a mission statement or goal unique to your company.  Remember, you are the brain of your organization.  Its success not only depends on your smarts, but also the dependability of your employees.   Good luck.

Difficult Presentations

(*Note) This blog is worth 25pts.  Turn to 448 in your textbook.  There you will find the story entitled, "The Coward," starring our intrepid heroine, Jennifer Sandman.  Apparently, Jennifer is about to give a presentation that does not sit comfortably with the town regulars.  They do not want a GrandMart in their little community.  In addition to all this, Jennifer thinks her boss is a coward.

Suppose you had to give a difficult speech in front of a hostile crowd.  How would you handle yourself? Would you risk your life to get your company's point across? Would you leave if the people got out of hand, and started to chuck stones in your direction? Though they probably would not put Jennifer's head on a pike, she could still be hurt by a hostile crowd. In the end, is it worth it?

BLOG IV &V (worth 20 points)

Turn to page 373 in your textbook and find the Alice Franklin case study. To briefly summarize the case study, Alice, a career-driven professional, lands a job at the Outreach Division, an organization that delivers medical supplies to Third-World Countries.  Zidga, a website development firm, is hired to redesign the Outreach Division’s website.  Their design is so good that it attracts the attention of deep-pocketed investors.  Soon the Outreach program collects over a million dollars worth of donations.  Before Alice can celebrate, she notices a disturbing trend:  the website attendance from South America and Africa has dropped.  Upon contacting Brazil, Alice learns that Zidga’s webpage has features incompatible with their web browsers.  To make matters worse, their out-dated computers crash from the updates.  Alice feels guilty because she the new website undermines the rhetoric of the company’s core values, yet it is drawing more money than ever before.

Suppose you were in a similar situation.   Would it bother you to leave out the website’s intended audience for big-money donators?  Do you think this primary audience change of the website is a good thing or a bad thing?  To receive full credit, you must write a well-reasoned response to this question.  I expect good answers from you.

One of the reasons people go to college is to receive better training for a certain occupation.  The end of the academic road presents as many problems as it does possibilities.   In today’s tough economy, finding a decent job right after college can be an arduous process.   However, whether you admit it or not, you have acquired analytical and verbal skills that can aid you in your quest for gainful employment. People often forget the college toolbox handed to them after their four years.  Nevertheless, it is there, waiting to be used.  For this blog, think about landing an interview for your dream job.   Explain what your dream job is, and how plan to get it.  Once you are there for the interview, answer these questions: (1) What is your greatest strength?  (2)What is your greatest weakness? (3)Why should we hire you?  To receive full credit for this blog, you must answer these questions in relation to your dream job.