All in all, this class is extremely helpful. It is not just a class to make a grade in and forget everything. This class should be taken with the mindset that what you learn can and will be applied to the world. The assignments and lectures are structured in a way that is very manageable. The most important thing is to stay on top of lectures and assignments and not get left behind. The sections on writing resumes and other business letters is extremely helpful. The community project and the portfolios can seem a bit overwhelming. Breaking these projects down into manageable sections is the key to success. It would be very hard or impossible to try to do these tasks in one night. Staying ahead is vital to succeeding in this class. The class is in no way over challenging. Angela is very helpful and will help you to her fullest ability. Don't be afraid to ask questions and it will be a very good class.

Client Project Reflection

Throughout this semester I have learned many things in business writing. I think the client project pretty much sums up what we have learned the past couple months. Working with a group always has the potential for problems. Dealing with these issues before they become a big problem is essential to performing well as a group. I think that I learned how to function as a good team member more than anything. We had to realize what each person's role was in the team, and stick to that. We didn't have any major problems in our group. I feel that overall we worked well with each other to accomplish what our client needed us to. In future group projects, I think that I will choose my group more carefully. The exercise that we did before we picked groups really helped us to get a feel for the strengths and weaknesses of potential team members. I have learned a lot through this project.

Dual Coding Theory

I think that this ad is a perfect example of the use of dual coding theory. This Nike advertisement uses both images as well as text to convey their message to the target audience. Out of the three cognitive systems we use, the first system processes language. This ad is a good representation of that. The first things the viewer sees are the phrases "practice like champions," and "we believe." After this first process, the second system that processes visual displays starts to work. The feel of a sports locker room is conveyed. All of the visual displays coupled with the text leads to a compelling advertisement. It is a Nike football ad in particular. The feel of a football locker room is clearly conveyed through the use of the dual coding theory.

Miscommunication

The past two summers I worked in a large warehouse doing basic warehouse duties. Communication was essential between individuals and between departments. There were many instances where a miscommunication led to problems. One example that I can think of right now occurred when one worker misheard instructions from the supervisor on which type of product we were supposed to be shipping for that day. After several hours of doing the wrong product, the error was spotted. This cost the company quite a bit. After this incident, several steps were put into place to try to cut down on this communication. One thing that came about after the error was daily meetings between supervisors and employees. This gave an opportunity to clarify and questions for the work that was supposed to be done during the day. No major miscommunications happened the rest of the time I was there.

Mock Interview

I felt that the whole mock interview process was very beneficial. Everything from creating the resume to the actualy interview helped to teach the job search techniques. I wasn't really nervous for the acutaly mock interview. I'm sure that I would've been much more nervous if it was a real interview with a lot riding on it. For the most part the questions that I was asked were pretty straight forward. I felt very confident about general health care questions. There was one question however that caught me off guard a little bit. I was asked how I would fix the Medicare crisis. I wasn't sure what to say since this is obviously a very complex issue that could not be explained in a normal interview. I chose to just give an overview of what I thought was wrong with the system and several general ideas to help fix the system.
I felt that in all, the interview process was very helpful. I would like to have an experience like this again with maybe more technical questions about my job field.

interview

I have not done the mock interview yet. I will write about my experiences after I have the chance to do the interview.

Presentations

This week of presentation was very interesting. I got a chance to learn about new topics and also get to know classmates more. I thought that every presentation was interesting and creative. It is hard to pick three that stood out above the rest. I would say that the two food presentations by Kate and Marie made a big impression naturally. The best way to get my attention is to bring food. Their presentation were also very helpful and informative for anyone who wanted to try to recreate the recipe. They interested the class with the topic, explained how to make the recipe, then handed out samples. Other than the food presentations, I found Shawn's presentation on basketball officiating interesting as well. He did a good job of presenting factual evidence and informing the class of his theories through statistics. It was very fascinating to see exactly what the statistics of Duke and UNC were compared to Clemson. Shawn's presentation along with Marie's and Kate's made the biggest impression on me. All of the presentations were interesting however.