Anaylisis of Carnegie Communications PPT Presentation

Just from taking public presentation here at Lynchburg College, I was able to immediately recognize that Carnegie did a poor job with their PPT slide show and presentation. The speaker relied too heavily on the use of text in her slide shows, and I even saw her having to look back at her slides to see where she was in her speech. This is poor presentation skills; not to mention it is very distracting to have a million lines of text thrown up on a screen. As such, the audience ends up staring at the slide show during the whole presentation rather than looking at the speaker.

Not all information needed to be put up on the slide shows, and I felt that the speaker should have relied more on the use of black blank screens so that we would be focusing on the speaker rather than the screen. Their were a couple of instances where Carnegie used text graphics to present information and this was very effective. As I have learned from my public presentation class, audiences lose attention very quickly if text heavy screens are the dominant part of a speech; therefore, using graphics in presenting information works with your audience to trigger that information in a visual message - which results in the audience more likely to remember aspects of a speech.

These tricks will be easier to employ in our English 210 PPT presentations because the nature of the assignment requires us to use lots of graphics and images. As a result I am confident that I will be able to create an effective power point presentation to lure high school students into wanting to pursue English as a major or minor at Lynchburg College.

Rhetoric of Employment Documents

It is my understanding that knowing how to build and create a resume is something everybody has to do at some point or another in their life. I would wager that most everybody in our class has completed some form of a resume as well. If not, they probably have never had a job and must have inherited millions from a dead relative, struck it big at the slots, or maybe stole some money? I hope the latter isn't the case...

In my experiences, creating a resume requires you to remember all your past achievements, employment, education, and anything else that would be beneficial for your future employer to know. The problem for me, is that I can never remember the names of my previous bosses - some of which don't deserve to be remembered in my mind.

The documents on the Pearson website about resumes, don't really tell me anything new or that I didn't already know. Templates for writing professional looking resumes are available online very easily. One type of employee document that the website mentions that I have had no previous experience with is an application letter. The template for the application letter lays out everything one needs to do clearly, and I understood it. The documents will provide a good source for our class to start creating these documents, but overall the documents didn't teach me anything I didn't already know.

Ease of Access From College into Workforce

What I found most noteworthy from the interview on Monday was that English courses teach critical thinking skills which are crucial out in the everyday workforce. This, I think, is the main point that struck me, as it is the one that I hadn't really ever considered before – although, if you think about it makes sense. Critical thinking is needed in order to structure a clear and coherent message or idea in writing, and speaking.

Another noteworthy point I found interesting was what Jennifer told us. She mentioned that English courses help with interview skills. It does this because it helps you make the connections to ‘tell the story’ as she put it for communications and writing skills needed in an interview. This goes along with critical thinking because in order to make the connections and tell the story, you need to focus in and organize the information that is most pertinent to the employer.

Jennifer went on to discuss that leadership skills and being able to influence others is a very beneficial skill in the job world. But she seemed to believe that these skills are mainly acquired through the work force itself.

Amy, had more information on the teaching aspects in the field of English, and she stressed to us that a graduate degree is the best possible way to become a fully licensed teacher, and obtain more money. She suggested that a B.A. helps students get there foot in the door for jobs, but a masters degree helps you move up and achieve those higher entry level jobs.

Both presenters stressed the importance of internships and receiving prior workplace experience before seeking a job. And both agreed that networking is ‘keen’ as Jennifer put it, to obtain jobs out in the real world.

So far, the problem I see will be to take all this information and organize it clearly, but make it more condensed for project 4.

Brainstorming Questions for an English Major

Many, including myself feel what exactly can an English major or minor do for a young college student once out of college? I know that knowing how to write is a very critical skill the job force which can open up a lot of opportunities, but I still feel a little in the dark. Being an English minor myself, I can only hope that my ability to write will help me out (although it probably will not show in this blog post).

Therefore, my questions will be the following for these English scholars who are presenting to our class on Monday.

-What is the typical type of job that a college student with an English major or minor receives out of college?

-What type(s) of job(s) did you have after college?

-How exactly does being an English major or minor make you a more well-rounded employee?

These are only a few questions that came to mind, but I am sure that when our class is listening to their presentation we will have a lot of useful information and learn (hopefully) enough to make us employable.

Discussing Discussion Questions.

In the big 1 case, Frank Page takes a very authoritative point of view in this situation. As manager, he took a terrible stance and was inconsiderate by letting his emotions get the better of him. So what if some Japanese people had to ride in a cold car, you have to deal with it, make modifications, and improve your business for next time. He should have offered a more productive analysis to the person assigned to write the draft letter. Thus I think it would be better to suggest another strategy and work with Mr. Page, trying to get him to see another solution to this dilemma. It would be ethically wrong not to contact the airport manager, therefore contacting them and yet again asking for another solution to this problem might not be a bad idea. They might be able to serve you better than Mr. Page anyway as your role of Assistant Director and offer a better solution. Mr. Page seems to think the airport manager as incompetent, but he deserves to at least defend himself and offer advice so contacting him would be a good idea. As for why Mr. Page asked someone else to write this draft letter - well it is probably because he is incompetent. He has bigger ideas than he is actually able to produce. That and he is manager so he has the final say over an assistant director.

Usability Assessment & Divorce

As for why individuals would most likely visit divorce websites, the first thing that comes to mind is that those individuals are struggling living alone or in the absence of their significant other. Maybe things ended unfavorably or with one spouse getting more out of the divorce than the other. Maybe that same spouse 'juked' their partner so that they purposefully would gain more assets through the court system. They probably also visit these types of divorce websites to see how they can help their children who will most likely be affected because of the separation. Additionally, they might be seeking information on how to improve their future relationships or seek information on how to improve their relationship techniques and habits.

My first bout through dadsdivorce.com, I felt compelled to visit the ask a lawyer link. After all, if I was to have a divorce right now as a 20 year old male (which is completely ridiculous) I would want to know what my lawyer could and couldn't do in order to help me through the divorce. I then clicked on the FAQ section to wee what other 'dads' were thinking. I figured that being able to identify with a group dealing with similar problems would best help me If I were to be a divorced dad. I lost interest after I saw that they had a link for how divorce impacts the military man: this is completely ridiculous - I don't feel that military men are impacted more than any other man who happens to be going through a divorce. What a shame that the army has to leave their stain on a website like this. The title should read: How Divorce Impacts the Common Man. That way every man feels included. The army can rot in hell. Sure military men might be more effected in the sense that they will be away at war and have no spouse to return to upon their end of duty, but I don't feel that this should be a section all to its self. Put it within the Common Man article as a sub section - for christs sake!

Next I viewed the Podcasts link because it is something which I am not very familiar with and I found it interesting that divorced men are speaking their mind of radio through itunes and ipods. This world truly is embracing convergence. Dadsdivorce.com also had a store section which is absolutely a meaningless place; t-shirts, hoodies, calendars, help cd's...what a bunch of crap. I'm sorry but this website started to annoy me. If I was ever in a divorce, I do not feel like I would ever even consider buying any of this junk. A divorce calendar? You've got to be kidding me.

I suppose I should have looked through the Dadsdivorce website a little more in depth, but I was starting to get angry with the site. Usually, I am one to have patience, but this website tested my limits. The way I went about interacting with the website only ended up upsetting me: the army, calendars, hoodies...what a waste. This website should focus more on the helping aspects of going through a divorce and less on merchandise and army recruitment. Oh your divorced? Well we've got the solution for you, join the army! Although, in retrospect, I do believe that the podcast section is a beneficial idea for the age in which we live in. Listening to other divorced dads talk about how they handled these pressing times etc is most likely a helpful thing for other dads looking for help and encouragement.

Response to Principles and SEND

I am not so sure that an argumentative style of writing would best suit the air bag case. The small statured woman in the complaint lady is already mad at her predicament, and taking up an argument with her, or addressing her problem verbatim to her is not helpful. Rather, I agree that reasoning skills are what truly would help this woman. It is silly that in the reading they call it an 'argument' when reasoning is what they really mean. Thus, acknowledging to this lady that she should take other safety precautions, Vanguard is in her best interest, and that we want her not to be harmed should be a top priority for the response letter. A good, well thought out opening sentence for this letter should reflect this 'priority' as I described above. As far as shaping texts, bolding certain words for emphasis is a little excessive for an assignment like this. Fancy indentations and alignments would most likely cause more harm than good. The purpose of a response to a complaint letter is to comfort or address the persons dilemma. Indentations and such would confuse the reader. Normal text indentations, and the text itself should remain conservative so that it is easy to read and understand.

Whoopah! I'm not done yet...

Email's are a great thing, and to most of us, it is a basic form of computing nowadays. However, the book has some good points to offer. What struck me the most was that you can actually get in a lot of trouble for writing something as simple as an email. This is an important chapter in SEND because many people forget that you represent the organization you work for and if you're caught writing an incriminating email (even if it was meant to be a joke) you can find yourself up shits creek. An immediate level of professionalism must be met once an individual has entered the work force. This is important to certain college students especially: those who like to 'goof' off. Goofing off in work is not viewed lightly - it's a situation in which one must act appropriate. You wouldn't be rude, obnoxious, or inconsiderate at a funeral, and the same should go for your job. This includes all aspects of you job, including using email. So don't even begin to write that message to Suzie Cutie telling her that her ass looks fine Bobby Graduate, you may just find yourself in a whirl of trouble.