Learned and Improvement

From the standard business communication I learned how to be detailed. For example, these assignments required finding the answers in the book and then posting them on the blog. Detail was needed to assure I got the correct answers in my blog. Another thing I learned from this assignment was writing email messages. Through a few of the assignments I learned how to write a negative and positive message.One skill that needs improvement is turning my assignments in on time. It was extremely difficult for me to balance this classes homework along with work since we often got assigned a good amount of homework. I need to be more organized and get my homework done when it is due.

Page 43 Efficient Meetings

• Keep the discussion on track. A good meeting leader draws out the best ideas the group has to offer and resolves differences of opinion while maintaining progress toward achieving the meeting's purpose and staying on schedule. 
• Follow agreed-upon rules. The larger the meeting, the more formal you need to be to maintain order.
• Encourage participation. On occasion, some participants will be too quiet and others too talkative. The quiet participants may be shy, they may be expressing disagreement or resistance, or they may be working on unrelated tasks. Draw them out by asking for their input on issues that pertain to them.
• Participate actively. If you are a meeting participant, look for opportunities to contribute to both the subject of the meeting and the smooth interaction of the group. Speak up if you have something useful to say. 
• Close effectively. At the conclusion of the meeting, verify that the objectives have been met or arrange follow-up work, if needed. 

Page 39 Guidelines for Collaborative Writing

• Select collaborators carefully. Choose a combination of people who together have the experience, information, and talent needed for each project. 
• Agree on project goals before you start. Starting without a clear idea of what the team hopes to accomplish inevitably leads to frustration and wasted time.
• Give your team time to bond before diving in. Take time to know each other before being asked to collaborate.
• Clarify individual responsibilities. Make sure individual responsibilities are clear because you rely on each other.
• Establish clear processes. Make sure everyone knows how the work will be managed from start to finish.
• Avoid composing as a group. For longer projects, you will usually find it more efficient to plan, research, and outline together but assign the task of writing to one person or divide larger projects among multiple writers.
• Make sure tools and techniques are ready and compatible across the team. Even minor details such as different versions of software can delay projects.
• Check to see how things are going along the way. Make sure you check in with your group to assure things are going properly. 

Page 36 Characteristics of Effective Teams

The most effective teams have a clear objective and shared sense of purpose, have a strong sense of trust, communicate openly and honestly, reach decisions by consensus, think creatively, and know how to resolve conflict. Teams that have these attributes can focus their time and energy on their work, without being disrupted by destructive conflict.

Page 35 Advantages and Disadvantages of Teams

Advantages 

• Increased information and knowledge- By working in teams more experience and information can be put into the decision-making process.
• Increased diversity of views- Team members bring a variety of perspectives to the decision-making process.
• Increased acceptance of a solution- Those who participate in making a decision are more likely to support and encourage others to accept it.
• Higher performance levels- Working in teams can unleash new levels of creativity and energy in workers who share a sense of purpose and mutual accountability. 

Disadvantages 

• Groupthink- Occurs when peer pressures cause individual team members to withhold contrary or unpopular opinions.
• Hidden agendas- Private, counter-productive motives, such as a desire to take control of the group, undermine someone else on the team, or to pursue a business goal that runs counter to the team's mission.
• Cost- Aligning schedules, arranging meetings, and coordinating individual parts of a project can eat up a lot of time and money.

Page 146; Learning Objective Checkup; 5.5 and 5.6

Objective 5.5: Define the four types of sentence, and explain how sentence style affects emphasis within a message.
13.) Were is the most emphatic place to put a dependent clause?
         a.) At the beginning of the sentence.
14.) Devoting a lot of words to a particular idea shows your audience that:
        c.) The idea is important.

Objective 5.6: Define the three key elements of a paragraph and list five ways to develop unified, coherent paragraphs.
15.) When developing a paragraph, keep in mind:
      c.) That your choice of technique should take into account your subject, your intended audience,               and your purpose.
16.) To develop a paragraph by illustration, give your audience enough examples to help them grasp           the main idea.
17.) Paragraphs organized by comparison and contrast point out the differences or similarities                     between two or more items.
18.) To explain the reasons something happened, which of these paragraph designs should you use?
       a.) cause-effect

Page 164; 4 Message Design Elements

• Consistency. Throughout each message, be consistent in your use of margins, typeface, type size, and space. Vertical lines, columns, and borders should also remain consistent so readers know what to expect.
• Balance. Balance is an important but subjective issue. One document may have a formal, rigid design in which the various elements are placed in grid pattern, whereas another may have a less formal design in which elements flow more freely across the page. Simple designs are usually more effective than more complex designs.
• Restraint. Do not clutter the message with too many design elements, too many colors, or too many decorations. Simple is better!
• Detail. Always pay attention to detail that can affect your design and message.

Page 97; 6 Steps for Audience Analysis

1. Identify your primary audience. For some messages, certain audience members may be more important than others.
2. Determine audience size and geographic distribution. Depending on the size of the audience, the message will be needed to be altered based on the size.
3. Determine audience composition. Look for similarities and differences in culture, language, age, education, organizational rank and status, attitudes, experience, motivations, and any other factors that could affect the successful reception and decoding of your message.
4. Gauge audience members' level of understanding. If audience members share your general background, they'll probably understand your material without difficulty, If not, your message will need an element of education to help people understand your message.
5. Understand audience expectations and preferences. Members of the audience may expect an extreme detailed report or just a short summary.
6. Forecast probable audience expectations. Potential audience reaction affects message organization, If you expect a favorable response, you can state conclusions and recommendations up front and offer minimal supporting evidence, If you expect skepticism, you can introduce conclusions gradually and with more proof.

WMU Insider with Taylor Lewis Edited

     Taylor Lewis has never known a dull moment. Even though she grew up in the "middle of nowhere" on a family farm, she was always busy participating for 11 years in 4-H and taking her prize cattle to shows all around the country.
      More recently, in addiction to her education, Taylor has spent 3 years working for Steak N' Shake, and was recently promoted to a Service Trainer.
     After graduating from High School, Taylor was all set to attend Ferris State University when Kellogg Community College offered her a Trustee Scholarship and a position on the Kellogg Community College softball team.
     Now she is attending Western Michigan University, and majoring in Human Resource Management. Just last week, Taylor applied to be an International Student Volunteer in Costa Rica. As she has never been out of the country, or even on an airplane, Taylor is very excited to think she might have such an opportunity for travel and service.
     In the future, Taylor hopes to begin her career somewhere warm and sunny; perhaps North or South Carolina. Her dream job would be as a College Recruiter for a large college.

Message Strategies: Communicating in a Crisis

As you are all aware, a fire broke out at the Apex facility at approximately 10 p.m. last night and thankfully no one was in the facility at the time. The cause of the fire is not yet known, but the rumors that the facility stores extremely dangerous chlorine gas and that the fire was spreading to other nearby businesses are not true. Special industrial firefighters hired by EQIS have already brought the fire under control. Residents in the immediate area were evacuated as a precaution but have already been able to return to their homes. At this point, tests conducted by the North Carolina State Department of Environmental and Natural Resources "had not detected anything out of the ordinary in the air." Thank you to the local police and fire departments that have helped us with this unfortunate event. For more information please call EQIS's toll-free hot line.

Page 309 Social Media

• Facilitate community building. Customers and other audiences can connect with your company and each other. Can be very simple such as activating the commenting feature on a blog, or it may involve having a more elaborate social commerce system.
• Listen at least as much as you talk. Listening is very important for online conversations as it is for in-person conversations.  A variety of tools can help you with this.
• Initiate and respond to conversations within the community.  Through content on your website, blog postings, social network profiles and messages, newsletters, and other tools, make sure you provide the information customers need in order to evaluate your products and services.
• Provide information that people want. This strategy of content marketing helps you build trusted relationships with potential buyers by repeatedly demonstrating that you understand and care about meeting their needs.
• Identify and support your champions. In marketing, champions are enthusiastic fans of your company and its products. Champions are so enthusiastic that they help spread your message, defend you against detractors, and help other customers use your products.
• Be authentic; be transparent; be real. Do not try and fool the public through fake blogs and other tactics.
• Don't rely on the news media to distribute your message. Marketers have to try and persuade the news media to distribute their message to consumers and other audiences by producing news stories. These are important, but you can speak directly to these audiences by blogs and other electronic tools.
• Integrate conventional marketing and sales strategies at the right time and at the right places.  AIDA and similar approaches are still valid for specific communication tasks, such as conventional advertising and the product promotion pages on your website.

Message Strategies: Negative Organizational Announcements

Shaw employees,

As we all know, the U.S. economy has continued to sag after receiving multiple blows from the housing and financial sectors. Due to these unfortunate events, there are struggles in the new-housing market the inability of many current homeowners to afford remodeling projects have lowered demand for carpet. With less demand for carpet, the Milledgeville plant can no longer operate at a profit. Shaw is forced to close the Milledgeville plant and lay off all 150 employees from the current plant. The plant will close three to four weeks from the current date. With more than $5 billion in annual sales, Shaw Industries is the world's number one carpet manufacturer. As openings become available in other Shaw facilities the company hopes to be able to place some of the workers in those jobs. Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond promised to help the affected employees. "The  layoff at Shaw Industries in the Milledgville will create a difficult situation for the workers and their families, and I want them to know they are not alone in dealing with this problem. Our staff will work closely with the laid-off workers, company officials, and local elected officials in determining how to best assist the affected employees." Assistance to be provided by the State of Georgia includes career counseling, unemployment benefits, and job retraining.

Message Strategies: Negative Organizational Announcements

I am writing this blog on behalf of the Looney Launch that has recently been introduced. The Looney Launch is extremely dangerous and is being removed from the market immediately. As employees here at XtremityPlus, you must be aware that there are going to be some negative reactions from enthusiastic customers and retailers. Reassure the customers and retailers that it is in their best interest that the Looney Launch is discontinued. The company cannot afford the risk of additional lawsuits, and even for XtremityPlus, the Looney Launvh pushes the envelope a bit too far. The product is simply too dangerous to sell in good conscience.

Resume and Cover Letter

           The resume and cover letter assignment was a very good exercise for me to complete.  I had made a resume and cover letter for a previous class but not in as much detail as we completed in this class. I learned multiple things from this assignment but a few stuck out to me the most.  For the resume under work experience I learned that the responsibilities for the job a person is currently working at should be written in present tense and the jobs the person is no longer working at should be written in past tense.  The resume should be drafted using short, crisp phrases built around strong verbs and nouns. After I published my final resume, I noticed the responsibility statements became a lot stronger throughout my drafts. I need to master how to alter my resume to a specific job that I will be applying for.

I thought that the cover letter assignment was more difficult because I had less knowledge on how to publish one.  My first draft of a cover letter consisted of three paragraphs and did not have the best information included in it. I like the idea of having bullet points in the cover letter. I think that it is more organized and eye appealing.  My cover letter has improved tremendously through the process of this assignment. Along with my cover letter, I need to improve on mastering how to alter it according to the job I am applying for. I also learned that the header on the resume and cover letter needs to match. 

On Campus with Taylor Lewis

There is never a dull moment in the life of Taylor Lewis. Lewis was born in an extremely small community of which some people would refer to as “the middle of no where.” Growing up on a farm, she spent 11 years participating in 4-H and showing cattle around the country. In high school, Lewis was extremely involved in extracurricular activities. Such as Environmental Club, prom committee, Youth in Government, Science Olympiad,  Quiz Bowl,  and Student Council. She also enjoyed participating in volleyball, basketball, softball, and cross country. Lewis has spent 3 years working at Steak N’ Shake and has been recently promoted to a management position. In her free time, Lewis enjoys being around friends and family, riding her newly purchased Kawasaki Ninja, being outdoors, and giving love to every and any animal.

After graduating high school, Lewis was set to attend Ferris State University but instead was offered the Trustee Scholarship and a position on the softball team at Kellogg Community College (KCC).  The Trustee Scholarship is awarded for students surrounding the Battle Creek area through an application process. While attending KCC she maintained a 3.4/4.0 GPA while averaging 17 credits a semester, working a part-time job, and participating in softball year-round. After two years of dedication and hard work, she graduated with her Associate in Arts. Currently a student at Western Michigan University (WMU), Lewis is going to major in Human Resource Management and is currently undecided on a minor. She has chosen Human Resource Management because she is extremely organized, a people-person, and wants to make a difference in people’s lives.

Since Lewis wants to get more involved not just at WMU, but the world as whole, she applied to be an International Student Volunteer in Costa Rica. She desires to get a better understanding of life outside of the United States and engage in a diverse culture to broaden her perspective on life. Five years from now, she pictures herself sitting on the beach somewhere sunny and 75. Lewis could see herself working as college recruiter at a large university. Since Lewis is passionate about every level of education, and the idea of motivating people to attend college, this will be a perfect starting point in her successful career.