What do you need?

Of the three major projects due this semester, the one I need to spend the most time on is my CWC. I need to put my ideas down and actually start making the documents. To do this I will need to sit down with Joe again for a while to brainstorm and put some thoughts together. The team project is going well, we just need to put the final pieces together and make sure it flows and is complete. The peer review will help with the last two parts and the extra time will be nice so that we won't be as rushed. I am not very worried about the resume/cover letter because as a completely individual project it will be easy to find time to do it.

I would like to know more about what the final CWC project might look like. Looking at past students' examples would be helpful, I'm just having a hard time visualizing what we will be turning in to you. I would also like to see some final documents that students before us have made to get more inspiration. I would also like to see some examples of student resumes and you could say what parts are good and what parts are bad. To me when we see examples of past students it is much more helpful than examples from a book - they just seem more relevant.

Status Report

• What did you, personally accomplish on you team project this week?

This week I revised the survey questions and Lauryn and I handed out and collected about 50 of them in the library and in Shaw. While we were collecting the surveys a lot of students asked us about why we were doing the survey and when we told them our idea of a 24-hour study room we got overwhelming support. Hopefully the survey’s will reinforce the information we gathered by speaking with the participants. I also expressed my thoughts about wanting to meet more to the group. I also did some research regarding 24 hour study areas at other schools around the country.

• What are you planning to accomplish next week?

I plan on meeting with the group and helping write the first draft of the team project. I also plan on doing more research about 24 hour study areas if we as a group feel it is necessary.

• What challenges are you facing individually and as a team?

Since we all basically talked about the same challenge – scheduling – I can tell already that it is and will be less of an issue for the rest of the project. We all realize that everyone is very busy and are working to take steps to make that less of an issue. I think we will start utilizing Googledocs and Google Calendar more effectively to help us stay on track.

• How can I help?

I think we are all set and on the right track for now. 

Resume quiz

67%

Job Ad

This job drew my interested because it is in the communication field and is related to art. The job is the Junior Art Director at The Fusion Agency. The writing style of the job posting interested me because it is very friendly and has a sense of humor. I can tell that their main priorities in an incoming employee are skill, personality, and dedication. It is refreshing to see a professional job posting with a sense of humor. It is important to be serious, but it is equally important to have fun at work so that you can be productive, successful, and happy.

The tone of the job posting is really the biggest draw for me into this ad. This company sounds like a great place to work where creative ideas would be encouraged and speaking up would not be frowned upon. I think I fit the bill because I have great communication skills and am good at coming up with ideas and thinking of new solutions to problems. They list a good amount of computer programs to be proficient and familiar with and outline the specifications that would come with the job. Just in the layout of the ad it is easy to see that this company is good at balancing work and fun, and even integrating the two.

From the job posting I can tell that the company is laid back but hard working. The work environment seems awesome and sounds like a place that I would fit in.  The job posting states that they are looking to hire someone who is "sharp, creative, and forward thinking" and that the employees there "check their egos at the door" and strive for excellence and to stand out. I feel like I fit the description of who they are looking for. Plus, the description of themselves and current employees fit the type of company I would like to work for: hard working and successful, but not lacking in humor or excitement.

http://www.fusionim.com/advertising_jobs.html

**I think I'm going to need to find a new ad because I don't meet the qualifications for knowledge about the computer programs and stuff like that..I picked this out more as something I would apply to after college when I have accomplished more

Topic Proposal Reflection

Team Proposal Reflection

As of now in this project we have completed and turned in our final Topic Proposal, written the survey questions, and had an interview with Mark Ferne, so we are on track and successfully met our first deadlines. There are definitely challenges associated with working in a group but when all members are in communication with each other the issues diminish. We can recognize the issues we have and address them because we are all open and understand that communication between teammates is helpful. As a team I think we have all contributed about the same amount of work, but if we could do it all over from the beginning I would prefer to do all of the work together as a team, but that is totally unrealistic considering there are five members in our team and we all go to school and have jobs.

We are on schedule and are ready to conduct research and move forward with our project. We have the Topic Proposal written up and turned in, Gary and Lauryn met with Mark Ferne, and the survey questions are written up so we are ready to do that whenever we want. I would say we are successful because we have all the necessary things done at this point. Everyone has been contributing equally and although it has been difficult getting the entire group together we have been making it work by staying in communication with each other.

The biggest challenge, as I have mentioned, is that we all have busy schedules so it is hard to find a time to meet that works for everyone. We try to manage that by meeting when the majority of the group is able to and keeping whoever isn’t able to show up to certain things informed and in the loop. We try and email, text, and call each other to make sure we’re all on the same page. We are pretty successful with this and being in class together twice a week helps because we can touch base and make sure we know what is coming up next.

So far I’ve helped out with the Topic Proposal, added my questions to the list of questions we had for Mark Ferne, and written the questions for the survey we will hand out. I’ve been successful in working with the group because I feel like I’ve done about the same amount of work as everyone else in the group – we’ve all contributed equally so far I’d say. If I could go back and start over I would probably try and have a few more meetings just to check in and make sure everything’s on track. This is mostly because when working in a group I prefer that almost everything is done together as a group. I know that this is unrealistic with this specific project however, because all of our schedules are so packed. Considering this, we have done a good job making sure everything is completed and turned in on time and also that it is of good quality. I would also ask people more about what they wanted to do and if there were things they really didn’t want to do so that we could plan accordingly. I don’t think there was really an issue with this but it might have been helpful. For the most part people volunteered for things but sometimes I think we had to assign things to people sort of randomly and I would want to ask everyone if that was cool if we did it again. This again, however, goes back to all of our schedules being so busy.

Overall I think we are doing a great job. We have everything completed and turned in that has to be turned in and we are ready to start gathering information and moving on to the next steps in the project. Also, we have a fun group dynamic, everyone gets along and has the same attitude towards the project so it is really easy to meet up and get our work done. We don’t have lots of clashing ideas or priorities so things go really smoothly when we’re all together.  

Finding Your Voice

Almost anything makes me laugh. I laugh in most situations, sometimes that's good and sometimes it's not, but that's how I am. I think most things are funny - irony, tragedy, stupid humor, random accidents, awkward situations...they're all really funny to me. I don't cry very often, but when I do it means that something is really wrong or that I just watched a sappy movie. People wouldn't know that I cry at all though because I hate being emotional in front of other people. I am a pretty open person, but I only open up about really important things to people I feel extremely comfortable around. I like almost everyone I meet and am open with all of my friends, but I only share serious feelings with my very closest friends. 

I tell the people I love that I love them. If I'm very comfortable with them I tell them why. 

Usually trivial things that happen throughout my day keep me up at night. I run through things that I did during the day, things I should have done, things I want to do tomorrow, etc. Sometimes I get caught up on things if I think I handled a situation poorly, or I get nervous if I have something important to do the next day and I imagine all of the possible scenarios that could happen. 

I know that I'm usually confused about things and that I have a very hard time making decisions. I also know that I think about how others are feeling a lot, maybe even too much, and that I love being around people to an extent and then once I reach my threshold I need to be by myself for a while. I think that people who are mean for no reason are evil. Holding negative opinions about people without any substantiation behind those opinions is evil too. Actually, that might just be ignorant but either way it's a bad thing. The most beautiful thing to me is nature. Being somewhere where I can't hear anything man made is really nice and that is my favorite place to be. I don't like crowded places or places with lots of ambient city noise. I'd rather be anywhere outside by myself or with some friends but removed from society. 

I respect passion in others. I really like talking to people when I can tell that they are passionate about anything. It makes me want to find something that I am absolutely obsessed with so I can be that passionate about something too. 

People excite my curiosity. I love to learn about people, where they come from and what they like to do because I feel like I can understand their actions better when I know more about their backgrounds. I feel way more comfortable around people that I know a lot about. I am very interested in how people work and why people behave the way they do.

If I were the ruler of the world the first thing I would do would be to say hi to everyone. I don't like the idea of being famous at all, or having that much power, but I would do something where everyone could see me and I could introduce myself. Then I would go and visit as many places as I could before I died. Speaking of death, I'd like to travel a ton before I die. I would also like to have a family and a husband that love me a lot and that I love a lot. I also want to find something I'm really passionate about and do something about it or with that so that I can feel like I made some sort of positive impact on something. 

Team Project Status Report

• What did you, personally accomplish on you team project this week?

This week as a team we completed the client report proposal. I was most involved in the first draft process. We met and brainstormed ideas and our most important points and wrote the first draft. Then I edited it once. I also wrote up the questions for the survey we will conduct.

• What are you planning to accomplish next week?

I am planning on conducting our research this week. I will hand out and collect the surveys around Shaw and the commons one day in between classes or around lunch when there are a lot of people hanging out around campus.

• What challenges are you facing individually and as a team?

As a group we have issues meeting together all at once. We all have very busy schedules because we all go to school full time and have jobs. We are going to try and meet more and if everyone can't make it I want to try and keep them more in the loop. Realistically we probably won't get to meet as an entire group very much. Personally, I will try to devote more time to the project next week because I don't think I will have as much other homework or work for my other job. I find it challenging to devote myself to this project. I know that this is supposed to simulate real life with multiple deadlines and keeping them balanced, but it is frustrating because I have a real life with a real job with real deadlines that I get paid to meet. I take school and this class seriously, but sometimes things come up with my other responsibilities that take priority over class assignments.

• How can I help?

I think we have it all under control. As long as we all commit more time to meeting as a group everything will continue going as planned.

Reporting Results

While reading a few Gallup.com articles I noticed that although the articles are about different subjects and use numbers, charts, and graphs for different purposes they all use them to reinforce what has already been explained in text. Each article had various forms of numbers, charts, and graphs and they were always incorporated smoothly into the body text. Also, in each article there was a section at the end called "Research Methods" that fully explained their methods clearly, but like the charts and graphs this was supplemental to the methods that were mentioned briefly in the text.

Between the three articles I read it was easy to see that the trend in Gallup.com articles is to write an informative article that is relatively easy to read and then supplement the facts with necessary information. Facts were generalized in writing and then the hard numerical data would follow. One example of this is from an article about Germans' rating their well-being. When explaining that only a small percentage of German's felt that they were thriving they said "less than half, 41.1%...". Here the writer is generalizing the findings and backing it up with the verifying information. Another example is when an article talks about trends over a longer time-span the text will be a summary of the findings and following there there will be a graph or chart that shows the findings in a more visual way. This is very effective in getting the information across because it can register with all different types of readers, and by looking at the chart or graph the reader can gather the information quickly.

I found that the same approach was applied when discussing the research methods used to gather the information in the article. Usually there would be a mention of the research methods within the article; just enough for the reader to understand the context of the information. Then at the end of the article there is a section detailing the methods for anyone who would like more specific information. This is very effective because not every reader will want to or need to know the exact details of the research methods.

The articles on gallup.com are very well written and considering that most of what they are about can be hard to follow for someone not interested in hard numbers, they get factual information across effectively and in a way that is easy to understand. The reason the articles are so effective is that they explain things in a general way and then use specific details to back those statements up, but they do not overwhelm the reader by stringing tons of numbers together in one sentence. By breaking the information up and showing it in a variety of ways they are making sure that all readers will understand the materials and all of their information is factual.