Sunday, February 24, 2008
Free Write- Spring Time
Spring is just around the corner! This semester has went by so fast in one aspect, but the school part has been so slow. About this time every year is when I start getting burnt out from the school work in all of my classes. With next weekend, being the first of March, there is one thing on every college student's mind and that is SPRING BREAK! All I want to do over Spring Break is get a tan, sleep a lot, and have fun. Hopefully after Spring Break, I will have a boost of energy that will help me get through the rest of the semester. Then, it will not be that long until summer. I always feel that the Spring semester is the most difficult. In the fall, we have had the whole summer to catch up on sleep and are more motivated to do our assignments and study for our exams. Then, we have the big break in December, but that is just not enough to get us through spring. The sunny, hot, beautiful weather during the spring makes it so much more difficult to get stuff done!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Writing Cover Letters
After reading the tutorial, I learned a lot about writing cover letters. I learned that businesses usually skip past the cover letter and read the resume first. I found this to be very interesting, because I thought the first thing potential employers looked at was the cover letter. I do disagree with the fact that the cover letter is usually skipped unless the employer is interested with the person's resume. I believe that this may be the case in a few situations with large businesses, but I feel like many companies may look at the cover letter before making any hiring decisions.
The tutorial explains that a cover letter should not just be about you, but instead how the business or customer can benefit from hiring you or buying your product. It is very important to research both you and the company. A person must always find ways in which they excel and can include this information in the cover letter, so that they will be seen as an asset to the company. It is also equally important to proofread over the cover letter because employers sometimes use this as a way to see a person's written communication skills.
I believe the section called "Cover letter checklists" was most useful to me. It clearly states everything that the cover letter should include. I believe that this will be a big help in writing my cover letter for the upcoming mock interview. Before reading the advice, I was never aware of how adding a "P.S" at the end of the cover letter, could make an impact on employers. The tutorial clearly shows the importance behind writing this part in the cover letter and explains that it is extra special if it is handwritten. Although I may not handwrite mine, I am thinking about adding a "P.S" at the end of my cover letter for the mock interview. These sections in this tutorial gave great advice that I will be using very soon!
The tutorial explains that a cover letter should not just be about you, but instead how the business or customer can benefit from hiring you or buying your product. It is very important to research both you and the company. A person must always find ways in which they excel and can include this information in the cover letter, so that they will be seen as an asset to the company. It is also equally important to proofread over the cover letter because employers sometimes use this as a way to see a person's written communication skills.
I believe the section called "Cover letter checklists" was most useful to me. It clearly states everything that the cover letter should include. I believe that this will be a big help in writing my cover letter for the upcoming mock interview. Before reading the advice, I was never aware of how adding a "P.S" at the end of the cover letter, could make an impact on employers. The tutorial clearly shows the importance behind writing this part in the cover letter and explains that it is extra special if it is handwritten. Although I may not handwrite mine, I am thinking about adding a "P.S" at the end of my cover letter for the mock interview. These sections in this tutorial gave great advice that I will be using very soon!
Saturday, February 9, 2008
The Interview Process
For this week's blog, I chose to read "It's Your Turn: What to Ask an Interviewer" and "How to Deal With Interview Stress". I wanted to read these two articles, because I thought that they would help me the most to prepare for future interviews. The first article, "It's Your Turn...," the writer shares appropriate questions to ask any type of interviewer. I have always heard that when the interviewer says, "Do you have any more questions?", that you are suppose to say "Yes". To me, it seems very difficult to have to come up with question right there to ask. This article gave specific questions to ask certain people in the interview setting. I have always wondered what type of questions that I can ask while interviewing for teacher positions. I already know what type of skills you have to have for the profession and what a typical day is like on the job. Some of the questions this writer discussed particularly dealt with businesses and companies, but I did get some questions out of the article. I could ask questions like, "How would you describe your ideal candidate?"
The second article, "How to Deal With Interview Stress," actually helps me the most in preparing for an interview. I am the type that gets very nervous before big events. After reading the article, I learned great ways to avoid this nervousness. Some of the tips the article gave were to arrive at the interview 10 minutes before it begins. It talked about how if you were to early or too late that you may become more nervous. I thought this was an interesting point. The article also talked about how you need to have pauses in the interview and not to panic. The article talks about not crossing your legs or arms during the interview. I can understand this point, because if you cross your arms or legs it may seem as if you are not a very open person or not interested in the interview The most important thing of the whole interview process, I feel, is to be confident and imagine yourself doing well in the interview. By reading these articles, I picked up a few tips that will definitely help when I start interviewing for my career.
The second article, "How to Deal With Interview Stress," actually helps me the most in preparing for an interview. I am the type that gets very nervous before big events. After reading the article, I learned great ways to avoid this nervousness. Some of the tips the article gave were to arrive at the interview 10 minutes before it begins. It talked about how if you were to early or too late that you may become more nervous. I thought this was an interesting point. The article also talked about how you need to have pauses in the interview and not to panic. The article talks about not crossing your legs or arms during the interview. I can understand this point, because if you cross your arms or legs it may seem as if you are not a very open person or not interested in the interview The most important thing of the whole interview process, I feel, is to be confident and imagine yourself doing well in the interview. By reading these articles, I picked up a few tips that will definitely help when I start interviewing for my career.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Persuasive Communication
In class we discussed MLK's Letter from a Birmingham Jail. In this letter MLK used ethos (appeal to the speaker), logos (appeal to logic), and pathos (appeal to emotion) very well to get his point across. I feel as if he proved his credibility by stating all types of information. He stated in a clear way, his purpose for writing the letter. I would have to say that his letter was much more persuasive than the Army speakers we had in class.
The Army speakers did a good job of telling us how to write and speak persuasively, but I was a little disappointed that they did not do their persuasive talk about getting people to join the Army. I think that the class would have gained a little more insight to persuasive communication if they would have spoke that way themselves.
The piece of persuasive communication that I found to share is George Bush's speech on Hurricane Katrina. This article really stuck out to me, because Katrina hit New Orleans during my freshmen year in college. I had a girl that lived beside me, on my hall, that was from the New Orleans area and she had a very difficult time. On Thursday, September 15th,2005, the president addressed the nation about the recovery efforts taking place during that time. I believe he used logos when he said, "Congress has provided more than $60 billion in federal aid so far that has been used in part to help more than 500,000 evacuee families get emergency food.." I feel like this data along with many other statistics really proved to Americans that something was being done for the victims. He used pathos throughout the entire piece while talking about the compassion of our nation and discussing the amount of lives taken during that horrible disaster. He used appropriate language throughout the speech to get across to the nation his sincerity. Although this speech is not the best example of persuasive communication, we can definitely see his use of ethos, pathos, and logos to give the nation hope.
Of the 3 different pieces discussed in this blog, I feel as though MLK's Letter is much more persuasive than both the Army recruiters or Bush's Hurricane Katrina speech. MLK had a way of communicating that was/is so impressive and his letter will probably be looked at for years and years to come when discussing persuasive writing!
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169512,00.html
The Army speakers did a good job of telling us how to write and speak persuasively, but I was a little disappointed that they did not do their persuasive talk about getting people to join the Army. I think that the class would have gained a little more insight to persuasive communication if they would have spoke that way themselves.
The piece of persuasive communication that I found to share is George Bush's speech on Hurricane Katrina. This article really stuck out to me, because Katrina hit New Orleans during my freshmen year in college. I had a girl that lived beside me, on my hall, that was from the New Orleans area and she had a very difficult time. On Thursday, September 15th,2005, the president addressed the nation about the recovery efforts taking place during that time. I believe he used logos when he said, "Congress has provided more than $60 billion in federal aid so far that has been used in part to help more than 500,000 evacuee families get emergency food.." I feel like this data along with many other statistics really proved to Americans that something was being done for the victims. He used pathos throughout the entire piece while talking about the compassion of our nation and discussing the amount of lives taken during that horrible disaster. He used appropriate language throughout the speech to get across to the nation his sincerity. Although this speech is not the best example of persuasive communication, we can definitely see his use of ethos, pathos, and logos to give the nation hope.
Of the 3 different pieces discussed in this blog, I feel as though MLK's Letter is much more persuasive than both the Army recruiters or Bush's Hurricane Katrina speech. MLK had a way of communicating that was/is so impressive and his letter will probably be looked at for years and years to come when discussing persuasive writing!
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169512,00.html
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