Business Writing Fall 2017 Blogs

It was pretty interesting to learn about writing from different perspectives and  to different audiences and how your words can have a positive or negative effect on how the audience receives your message. I like how chapter 3 is adding on to what we learned in the previous chapters. After learning about different writing styles we are learning how to cut the fat from our sentences to make it more precise. Learning about cutting out extra words reminded me about writing for Eng 100 where we needed to have so many words and it was useful to extend thoughts and sentences which now seems like we are learning the opposite to make our sentences and statements more precise.

I think this class assignment was a good example of how innovation works. It highlighted innovation on a small scale as we were able to see how other groups were building their tower and adjust our design or borrow ideas we thought could be applied to our tower. I had a good experience working with Shelia and Rose. It was interesting to see how our group was able to bounce different ideas off each other and shared in the building process.

Aloha guys, sorry for not updating anyone sooner! As an amateur blog writer, I don’t have a clue what to talk about or how to go on about it. Well, I can talk a little about myself! My name is John and I am 24 years old, I graduated from Castle high school and I am currently enlisted in the Hawaii Air National Guard as a crew chief. I am pursuing a business degree in management and this will be my last semester until going to manoa, how exciting! Mahalo for taking your time and reading my blog. Talk to you soon!

Back again. When I was doing the homework, Defining success in team based projects, I couldn’t help but to notice the professor gently showing us our futures of team based projects lasting the semester, and how excellent or terribly wrong they could all go. Well fingers crossed for those doing the hw and readings and reading these blogs. Bellow is my response to the hw, perhaps our responses are different or similar, what are your thoughts on it or my predictions

Defining success in team based projects

What are the different success types students in the scenarios seemed to prioritize?

There was a wide range of success types varying from; receiving the highest grade in the class, being the Alpha of the group, collaborating well as a group, learning new skills, being a team player, being successful, and feeling valued. Each student had their own goals for each scenario.

What varieties of disappointment did they experience during their group projects?

Fewer disappointments stood out to me like, not receiving the grade wanted, not feeling valued in the group, not having a group mentality

Could defining successful teamwork differently have improved their experience of teamwork?

Absolutely. Laying out guidelines and communication is key in everything, in my opinion. Each group could have changed a number of things to better their outcome of the semester long project. Each could have taken notes and advice from the other groups. Group A could have went with a democracy instead of a dual tyrant dictatorship. Group B and C could have learned from the ambition of the tyrants. If the groups were to come together and establish, deadlines, tasks, direction, and be held accountable for their work and effort. The groups in my bias opinion would be best off and would then improve their experience of successful teamwork.

The positive and courteous expression is very tame and friendly. This voice is most commonly called the customer service voice and we all use it, especially in professions where you directly work with customers. “What do you want.” becomes “What can I get started for you today?” or “How may I help you today?”. It is most commonly identified by: phrases being led by “Sorry”, introductions and goodbyes, “thank you” conclusions and the like. Any customer support email or call center would be another good source for formatting and examples.

In the modern seemingly narcissistic time there is a large importance placed on how something explicitly is for you. Businesses want to show why you need something or how you need to do something. This is the “you view” that is addressed in Chapter 2 and is the easiest to identify because it is typified by the use of the most important word “you”.

In an example, if a company wants to get a customer to upgrade their service package; the company would look aggressive to just say “Upgrade your service package” and instead would rather highlight the benefits that the new package has and tailor those benefits to the purchasee. This became very apparent when we were told to come up with examples in class and the class immediately went to adding on things that they thought were appealing on top of adding a “you” and rearranging the words rather than opting for the simpler option of just the latter.

It’s a lot of fun in the sun!  Labor day weekend is a great time to camp.  So many people are out camping and enjoying time with their family & friends.  Along with all the fun are some responsibilities too.  Like who is in charge of getting the camping permit and you need to list the people camping at your site.  Making a menu for everyday and who will be in charge of the menu, shopping, cooking and clean up.  It use to be my grandma and aunts doing all of this.  Boy, it sure has changed.  I was a guest this weekend, for one day and I was pretty impress by their organization skills.  Oh and they had 3 lifeguards assigned to the beach time.  The kids had to swim in between the orange cones and only when it was swim time for everybody, including the kids over 12 yrs old.  WoW!

I would have liked class to start breaking up in groups, maybe the 2nd or 3rd week.  But, now that we are in our 3rd week of class.  I think communicating right away in our groups is helping me get comfortable with understanding the different types and useful ways of communicating.  Before this class I would have never thought of a High Context or Low Context in communication.

How strange was it to discover that ART 175 and ENG 209 courses would intertwine while studying for a quiz on art history this past week. I learned the significance of human heritage and the importance of communication. Its my belief that the written word preceded the spoken word as evidenced in the form of rock art or cave paintings. Our ancestors realized the need to record their thoughts in low-context such as rock art cave paintings, and petroglyphs for future generations. Eurocentric versions of communication tend to lean toward high-context nonverbal cues at sociocultural levels.

I’ve never been a confident test taker no matter how hard I study. The anxiety of tests, quizzes, or exams makes me hyperventilate causing me to temporarily forget what I learned. My worst fears are true and false questions or multiple choice combinations. The reason is I misread the question(s), misunderstand or misinterpret what is being asked and then make the wrong choice.  I have often been told that your first answer is usually correct. Because of second guessing myself on the English 209 quiz, I am blogging to share my life lesson and because by doing so it will also improve my quiz score. A big self-improvement that I have made is to B R E A T H E deeply when I feel like giving up!