Reminder: Project Assessment

Remember when turning in your final drafts that I would also like a brief project assessment from you. This can run about 250 words, and should give me an idea of the major changes you've made since you turned in your drafts, and why you made those changes. You can include this assessment in the body of the email in which you turn in your final drafts.

White Papers

Reading

• Motorola White Paper[pdf]
  
• Facebook White Paper[pdf]
  
• Health Reform 2009 White Paper[pdf]

Here are three example white papers. The last one is almost 100 pages long, so don't feel like you have to read through every page. Rather, look over these examples and try to get a sense of what the white paper is. Many students enter this class with no idea what a white paper is, so that is a question you'll be trying to answer with your team as you push forward. Like all of the other documents we work on in this class, white papers can be very different depending on who they're for, who they're authored by, and what their purpose is (for instance, the Motorola report is only 7 pages long, not counting the front and back covers).

While you look at these, pay attention to a few things. The use of summary in these reports is very important, as is the use of visual elements like color and images. There is no reading response today, but try to figure out what all these reports have in common, and how they differ.

Also, if you were wondering, the Motorola White Paper is probably the closest example of the kind of white paper you'll be producing, but every team's will be different.

Project Two: The White Paper

The focus of Project 2 is the white paper, a common report genre in the professional world. White papers are used in business, industrial, and governmental contexts to sum what’s known about a subject, or to introduce a new technology or policy. During this project you will learn about
the white paper genre through collaborative creation of a white paper.

• new writing and communication technologies that support professional writing in college and industry, with attention to open source and other freely available software or writing spaces (online networks, blogging, etc.)
• collaboration, project management, and strategies for writing and revising.
• producing a text for print that integrates visual content, such as screenshots, tables, flowcharts, illustrations, and/or graphs.

Your assignment in the second project is to research collaborative writing solutions (like Google Docs, Zoho, Basecamp, etc.) for a fictional crisis management organization whose members are often forced to communicate and compose documents at a distance. You will be researching and evaluating different collaborative writing suites for decision-makers. Then you will be responsible for writing a white paper that proposes the use of a specific collaborative writing program, including cost estimates, training, and advocacy, and any other concerns that might arise from a medium-sized organization adopting your solution.

The project is divided into 4 deliverables:

• Deliverable One: Annotated Bibliography, examining natural distasters, writing, and online communication (Team, 15 sources, 4 pages)
• Deliverable Two: Action Memo, giving your superiors 3 reccomendations (Team, 3 solutions, 3-4 page)
• Deliverable Three: White Paper, an informative, well-designed report written for multiple audiences (Team, 8-10 page, at least 1,250 words)
• Deliverable Four: Peer Evaluation Form (Individual)

In addition to these deliverables, each team will produce a progress memo at the end of week five, detailing the events of meetings, communications, and any work (individual or together) that you did. Who did what? What problems are arising? Are you on schedule?

Remember that the white paper is often not simply a written report, but a designed document that takes its visual presentation into its rhetorical consideration. In this project, you are being asked to not only create a well-researched, proofread, thoughtful white paper, but one that is visually interesting, has skimable sections, presents information in clear charts and graphs, and is otherwise presented professionally and creatively.

Collaboration is key in this project. Responsibilities may be delegated within teams, but students who either don't pull their weight or who don't share the workload (i.e. try to do it all themselves) will be penalized.

Disaster Management
For this project, teams will be working under the following scenario. This is meant to help you visualize your audience and understand your purpose in creating the white paper. If you need to make additions or revisions to the scenario (if you wanted to determine a specific budget, for example), each team will be abe to talk that over with me:

Summary

The disaster management organization you work for has identified several communication problems within its organization, and has decided it is time to modernize its approach using the latest in online collaborative writing software.

Scenario

You work for a large disaster management organization (which you will name) of about 1,000 employees headquartered in Washington, D.C. This organization is devoted to coordinating rebuilding efforts in the wake of large-scale natural disasters such as the recent tsunami in Indonesia, wildfires in California, earthquakes in China, and flooding in New Orleans (all of which your company had a hand in addressing.)

You are not "first responders," doctors, firefighters, or other emergency workers, but rather you are the people who go in after conditions have been restored and the process of rebuilding can begin. You manage the construction or repair of schools, hospitals, and homes, the hiring and training of new personnel, aid in the restoration of utilities (water, electricity, etc.), and the procurement and transport of necessary materials, food, temporary housing, etc. Your company is generally hired pro bono by larger organizations (various national governments, the Red Cross) as an all-purpose solution to rebuilding devastated cities and towns. These efforts often require a lot of money and a lot of paperwork.

Your organization has two major divisions, those who work in the field (disaster sites) and the dozen or so regional offices your company maintains around the world, and those who work at the main office in Washington D.C. who are responsible for administration and fund-raising (your organization relies in large part on charitable donations).

In recent years, there have been a number of communication problems within the organization. Reports and memos in particular take a very long time to write because, in many cases, these documents require input from people in the field, in the regional offices, and in Washington D.C., none of whom can usually travel to meet directly with the others. Field workers are frustrated because they cannot get money and materials as quickly as they would like, and the administrators, lawyers, accountants, and managers in D.C. often feel they do not have an accurate picture of what is going on in disaster areas.

Your team has been selected from many different areas of the company to investigate the possibility of using collaborative online writing software (again, like Google Docs, Zoho, Basecamp, etc.) to address these problems. In this project you will investigate the communication problems that spring up when people try collaborate at a distance, make recommendations about 3 possible solutions, and then write and design a report about one of these solutions for the company to use.

Reminder: Cover Letters Due Friday

This is just a reminder that cover letter drafts are due Friday at midnight. There are no other assignments for this week.

Muasher - Response 04

After reading the “Boss's Angry Email Sends Shares Plunging" article I was surprised that a simple email could be so detrimental to a company. It could lead to loss of respect, decrease in staff morale and in this case stock dropped by 22%. A company could go from being one of the top 100 places to work at to questioning its chief executive. I believe that a chief executive should manage himself in a more professional way. Sending angry emails only shows that you are not in control, which is especially bad if you are the executive of a firm.

In the past I have sent angry emails, though from experience I have noticed that they do not help in the long run. Angry emails may make one feel good at the moment but can cause damage in the future just as the case from the article. From my experience as well as the article I believe that one should always conduct themselves in a professional manner and not let their temper control their actions.

Kwanbin Lim - Response 4

These days, emails are crucial method to communicate with others. Emails are very convenient way to communicate. Emails are used in schools, businesses, and more. Through emails people share different information or announce important announcements in most of the businesses. Also, emails are convenient to use because when people share information verbally they can miss important information or forget but if we use email, we could double check or contain all the information.

Article number 2 caught my attention because this article showed me that one e-mail can ruin one company. Chief executive sent an email to his employees about their work attitude. Up to here, it’s nothing, because executive could send emails to employees but Cener Corporation chief executive made a huge mistake. He sent an email with disrespectful way.

In my major, professors always talk about how everything should be formal. My resume should be formal, outfit has to be formal, all the verbal communication should be formal, but why not email? Since, it is very common to communicate through emails; people sometimes forget that emails are one of the method of communication.

This chief executive from Cerner Corporation wrote an email disrespectfully to his employees. It caused a huge drop on their stock price. He did not seem considering other people’s feelings or their perspectives. One wrong communication skill brought the whole group down. This case was a perfect example showing that how communication skills are crucial in businesses and that emails are one of the method of communication not just simple writing.

Nornazira - Response 4

Words can be powerful and somehow can affect the writer and eventually the readers. I never wrote an angry email before and I was surprised when reading these 3 articles, to know that they are people who use email as a medium to express their emotions and frustrations. I like how Shugars wrote his farewell email by sharing those funny moments he had while working for Google. It's likely more pleasant to receive farewell email from this kind of people rather than from people who just simply write when their emotions are taking over themselves. 

Writing can't precisely expressing your emotions and feeling without the right words. However, the interpretation of the writing could be different as we all read in our own intonation. Looking at the "Boss's Angry Email' article, Neal's email to his manager expressed his disappointment sarcastically. I think there are better ways to initiate the problems rather than exploded like that. On the other hand, the manager may or may not take the email positively by taking it as a challenge to fix those problems. 

Mehmet Cankiri - Response 4

I never thought about the angry email concept before until I read the article. I am very surprised how an angry email can affect a company this much. I think the CEO of the Cerner Corporation must regret this email more than anything in his career. Who would think that the company that is doing so well, its stocks are doing great but all of a sudden everything went down due to an angry email. Personally I can’t fully blame the CEO, I’m sure being the boss of many employees he probably had a way of managing the company and perhaps he got frustrated because it felt like the employees don’t care about the company. However, I still think if a person is in a CEO position should be able to control is temper because they face many problems throughout their career.

I haven’t received or sent an angry email yet. When I put myself in CEO’s shoes, I usually prefer having face-to-face conversations with people so I don’t think I will be communicating through email if there is an important matter. One day when I become an employee who got laid off in an impolite way, hopefully I would hold my anger and not write such email.

Farah Abdullah - Response 04

I feel sorry for the chief executive of Cerner Corporation, Mr Patterson, for what had happened to him. However, I do feel that email should not be a medium to express someone's feeling because the way people interpret the words would be different. For example, the way Mr Patterson highlighted his words such as NEVER, NO LONGER and CARE might have been understood differently. Some people might take it as it is, some might feel discouraged and there might also be people who feel it is rude to write like that. Also, to have his company stock market plummeted in just three days because of his act was tragic. I can understand him when he said he wishes he had never hit the send button.


As for me, I usually avoid using email to express my feelings mainly because I am pretty bad in choosing the right words and someone might misunderstand me. I also believes that emotion can be affected by your tones and that is why talking is more effective when it comes to feelings. However, in Mr Patterson case, to talk to 400 managers is just ridiculous so I think the best way to deal with it is to send the email in small scale and look at the recipients reaction before forwarding it to some others.

Zhaoyi Wang--Response 4

I don’t think those kind of angry emails are needed in the business situation. It is because people should be proper or clear to every people as much as possible. In the case of Cerner Corporation, what made employees feel to be fired is Neal Patterson did not use proper words to reply his employee’s message. Finally, it made 22% price down of their company’s stock. I thought in the business world, the proper and professional words are necessary even using email or contacting with well-known colleagues. Of course business cultures are different around the world, but still, I think we have to be careful not to use too casual words.

It is very curious because when we do job research, we have to read bunch of manuals about how to write polite emails to company. When I get into my university, professors told us again and again that when we email to them, we have to use polite words. However, in the real business world it’s not always the case as I read those articles.

As John Challenger said, "It's so easy to e-mail, and that's the risk, isn't it? Once you've put it out there, you can't get it back.” It is true. When I use email, I often forget to attach files or make some spelling mistakes. However, nowadays, we cannot do business without emails. Business highly depends on information technology, and we have to use it effectively to spend our lives. Since emails are already a part of our necessities in daily lives, we should use it with polite just like when we directly meet together.

Zhining Hu - Response 04

I would like to talk about the first reading on farewell e-mails.

I've always thought that farewell emails won’t have a big impact (unless you revealed some ugly truth out to the public). No matter if you sent out an angry email or a light-hearted one, people would just talk about it over the week and it will be forgotten as time passed. You will still be in touch with the good friends you’ve made and those who aren’t really related to you really won’t care that much. However, I still think it would be nice to write one just to lighten up people’s days. Although, I would prefer farewell emails like Shugars’ to be written out as a letter and sent to the co-workers instead. I still hold the point of view that most of us won’t treat emails seriously and it will just disappear among all the work files and be deleted in the end. So if you planning a farewell email that is somewhat touching and full of valuable memories, I would suggest leaving a nicely enveloped letter instead. Of course, if the farewell email was just intended to be funny and unserious it won’t matter that much.

Therefore it actually depends on what type of farewell emails you are writing. Writing an email accusing those who have treated you unfairly it is definitely a way of getting all the depressed emotion out and not being responsible of the chaos you left them in. I have always been a person who tries to avoid direct conflict, so I guess that even if I am mad with my boss, I will try to write an angry farewell email in a sarcastic but humorous way than directly provoking them with offending words and accuses.

Jing Jiang - Response 4

I choose the second example since it is related to my current major. As retail students, professors always tell us communication skill us the most important lesson we should learn. Lots of examples proved that a bad communication can destroy a whole business.

Human dominance over animals is the language. People always take this for granted, so they do not think they should learn how to communicate with others. Communication is not that easy as it seems. Apparently we should not just know what do we say, it is more important to know how we should say. If people can’t communicate their thoughts and ideas correctly, others will not earn anything from the words. The ever worse case is showed in the example.

Before the appearance of Internet, we do not need to concern communication issues associated with emails. However, this is the century of high-tech. Communicating through emails becomes one of the most common ways people attend to choose. Personally speaking, I think it is much harder to communicate through emails than face-to-face. People can get direct responses from face-to-face communication which means they will be able to correct their speaking ways, tongues, body language according to the scenario. However, email is a combined outcome of thinking and writing. It is impossible to make any changes to the original email after it was sent out. Try to think from others ‘perspectives and pay special attention to the writing are things people should take care. Especially as a leader, since his/her actions will determine the whole group’s orientation.

Yae Sam Song - Response 04

In the article of "Boss's Angry Email Sends Shares Plunging", is a perfect example of how important email etiquettes are. This is an interesting example as the angry email has directly caused the stocks of this company to dorp by 22%. This is a huge drop that is caused by just one angry email. The boss could have been really angry with the managers and employees showing up late to work, but the way he communicated to the managers were absolutely mistaken. Although the managers are lower in hierarchy than the boss, they are no different in person. They are the same human being and have the right to be respected by all means. There is a phrase that if you want to be respected, you should respect others first. The boss failed to respect the managers and in return the managers failed to respect him. The tone of the email is very angry and disrespectful. It almost seems like that the boss has sent this email in order to discourage and make the managers feel intimidated. He directly threatens them that he would replace the managers if they do not accomplish what he wants. The words that the boss picked are disrespectful. For example, “You have two weeks. Tick, tock”. The use of the words tick tock makes this email more disrespectful than it really is. It seems like that the boss is talking to a child. It also seems like that he uses his authority. The boss knows that he is the one in authority and therefore does not care about the feelings of other employees. This could be the reason for him to sound exceedingly arrogant. Another point to mention is that he capitalizes particular words in order to give emphasis to the managers. Words like “NEVER and YOU” are capitalized, making this email rude.

From this example one has to realize that email etiquettes are important no matter who you are communicating to. Anger only creates anger and disrespectfulness only creates disrespectfulness in return.

Zulkernine - Response 04

I have chosen the article on Jason Shugar who worked at Google. He later went on to become director of ad operations for the music streaming website Imeem. I was very surprised when I found out that Mr. Shugar wrote a light hearted farewell message to his employer when he came to know that he is about to be fired. His new position at the ad agency was not very lucrative according to my perspective compare to the old job. His gesture towards his boss impressed me immensely. By reading through the entire article I became acquainted with the fact that people degrades their boss when they are asked to leave their respective job. In this modern era of technology people go on to expose their employer’s image by blogging many bad comments about their employer. Some even go onto write abusive words directly to their boss’s face. There are many instances when people express many unspoken complaints or demands to their employer’s in their farewell message. If someone worked in a company for a long time and suddenly asked to leave, it is certain that the person would express his disappointment to the CEO or Chairman in a harsh manner. I think one should be professional and bold enough to hold one’s self respect and write their farewell letter in a polite manner. In conclusion I would like to state that depending on a given situation and nature of the employee, the farewell letter should not be taken as a grudge against the employer as Jason Shugar did.

Ji Hyun -Response 04

Boss's Angry Email ariticle was interesting to read. I was surprised about how a company's private email can be spread to public and influence a company's stock price. I think the boss sent emails to employees because it is one of the easiest and effective ways to communicate with many people. Nowadays, it is common to send emails to announce something to many people at one time. I also check my email many times aday because professors often send announcement through emails. I personally think that sometimes email works better than talking to a person face-to-face or on a phone. The reason why it didn't work out in this case or turned out to be a trouble was of the boss's use of words. I understand why he did that and how much he was angry about his employees' behaviors. However, he should have thought about his employees and respect his employees when writing to them. Sending emails to employees is not a private thing and he should have thought it as same as having a public speech in front of his employees. The boss should have not directly express his anger in emails using informal words. I personally think that angry emails aren't needed especially in business situations. We all know that angry emails not only hurt others' feeling but also cause more troubles. Therefore, we all should keep in mind to have etiquettes when sending emails to others.

Suizi Xiao - Response 04

Interestingly, an angry email can cause such a disaster to a company. I believe that the head officer of the Cerner Corporation must be so regret sending his email out. Maybe he paid lot efforts to build his company’s reputation. Now the stock was dropped at a large percent down, as well as the impact to the trading. Actually, I can understand that he said so on an impulse, which might not reflect the real characteristics he had. Or, his employees did doing so inappropriate and finally led to his angry tone. However, no matter what did his employees do, Neal’s bad communication mode hurt his company much greater than his employees. In China, there is an old saying that “an incapable soldier is just a soldier, but an incapable commander would bring out a team of incapable soldiers”. Thus, everyone should regulate his behavior and abilities, especially as a leader.
Nowadays, email is a convenient way to communicate with others. It’s too normal for people to attach importance to it. It’s not only a way to contact your friends, but also a tool for sharing information. As for the second use, we need to apply professional language, like a short essay. We need to mind the subject, attitude, position, and also manner of speaking; in order to avoid similar things happened in those articles.
Luckily, I haven’t either received or sent any angry email. I appreciate to read those articles before I do so. In the future, I would definitely recheck my email. In fact, I think that is what I always do when I’m writing. I don’t want to provide any evidence to others that I’m an “irritable bad” person.

Yu Gu - Response 04

The Jason Shugars’ case seems very interesting to me. What he did seems very funny, but it must be the true expression of his feeling. Usually, people cannot express what they really think about the jobs, when they are in contracts. So the goodbye letters becomes the best opportunities to express their angers.
Beyond expressing angers, the anger letter discloses the real relationship between Jason Shugars and his boss. That would be valuable information for perspective employees, because no company would give their negative information on its website. It would remind the perspective employees the positions they are consider may not be as great as they think.
Jason Shugars’ story reminds me, a professional writing has not to be “professional”. Sometimes, it is just a person’s naturally expression. As emotional beings, human communicate with each other best, when there is emotion involving, and in the internet era this is becoming easier.
An anger letter is definitely not something we would like to see frequently. To prevent serious conflicts between employees and employers, I would recommend people to try to find as much information as possible about their perspective jobs. In addition, the legal system is never too good to be improved.
I don’t think I have ever sent an anger email. Generally I don’t have the intense to write an anger letter, even I was very angry. I would rather talk to the person on face, or forget about it. An anger email, for me, seems does not make too much sense, although this is not necessarily true for other people.

JunSup Lee- response4

The fact that the price of stock is dropped because of one single mail is very surprising. I could not even think about someone at the company spread it over blog. Even if the mail was sent to many employees, I personally think that it should be kept within the company. If the email writes same information with proper words use and different way of talk, I believe that no one at the company posted online. If the chief executive wanted to send emails to a lot of employees, he should have been careful word use. Sending email to a lot of employees is like a posting notice on the company’s site. It is definitely hard to teach employees work hard in email with only good words. Instead of scolding and fearing them, he should have listed the way they can improve themselves.

I frequently send emails to instructors, about the homework, attendance and questions. For others, I send general and important questions. I prefer sending email to making a phone call. Since I am international student and not fluent in speaking English, sending email is more convenient and easy to contain all the information. When I write mails I always double check if my messages contain offensive words. Since we can’t judge tone of voice when reading mails, one or two words can make others mad. I newly learned from the passage that it is better not to contain important information or blaming others because there is always possibility that someone post it online. It is better to contain basic purpose of sending email. If I need to give someone important information, it is absolutely best to make a phone call or talk directly. Also, I learned that it is very important not to sending email offensive. Always need to be careful when send emails.

I had once written angry email. It was last year in July. I had to move to another apartment so I contacted moving company. I scheduled to move out on Saturday the day lease ended. On that day, I was waiting for them more than five hours. I called a lot of times but they didn’t get the call. There was no way for me to contact them. At the night, I could reach him by phone. I blamed them about breach of contract. However, they just mentioned that their truck was down and were not able to come so I blamed them about not picking up the phone. The conversation did not go well. They almost tried to blame me back. Therefore, I shouted them and they finally admit their fault. After talking by phone, there is no way for me to get compensation. Therefore, I had to have ways to relieve my stress and rage. I emailed them as furious as possible just not writing swear words. They did not say sorry back to me but I thought I could do as best as I can. Now after reading these articles, I understand that I did wrong.

Yerzhan Konysbayev- response 04

First of all, I would like to say that this article (about Cerner Company) was very useful to read, since if I will be an employer one day, I won’t use my e-mails to yell at my employees. I will try to use a phone or do it personally. Secondly, the way the CEO communicated with his employees didn’t shock me at all. I even think that this is a normal way of criticizing employees. In my country, bosses are much more severe with their employees. Let‘s say I was expecting much more angry letter than that. I also feel sorry for the CEO whose company’s stock prices lost around 22 percent in price; I think he was just doing his job. I find it unethical posting any kind of letters on internet indicating the identity of sender. From the letter it seems obvious that many of the employees are not that hard-working as it was expected from CEO.

Personally, I don’t have much experience with angry letters. However, I was a witness once. There was this political issue discussion on one of the social networks I am a member of. I wrote couple of sentences, that is why I could see further discussions people wrote. I noticed two people politely disagree with each other (that’s how it started). After some time, they began to say words like “stupid”, “fool” to each other. This stage was going on for a while. After that, they started to swear at each other badly; political issue that was initially discussed was no longer a main topic. One was bragging like “I help orphans, regularly visit seniors and what do you do?”, then one started to threaten the other saying “If I see you somewhere, I will kick your ***”, as a response, the other one provided his home address and cell phone number, saying that he was ready to meet and fight. That discussion was funny.

Ken JEONG- Response 4

Email has become one of the best communication ways in our lives. There are several reasons email becomes popular. First, email is convenient. Since most people have their own email address and check their email every day, it can be the fast way to communicate. Second, unlike phone call, email use letter not voice. When we communicate each other, Letter can be more accurate way to communicate than voice. Third, we can also send some files or massive materials to many people by email at the same time. Lastly, most important feature I think, people regard email is formal way to contact other people. These various features can make email becomes popular in these days. Explained above, email would be the good way to transfer information, but we also need to keep in mind email is one way to communicate with others. So it is very important to use proper formality and be careful about subtle nuance.
As an international student in Purdue, I am still having a hard time to talk with English. I can speak freely in general conversation but it is hard for me to express subtle distinction of my thoughts and emotions to others. But when using email, I can express exactly what I want to say. So I preferred to use email when communicate with others.

It is very interesting example that single email can influence stock price. Of course we can think stock price is very sensitive to the rumors and information, but this example can give us lesson that we should be careful even write a single email to others. Like I said above, email is another way to communicate with others. Keep in mind that talking face to face with others is not the only way to interact with others. So when we write the email, it is good to express what we want to say but not emotionally.

I have no experience to write angry email to others. Because I think it is unnecessary to express my emotions when write the email. I always try to be nice to others even though I am angry.

Jongyoeb Kim (JK) - Response 04

I was truly astonished by how much the stock price went down only due to a single email. The impact on the company (Cerner) was even more surprising: “It is now trading at more than a third less than it was before the email was sent.” In today’s globalized and interdependent society, respecting employees, co-workers, and investors became truly essential part to create harmonious environment and to create multiple connections. Hence, this example clearly shows the importance of mannerism to create various “investor bridges,” which is an essential key to stay in business.

Although airplanes made us to move around the world much more quickly than ever, most people use more convenient way to communicate with people in various areas: email. Email became essential and, truly effective communication tool in business setting. It has rapid delivery time with the advantage of being able to write and deliver words with more effective way. However, at the same time, it has a disadvantage of being unable to delete the history of the sent email, and being unable to stop delivering when clicked “send” button. Hence, email has to be carefully written to avoid ambiguity and, for this example story, to avoid conflict that has potential to harm yourself or even the company itself.

There are some email etiquettes I learnt from these readings. The most important one is to avoid words that could raise negative emotional feeling. In other words, use polite words. For example, even if the Chief executive was angry he should not have said “you either do not know what your EMPLOYEES are doing or you do not CARE.” These “insulting” words have not only potential to discourage the manager but also can ruin the reputation of the company. Another etiquette is email should not been written in CAPITAL. Like the example above, capital sounds like the Chief is screaming at you and tells you that Chief is truly angry. Other etiquettes that were unable to find from the readings are not writing too long as this can be tiring for the reader, and check for grammar error to avoid unprofessionalism.

Joohyun Kim - Response 04

I am not very sure if angry emails are necessary. I think that people do understand each other a way better and all necessary expression is expressed by simply talking. Either phone or face to face, it works out better than any written expression. I do know that emails are widely used a lot to communicate. And emails usually do not contain specific details in them. Most of work is assigned in a meeting and important notices are usually delivered verbally. Emails are then usually used to remind or when little change is needed on the assigned plans. Plus, emails are preffered when information needs to deliver to multiple parties. For example, when a boss announces something to the employees, emails work better. Until this point, I've brifely talked about the use and functions of emails. I do not see points where angry emails are really necessary. When anger is to be expressed, people usually ask to have conversations in private and talk through problems. What Neal in an article 2 did with emails are not only morally wrong but the worsen working environment will give negetive effects to each job. What Neal should have done was to email employees as a warning sign and if not worked out well then should have emailed to engage a group meeting to talk to resolve problems. Angry emails do not only help solve any problems but also contribute to the growing troubles like hurt relations. And written words do sound much more offensive than expressed verbally. I belive that angry emails are not to be used when there are better backup plans.

Seong Taek Kim- Response 04

Personally, I use emails most of the times as a communicating tool. When it comes to official or even the talk between teamates for a school project, I prefer emails to phones. The reason for the often use of email all started when I first went overseas to learn English. Since I was experincing very much of language barriors, I preferred to talk, express, and request thorugh emails to phones, because I had really hard time talking on phones where people barely understood my accent. After reading the second article, I recalled the few times I sent angry emails to mostly college addimission offices. Most of emails I sent was not replied and I was desperate that I sent multiple emails to the offices. Still ignored and that I ended up calling them. I remember it was extremely hard for me to write to express that I was desperate to be answered. The hardest part is expression through emails. Actuall all the written expression is important and difficult. People sometimes have to express angry feelings to the parties who are not very coorperating. The very first thing I considered when I expressed my desperation and anger thorugh email was to write as formal and polite as possible so that the one receiving my email wouldn't be offended. I remember using so many of "could you please....? I eventually failed to express any anger though. The angry expression I came up with was "I've sent multiple emails and have not heard from you......" I was afraid that the offices would not answer my question if offended by my email. It becomes the hardest when you need more than the other party needs you. For example, a relation between an emploee and a boss, it is the most difficult when the employee needs something and the boss is not providing the needs. The employee is to express feeling to request for the needs which might offend the boss in a way. I still am not very good at expressing through emails and I strongly believe that it is crucial in all sort of business world.

Homework for Thursday, Feb 17

Reading

"Hit the 'Send' Button, Then Hit the Door"

"Boss's Angry Email..."

"Stinging Office Memo" (alternate version)

Response 04

Write a short 250-500 word blog post discussing one of the examples (one person's story) in the readings (the second and third articles both deal with the same event, but you can pick an example from the first reading as well). Try to tell me why the example you chose is interesting to you, and what it tells you about email etiquette, professional communication, or just writing in general. Have you ever sent an angry email? If you feel comfortable talking about it, the experience might be pertinent to this assignment. Title this post "YourLastName - Response 04."

Reminder: Resume Drafts Due Friday

This is just a reminder that you need to email me a draft of your resume by the end of Friday of this week. Please save your resume as a .pdf file and mail it to mhleahy@purdue.edu.

Discussion Question

After reading the three articles I assigned in the previous post, answer the following question: if you worked for a company hiring new employees, and you WERE going to check on their Facebook or other online activity, what sorts of things would you look for? What would be a red flag for you? What would be a positive sign? Would decline to hire an otherwise qualified applicant based solely on their online activity?

Please post a response in the comments section of this blog post. When posting, try to read through the comments before yours so you don't simply restate what someone else has said. It's all right if you want to agree (or disagree) with what someone else has said before, but try to refer to them when doing so.

You may comment as many times as you like, but you must comment at least once before Tuesday, Feb. 15.

Homework for Tuesday, Feb. 15

Reading

• One in Five Employers Uses Social Networks in Hiring Process
• 45% of Employers Use Facebook/Twitter to Screen Candidates
• Half of Employers Check Facebook

The first article is from 2008, and the second was written in 2009 year, and the third is from last year. From these three articles, you can get a sense of how much this practice has caught on in the past few years. Regardless of how ethical it may be, it's becoming increasingly clear that potential employers are checking into the private lives of job applicants in order to make determinations about whom to hire.

Assignment

Later today, I will post a blog entry asking you to comment on these articles. Comment as much or as many times as you like, but please try to respond to each other's comments, as well, as if we were having a class discussion.

Post your responses by midnight, Monday the 14th.

Reading for Thursday, Feb 9

Reading

• Purdue OWL "What is a Cover Letter?" (Make sure to read through each of the six linked pages at the bottom of this page).
• Junk Cover Letters Kill Good Resumes

Begin working on your cover letters. These will be due at the end of next week.

The cover letter is one of the best ways to differentiate between yourself and other, similarly qualified candidates. Strong, clear writing is an asset in any field, and will be just as impressive as any other technical skills you may have. The best advice I can give you for the cover letter is to focus on one or two experience that you've had, either at a previous job or in your college coursework, that you think has prepared you for this new job. Generally, you would talk about this experience in the second (or body) paragraph, although the exact position may differ for each student.

Beyond that, make sure to articulate why you would like to work for this particular company. What do they do, what sorts of projects do they work on, what sorts of resources do they have, that make you excited about working for this specific company?

Another quick hint: always try to address the letter to someone specific, by their full name and title (Dear Mr. or Ms. Firstname Lastname). People who receive hundreds or thousands of applications tend to appreciate it if your materials seem tailored to their specific organization. A little web research should help you figure out who is responsible for hiring at the company you wish to work for. If not, "Dear Human Resources Director," or "Dear Hiring Committee" may do. "To Whom It May Concern" is an absolute worst case scenario.

"Dear" in these situations tends to be the most polite salutation. It does not, as some may fear, indicate that you are in love with the person you are writing to.

Resume Samples - Omar Muasher

http://www.nelsonjobs.com/CareerCenter/ResumeBad.aspx

This resume isn't a really good one. I don't agree with the use of italics for the name and contact information as it can be hard to read.

http://www.powerful-sample-resume-formats.com/finance-resume.html

This resume (David Dahlin) is of an entry level finance major. I believe it is structured well and clear to read. The only suggestion I would make is that the qualifications section could be incorporated into the projects section.

http://www.exforsys.com/career-center/sample-resumes/business-analyst-resume.html

The final resume is simple and neat. It shows all the required information and explains about the work experiences well. The only thing I would suggest is choosing the most recent work experiences and leaving the rest out to fit on one page.

Resume Samples - Mohammed Zulkernine

http://www.exampleresumes.org/occupational/bank-branch-manager.html

I liked this resume because it looks clear and one can find all the information of this person’s job experience chronologically. It gives a clear idea of the duration of jobs this person had. The information is detailed within the jobs about what he did.

http://www.exampleresumes.org/occupational/human-resource-professional.html

I liked this resume because this person has specifically explained the achieved result by percentage about what he achieved when he was in the job. The resume is also very clear and simple.

http://www.exampleresumes.org/occupational/office-manager.html

I didn’t like the resume because this resume has too many bullet points and the font size of the subheadings is similar to the font size of the headings. It creates confusion for the reader.

Resume samples - Mehmet Cankiri

Since I study Construction I wanted to take resume samples from the related field.
http://www.resume-resource.com/exman3.html
-I picked this because its a 2 page long resume. We usually hear that resumes shouldn't exceed 1 page, but this man's work experience is more than 20 years so i think I would love to have a resume like this once I have that much experience

http://www.betasearch.com/resumes/civil1-free-sample-resume.htm
- Personally I think this is a very weak resume because this person has multiple jobs and his job descriptions are repetitive.

http://www.exforsys.com/career-center/sample-resumes/sample-resume-construction-manager-resume.html
- This resume I think is a strong resume, but I personally wouldn't read that much detail. The resume includes excessive details in the experience part.

Resume samples- Yerzhan Konysbayev

http://www.nextjobs.com/images/resume-templates3.gif- In this sample, author provides very good descriptions of the jobs

http://www.samples-resume.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/13-medical_resume_example.gif- In this resume, everything in general is well organized, very easy to read, if this resume will be read by the recruiter like the one who wrote "A glimpse and a hook" , it will definetely proceed to the next level

http://resume-package.com/images/account-manager-resume.jpg - There is a significant mistake on this resume, the author is not consistent with bullets indent

Resume samples-JunSup Lee

Example1
In experience section, it is easy to understand what he did because of detailed explanation. It is well organized throughout the resume.
Example2
Only key words are highlighted so it makes recruiters easy to catch important points. It is uniformly well organized resume by using bullets.
Example3
I think that this is a bad example. Too much information about Single job experience. All three are explained in a whole page. It will be better to add other activites or skills after shorten the explanation about the experince.

resume samples- Joohyun Kim

sample 1
- Under "qualification" section, it was good to add short paragraph where it explains the brief description of what the candidate has achieved.

sample 2
- The work experience was well explained with details of what the candidate went through during the job experience

sample 3
- Moderate information on what the viewers need to know is well put and well organized on the resume.

resume samples- Seong Taek Kim

Resume sample 1
-Very well organized where each categories are easily seen. Work experiences are very well explained in short but with strong appeals.

Resume sample 2
- The columns are not very organized where it creates confusions. (Academic, and Professional experiences)

Resume sample 3
- The academic section needs to be further explained. For example, the column for the honor section could illustrate what was put for the achievement of the honors or what the honors represent

The Swipe File

In the comments section of this post, list your three example resumes, along with short one- or two-sentence descriptions of what you think is good or bad about those resumes.

Homework for Tuesday, Feb. 8

Reading

• A Boring, Poorly Designed Resume
• 22 Inspirational Creative Resumes

It's easy to spot where the 1st "boring" resume goes wrong (it's just a list, with very little organization), but many of the resumes in the "inspirational" article are potentially flawed as well. These resumes are primarily aimed at jobs in the design industry, where unconventional choices might impress employers. However, look at how these resumes might make some of the most important information (contact info, education, work experience) hard to find.

The first resume in the article is a perfect example. The charts are very interesting, but do they make it too difficult to get a sense of what skills and experiences the author might have? If you are hiring this person to design interesting charts, then this might impress you. If you are hiring someone to engineer more efficient sprinkler heads, it may not.

Ideally, you'll be able to find the design and organization that fits your skills and experiences, that strikes a balance between an under-designed, boring resume, and an over-designed, distracting resume. This project is designed to help you figure out what will work for your resume.

This is not to say that the resumes in the "inspirational" article are bad. Some are fairly straightforward (scroll down to Tyler Spader's, for example) and make important information easy to find. There may be ideas and elements in them you think work well, and you may want to borrow those for your own resume (I don't recommend Tyler's super-long letter "T", though). The important thing is that you are making thoughtful decisions about how you want to present yourself and your professional experience.

Assignment

The Swipe File:

In order to enhance your sense of what a well-organized, attractive resume can look like, I want the whole class to contribute to what's called a "Swip File." This is a large collection of sample documents from which writers and designers borrow (or "swipe").

At the beginning of Week 2, I will create a blog post called "The Swipe File," to which each student will add a comment listing at least 3 sample resumes they have found online (just copy and paste the web addresses where the are located). These can be resumes that you feel are strong in many ways, or just have one or two good points. You may even pick an "ugly" resume as an example of what not to do, but mainly try to find "good" examples. For each example, offer a brief one or two sentence description about what you like or dislike about the resume. Read the previous comments to make sure you aren't re-posting a resume.

This Swipe File will be a resource for all student in the class to use to get ideas for their own resumes. Of course, you should not simply copy the entire design of one of the sample resumes, and you are free to ignore them entirely (but why would you want to?). If you are afraid that something you are borrowing might constitute plagiarism, just show me what you're doing and I'll let you know.

If you find more than three examples you think will be helpful to the class, you are welcome to upload as many as you like.

Mohammed Zulkernine - Jod Ad Analysis

1. I was ignorant about the information of the company before I saw the job advertisement. While I was going through the main functions of the company, I was very impressed and realized that all my educational experiences can be utilized by this company and minimum job experiences the company want is less than one year which is beneficiary for me.

2. The company has a website. The url of the company is: http://www.parker.com/portal/site/PARKER/menuitem.b90576e27a4d71ae1bfcc510237ad1ca/?vgnextoid=c38888b5bd16e010VgnVCM1000000308a8c0RCRD&vgnextfmt=default
The website suggests that the company Increases quarterly dividend 10 percent to 32 percent per Share. Which suggest it’s a profitable company. The website also suggests that they like to work as a team, always together to accomplish all the achievements.

3. The title of the job first caught my eyes that stated Accountant as the job title. It further state that job experience required by the company is less than one year. I can use my Job experience in my resume. I can also use information from the website which says that the employee must have good close visions, professional attitude and good public relation skills. I can also write that I have good multitasking abilities.

4. The employer wants the candidate to have good knowledge on accounting and finance. It also requires that the candidate has knowledge on making financial reports. I believe that the most essential requirements for applying for the job is that the candidate must have a strong hold on accounting and finance and can think both analytically and critically for making financial reports.