Final Post of Fall 2008

To be successful in ENGL 304 (Business Writing) with Angela Rogers, the most important thing to do is to come to class. The material is not difficult and Angie will help you in any way she can. However, the following advice might help you as well:

Client Project

For the client project, choose a group of people you can count on and communicate with. It would be wise to choose a group of individuals with different backgrounds and skill sets to enhance idea generation and divide the workload to the person with the appropriate skills. Try to stay on top of the work so that it does not pile up at end. Creating a schedule of deadlines for yourselves will help you to stay on top of it and make sure everything gets done well.

Career Writing Materials

You will be creating documents that will be useful in your career search, so my best advice for producing these documents is to take it seriously and do it well. Take advantage of the help Angie will offer to create the best resume (and other items) you can - it will not only count for a grade in the class, but you'll be able to use it/them in the future!

Technology

Pay attention and take notes when Angie explains how to do things online that you may be unfamiliar with. It's not very difficult if you know how to do it, but there are often little steps you'll miss or forget about if you haven't done it before and don't have the step-by-step instructions written down that Angie will give you.

This is one of the few classes I've taken that I feel like I'll actually be able to use in my business career. Use the opportunity to "double-dip" by creating quality documents that will serve you both in college (through grades) and in your future (success on the job and avoiding dumb mistakes in the workplace). The client project will actually benefit someone, so doing quality work on it will help out the client, give you a good grade, and hopefully make you feel good about what you've done!

Client Project Reflection

Working on the client project this semester has been an overall good experience for me. It's nice to have a meaningful class project that will benefit someone, in this case the Clemson Water Ski Team. My team consisted of me, Kendall, Barbara, John, and Andy. I think we worked well together and were able to play off of each other's strengths. We all brought different skills and ideas to the table, which strengthened our work overall.

I believe the best thing about this project is that we are creating something that actually has meaning and will be used outside of this class and this semester. It is not completed yet, but I think the ideas are great and the project will come together nicely to create a functional Web site for the team.

Our biggest challenge was that the team never responded with photos or team information. We were in charge of player bios and the scrapbook for the final product, so we've just had to find pictures online and use the information from the two guys who came in to create a sort of "sample" of what the player bio and scrapbook sections could look like if they decide to keep it. If they DO like those sections, they'll have the ability to add whatever photos they want and update the player bio section to include the whole team and whatever information they would like posted.

I think this project showed the importance of staying on top of things and communicating with my team members and the client. For example, when writing the proposal, we divided the work into 5 sections, one for each team member. However, some parts (like the executive summary) were dependent upon what the other team members wrote in the introduction, body, and conclusion. So, it was important for those sections to get completed in a timely fashion and shared with the team so that the executive summary would have ample time to be written.

Dual Coding Theory

Dual coding theory discusses three systems that function together when someone reads to process language and visual displays and then to connect the two.


In this Nike ad, dual coding theory is implemented. In this ad, the first system, which processes language, takes into account the words: "PRACTICE LIKE CHAMPIONS" and "WE BELIEVE". The second cognitive system, which processes visual displays, looks at the picture. In this case, we see red, white, and black colors on what appears to be a brick wall and door. The third system activates mental representations of what is being read and connects the elements from the first two cognitive systems. We can put together all of the elements to see that the ad takes place in a gym, and the words are geared towards athletes as a motivational device.

Miscommunication at Work

As a waitress, I work as a medium for customers to get their orders...they tell me what they want, I send their order to the cooks, and the cooks make the food and give it back to the servers to give to the customers. Unfortunately, the line of communication does not always flow perfectly from customer to waitress to cooks to waitress and back to customer. Another component in the restaurant business is the host(ess), who seats the customers.

On days when the weather is nice enough, we have tables we seat outside on the patio. Each of the tables is assigned to a different server (it's very hit or miss whether or not people are going to want to sit outside on any given day) and when the host seats a table outside for the first time that day, he or she is supposed to inform the server that they have a table outside. However, it doesn't always work out that way.

One day, I was serving and I had a table outside. It was a slightly chilly day, so not many people wanted to sit out there. However, when it got busy, the host seated a man and his daughter outside at my table. The host forgot to tell me he had seated me, so I didn't know I had anyone out there. It was busy, so I was running around trying to take care of all of my indoor tables, not thinking I needed to go out to the patio. However, I tried to check outside every once in a while to make sure I wasn't missing anyone. I went outside and sure enough I had a table. I hoped that they had just been seated...but no such luck. I went to greet them, "Hi, my name is Cassidy and I'll be taking care of you today. Can I start you off with anything to drink?" They gave me their drink orders and then I asked if they wanted to order or if they needed a few minutes to look over the menus, to which they replied, "No, we don't need any more time to look over the menus. We had PLENTY of time to look them over while you were IGNORING us!" I was mortified, but apologized and took their order.

In this situation, there was miscommunication between me and the host. He was supposed to tell me that I had a table outside, but was either too busy at that moment or just forgot. However, the problem could have been avoided if I had kept a better eye on my outdoor table to make sure I wasn't ignoring anyone. I also could have asked another server with a table out there to let me know if they noticed my table being sat. I feel that I learned from that mistake and now try to check on my outdoor tables more frequently to avoid the situation repeating itself.

Mock Interview

On Wednesday, I had my mock interview with Mrs. Rogers. Overall, I think the interview went pretty well. In response to the questions we were asked to answer:

Were you nervous? How did you deal with this?

I was a little nervous going into the interview, but not too bad. My main concern was that I would be asked something I wasn't ready for or couldn't come up with an answer for, so before I went in I thought about answers to questions that might be asked (common interview questions) and a few stories to tell if the opportunity presented itself (i.e. if I was asked to "tell about a time when..."). I think mentally preparing myself with a couple possible responses and stories to tell h
]elped keep my nerves down. I was fairly confident going in that I would be able to respond to almost any question with the things I had mentally rehearsed.

Did you get any questions that threw you? How did you handle those questions?

I got asked, "If you could change one thing about your personality, what would you change?" and wasn't really expecting that question. However, I had prepared answers for my strengths and weaknesses, so I applied what I felt was my biggest weakness to answer that question. I was also a little thrown off when I was asked how watching my parents working with their company has affected me. I had never really thought about that so I wasn't sure how to respond - I think I may have gone off on a little bit of a tangent with my response, but hopefully tied it all together at the end.

If you could do the interview again, what would you do differently?

If I could do the interview again, I think I would prepare better and come up with more effective responses and stories to answer a variety of common interview questions. I would also try to avoid rambling on with my stories and keep my answers a little more concise.

What did you learn from this experience?
I learned about the interview process. I know now what to expect if and when I have or conduct an interview for a job. I'm glad we got to create resumes for ourselves - that's something that will be useful in the "real world" after college. It was also helpful to have the mock interview to get some nerves out and see what sorts of questions we might be asked in an interview and what the flow of an interview is like. Even though it was a short interview, I got a good feeling for what a real interview would/will be like.

Click to Give

In keeping with my dog-loving theme this semester, I thought I'd write my next blog about a website I visit daily. The website, The Animal Rescue Site, is set up so that anyone can help dogs for free in only seconds. All you have to do is go to the website and hit the button that says, "Click Here to Give - it's FREE!"


How does clicking the button help?

The website tracks the number of times the button is clicked, and for each click, the value of 0.6 bowls of food is donated to animals in shelters. This is paid for by sponsors who advertise on the site. It is mutually beneficial - when more people access the web page (and click the button), more people are seeing their advertisements. The site also sells merchandise. 100% of profits from all sales go to help animals.

How often can I click?

You can click the button once per calendar day per computer. The new calendar day, according to the site, starts at midnight United States Pacific Standard Time. No matter how many times you click, only one click per day will be counted per computer.

Are there other causes I can help with the click of a button?

Yes! The "Click to Give" sites are set up so that you can easily click from tab to tab and help out a variety of interests - hunger, breast cancer, child health, literacy, rainforest, and animal rescue.


I have the site as a tab on my browser, so that each day when I use the internet I see it and am reminded to spend a few seconds to click for all 6 causes. While 0.6 bowls of food isn't that much when you consider it on an individual one-time basis, when you get enough people clicking daily it adds up pretty fast! It is certainly worth the few seconds it takes to do, and is a great help to animals in shelters across the country.

For more information, visit the Common Questions page listed at the bottom of the Animal Rescue Site.

Presentations

This past week in class, we got to hear a lot of interesting speeches on a variety of topics. It was great seeing what people chose to speak about when given the freedom to pick anything! There were three speeches in particular that caught my attention: CJ's speech about football and giving back to the community, Cammy's speech about her animals, and Jamie's speech about Gatorade.

I was really impressed with CJ's passion for his topic and his desire to make a difference. His idea to start a football program for kids who can't afford expensive football camps was very motivating and made me start thinking about how I could give back to the community with my own skills and interests. The pictures and content of the presentation were also very good.

Cammy's speech about her animals was also fascinating. Not too long ago, I had my dog, my roommate's cat, and the two puppies we were fostering. I thought that was a lot of animals to have in an apartment, but four pets is nothing compared to what Cammy has! The number and variety of pets she has is amazing - and getting to pet a baby squirrel was really cool. Her pictures were also very effective (and cute!) and I hope she was successful in inspiring the class to help out in the animal world!

The last speech I want to discuss is Jamie's speech about Gatorade. I thought it was a cool topic because Gatorade is something most (if not all) of us have had, but probably something not many people really think about much. One thing in particular that struck me about the presentation was when he spoke about the Gatorade Sports Science Institute in Barrington, IL. I'm from Barrington, IL, and I didn't realize my hometown made such a significant contribution to Gatorade! When I was on the soccer team my freshman year of high school, we had a senior assistant coach who got a job testing Gatorade at the GSSI, but I never thought much of it until I watched Jamie's presentation.

Everyone gave really interesting speeches, but these three stuck out to me. Unfortunately, I had to leave early on Friday so my dogs wouldn't be distracting everyone, so I didn't get to see the rest of the speeches. However, I was very impressed with all of the ones I did see!

Adopting and/or Fostering an Animal

When I was a finishing up my freshman year at Clemson, I started looking into adopting a dog. I thought it would be cool to have an "apartment dog" for my apartment sophomore year. I wasn't planning on actually adopting a dog until I got back to Clemson and moved into my new apartment that August. Just for fun, I started looking on Petfinder to see what was out there. Sure enough, I found the one. It was an accident really - I saw a picture of a cute little dog and wrote to his shelter, thinking if they had good things to say about him and he was still available in a few months when I came back, I might go ahead and adopt him. However, when I emailed them asking for more information about him, the response I got was heartbreaking..."Thank you for your interest in this dog. We do not know very much about him - he came in as a stray. We don't mean to pressure you, but this is a kill facility and his time is almost up. If you are interested in adopting him, please let us know."

Wow. That was enough for me - he had to be mine. However, there were a few problems:

1) I lived in a dorm.
2) I had finals coming up in the next few weeks.
3) He was in Tennessee and I was in Clemson.
4) I didn't have any friends who would be able to keep him until I could drive him home to Chicago.

But I couldn't let that stop me. I called the shelter and explained my situation. I agreed to adopt him (against my parents will) and, in turn, they agreed to keep him in a foster home until I could pick him up. It ended up working out well that I had to drive from Clemson to Chicago in a few weeks. They had time to get him neutered and I was able to pick him up in Tennessee on my way home.

Needless to say, he's been my little boy ever since. He is the greatest dog I've ever had and you can tell that he knows he was saved.

Unfortunately, not all dogs are as lucky as my dog Sunny was. For the dogs who end up in kill shelters, they may only get a short time before they are euthanized. And for those who end up in non-kill shelters, they may spend a good portion of their life in a cage, hoping someone will adopt them. It breaks my heart just thinking about.

Near the end of my sophomore year, I worked at an Adopt-a-Thon as a community service event for my co-ed professional business fraternity, Delta Sigma Pi. Our job was to walk around with the dogs available for adoption while people looked and asked questions about them. There were probably a good 25 dogs there, but only 1 dog got adopted that whole day. Near the end of the event, a fellow volunteer was talking about fostering a dog. She had fallen in love with the dog she was holding onto for the day and said something to effect of, "my husband would get really mad if I adopted another dog, but maybe if I just foster her he'd be ok with it". Not really sure what she meant, I asked how fostering was any different from adopting.

I spoke to her and to the lady in charge at the Adopt-a-Thon and learned that when you foster a dog, you're simply keeping him/her in your home until you find someone to adopt him/her. That way, the dog gets out of the shelter cages and into a home. The shelter pays for all of the dog's medical expenses and food - all you have to do as a foster parent is take care of him/her!

Excited by this idea, I called my roommate and asked her to come to the Adopt-a-Thon. We decided we would foster a dog (after all, we were already paying the pet rent for Sunny) and took home a beautiful Golden Retreiver mix puppy. We watched him for a few weeks before he got adopted, but it was a great experience.

Watching them load all of the dogs back into the truck to take back to the shelter was sad. If I could have, I would have taken them all with me. However, I feel like I did my part by keeping at least ONE dog from going back to the shelter. Some people worry that they'll get too attached to a dog, but I think that if you go into it knowing that you'll be giving him away, it makes it a little easier. Of course saying goodbye is hard when you've been taking care of a dog for a while, but knowing that you kept that animal out of the shelter and were able to provide him a better life while he waited for his permanent family to come along...it's just priceless.

Once Ricky was adopted, I left to spend a year in Australia. I couldn't have a dog in my dorm there (and my parents were nice enough to watch Sunny for the year I was gone), but my roommate and I were planning on living together again and fostering another dog for our senior year. Well...that time has come! We're fostering now and we plan on doing it for the entire year. Once I graduate, I'll still do it for as long as I'm able.

Whether it's fostering or adopting an animal, the experience is incredibly rewarding for both you and the animal. I would recommend it to anyone who is able to do it.

Cover Letters

The articles we read provided great insight into writing cover letters when applying for a job. I liked and agreed with most of the points they presented. One point I thought was interesting (but I'm not sure I agree with) was the idea of using a handwritten post-script to maximize impact and draw focus to your most marketable attribute. While I agree that writing something by hand would draw an employer's eye to it, I feel like it might look like the applicant simply forgot to type it on so they added it last minute by hand. If I were the employer, I would probably think it was somewhat unprofessional and looked tacky.



I loved the idea of adding a testimonial to the cover letter. I feel like that would truly add value by showing that other people agree that the applicant has great attributes and would be good for the job. That is one thing I will try to add to my cover letter for the mock-interview.

While nothing really surprised me about the articles (with the exception of the hand-written post-script), I feel like they made some really good points that I may not have come up with on my own. I'll definitely be referring back to these articles and the cover letter checklist as I write and edit mine! They provide a good reference for writing a solid cover letter.

Interview Article Responses

For this blog, I decided to read "How to Answer the Toughest Interview Questions" by Caroline Levchuck and "Six Common Job-Interview Questions" by Tom Musbach. Both articles are very helpful to anyone seeking a job and provide useful information regarding preparing for interviews. Preparation is key to any interview, and these articles provide helpful tips for preparing answers to various interview questions that are likely to come up.

The articles provide numerous questions that will, more likely than not, be asked in any given interview. Additionally, they provide strategies for the best ways to answer these questions. Thinking about your answers to these common questions before the interview allows you to go into the interview with more confidence and feel better about your responses to the questions.

I believe these articles can and will help me and others in preparing for job interviews. Instead of going into an interview feeling completely unprepared and surprised by every question, I feel like I can prepare for the questions that commonly arise in interviews and be ready with answers that I can feel good about.

10 Years From Now...

A little over a year before I was born, my parents and grandfather opened up a gourmet breakfast and lunch restaurant outside of Chicago. 23 years later, there are 15. I've grown up with the company and have come to love the employees and the atmosphere. For the past few years I've been hostessing and serving at one of the restaurants. This summer I was able to intern and learn more about what would be involved in going into management for the company.

Ten years from now, I'd like to be actively involved in the business. I'll be graduating this May and returning to Chicago to start my career. When I get back, I'll continue serving until I'm promoted to service team leader. From there, I'll work my way up to Co-Manager and then to General Manager. Once I feel like I have a good enough grasp on the company, I'll expand the chain to the suburbs of Atlanta. We already have a good number of employees from Chicago who are wanting to come to Atlanta with me when I open one, so the added experience will be very helpful! Once I'm in Atlanta, I'll gauge the restaurant's success and hopefully open additional restaurants as time goes on!

I'm 21 years old right now and am hoping that by the time I'm 31 I'll be married and starting a family. I'd also love to do some more traveling in the next ten years. In May (pretty soon I after I graduate), I plan on going to Europe for about two weeks to visit some of the friends I made while I was studying abroad in Australia. After that, I'll have to plan trips to fit in with my work and family life!

It's difficult to say for sure where I'll be ten years from now, but I feel like I have a pretty good idea of the direction I want to take after college. I suppose only time will tell!

Web 2.0

After watching the assigned video, Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us, I took some time to investigate exactly what Web 2.0 is. After doing a few Google searches, I found a couple of sources that helped increase my understanding on the matter.

I found a video, entitled Tim O'Reilly on What is Web 2.0, in which Tim O'Reilly gave his personal definition of what Web 2.0 is. In the video, when asked to define Web 2.0, O'Reilly replies, “Web 2.0 is the understanding that the network is the platform and on the network as the platform, the rules for business are different. And the cardinal rule is this one: users add value. And figuring out how to build databases that get better the more people use them is actually the secret sauce of every Web 2.0 company.”

I found another definition at inetasia.com, which described Web 2.0 as follows:

" There is no simple definition for Web 2.0. Broadly put, it is a paradigm shift in the way the Internet is used. Web 2.0 involves a more open approach to the Internet, in particular user-generated content, Blogs, Podcasts, social media, review sites, Wikipedia, etc. "

What does the title of the video mean?

Based on the assigned video and the other sources I found, I feel I have a better understanding of what the video title means. The title, "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us" exemplifies the increase in web content that has been generated by users as the internet continues to advance. As internet users, each and every one of us has the ability to create a blog, upload pictures, videos, and audio recordings, and add text to a variety of websites. Popular sites such as Wikipedia, for example, allow users to create and edit articles. I'm fairly confident that, despite the fact that Wikipedia's content is a combination of many people's additions (credible or not), more people go to Wikipedia to obtain information than to other online encyclopedias that do not allow users to create and edit information. Wikipedia is just one example of a Web 2.0 company that has revolutionized the internet. Another example of a Web 2.0 company is Amazon. For each product, consumers have the opportunity to write reviews. In addition, at the bottom of the page for each product, Amazon provides a list of other products you might be interested in based on the item you're looking at. In a way, "the machine is us" because user-generated content on the web is at an all time high. Additional, "the machine is using us" because advances in technology have made it possible for the web to track what people are clicking and when, thus providing "the machine" (and advertisers) to carefully position ads and recommendations in spots where people will be most likely to follow their guidance.


Web 2.0 and the Workforce

In terms of Web 2.0 affecting the workforce, people need to keep in mind that most of what they post on the web is accessible to employers. For people who are ready to enter the workforce, they must be mindful of the sorts of information they have posted that could hurt their chances of receiving a position. Many employers have gone to checking the Facebook profiles of their applicants before deciding to offer them a position at their firm. On the other hand, information posted by others can be helpful to those seeking employment. They may be able to find valuable advice online from others who have been successful at procuring a job. For those who are already in the workforce, it is still wise to be cautious what sorts of things you post online. However, there is a wealth of information on the web from people across the globe that can save workers time and money when used correctly. Searching online to find ideas and solutions to problems can often be helpful and increase efficiency. After all, there's no reason to invent the wheel more than once!


What does it mean when they say we will have to rethink everything?

The video presents a list of things that we will "have to rethink". The list includes: copyright, authorship, identity, ethics, aesthetics, rhetorics, governance, privacy, commerce, love, family, and lastly, ourselves. I believe this means that the evolution of the internet has revolutionized the way almost everything is working. With the ability for anyone to post anything they want, the opportunities to steal ideas and to plagiarize are plentiful. So, systems need to be set up to help recognize the origins of various thoughts. Things like privacy and identity (i.e. identity theft) have become an issue with the current state of the internet. Even love is something people are using the internet to find. The internet has revolutionized the way people interact with each other.


As the video said, "Web 2.0 is linking people...People sharing, trading, and collaborating..." With the internet the way it, sharing ideas, pictures, videos, etc. has never been easier!

Hello!

Hey everyone!

I'm Cassidy - I'm currently a senior majoring in business management (with a focus on entrepreneurship). I'm a member of Delta Sigma Pi (the coed professional business fraternity), which I feel has been a great experience for me. I'm originally from the suburbs of Chicago and am just returning to Clemson after having spent a fabulous year studying abroad in Newcastle, Australia. Travel is my passion, and I've been fortunate enough to live out my dreams and travel all around Europe, Asia, and Australia!

Besides travel, I've always had a soft spot for animals. I have a dog named Sunny who I adopted from a shelter about 2 years ago. Sophomore year, my roommates and I fostered a dog from the Anderson County Humane Society. It was such a rewarding experience for us that we plan on doing it again this year.

I have two brothers, Matt (20) and Danny (17). Matt is a junior at Indiana University and Danny is currently in high school back in Illinois. Danny has a rare mental disability called William's Syndrome and is a really cool kid who captures the heart of everyone he meets! He's also a HUGE Clemson fan and frequently walks around singing Tiger Rag!

If all goes to plan, I'll be graduating in May. From there, I plan to return to the Chicago area for a little while. My parents own a successful chain of gourmet breakfast and lunch restaurants outside of Chicago, and my ultimate goal is to expand the chain to the Atlanta area.

I look forward to seeing what is in store for this class. I was pleased to find out we'd be working on things that would be helpful for both ourselves and the community. It should be a good semester!