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First Reading Response

Wed, 06/13/2007 - 20:44 — robertsr
My initial concept of this class is greatly changing. I am a firm believer that what you put into something is what you get out of it. I am encouraged to put more than 100% into this class because it has such practical application to my life and career success. My inital question is what is the difference between technical writing and business writing? The glossery words seem more technical as where the reading assignment is more business discussing a resume and job search. Just recently I attempted the process of internship searching. First, I attended a career fair (college of agriculture) and felt lost. It was really discouraging actually. Thankfully I had two companies express interest in myself from my resume. I had no idea where to go from there or what to even think about next. Unfortunately, non business majors such as science majors are not given proper training on professionalism skills. Secondly, I began the process of skill evuation of myself. I think the idea of knowing who you are is crucial in deciding your career path. I used to not like the question "Who are you?" or "So tell me about yourself." However, now I love that question because it is a great opportunity to describe who I am. The older I get the more I am aware of my strengths and weaknesses. The whole idea of job searching is intimidating and overwhelming. I think using those national websites can be overwhelming. I perfer to go directly to the company or the source. For college students career fairs are a great way to interact with the industry because you are already making the first intial connection.

Comments

Thu, 06/14/2007 - 11:32 — SNL53
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Reply

I would definitely agree that I have been encouraged even more to put my best effort into this class after the readings and looking over the different activities that are involved in this class. I think many times we see certain classes as not that useful later on in our careers, but I would agree that this class could have a great impact on our futures. Knowing how to correctly write these documents and having information on how to do research and job search is going to make all those things easier when it comes to looking for a job. I think a career fair is a great idea. I know that I am a person who gets somewhat intimidated with those situations so it would be a good idea to get started early so you could get some practice and get more comfortable. This is also as you said a better chance for the company to get to know you in person instead of just over the internet.
Thu, 06/14/2007 - 16:32 — rkottke

Reading Response Week #1-Reply

I agree career fairs are a great idea to look for a job but they can be intimating! I went to one the past year. I believe it was the College of Technology career fair. It was so interesting because there was about I'd say 50 companies in the Memorial Union Ball Rooms all just standing at there stands just waiting for you to come up to them! Me only being a sophomore at the time didn't go up to that many companies but it is a little scary at first because you don't know what to say and you don't know what they are going to say to you. But I still think it is a much better way to find a job then doing a search over the internet, you just have to get used to it and starting early does help!
Thu, 06/14/2007 - 18:22 — jtirrell
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RE: First Reading Response

Ms. Roberts stated:
Unfortunately, non business majors such as science majors are not given proper training on professionalism skills.
Yikes. I honestly don't think very many people at all, regardless of major, are professionalized well by their universities. I think other institutions, like vocational schools, apprenticeships, and the armed forces do a more consistent job of professionalization than the university. This may be because of a little bit of elitism on the part of the university. I can tell you that I have been in higher education for 12 years straight at three different universities and I haven't ever had a course or a system where I was instructed or mentored on how to find and maintain a job. Not really. Most of our education focuses on field content, but there is a noticeable lack of how to put that content into practice. We graduate students have discussed many times that no university has ever really showed us what you have to do to be a working professional. For better or worse, you really have to cobble it together from trial and error and by figuring out what other people did.
Sat, 06/16/2007 - 19:29 — robertsr

Reply

While I agree that the universities as whole might take an elitism attitude, the Krannert School of Management has prepared at least some of their students very well on how to attain a job and maintain it. Two of my managements friends were required to attend siminars, attend mock interviews, required to attain internships and mentors. I think they are much more prepared than say a liberal arts student. Part of their preparation might be because of their motivation and discipline within their field, but I think the Krannert School of Management has done a pretty decent job at preparing them for the future in workign in the professional world.
Sat, 06/16/2007 - 21:21 — whinchcl
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Science major writing

While I suppose I can't speak much for the Krannert School, I know as a science major I am barely even taught what a resume is. The focus is always on concepts and principles related to your field of study. As you move closer to graduation the only thing that changes is how narrow the field becomes and how distinct the concepts are. Up until this class I do not think I've ever been close to proper business writing and it's something I feel I'll need after I graduate even though the classes for my major seem to neglect it. It'd be nice to see a change at Universities and see these skills being taught to all students regardless of major.
Sun, 06/17/2007 - 11:28 — robertsr

Change is soon

Actually, There is new curriculum taking place in the college of science, I believe starting either this year or next. It is a new focus of the college to implement more practical skills for students upon graudation. I am not sure what your major is, but Biology and EAS have been the pilot programs for this curriculum. For the first year and so forth there are like blocks where the focus is writing or presentations, or simple math skills. The college is trying to better prepare students for what employers say BS graduates are lacking. Just thought you might want to know that change is on the way!
Sun, 06/17/2007 - 19:18 — whinchcl
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Change is good

It's good to know that there is at least a plan being implemented. Hopefully it will branch out and reach more of the schools within the University. I'm a radiological health science major in the school of health sciences and it'd be nice to see some courses targeted towards professionalism after graduation. It'd be nice to see the programs implemented within Biology and EAS turn out well and expand throughout other majors giving us all some much needed skills for the workforce. I'm sure there will be plenty of complaints at first because I honestly do not believe many students realize how important these skills are until it's too late. It'd just be nice to know that when you graduate you have the proper skills to survive in the job world.
Fri, 06/15/2007 - 16:42 — esnyder
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comment

I find your question very interesting in that I am currently taking both business writing and technical writing as online courses. You may find this interesting but both classes have the same first project, the employment project. I think that writing documents for jobs or in the workplace can be considered both technical writing and business writing. It is business writing because it is being done in a professional manner but is also technical because there is always a format the must be followed and proper vocabulary must be used. I do find it interesting though that both classes are really similar in the content. If I would have known just how similar they were going to be, I would have only taken one of them.
Sat, 06/16/2007 - 19:32 — robertsr

Thank you for your reply

Thank you for replying to my question. That is actually really ironic that you are taking both of the classes. It actually made me laugh. I personally think it would be benefical to just combine them. That way you can compare and contrast them without having to take two separate classes since clearly as you stated the projects overlap some.
Sat, 06/16/2007 - 08:45 — Ddgr22
Ddgr22's picture

Reading Response #1 Reply

I agree with the notion that you get out whatever you put in and that we should all encourage ourselves to put a lot of effort into this class because what we can learn from this course will ultimately help us find a job and communicate effectively once we have a career. However, I disagree that we should apply ourselves more than 100%. I don’t think that it is necessary to apply that much effort in this course. Most of us should have the fundamentals of writing down by now and should not need to spend that much time improving ourselves. But, I commend your efforts if you truly show such dedication, and if you do I believe you will have no problem with your future endevors in professional writing.