To Spring 2009 Students

To be successful in Business Writing, all you need to do is apply yourself and complete your work by the deadlines. Doing the client project is not as cumbersome as it first seems. Remember you'll have teammates who are there to help you. The book has excellent examples for each piece of writing that Angie requires you to do--use them and you'll do great! Using the blog is really simple. You can dress it up as much or as little as you like. It just needs to be functional. The hardest part of blogger for me was remembering to do the posts on time--Sunday night can slip up on you quickly. The portfolio is a little bit trickier so get started on it early so that if you have questions, you'll have time to ask Angie for help. She is easy to get in touch with and is very helpful, but to get her help, you can't wait until the last minute.

If you do the work assigned to you (including the reading--watch out for daily grades) you'll do just fine in Enlgish 304. Good luck, and enjoy Angie. You're lucky to have her. :-)

The Client Project

The client project has taught me a lot with how to successfully work with a team to complete a task. I would typically prefer to work alone because sometimes it just feels easier to not have to worry about aligning others schedules, and it's easier for me to take the responsibility rather than depend on someone else to do the work. This has probably been the biggest challenge for me--trusting other people to do the work they say they will. I'm always hesitant that they will not do their work and my grade will be compromised.

The best part of the group project has been getting to know Crina, Danni, & I'John. They are all wonderful people and I'm so glad I've gotten to know them better. This semester I have 3 of my 5 classes with Crina, so it's been good to have that relationship.

I think I've learned to be more patient with people and that will be helpful with the next group project. I've also learned that people do generally do what they say they will. This project has helped me become more confident in other people.

Dual Coding

This picture kinda pumped me up! It made me remember high school basketball, especially running from the locker room onto the court. It was such an adrenalin rush! The words build up excitement and pride. The red lettering to me denotes passion. Athletes are passionate about their sport and want to excel. (Part of me also thinks about how in Bible times they covered their doors in red blood during passover, though I'm not sure yet how this connects). We believe is hopeful too. It lets all who enter know that someone has faith in them. I guess that could be the connection--faith. You gotta have faith.

Miscommunication

I work at CVS as a pharmacy technician. Since school has started, I've really scaled back on my hours. Typically I just work on Mondays. One week though, my bosses scheduled me to work on Sunday. I had told them I was willing to work on an occasional Sunday, just to let me know. Well, no one let me know I was scheduled. So, at about 12:10 I received a phone call asking me where I was, did I know I was supposed to work. I had to hurry straight into work. I felt so embarrassed that I wasn't there on time! There were no "reprocussions" other than that. The pharmacist working was very chill about it and so was my manager.

Mock Interview Reflection

I wasn't really sure what to expect before my interview, but for some reason I really wasn't nervous at all. I guess because it was a mock interview and it didn't really affect my future. When I've interviewed for a real job in the past, I have been nervous. I feel like that because I wasn't nervous, I was able to really be myself. Actually, the interview was kinda fun! I enjoy the uncertainty of not knowing what question is coming next.

One question that threw me was: "What was the most meaningful experience of the Health Science program at Clemson?" I really didn't have an answer to this question. I'm not sure there has been one event that has been really meaningful in that it reshaped my life; however, I remember how I felt after my first ever health science lecture. I remember after leaving that class how excited I was to finally feel like I had found my niche. I tried to use this as my most meaningful experience. Hopefully, this answer was successful and didn't look like I was grasping at straws.

If I had to do this interview over again, I don't think I would really change much. Had this been a real interview, I would have felt really good about it and would have been hopeful to receive a call back. Thankfully I've been blessed with the ability to answer interview questions with ease. Overall, I feel mostly comfortable in interview settings, almost like this is my time to shine and work the audience. Normally, I just try to have fun with interviews! I think I would have prepared better questions to ask at the end of the interview. I had forgotten about that part, so I had to make up something on the fly.

I learned to just relax and be myself in an interview. I felt how much easier it is to interview if I don't get nervous. This to me was the most important lesson I learned. I also learned how to write a cover letter. I didn't realize this was a necessary part of a resume.

Presentations

I really enjoyed the presentations. It was so neat to "see" into everyone's lives and just see things that are important or interesting to each of us. I loved Cammy's presentation on her animals. I just thought it was so cool! I mean, I got to pet a squirrel! That was just so cool. I thought Danni's was really neat too. I liked how she included music in the background of her presentation; that was very creative. I think music is a very important aspect to education. I think children need it to be well rounded and to help them with cognitive abilities. I thought Emily's presentation was really good too. It was so informative. I don't know much at all about cow showing so it was just neat to learn about it. Plus, cows are just so cute! I think one reason this presentation was so good is because cow showing is something that she really enjoys doing, and this was evident in her presentation. It made me want to go to a show!

On Anything

These topics that have no direction, no limitations, no topics, drive me crazy! My initial thought is, "Sweet! I can write/present on anything!" Then, when I actually sit down to do the assignment, I feel clueless as to what I should write about. I end up staring at my computer screen, not sure of what to do. It's kinda sad actually. I wish I didn't desire to have so much structure in assignments. I guess knowing what is expected makes a project easier because there are guidelines to follow. Without guidelines, it's hard to know what type of work will receive the better grade. An open assignment should give me the freedom to be creative and take whatever ideas I have and run with. More projects should be open like this in grade school to encourage creativity and reward the students who truly work hard on them.

Completing an unspecific task is kind of liberating. It feels good to know that I completed a project that was completely my idea, to know that it has "my flavor" to it.