Week 11 Blog

Weekly Overview

This week in class we had each team present their proposals for their individual institutes and centers. We have now been assigned an Employment Project where we will individually create our own job search and description as well as our own professional documents; like a resume, cover letter and thank you letter.

I am aware that the during the next class period we will have a guest speaker come in and talk to us about the ASU Career Center and Sun Devil Career Link. I am hoping this will provide me with the best information possible for me to be able to create a professional resume, cover letter, and thank you letter.

Having a well written resume, cover and thank you letters can make a big difference when it comes to a manager deciding between you and someone else. The formatting, design, information and skills all go into play while a manager is making their final decision in the hiring process.

Recently

I have created a resume, cover letter and thank you letter in the past, my sophomore year in college to be exact, and I have been updating my resume every year ever since, but I do know that I need to keep practicing my techniques for writing an appropriate cover and thank you letter for any job I intend to apply to.

Throughout the years, I have changed the styles I use for my resume and I have updated the information on it to meet the skills I currently have and that I have been earning through my previous job positions, internships, and community service. Looking through the literacies list, I have noticed that I meet many of them pretty decently and I know that there are others I still need to work on extensively. I plan on putting those into practice as the Employment Project progresses.

The literacies I believe I have successfully practiced are; memos, page designs, presentations, and written communication. Memos are important because they help when it comes to summarizing the work you have done and with keeping track of what you still have left to do. I have become pretty good at page designs because I have been practicing with them for many years, whether it is with an essay, blog, resume, or a computer design project. Having a good page design impacts how your reader takes in and interprets the information you want to get across to them. I have been doing presentations since I can remember, and all the practice has made me successful in knowing the do’s and don’t’s of presenting. Written communication I believe is one of the most important because you will not always be face to face with the person who you want to get information to. It is good to know how to successfully communicate through paper as well or better than if you communicate face to face.

The literacies I would really like to work on are: email writing, job-application letters, proposals and reference pages. I would like to improve my email writing skills because the way we write emails to someone can define the way we would speak to that person face to face. Being professional in emails is important because I feel that people will not take you seriously otherwise. Job application letters are another literacy I would like to improve on because I know the basic details about them but not how to actually write one properly. I feel I am very bad at writing proposals. Proposals are a good way to get your ideas to others in a professional way. Reference pages can be helpful when applying for jobs because your references can say a lot about your skills and work ethic in previous positions, they can break or make your future in a job application.

References

Chapter 15 in Markel is the biggest reference in for the Employment Project because it says a lot about how to write job-application materials.

Figure 15.1 on page 400 shows a flow chart with information on how to begin the process for preparing job-application materials. I know that this section will be very helpful when it comes to creating my personal documents that relate to the employment project.

Figure 15.2 on pages 407 and 408 show examples of unattractive and attractive resumes. In other words, they show an example of a well formatted and designed resume versus a poorly formatted and designed resume. This will help when it comes to giving me an idea on what my resume should or should not look like.

Figure 15.4 on page 416 shows an example of a reference page, I know that this example will be very handy when I am creating my personal reference page since I do need some help creating an effective reference page. This will give me a good idea on where to start.

Looking Forward

I look forward to working on this individual employment project because it will be a good experience and good preparation for the professional and real world. Having well prepared job application materials can get you the right jobs at the right companies and work places.

I really look forward to polishing the documents I already have created in the past on my own to be able to get my dream job in the future.

(Word Count: 889)

Week 10 Blog

Weekly Overview
This week in class we had to come together as a group to determine what else we needed to still complete for the Proposal presentation and recommendation report for the Center of Games and Impact. We looked over the information we already had completed and what else we needed to complete throughout the weekend.

Unfortunately, our group suffered the loss of a team member, which was our team leader, leaving us disoriented and trying to find our way to get our minds back in the project and the recommendation report. Since our team leader dropped the class, we now have to pick up the slack and add a greater work load on each team member.

Recently
I have recently created a skeleton Google document of what we would like the recommendation report to look like. I did this in order for all team members to have easy access to the document and fill in the spaces to the document as we come across the appropriate information.

It has been a bit difficult to gather all the information we need for the recommendation report because we cannot seem to find very much secondary research on the Center for Games and Impact. Although the due date for the recommendation report has arrived, we are honestly not even close to having the full project completed.

The schedules of all team member conflict with each other and we have not had any time to meet since our last class period to put our proposal presentation together for the next class period. Keeping the whole group updated and focused has become difficult due to the loss of our team leader.

Thankfully, we have gotten an extension on our recommendation report due date and I am still attempting to get a successful meeting time in place with the rest of the group in order to complete the oral presentation with the information we have found so far on the Center for Games and Impact.

References
To create the skeleton Google document for the recommendation report I used the example report on Chapter 19 in the Markel book. Pages 532 to 558 give an example on how to appropriately format a recommendation report. Using the advice and guidelines stated in the pages before the example, I was able to successfully create a skeleton that will be an advantage and of good use for the entire group and the preparation for the report.

In class we discussed the components of the report and what kind of information was going to be needed to fill each section appropriately. Asking advice from other groups and bouncing ideas off each other helped our group come to a decision on what parts of the report were going to be completed by what member of the group. We decided that it would be best if we would each fill the part of the report that we worked on for the research and previous information. For example, the person who conducted the primary research would fill out the section of the report that contained the primary research.

Chapter 17 was also a great help when it came to understanding the process of writing informational reports. Pages 468-469 shows Figure 17.1 in which it describes this process step by step. These steps were to analyze your audience, analyze your purpose, research the subject and compile your information, choose an appropriate format, draft the report and revise, edit, and proofread the report. These were helpful when it came to deciding how to best put our report together.

Looking Forward
I am looking forward to coming together with the rest of my team members to put our oral presentation together on time for the next class period. I am honestly hoping I can really count on my team members to follow through with their parts of the assignment and remaining research left to complete. I have done my best to create a skeleton of the oral presentation and recommendation report on Google documents that will be beneficial to all team members.

I am also looking forward to how our final presentation and recommendation report will turn out. I know that with the dedication and extra work of each team member we will be able to complete a successful project for the Center of Games and Impact.

Lastly, I am looking forward to seeing what each team has created and come up with for their oral presentations and recommendations for their chosen institutions. It will be very interesting to see what each group recommends for those institutions.

(Word Count: 761)

Week 8/ Week 9 Post

Weekly Overview
The week before spring break, we had to meet with our group in class and discuss how far we have gotten in each of the team member's parts. Whether it was interviews, observations, or other data that was critical to our proposal for the Center of Games and Impact. Our group had some of the interviews done as well as a questionnaire and some secondary research. I have personally been looking for more secondary research, but have not had very much luck finding some. I am aware that finding the right kind and credible sources takes a lot of time and dedication.

Central Idea of our Proposal
Our team's proposal is to be able to bring the thought and wonders of how the Center for Games and Impact helps children learn and develop in ways never seen before. For example, autistic children can learn certain things through a game more effectively than if they were to have a teacher trying to teach them in a regular classroom. Children could be more attentive this way as well because they will be playing a game and learning at the same time without them even recognizing it. We all know that the biggest part of the development of children happens in the first few years of their lives. This is why we need to teach them as much as we possibly can in those first few years of their lives. The easiest way for us to do this would be by teaching them in a way they will enjoy.

The Center for Games and Impact should promote and advertise their abilities to the public through social media and other sources in order to bring more people into the center to observe how it all works and the kinds of things they do. With social media I do not believe there would be any costs because if they create a page dedicated only to the Center for Games and Impact, they can post any information related to the center and it can be shared throughout to bring people to it. More people being aware of what the Center for Games and Impact is about will improve the center drastically in several ways.

References
In order to improve our proposal and its purpose I took a few pointers from chapter 8 in the Markel book. The pointers I found most effective and easiest to implement into our proposal were the different types of constraints. Pages 185-187 explain several constraints and how to properly abide by them. I believe using constraints is very important because we do not want to have any false information in our proposal or any other part of the assignment. Having the correct information is critical when addressing an organization.

Another pointer I found helpful in chapter 8 of the Markel book was to Present yourself Effectively. Page 194 shows a table in which points out how to create a professional persona. When presenting a proposal or any other type of presentation to a group of professionals, we should know how to be professional ourselves because we do not want to look nervous, unprepared, or confused about our topic. Being prepared on how to present the information you want to get across to professionals is the best way to make them see that you are taking the topic and assignment serious.

In Chapter 16, page 441 shows an outline on how to write a proposal, I thought this outline would really be helpful when it comes to putting our whole proposal together. Some of the parts of the outline, we already have filled out and identified what goes into them. I believe that if we follow this outline, we will be able to create a very effective and well formatted proposal for the Center of Games and Impact. I believe the most difficult part of creating our proposal paper will be to decide on the appropriate type of proposal.

Looking Forward
I am looking forward to continuing our research and completing this proposal to the best of our ability with the contribution of all team members and the hard work we have all done so far.

For now, I will continue to look for more secondary resources and contact my team members to find out how far they have gotten on their assigned parts for the proposal. We have created a Google document where we have a skeleton of what we want our proposal to look like, we will each fill out the assigned parts and slowly but steadily begin to create a rough draft for the final proposal.

(Word count: 769)