Brethren (Team WSB Presentation)

Today we presented chapter 8 as a team from our WSB book. Our presentation was based on solving problems and writing proposals. As a team, I feel that we did really well! Before presenting in class, we got together as a group two different times to format our slides and practicing the timing and speaking part of our presentation. I will do an evaluation on a personal and team level.

Personally, I feel well about my part of the presentation. I practiced a lot and I feel that it paid off. One thing that I feel that I did well was maintain good eye contact with the audience. Not once did I have to look back to my slides for help. In addition, I feel that I spoke clearly and in an engaging manner. One thing that I could have done better was my hand motions. I feel like I could have made more emphasizing motions. 

As a team, we worked really well together! As I said, our practice paid off. I think that all of our transitions were smooth. Everyone knew when the needed to speak and stepped up front to draw in the attention. In addition, I thought we looked great as a team. We dressed up with matching ties to look nice and snazzy! I also like how are slides turned out; I thought that they looked very professional. Even with all of our practice, we were a little rushed at the end. We probably should have taken some information out of our presentation to make everything a little more clear. 

My Life Now=Proposals

Well, if I did not know what a proposal was before, I definitely do now. This week I learned a TON about them for a couple reasons. First, because we have been working on them in class. On Tuesday, we started doing the research for our briefing article. For this assignment, we had to get a specific proposal passed off with Professor Middleton and we will be writing a brief report about that topic. Not only do we have this assignment, but also a new one was introduced to us today in class. In our teams, we will be writing a consulting proposal for a company. We will study the complaints filed against the organization and come up with a solution on how they can fix their weak points. In class today, we decided that we will study and write our report for Vivint.

Also today, my team presented about solving problems and writing proposals. I feel that this will help a lot in our team project because that is exactly what we will be doing. I had never really understood what a proposal is or knew how many different types there are until I studied about them for our presentation.

There is just one type of proposal I will not be doing this week....

These next couple of weeks will be a little stressful in this class. We went over the remaining assignments for the semester and there are many things that we need to do still. I will have to go into fifth gear to keep up with this class and all of my others.

Online Interview

I actually enjoyed doing the online interview. I was a little nervous at first because I had never done one before. The interview online definitely had a different feel to it than doing one in person, for this I am grateful that I could practice! A challenge that I had was to not look down at my resume while speaking. In person, the interviewer can tell what you are doing, however, online it may appear as if you are scared or nervous. Not making eye contact usually is not the best idea in an interview; you need to appear to be confident!

As well as being interviewed, I also enjoyed doing the interview. This part didn't feel that much different to me from an interview in person; you do not have to worry about as many things as being interviewed. While starting the interview, we had some technical difficulties and lost connection. I am happy that this happened because it gave me a small taste of the real world. Something like that could happen, so now I know how to react in that situation! Overall, I loved the experience.

My employer: Coleman Edwards (5)

The Good, the Bad, and the...Persuasive?

What I enjoyed most this week was practicing persuasive and bad news writing. Before studying this topic, I had never really realized that there is a difference in the writing style depending on the message. We learned that for good news, you put the main idea right at the beginning to motivate the audience. For bad news, you hide the main idea a little in the text so that you can warm them up to it.

For my persuasive writing assignment, I chose to write a girl why she should date me and for my bad news letter, I broke up with someone. I learned many things during this assignment, but I believe the saddest is that I discovered that I could more easily break up with someone than tell them why I am dateable. I hope that it is not too big of a problem :)

As a team, The Brethren, we started to work on our presentation; it will be on Thursday. It was enjoyable to get together as a group and work together; one of the things that I love most is working as a team. We were able to design all of our slides and get the master copy ready, all that we need to do now is practice!

One Step Closer to the Future

I feel that this week was the week that most inspired me. We did many things that I will be applying through my whole college and job career. The two things that were most inspiring to me were learning about resumes and job interviews. This is something that I have always wanted to work on, but never really knew where to start. The last resume I had made was in high school and my last job interview was when I was a junior in high school. Before, I only had a very basic knowledge of how to create a professional resume and present myself in a professional way. I was amazed at the resume I was able to create with the instruction we received in class and in the book.  

What I most enjoyed during the week was doing mock interviews. I felt as if I were able to speak well and clear. However, at the same time, I was able to receive some great feedback of things that I can do better. I will be sure to remember what I learned and apply it when I have to do a real interview.

The ABC's and Clouds?

We only had one class period this week due to the break last weekend! Two writing assignments were assigned to us last week that we were work on. It is funny, because I really do not enjoy writing one bit, but I actually enjoyed these assignments! With one assignment, we practiced writing paragraphs applying the CLOUD principle:

• Coherent
• Length
• Organization
• Unity
• Development

Our other assignment was to write a business memo applying OABC:

• Opening
• Agenda
• Body
• Closing

I liked these assignments because I feel like I really understand this part and I can see the improvements in my writing already. I will be sure to apply this in the future!

As well as the writing assignment, I loved our guest speaker. I had many questions about internships that she was able to clear up and made me excited to apply for some in the near future! In addition, I loved how she spoke about interviews. I feel that job interviews need to be executed very well to get a job. She was able to help me understand a little more about what I need to do. 

Lights, Camera, Action!

So, this week made me super excited! I am not going to lie; I am super excited that the grammar unit is over. One of the things that I love most is public speaking. This week was so great because that is what we really focused on. We had some great classes about how we can be powerful public speakers. One of my strong suits has always been talking and presenting to an audience, but after these last couple of classes, I have seen that there is still a lot of things that I can work on. That is why I am so excited! I can take a strong point and make it even stronger. I feel that this is something important because it is always used in the business world. 

As our book stated, you never know when you will be called out to give a report with little, or no notice. The class that I enjoyed most taught us how we can use the floor, eye contact, and hand movement to enhance our presenting abilities. We did some fun exercises that made me feel a little awkward, but helped a lot. In these next couple of weeks, we will start our presentations individually and in groups. I am excited to see how I can apply everything that I am learning and see the effects of the application.