For my speech, I will be analyzing advertisements used by the University of Iowa. I chose the University because I have lived both in and near Iowa City for my entire life and the University has been as much a part of my life as any local brand or company could be. Living around the University has meant exposure from an early age to University advertising and I am interested in how the University builds advertisements to effectively reach the potential student audience.
For my analysis, I have chosen print and video advertisements for the University. Many of these advertisements focus on the diversity and forward thinking attitude associated with the University of Iowa campus. For comparison, I will analyze advertisements from Iowa State and the University of Northern Iowa to help highlight differences and find common ground between their advertisement strategies.
The University of Iowa uses primarily logos and pathos in order to attract and retain students in the various programs of study offered at Iowa. I have found that primarily logos and pathos are used through the analysis of the print and video ads that I have found. Many of the advertisements focus on Iowa being a good step forward for a student's career and any that do not focus on the purpose of Iowa as the next step in education focus on the concept of the Hawkeye Community. The advertisement of Iowa as a productive step forwards in education is a specific example of the use of logos or logic. For example, a quote from a picture on the U of I admission site states,"Iowa will change you, you will change the world". This quote is meant to demonstrate that Iowa is an essential part of getting students from where they are now to where they want to be. The quote that I chose above can also be used as an example of an appeal to Pathos because it appeals to the hopes and aspirations of incoming students as a part of attracting them to Iowa.
Throughout my speech, I plan to display relevant advertisements and explain how they break down into different aspects of the rhetorical triangle. Whether I am comparing two advertisements or just showing and analyzing one, I plan to have content relevant to my presentation on the projector at all times. I will likely not play entire video advertisements but rather show pictures of video advertisements that are relevant to my presentation which will help condense information.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Monday, September 28, 2015
Advertisement Analysis
http://admissions.uiowa.edu/sites/default/files/slide16.jpg
The advertisement that I chose comes from the University of Iowa. The University of Iowa is one of the top public research universities in the nation, and attracts an international student body. The advertisement that I chose to analyze is an image from the admissions page of the University of Iowa website and says, "Iowa will change you, you will change the world". The University of Iowa is identifying itself as a positive and proactive step forwards in life for potential students, saying that through experiences at Iowa students can pursue their interests in meaningful ways. The purpose of this advertisement is to communicate to students that by attending the University of Iowa, they will be gaining a better experience than they could at a competing school. The advertisement conveys this message through logos and pathos. The words on the advertisement are an example of logos used to convey the idea, but what the words say is what engages pathos. By stating that students can change the world using experiences gained at the University, the advertisement engages pathos and makes students think ahead about how their time at the university can help them pursue their ambitions in the real world. Through this combination of logos and pathos, superimposed over a picture of the Old Capital, a symbol of the University, I believe that this is an effective advertisement in connecting Iowa with an image of success beyond a student career.
The advertisement that I chose comes from the University of Iowa. The University of Iowa is one of the top public research universities in the nation, and attracts an international student body. The advertisement that I chose to analyze is an image from the admissions page of the University of Iowa website and says, "Iowa will change you, you will change the world". The University of Iowa is identifying itself as a positive and proactive step forwards in life for potential students, saying that through experiences at Iowa students can pursue their interests in meaningful ways. The purpose of this advertisement is to communicate to students that by attending the University of Iowa, they will be gaining a better experience than they could at a competing school. The advertisement conveys this message through logos and pathos. The words on the advertisement are an example of logos used to convey the idea, but what the words say is what engages pathos. By stating that students can change the world using experiences gained at the University, the advertisement engages pathos and makes students think ahead about how their time at the university can help them pursue their ambitions in the real world. Through this combination of logos and pathos, superimposed over a picture of the Old Capital, a symbol of the University, I believe that this is an effective advertisement in connecting Iowa with an image of success beyond a student career.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Conferencing
I found the conferencing time during review to be very helpful with revising my paper and better understanding the assignment and how I should structure my own writing. The conference was useful because being able to talk face to face and ask questions about criticisms of the paper was very valuable in helping me understand how to improve. I would personally prefer individual conferences to group conferences because being able to ask questions specific to my paper would be more helpful than having to try and apply a broad question from someone else to my own writing. Overall I felt that conferences are valuable to learning because they allow us as students to help advocate for our own learning in a more specific environment.
I found the comments on the draft to be helpful, although not as helpful as the conference. The comments on the draft were a good resource to fall back on where my notes over our talk were lacking or invomplete. The comments on the draft also provided more specific examples of what I could recognize in my own writing which again helped me to learn more about myself and identify the patterns in my writing. Overall, the comments were definitely helpful, but I feel that they could be easily dropped from the draft of we were given longer conferencing time. This is because the comments also helped to guide the conversation during the conference so we would need more time to find all the issues, and also because the comments were a good source to reflect on in addition to my notes, but more conference time would allow me to take more complete notes.
I found the comments on the draft to be helpful, although not as helpful as the conference. The comments on the draft were a good resource to fall back on where my notes over our talk were lacking or invomplete. The comments on the draft also provided more specific examples of what I could recognize in my own writing which again helped me to learn more about myself and identify the patterns in my writing. Overall, the comments were definitely helpful, but I feel that they could be easily dropped from the draft of we were given longer conferencing time. This is because the comments also helped to guide the conversation during the conference so we would need more time to find all the issues, and also because the comments were a good source to reflect on in addition to my notes, but more conference time would allow me to take more complete notes.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Mandatory Draft
Alexander Masada Corey
RHET:1030:0055
9/11/15
Writing as an Economics Professor
Writing within the business profession isn’t just a way to land a job or impress co-workers with a spectacular pitch, writing is an essential part of the communication of ideas. You can’t make it into a job without strong writing skills, you can’t move upwards in a corporation, and you can’t convince others to meet with you or that your ideas are worth their time. In the workplace, writing can open doors for you or shut them before you know where they are and this rule holds true for writing as an economics professor. To help connect the significance of traditional business writing to the profession of economics professor, I interviewed Professor John Solow. From the interview with Professor Solow, I learned that although he works in an office environment different from that of a corporation, the skills required to efficiently communicate ideas to peers and present information in understandable, respectful, and persuading ways are vital in the majority of day to day work.
Non-Academic Writing
Something that all professionals and even all people should know how to do in this day and age is how to write an e-mail. E-mails are, of course, a non-academic writing and are a means of communication that nearly every worker finds themselves using daily. Although all people should know how to write an e-mail, there are guidelines that can improve an e-mail and take it to the next level. These guidelines have quickly become the standard in professional communications and employees are expected to know how to properly respond to e-mails and use them as a tool to increase the efficiency of communication. One of the most important things you need to be able to do via e-mail is communicate information effectively, “Find attached the email marketing course you requested. As I said on my website, I’ll keep sending updated versions of the course from time to time” (Oladiran n.d.). This excerpt from a sample e-mail reply does an excellent job of communicating the information and relevant details in an easy to understand way. This is a very important skill in the business field because time is a valuable resource to everyone involved in your communications. As Professor Solow said in our interview, “Most of my day is writing or reading, I can spend fifty percent of my day writing when I’m teaching, and I spend more time reading and writing when I’m not teaching a course”. The large amount of time spent reading and writing means that you need to be able to use your writing effectively, especially in e-mails in order to save time for everyone involved in the communications process.
Another important part of non-academic writing in the professional teaching field is a memo. Memos are used to communicate larger pieces of information, not unlike a lengthier e-mail and because of this, it is important to know how to condense information and provide visual cues on what information is important in a memo. For example, in this fictional memo from Shorenstein Center, “As part of a general deficit reduction problem, the city should take steps to raise the non-resident income tax rate from ½ to 1%. Several strong arguments exist for raising the non-resident income tax rate”. The use of bolding to highlight a key point allows people to skim a memo and gain the key facts while still offering the option to read the full text to those who have more time, or feel that a point from the text is unclear to them personally. This highlighting technique, when used correctly, allows a larger audience to gain the most benefit from a single memo without sacrificing time or information. This style of writing is important to those working as professors because memos are an important means of communication on campus as I learned from Professor Solow, “I spend about forty percent of my day involved with various University of Iowa services which include writing memos and reports”. Much like e-mails, memos can quickly eat up a large part of a professor’s day and so keeping them short but still providing full and informative content is a must.
The final and perhaps most important point about all non-academic writing in business is remembering to maintain respect for the subject and audience of a communication. This applies especially to e-mail communications, as it’s easy to get carried away or forget that such a casual means of communication is still considered to be a part of the professional world. A good example of someone forgetting the professional context of an email comes from this example I found from Protrans International, “Wow, Willow, these guys must be real boneheads if they can’t use our software. I’ll forward some instructions for these deadbeats to you, and you can send it to them in the morning”. This is a great example of someone getting caught up in a situation and failing to maintain a respectful standard in their communication. A failure to maintain respect in a conversation, even about those not involved, is important to avoid due to the nature of professional communication where anyone, including the client, could be included as a copy on an e-mail. This was also brought up in the interview with Professor Solow who, “recently served on the review board for the dean of another college at the University”. These kinds of reviews covers things like the professionalism of the candidate in addition to how well they do their job day to day.
Academic Writing
Academic writing in business is less diverse than non-academic writing by nature, and it tends to focus more on the communication and support of complex ideas communicated over many pages of long reports or papers on various subjects. An economics professor like Professor Solow uses their position to both teach and research economics which means that in his job he has both built new ideas and also taken the time to synthesize the ideas into teachable lessons. The difference between a report and a lesson in the classroom is generally the removal of extraneous details and development of simple examples that can be explained in fewer pages than a full report.
Academic reports in business consist of research done on a subject, analysis of the research, and a theory based on the results of that analysis. Although many papers can repeat papers or seem nearly redundant when compared to others, each paper seeks to prove a different principle through the analysis of a situation. The idea that each paper is slightly different can be seen from Timsilina (2014),”In this section we present the CGE model developed for the study and the necessary data. Instead of presenting the detailed description of the CGE model, we focus on the aspects where the paper attempts to make a methodological contribution”. This quote is an example of the author of the paper focusing on a subject area where they can make a specific contribution. This is important in academic writing because the point of the writings are to be able to focus on specific ideas and present them effectively to your audience. During the interview with Professor Solow, he mentioned the same idea, “We use descriptive writing to document and identify logic”. As a writer trying to present a new idea based on research and other established principles, it is important to establish the scope of what you are trying to prove, in order to better guide your reader and make your communication more effective.
While writing an academic report for business, you also need to keep your mind on the integration of outside ideas into your own writing. This is where the idea of building on the research of others comes into play because you need to be able to use respected ideas to support your own conclusions drawn from your research. A strong example of incorporating outside ideas can be found in Livingston’s report on The Economics of Glyphosate Resistance Management in Corn and Soybean Production (2015), “Because both the literature and our simulation results suggest that using glyphosate by itself is the main factor underlying the evolution of glyphosate resistance, estimating the impacts on production costs, yields, and returns of using this practice is critical” (23). By stating that previous literature supports the conclusions that he drew from his own simulation, he adds credibility to his own work and the subsequent conclusions that he draws from it. Credibility is key in analytical writing, without credibility your research, analysis, and conclusions are worthless and will be disregarded. This is important because the point of research, according to Professor Solow, is, “To be clear and concise with evident purpose” and to “make an impact”. The use of outside sources and respected opinions adds to the credibility and context of your own research and analysis and is, therefore, essential to a business report.
The idea of academic synthesis in business is of great importance because it is from the synthesis of multiple ideas and reports that applicable models are drawn. This is especially important to teaching professionals because even if they are not writing their own textbooks, they need to have a deep understanding of what they are teaching. A deep understanding of a subject allows the communication of an idea in a building fashion, by introducing ideas that build on one another and can better teach students. A useful report from Linda L. Zhang (2015) on multitype platforming provides an excellent sample of the synthesis of outside ideas, “While these papers provide rich information about product platforms, they do not discuss the above mentioned platform concepts, such as process platforms, layout platforms, flexible platforms, function–technology platforms, multibranded platforms” (1). Zhang identifies the strengths and shortcomings of other reports and papers, and sets the reader up for a shorter and applicable version of the information provided by these other papers. This kind of writing combines both the efficiency that was the major focus of non-academic business writing with the important information and outside support of an academic report, while also presenting the information in a useful way. This style of writing represents all of the ideas for what Professor Solow feels makes his own writing strong, “Efficiency... Evident Purpose… Explanation”. The fact that Professor Solow shares the same values that this report is based on enforces the importance of synthesis and creation of applicable lessons in academic business writing.
In conclusion, the ability to write efficiently, respectfully, and purposefully is very important in the world of an economics professor. The time that you can save others and save yourself is a valuable factor in a professional environment and part of what adds value to an employee. The ability to teach others and teach yourself will allow you to excel in professional writing, especially as a teacher.
RHET:1030:0055
9/11/15
Writing as an Economics Professor
Writing within the business profession isn’t just a way to land a job or impress co-workers with a spectacular pitch, writing is an essential part of the communication of ideas. You can’t make it into a job without strong writing skills, you can’t move upwards in a corporation, and you can’t convince others to meet with you or that your ideas are worth their time. In the workplace, writing can open doors for you or shut them before you know where they are and this rule holds true for writing as an economics professor. To help connect the significance of traditional business writing to the profession of economics professor, I interviewed Professor John Solow. From the interview with Professor Solow, I learned that although he works in an office environment different from that of a corporation, the skills required to efficiently communicate ideas to peers and present information in understandable, respectful, and persuading ways are vital in the majority of day to day work.
Non-Academic Writing
Something that all professionals and even all people should know how to do in this day and age is how to write an e-mail. E-mails are, of course, a non-academic writing and are a means of communication that nearly every worker finds themselves using daily. Although all people should know how to write an e-mail, there are guidelines that can improve an e-mail and take it to the next level. These guidelines have quickly become the standard in professional communications and employees are expected to know how to properly respond to e-mails and use them as a tool to increase the efficiency of communication. One of the most important things you need to be able to do via e-mail is communicate information effectively, “Find attached the email marketing course you requested. As I said on my website, I’ll keep sending updated versions of the course from time to time” (Oladiran n.d.). This excerpt from a sample e-mail reply does an excellent job of communicating the information and relevant details in an easy to understand way. This is a very important skill in the business field because time is a valuable resource to everyone involved in your communications. As Professor Solow said in our interview, “Most of my day is writing or reading, I can spend fifty percent of my day writing when I’m teaching, and I spend more time reading and writing when I’m not teaching a course”. The large amount of time spent reading and writing means that you need to be able to use your writing effectively, especially in e-mails in order to save time for everyone involved in the communications process.
Another important part of non-academic writing in the professional teaching field is a memo. Memos are used to communicate larger pieces of information, not unlike a lengthier e-mail and because of this, it is important to know how to condense information and provide visual cues on what information is important in a memo. For example, in this fictional memo from Shorenstein Center, “As part of a general deficit reduction problem, the city should take steps to raise the non-resident income tax rate from ½ to 1%. Several strong arguments exist for raising the non-resident income tax rate”. The use of bolding to highlight a key point allows people to skim a memo and gain the key facts while still offering the option to read the full text to those who have more time, or feel that a point from the text is unclear to them personally. This highlighting technique, when used correctly, allows a larger audience to gain the most benefit from a single memo without sacrificing time or information. This style of writing is important to those working as professors because memos are an important means of communication on campus as I learned from Professor Solow, “I spend about forty percent of my day involved with various University of Iowa services which include writing memos and reports”. Much like e-mails, memos can quickly eat up a large part of a professor’s day and so keeping them short but still providing full and informative content is a must.
The final and perhaps most important point about all non-academic writing in business is remembering to maintain respect for the subject and audience of a communication. This applies especially to e-mail communications, as it’s easy to get carried away or forget that such a casual means of communication is still considered to be a part of the professional world. A good example of someone forgetting the professional context of an email comes from this example I found from Protrans International, “Wow, Willow, these guys must be real boneheads if they can’t use our software. I’ll forward some instructions for these deadbeats to you, and you can send it to them in the morning”. This is a great example of someone getting caught up in a situation and failing to maintain a respectful standard in their communication. A failure to maintain respect in a conversation, even about those not involved, is important to avoid due to the nature of professional communication where anyone, including the client, could be included as a copy on an e-mail. This was also brought up in the interview with Professor Solow who, “recently served on the review board for the dean of another college at the University”. These kinds of reviews covers things like the professionalism of the candidate in addition to how well they do their job day to day.
Academic Writing
Academic writing in business is less diverse than non-academic writing by nature, and it tends to focus more on the communication and support of complex ideas communicated over many pages of long reports or papers on various subjects. An economics professor like Professor Solow uses their position to both teach and research economics which means that in his job he has both built new ideas and also taken the time to synthesize the ideas into teachable lessons. The difference between a report and a lesson in the classroom is generally the removal of extraneous details and development of simple examples that can be explained in fewer pages than a full report.
Academic reports in business consist of research done on a subject, analysis of the research, and a theory based on the results of that analysis. Although many papers can repeat papers or seem nearly redundant when compared to others, each paper seeks to prove a different principle through the analysis of a situation. The idea that each paper is slightly different can be seen from Timsilina (2014),”In this section we present the CGE model developed for the study and the necessary data. Instead of presenting the detailed description of the CGE model, we focus on the aspects where the paper attempts to make a methodological contribution”. This quote is an example of the author of the paper focusing on a subject area where they can make a specific contribution. This is important in academic writing because the point of the writings are to be able to focus on specific ideas and present them effectively to your audience. During the interview with Professor Solow, he mentioned the same idea, “We use descriptive writing to document and identify logic”. As a writer trying to present a new idea based on research and other established principles, it is important to establish the scope of what you are trying to prove, in order to better guide your reader and make your communication more effective.
While writing an academic report for business, you also need to keep your mind on the integration of outside ideas into your own writing. This is where the idea of building on the research of others comes into play because you need to be able to use respected ideas to support your own conclusions drawn from your research. A strong example of incorporating outside ideas can be found in Livingston’s report on The Economics of Glyphosate Resistance Management in Corn and Soybean Production (2015), “Because both the literature and our simulation results suggest that using glyphosate by itself is the main factor underlying the evolution of glyphosate resistance, estimating the impacts on production costs, yields, and returns of using this practice is critical” (23). By stating that previous literature supports the conclusions that he drew from his own simulation, he adds credibility to his own work and the subsequent conclusions that he draws from it. Credibility is key in analytical writing, without credibility your research, analysis, and conclusions are worthless and will be disregarded. This is important because the point of research, according to Professor Solow, is, “To be clear and concise with evident purpose” and to “make an impact”. The use of outside sources and respected opinions adds to the credibility and context of your own research and analysis and is, therefore, essential to a business report.
The idea of academic synthesis in business is of great importance because it is from the synthesis of multiple ideas and reports that applicable models are drawn. This is especially important to teaching professionals because even if they are not writing their own textbooks, they need to have a deep understanding of what they are teaching. A deep understanding of a subject allows the communication of an idea in a building fashion, by introducing ideas that build on one another and can better teach students. A useful report from Linda L. Zhang (2015) on multitype platforming provides an excellent sample of the synthesis of outside ideas, “While these papers provide rich information about product platforms, they do not discuss the above mentioned platform concepts, such as process platforms, layout platforms, flexible platforms, function–technology platforms, multibranded platforms” (1). Zhang identifies the strengths and shortcomings of other reports and papers, and sets the reader up for a shorter and applicable version of the information provided by these other papers. This kind of writing combines both the efficiency that was the major focus of non-academic business writing with the important information and outside support of an academic report, while also presenting the information in a useful way. This style of writing represents all of the ideas for what Professor Solow feels makes his own writing strong, “Efficiency... Evident Purpose… Explanation”. The fact that Professor Solow shares the same values that this report is based on enforces the importance of synthesis and creation of applicable lessons in academic business writing.
In conclusion, the ability to write efficiently, respectfully, and purposefully is very important in the world of an economics professor. The time that you can save others and save yourself is a valuable factor in a professional environment and part of what adds value to an employee. The ability to teach others and teach yourself will allow you to excel in professional writing, especially as a teacher.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Interview and Source Analysis
Interview
My interview for this project was conducted with Professor John Solow, who I chose to interview in order to gain knowledge about the roles of writing in the job of an economics professor. The first thing that I learned about his role at the university is that he does not currently have a work schedule that is typical of a professor. Right now, Professor Solow is teaching, but he is also managing projects and tasks associated with the college of business. This means that he spends, in his own words, "About 40% of my time teaching, about 20% conducting research, and about 40% working on projects for the University and for the College". Most professors would be doing more research and reporting alongside teaching classes whereas Professor Solow is not. Another thing that I learned from the interview is that he does not consider the teaching of the class to be real writing. Therefore, teaching subjects such as writing questions and guiding learning will not be a focus in my report as, to my understanding, teaching does not constitute a rhetorical situation of substance. I feel that it is not a true rhetorical situation because much of the curriculum relies on adaptation of tests (the selection of questions) to outside texts. The writing of business texts and literature falls underneath the umbrella of what I am considering research for the purpose of this paper. Professor said that his style of writing has not changed much since he was in high-school. Yes, he writes better, certainly, but Professor Solow didn't need to fundamentally change his writing. To Professor Solow, the kind of writing that matters most in business is efficient, accurate, and persuasive writing. This point is rationalized by the fact that when teaching, he spends about 50% of his day either writing or reading the writing of others. This number takes a jump upwards when he isn't teaching a full semester lecture of microeconomics, and if he could do more in a day even while teaching, I have the sense that he would. From this interview, the fundamental idea that I got from everything that was said is that efficiency is the essential in business writing. Whether it's an e-mail, a memo, a report, or a full 150 page dissertation, knowing how to effectively communicate your ideas, where you left off, and where others should pick up is paramount to success.
Sources
The three sources that I already chose were my non-academic sources and so, although I changed them, I will not be covering them in this summary. The three academic sources that I chose are all economics based reports, papers written over research in various fields, with a focus on how the results connect to economic theory and economic success. These papers all fall into the research category of a professor's job, and one in particular that stood out to me was the paper on the subject of multi-platforming. This paper was written with the purpose of connecting other journals already in existence and compressing the ideas and the takeaway into a sort of useful crash course for those who want to quickly extract the use out of multi-platforming for business. This struck me as particularly relevant to the idea of efficiency that came up in my interview with Professor Solow because the paper was written to be easy to skim and extract information from. The entire purpose of the paper was to synthesize the existing information into useful statements and from there, fill in the knowledge gaps about new emerging ideas that had come into play since the writing of the other journals. This reminded me of the ideas we were discussing in class about how we don't introduce new ideas, we build on top of existing ideas. There is recognition given to previous authors and credit given to their expertise, but at the same time the paper is written to fill in the gaps and slim down the ideas into applicable devices. The other two papers that I chose are full reports similar to those that the article on multi-platforming analyzes. One of the reports, for example, is about the economic impact of pesticides and the report is much longer than the paper on multi-platforming, but this makes it a strong example of typical business writing reports.
My interview for this project was conducted with Professor John Solow, who I chose to interview in order to gain knowledge about the roles of writing in the job of an economics professor. The first thing that I learned about his role at the university is that he does not currently have a work schedule that is typical of a professor. Right now, Professor Solow is teaching, but he is also managing projects and tasks associated with the college of business. This means that he spends, in his own words, "About 40% of my time teaching, about 20% conducting research, and about 40% working on projects for the University and for the College". Most professors would be doing more research and reporting alongside teaching classes whereas Professor Solow is not. Another thing that I learned from the interview is that he does not consider the teaching of the class to be real writing. Therefore, teaching subjects such as writing questions and guiding learning will not be a focus in my report as, to my understanding, teaching does not constitute a rhetorical situation of substance. I feel that it is not a true rhetorical situation because much of the curriculum relies on adaptation of tests (the selection of questions) to outside texts. The writing of business texts and literature falls underneath the umbrella of what I am considering research for the purpose of this paper. Professor said that his style of writing has not changed much since he was in high-school. Yes, he writes better, certainly, but Professor Solow didn't need to fundamentally change his writing. To Professor Solow, the kind of writing that matters most in business is efficient, accurate, and persuasive writing. This point is rationalized by the fact that when teaching, he spends about 50% of his day either writing or reading the writing of others. This number takes a jump upwards when he isn't teaching a full semester lecture of microeconomics, and if he could do more in a day even while teaching, I have the sense that he would. From this interview, the fundamental idea that I got from everything that was said is that efficiency is the essential in business writing. Whether it's an e-mail, a memo, a report, or a full 150 page dissertation, knowing how to effectively communicate your ideas, where you left off, and where others should pick up is paramount to success.
Sources
The three sources that I already chose were my non-academic sources and so, although I changed them, I will not be covering them in this summary. The three academic sources that I chose are all economics based reports, papers written over research in various fields, with a focus on how the results connect to economic theory and economic success. These papers all fall into the research category of a professor's job, and one in particular that stood out to me was the paper on the subject of multi-platforming. This paper was written with the purpose of connecting other journals already in existence and compressing the ideas and the takeaway into a sort of useful crash course for those who want to quickly extract the use out of multi-platforming for business. This struck me as particularly relevant to the idea of efficiency that came up in my interview with Professor Solow because the paper was written to be easy to skim and extract information from. The entire purpose of the paper was to synthesize the existing information into useful statements and from there, fill in the knowledge gaps about new emerging ideas that had come into play since the writing of the other journals. This reminded me of the ideas we were discussing in class about how we don't introduce new ideas, we build on top of existing ideas. There is recognition given to previous authors and credit given to their expertise, but at the same time the paper is written to fill in the gaps and slim down the ideas into applicable devices. The other two papers that I chose are full reports similar to those that the article on multi-platforming analyzes. One of the reports, for example, is about the economic impact of pesticides and the report is much longer than the paper on multi-platforming, but this makes it a strong example of typical business writing reports.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Quoting Excercise
My first quote is from an essay that I wrote about half way through senior year. The essay was intended to compare Antonio Skarmeta's Il Postino and Laura Esquirel's Like Water for Chocolate by comparing the quality and style of magic realism in the two books.
An important part both stories is the way in which characters directly represent different aspects of political ideologies associated with the political atmosphere during both conflicts. For example, in Il Postino, when Mario is confronted by Beatriz about needing a job, “‘What do you want me to do?’ he shouted, loud enough for the whole town to hear. ‘The poet is in Paris, so I don’t have anyone to deliver the damn mail to’” (Skármeta 61). Mario’s attitude here represents the confusion and chaos in Chile in the years preceding Pinochet’s military coup.
In this quote, although I introduced it with a sentence leading into the actual quote, the significance of the two mentioned characters, Mario and Beatriz, is left unmentioned. By failing to explain their significance as major characters in the book, I left a weak spot in my use of this quote. If I were to reuse this quote, I would explain their significance as main characters in the same sentence introducing the quote. I would also revise my sentence after the quote, citing direct examples of how unemployment was high in Chile leading up to the military coup and how that contributed to confusing, chaos, and discord in the country.
My second quote is from the same essay as the first quote. It is from the same paragraph which means that the same preface applies to this quote. (An important part both stories is the way in which characters directly represent different aspects of political ideologies associated with the political atmosphere during both conflicts)
Similarly in Like Water for Chocolate, Mama Elena can be seen to represent the ideals of repression associated with the Mexican dictatorship before the revolution, “Mama Elena received them in the living room; she was extremely polite and explained why it was impossible for Tita to marry” (Esquivel 13). Mama Elena's attitude towards Tita marrying reflects the strict adherence to tradition and old values associated with the pre-revolution Mexican government.
For this quote, I introduced the quote with a sentence restating my idea, but I feel that the language I used in the introduction of the quote creates a contrast with the quote itself. I also failed to introduce the relationship of characters to one another which distracts from the purpose of the quote itself. If I were able to rewrite this quote, I would introduce the fact that Mama Elena is the matriarch of the household and explain the significance of her position, including the finality of her decisions. By introducing the characters, I would also re-word the introductory sentence and ease the transition by removing either 'dictator' or 'repression' which would ease the transition into the quote. I would also remove 'and old values' in the sentence after my quote, as it is fairly redundant after already mentioning 'tradition'.
An important part both stories is the way in which characters directly represent different aspects of political ideologies associated with the political atmosphere during both conflicts. For example, in Il Postino, when Mario is confronted by Beatriz about needing a job, “‘What do you want me to do?’ he shouted, loud enough for the whole town to hear. ‘The poet is in Paris, so I don’t have anyone to deliver the damn mail to’” (Skármeta 61). Mario’s attitude here represents the confusion and chaos in Chile in the years preceding Pinochet’s military coup.
In this quote, although I introduced it with a sentence leading into the actual quote, the significance of the two mentioned characters, Mario and Beatriz, is left unmentioned. By failing to explain their significance as major characters in the book, I left a weak spot in my use of this quote. If I were to reuse this quote, I would explain their significance as main characters in the same sentence introducing the quote. I would also revise my sentence after the quote, citing direct examples of how unemployment was high in Chile leading up to the military coup and how that contributed to confusing, chaos, and discord in the country.
My second quote is from the same essay as the first quote. It is from the same paragraph which means that the same preface applies to this quote. (An important part both stories is the way in which characters directly represent different aspects of political ideologies associated with the political atmosphere during both conflicts)
Similarly in Like Water for Chocolate, Mama Elena can be seen to represent the ideals of repression associated with the Mexican dictatorship before the revolution, “Mama Elena received them in the living room; she was extremely polite and explained why it was impossible for Tita to marry” (Esquivel 13). Mama Elena's attitude towards Tita marrying reflects the strict adherence to tradition and old values associated with the pre-revolution Mexican government.
For this quote, I introduced the quote with a sentence restating my idea, but I feel that the language I used in the introduction of the quote creates a contrast with the quote itself. I also failed to introduce the relationship of characters to one another which distracts from the purpose of the quote itself. If I were able to rewrite this quote, I would introduce the fact that Mama Elena is the matriarch of the household and explain the significance of her position, including the finality of her decisions. By introducing the characters, I would also re-word the introductory sentence and ease the transition by removing either 'dictator' or 'repression' which would ease the transition into the quote. I would also remove 'and old values' in the sentence after my quote, as it is fairly redundant after already mentioning 'tradition'.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Analysis of Three Sources
The three sources that I have chosen are all non-academic informative articles that are designed to dissect and analyze three topics within general business writing. All three articles come from respected business writers and organizations and cover the topics of writing business e-mails, resumes, and simply effective business writing. My selection of three non-academic articles covering these topics was to give examples of soft-writing skills within the business world. The importance of soft skills in person to person interaction in the business world is reflected in business writing and I intend to use these articles to help provide a general business writing baseline. The base that I establish with general business knowledge will then be compared to the professional interview and academic writing sources to show how general business writing etiquette meshes with the specifics of an economists career.
Works Cited
Kallos, J. (n.d.). Business Email Etiquette Basics - Business Email Etiquette. Retrieved September 3, 2015, from http://www.businessemailetiquette.com/business-e-mail-etiquette-basics/
Giang, V. (2013, November 7). 19 Reasons Why This Is An Excellent Resume. Retrieved September 2, 2015, from http://www.businessinsider.com/why-this-is-an-excellent-resume-2013-11
Silverman, D. (2011, March 30). How to Succeed in Business Writing: Don't Be Dickens. Retrieved September 2, 2015, from https://hbr.org/2011/03/how-to-succeed-in-business-wri
Giang, V. (2013, November 7). 19 Reasons Why This Is An Excellent Resume. Retrieved September 2, 2015, from http://www.businessinsider.com/why-this-is-an-excellent-resume-2013-11
Silverman, D. (2011, March 30). How to Succeed in Business Writing: Don't Be Dickens. Retrieved September 2, 2015, from https://hbr.org/2011/03/how-to-succeed-in-business-wri
Interview Questions
1) How would you describe the basic functions of your job?
2) How much time do you spend writing and reading the writing of others?
3) Could you describe how writing fits into your job?
4) What is the most common form of writing you use in your job?
5) What level of writing do you feel is required for your job?
6) How much does your writing ability impact your value to your employer?
7) In what ways did you have to grow as a writer to do your job more effectively?
8) How does audience impact writing for your job?
9) How does writing make your job easier to do?
10) Did your transition into professional writing change your opinion on writing?
2) How much time do you spend writing and reading the writing of others?
3) Could you describe how writing fits into your job?
4) What is the most common form of writing you use in your job?
5) What level of writing do you feel is required for your job?
6) How much does your writing ability impact your value to your employer?
7) In what ways did you have to grow as a writer to do your job more effectively?
8) How does audience impact writing for your job?
9) How does writing make your job easier to do?
10) Did your transition into professional writing change your opinion on writing?
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