Advice

The best advice I have to do well in business writing is to do all the assignments. You also need to read the assigned chapters because they not only help you on your assignments, but they will also help you in the future. Make sure you keep up with your weekly blogs because they are easy to forget. Also make sure you get to know the other students in the class before you pick the members for your group project. You need to pick people that are easy to work with. Overall, make sure you pay attention to what the teacher says. She will tell you everything that I said above. Good luck!

Ethics Research

I was watching the movie Erin Brokovich with Steven this weekend when we figured out what we really wanted to do for our ethics research. We had been researching ethical lapses in American government when Steven, figured out what a great example of a lapse in ethics the movie was. The entire scenario regarding Pacific Gas and Electric covering up their use of hexavalant chromium in their holding ponds.

Response to Article

Ethical lapses distract U.S. workers
New study from LRN finds U.S. workplaces at risk for reduced worker productivity and scandal

I found this article very interesting. I never realized that ethical issues could decrease worker productivity and cause such a distraction. This article points out that even the smallest ethical issue can cause a disruption among workers. After reading this article, I agree that you shouldn't get others involved in an ethical issue. Getting others involved only further decreases worker productivity. If a person is concerned about an ethical issue, they should take it directly to management. I don't think that there is a way to omit ethical issues in the work place; but I do think that there are better ways to deal with them.

Web verses Paper Writing

·In many ways writing for the web is like writing on paper. You have an audience, a purpose, and a subject. You must also be grammatically correct have organized thoughts.

·Writing on the web must be concise and easy to read. People read web writing slower than paper based writing; so web based writing needs to be well organized and easy to scan.

·Graphics play a big role in web based writing. You need to be able to catch the audience’s attention so that they will read what is on your web page. Not only can you use graphics to catch the audience’s attention, you can also use video and audio when writing on the web.

·With web based writing, you can use hyperlinks to easily send people to other information sites. On paper based documents, the reader would have to go find the supplemental information.

·With web based writing, it is easier and faster to reach a larger audience than with a paper based document.

The New Additions!

I recently got a pet rat. I haven't thought of a good name for her yet but I am working on it. She is very cute! Most people wonder why I would chose a rat for a pet. They are actually very sweet and very smart. They are also clean pets, contrary to what people might think. In our apartment, we are also fostering a mother cat and her 5 newborn kittens. I just hope that the cat doesn't get to the rat.

Reflection

Lying on Your Resume What Are the Career Consequences?
by Kim Isaacs

I totally agree with this article. People should be punished for lying or exaggerating on their resumes. I feel that lying or exaggerating on your resume does put those who don't at a disadvantage. The women in the article who lied about her masters degree deserved to be fired. Instead of lying on her resume, she could have said in an interview that she wanted to get her masters and they could have started her out in an entry level position. After receiving her masters she could have quickly moved up in the ranks. She could have also applied for the job after receiving her masters. She may not have needed a masters degree at all.

I do think that the company should do background checks on everyone they plan to hire. They should call their past employers and check on educational information before they hire somebody.

Class Presentations

I thought that all of the presentations were very interesting. I liked being able to pick whatever topic you wanted. This activity allowed me to get to know my classmates. One of my favorites was Leigh’s presentation on the different ways that people learned. I liked how she got the class involved. I found out that I was right brained. I also enjoyed the presentations on travel. I liked looking at all the pictures of the different places that people have been. I found the presentation on the experimental forest interesting as well. I never realized that it was available for use by the public. I hope to take advantage of it soon! I also loved the tasty cream puff things. It was really hard to choose my favorite presentation!