Welcome to your first discussion. This week you will be focusing on the importance of writing and how it can make you more marketable to potential employers.
Why is Writing Important? How do you think it can it help you to have more to offer a potential employer?
To prepare read the article: http://www.binghamton.edu/ccpd/parents/help-your-student/skills-employers-want.html
POST (150 words or more):
First, write a paragraph summarizing key points from the article as they relate to writing and technical communication. Make sure to provide at least one in-text citation from the article and respond to it critically. Be precise. Use examples from the reading and from relevant experience to support your points.
Next, write a short reflection. Why do you think proficiency in writing and communication skills are lacking? How can classes like this one help you to achieve your goals and help you gain the soft skills needed to offer employers? Why is it even relevant? What do you hope to learn this quarter (hint: see the syllabus/course major instructional areas).
At least 2 REPLIES (100 words or more each):
Respond to at least two peers during the week.
Additional Resources Related to Week 1:
Netiquette: http://edtech2.boisestate.edu/frankm/573/netiquette.html
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html
Email Etiquette: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/636/1/
Reader Centered Strategies for Memos and Email:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/624/ and/or
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/624/1/
Resume Help:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAthQKLhBTs and/or
www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/students/gsas/resumehandout2011.pdf
http://www.law.harvard.edu/current/careers/opia/toolkit/resumes/sample-resumes.html
Quick tips from the Harvard video/resources above: use action verbs (see the list of action verbs for help), include "accomplishment statements", quantify your statements by showing how you "made a difference" or added value (what specifically did you "increase, decrease, modify, change"), why do you fit the position ("why you for that position?"), and make sure your document is easy to digest so you will be able to make a quick impression in just about 5 seconds.
Also, use key words and make sure your skills match the job description for which you are applying.
Other experts often say to "tier" out your skills (again, these should align or match the job descriptions for which you are applying and a potential employer should be able to find them quickly in just a few seconds).
Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook:
Nursing: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm or
IT: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/home.htm
Most jobs in this day and age are not just looking for people with tech savvy backgrounds and fancy degrees they also want people who have great communication and writing skills. Why communication skills are so important to someone who is going into the IT field: for one if you are trying to convince a company to hire your company to build their network for them you will have to be able to tell them why they should hire your company with confidence and also to be able to use power points and graphs as well. Writing skills are actually very important to almost every job and or career for one simple reason records. We all know that you can just do that on the computer but also having paper backups of important documents is also a wise idea and if you’re the one making those backups you will need to able to have readable hand writing know how to spell and proper grammar so when other people read those reports or documents they know what you were trying to say.
ReplyDeleteWhy communication and writing skills are lacking in the professional field today is because a lot of people focused on technology when it came out and most people lost touch of old fashion skills of communication and writing. Even though they are old ways they are still necessary to complete a job or trying to sell a product to someone or just simply helping someone out. This class will be able to help by teaching the proper grammar needed to write an essay that could be used also for important work documents and reports. This class will also help by teaching better ways to communicate with other people so you can get your thoughts across easier and in a manner people can understand.
Scott
will i agree with what how he explained i have trouble expressing what i mean but that is where i was try to say he just express him self better
DeleteI agree what he said because a lot of people in the IT field or college having trouble with communication and writing. For me, my communication skills and writing skills are really good for now on. But I still need to improve my skills in the future. One thing that hit me is the grammar. Grammars are very important in the workforce and college as well. And basically, some people still have trouble with he/she grammar .To be honest, I still have a little trouble with my grammar. But, I know I going to improve my grammar.
DeleteThis article is very interesting. Leah and I are very surprised about this article. The article is basically about the employers have some problems with professional communication skills, grammar, teamwork, etc. That actually made us feel some type of way about this situation. The reason why we feel kind of surprised about this article because they talked about lack of communication, grammar, and lack of presentation skills.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, let’s talk about lack of communication. There are different types of communication skills such as talking, and writing. Two main problems is communication and writing. In this society, some employers still have trouble with writing because they struggle to write or can’t express their feelings and keep forced on technology stay of writing and everything. They really need this type of skill because it’s important for the workforce and school as well. They really have the power to learn more about writing and communication skills to have more knowledge about this topic. When they learn this topic, life is going to be very easy for them.
Donell and Leah
Ryan MastinSeptember 19, 2015 at 9:01 AM
ReplyDeleteI agree with this post about communication skills. It almost seems as if communication is becoming a lost art. Perhaps this is one of the downfalls of modern day communication i.e. - Facebook, Twitter. I believe that these methods of communication are important, however you should not only be limited to this style of communication. From my experience good communication skills are not only important but the ability to adapt and change your conversation depending on who you are addressing is important as well. For example, on my job I speak to engineers and material handlers. It is important that I am able to communicate with an engineer, using proper terms and acronyms and simplify my conversation to so that the material handlers understand what is needed for he/she to do and vice versa. I am able to accomplish this by overcoming the fear of talking, listen and grasping the concept of teamwork.
Bryan Leach
ReplyDeleteI agree with the article in that most people lack good communication skills.
This has been a part of my professional life as long as I can remember. I believe that it has a lot to do with people being too lazy or not having enough courtesy to talk directly with the person or people that they need to talk to. This kind of behavior can be detrimental to the work environment, in that, if the message or job task gets lost in translation from management to the person actually performing the task, it could cost the company large sums of money because they might have to have the job done over again. If management just took the time to tell the employee exactly what they wanted to get done, everyone could be saved the hassle of re-doing the job. I believe that in the age of computers, tablets, and smart phones that people have become more introverted and they would rather shoot someone an email than get out of their chair and talk to another employee in person. Sometimes a phone call is even out of the realm of possibility. I think that emails and text messages have become the normal communication standard now because it is easier than calling someone on the phone or visiting with them in person. Emails are beneficial in some ways though, and I understand that technology will be always evolving and will be used, but should not be at the cost of face to face communication. I'm sure that if people would be more considerate of others at work and thought of ways to better work with others, that the work environment would have less conflict and things would run a lot smoother. There seems to be many people that would rather argue with everyone than to solve their differences of opinions in a civil manner. I know that there will always be differences of opinions, no matter how big or small the company might be, but if everyone worked on their communication skills the job place would be more tolerable for everyone.