Response: Module 25

            Module 25 focuses on using visuals effectively and ethically. The text suggests using visuals when planning and drafting our oral presentations or documents, because they can help us find data relationships and see if our information is complete. For the final presentation or document, visuals are useful because they emphasize main points that we want the audience to remember. It is very important to double check our information and make sure it comes from a reliable source.

            According to the text “every visual should tell a story,” and that story can be expressed in a sentence. We can use that sentence as the visual’s title. For instance, it is more effective to use the title “Growth Was Greatest in the South” than “U.S. Sales, 1999-2005.”  It is essential to make sure the information we have supports the story we want to tell.

            Every visual must have:

·         A title

·         A clear indication of what the data are

·         Clearly labeled units, axes, symbols, and so forth

·         The source of the data and the visual

            I find interesting the information about tables, pie charts, and bar charts. It is better to use tables when we want the audience to remember specific numbers. Bar charts are more effective than pie charts because people judge position and length more accurately than area.

            I find useful the following advices: simplify the paper visuals for presentations, do not mislead the audience by using distorted visual shapes, and know where each visual is in case someone asks about it during the questioning session.

Response: Module 20

            Module 20 offers guidelines to make effective oral presentations. Oral presentations have three basic purposes: to inform, to persuade, and to build goodwill. Most oral presentations have more than one purpose. For example, the main purpose in a company’s training session is to inform. The secondary purpose may be to persuade the new employees to follow the company’s policies.

            The text suggests that we need to keep it simple when planning a presentation. It is better to identify one main idea that we want the audience to remember, and support that idea with easy to follow details. It is also important to analyze the audience to keep them interested in the presentation.

            There are three types of presentations: monologue presentations, guided discussions, and sales presentations. Monologue presentations are more common in class settings. Speakers function as experts who need good delivery skills in order to hold the attention of the audience. On the other hand, guided discussions let the audience participate throughout the presentation while speakers serve as facilitators. Sales presentations are more like conversations, because the speakers want to know the audience’s objections to whatever they are selling.

            It is important to remember that visuals serve as an outline for the presentation, but they should not give every detail. We need to limit the amount of information on each slide, and show a slide when we are ready to talk about it. When using visuals, another suggestion is to be prepared with a backup plan in case the equipment does not work.

            The text also offers guidelines for group presentations. It suggests involving as many members of the group as possible in speaking roles. This can be done by dividing the topics and taking turns to speak. In order to make the presentation coherent, it is essential to coordinate the visuals and practice the delivery of the presentation together, at least once.

            Planning is very important when preparing an oral presentation, but rehearsing it should be as important. 

Response: Module 3

            Module 3 focuses on communicating across cultures. The module emphasizes that globalization has changed the workplace. Therefore, it has become essential to be aware of different cultural values and business practices, since employers, employees, customers, and suppliers may have very different backgrounds.

            According to the book, culture “provides patterns of acceptable behavior and belief.” Cultures can be categorized as high-context or low-context. “In high-context cultures, most of the information is inferred from the context of the message;” while in low-context cultures “most information is explicitly spelled out.”

            All aspects of business communications are influenced by culture. We need to be aware of our nonverbal signals and gestures because they can be misunderstood by people from other cultures. For instance, in Arab culture “showing the sole of the foot is an insult.”

            Personal space and the perception of time also differ around the globe. Some cultures feel more comfortable with touch than others. For instance, in Iran, “handshakes between men and women are seen as improper.” Time is treated as a resource in North America, so if someone is 5 minutes late, they believe that they are losing money. On the other hand, there are cultures in which its members want to establish a relationship before doing business, so they spend more time in their meetings.

            It is important to point out that most cultures use a more formal writing style than the United States. Buffers are often used in negative messages, and requests are made more indirectly.

            If we are planning to travel to another country, I find useful the advice of leaning about its culture and language, because it will be the only way to avoid uncomfortable situations and misunderstandings.

Response: Module 24

Module 24 gives advice on how to organize time for writing a long report and how to create each section of the report. 

            When organizing our time for writing the report, we need to be efficient. Therefore, we should plan before writing. Planning will take most of our time. The book also suggests expending more time in sections that are important to our audience and support our recommendations. We will have some writing already done from our proposal paper, such as the introduction and bibliography, but we will need to make some adjustments.

The components of a formal report are:

·         Cover

·         Title Page

·         Letter of Transmittal

·         Table of Contents

·         List of Illustrations

·         Executive Summary

·         Report Body (Introduction, Background History of the Problem, Body, Conclusion, Recommendations, References, and Appendixes)

I find very useful figure 24.2 in the book, because it gives an example of a long report with blue marginal notes explaining each of the above mentioned sections.

The format and style of a report will vary depending on the report’s purpose, the organization, and the discourse community. I find useful the book’s advice on how to find the appropriate format and style for our reports. It suggests finding past reports of our organization or reports published by other organizations that have similar characteristics to the one we need to write. It also suggests testing our draft with an audience similar to the one that will read our report.

Response: Module 23

            Module 23 explains how to write short reports. The text suggests writing short reports instead of long ones, when we have the option. We should only put the information that the reader needs in order to make the decision. Also, short reports use letter or memo format.

            The text discusses three types of reports: information, feasibility, and justification reports. Information reports give a summary of completed work without asking for action or offering a recommendation. Feasibility reports analyze different alternatives and recommend one of them. Justification reports either recommend or justify purchases, investments, hiring, and changes in policies.

            When organizing reports the following patterns are useful: comparison/contrast, problem/solution, elimination of alternatives, general to particular or particular to general, geographical or spatial, functional, and chronological.

            When writing a report we need to use a formal style. It is also better to use the company name instead of the word you. Reports should include all the documents required to understand the recommendations.

            I find useful the text’s suggestion of using blueprints in the reports. Blueprints tell the reader which are the main points in each section or in the entire report. We can assign numbers to the main points to make our blueprints easier to read.

Response: Modules 27 and 28

Module 27 offers advice on how to write an effective resume. The lecture suggests some guidelines to make resumes more attractive to employers, such as providing details of our previous jobs, emphasizing achievements relevant to the position for which we are applying, and including skills that are used in almost every job.

There are two types of resumes: chronological and skills resumes. Chronological resumes highlight degrees, job positions, and dates. Skills resumes emphasize skills rather than jobs and dates. We will use a chronological resume if our education and experience prepare us directly for the job position. We will use skills resumes when our education and experience are not directly related to the job position, but we do have the necessary skills to apply for the job. We can also use skills resumes when we are changing fields or there are gaps in our work history.

These two types of resumes differ in the way they list experience, activities, and volunteer work. A chronological resume lists them in different categories, while a skills resume combines them together under each skill needed for the job. However, both types of resumes include: career objective, summary of qualifications, education, honors, and references.

I find useful the lecture’s advice of using minimum detail about low level jobs, or listing them together in a chronological resume. The lecture also suggests using jargon in the headings of a skills resume to show that we know about the field.

Module 28 explains how to write a job application letter. The purpose of this letter is to get an interview. Therefore, we need to focus on the requirements of the job, show our knowledge of the organization, and point out aspects that separate us from other applicants. Like any other written communication, we need to plan, write, revise, edit, and proofread our job application letters.

There are two types of letters: solicited and prospecting job letters. We will send a solicited job letter when we know the company is hiring. On the other hand, we will send a prospecting job letter when we want to work for a company that has not announced openings. In a solicited job letter, we state the job that we are applying for, offer details of our qualifications, and ask for an interview. In a prospecting job letter, we need to catch the reader’s interest, offer details of our qualifications, and ask for an interview.

I find useful the lecture’s advice of researching on the web about the company offering the job. This will help us when writing the letter and prepare us for the interview. In addition, letters should be at least one page long, because a short letter may suggest that we do not have enough qualifications or that we are not really interested in the job.

Response: Module 22

Module 22 offers strategies for finding, analyzing, and citing information more effectively. We can find information in the library and online, or we can gather new information by making surveys, interviews, and observations.

When searching for information online, we need to use keywords, which “are the terms that the computer searches for in a database or on the web.” We also need to use and, or, and quotation marks to narrow our search. It is important to evaluate the information we find on a web page before using it, because anyone can post on the internet. We should ask ourselves: Does the website have an author and date? Is the author an expert? Can I confirm the information provided by the website somewhere else?

It is important to remember that we cannot only rely on websites for our research. We need to check other sources, such as periodicals and journal papers with peer reviews; because those documents are checked before they are published. 

If we are gathering information with a survey, we need to prepare a questionnaire. Questionnaires can have yes or no questions, multiple choice questions, and open questions. Surveys and interviews can provide useful data as long as the questions are well designed.

MLA and APA are the most used formats for endnotes and bibliographies in reports. A good report has its sources cited and documented, so it is easy for the readers to find the original source of the information.

I find useful the lecture’s advice on how to organize the questions in a survey. It suggests putting harder questions, such as those about income and age, at the end of the survey. If people do not want to answer them, we will have at least the first ones filled out.