Summer Session Over

It is hard to believe that the five week summer session will be over in a few more days. Quite frankly, i was dreading the classes to start because no one wants to go to school in the summer and the topic of "Technical Writing" sounded so boring. Now that four weeks have gone by, I can honestly say i enjoyed this summer session. This course opened to my eyes to a lot of things to pay attention to and notice when i am making or reading a technical document. This course will be valuable in future courses as well as in our careers after graduation, more importantly learning how to write a resume correctly. I enjoyed this class and the relationships i formed and i will miss it once the five weeks are up.

Job Ads

One of the most dreaded searches is one that consists of finding a job that you either qualify for or would be interested in entertaining. Unfortunately the working economy has plummeted over the last few years, leaving college graduates at a standstill when hoping to work with their newly earned degree. In May, I will hopefully be one of those newly graduated college student indulging in the dreadful search of a job, hoping to finally leave the employment I have been holding for the last six years, since i was 16 years old.

Immediately after undergraduate school, I hope to apply to graduate school, but for a different degree. In May I will be obtaining a BA in English but recently have had a change of heart and hope to then work for my MSW, Masters Degree in Social Work. When looking on the Internet for job ads, I decided that I would find on for my BA in English and look to see what I could hope for with an MSW.

Monster.Com is an easy site when searching for jobs that can be agreeable to your skills and needs. I first chose to look up Social Worker occupations and put that I had good communication skills in. In Massachusetts, the website located 13 Communication Skills Social Worker jobs. The first one i read about, interested me immediately, for a hospice care service. For the last six years i have worked in a nursing home as a Certified Nurse's Assistant, and unfortunately, i have had my fair share of experience with hospice, death and dying. My desire to be a social worker is just another avenue i could take to continue gaining experience helping families at a very difficult time in their lives. The requirements listed by the agency are all I either already have experience with, or hope to have once my MSW is completed. Monster.com also offers a link for you to click if you would like to explore similar jobs which could be useful, had i been ready to explore. Finding this specific job ad, makes me look forward to my completion of my degree in the next few years to come.

Taking a more reasonable job search route, I explored possibilities i could look into for my BA in English this coming May. Editing is just one of the many job opportunities that opens up with a degree in English. I chose to look at assistant editing job opportunities with a skill in writing which produced only two ads but one seeming sufficient and interesting. This ad featured an Editorial Assistant job at an entry level with a Bachelor's degree requirement. It requests someone with strong organizational and time management skills, sharp eye for detail as well as excellent proofreading skills, with a possible medical interest. Although UpToDate, Inc. is not as detailed as the social worker ad, it does inform the prospective applicant of the benefits that come along with the job.

My desire to obtain and MSW does not rule out my interest in my BA in English. Both jobs are equally interesting to me because they both offer the oppurtunity of excersising skills, interests, and exoperiences i have obtained and would like to use and perfectioning them further.

Looking for a new job, though dreadful, is necessary. The fear of graduating with a degree that you will not be able to use, is present in every student approaching graduation. This classroom excersise made me realize that i could entertain the possibilities of working with both degrees or either one but still use my medical background.

Collaborative Projects

Working in a group on a collaborative project can often times be unsuccessful and difficult. Some groups end up not working well because one person tends to do more work than another or there is someone who does not contribute anything, but receives a similar grade. Any one who has graduated from any level of education or works in a corporation where working collaboratively is often practiced, knows the positive and negative portions of working together with one or more people.

Being assigned to work with two other people on covering a chapter from out textbook, at first seemed to be overwhelming. We were assigned to teach the class on recommendation letters, which at first seemed like it would be easy but then when we began reading the information, we realized there is a lot more to it than we thought. The three of us, Sam Lynda and I managed to divide up the work, and work successfully together in creating a presentation for the class. We were able to collaborate and voice opinions on what would and would not work and what we should include. I think that we did a really good job at creating a powerpoint in order to teach our audience about recommendation letters.


Although there are good and bad sides to every situation, working together in a group can be beneficial. In this case, it was definitely a good way to be able to come up with a presentation.

Week 2

In order to find information necessary for my BSU flyer, I posted an open forum to students currently attending BSU. I requested they state something that they wish they would have known as an incoming freshman to the school. As a senior at BSU, I am realizing just how much I had to figure out on my own after messing up and how many times I would request help from my advisor and he would reply "I don't know." I thought that getting other students' perspectives would be a good start at determining the direction I wish to take for the next assignment.

Week 1

Being a senior in college means that I have probably created close to a hundred technical communication documents and presentations.  Reading the assigned chapters for class makes me wonder how effective the presentations were and how much of the techniques have now become second nature when created them. I did not realize how important it was to consider your audience when you are creating a document. As a student, we are so used to creating a document solely for the classroom that will already have the same background as you, who will already have a general idea of what you are telling them. Researching and understanding your audience is just as important as making sure you get across the message you want to send. In the corporate world, one person may understand your information differently from the person sitting next to them. It was interesting to read that you can take a technique you have exercised for years such as PowerPoint, can still be used after graduation when you enter your career, but you have to develop it further and develop techniques by incorporating different cultures when trying to convey a specific message to your audience.