My Advice

It’s hard to believe that this will be my last blog topic for my business writing class. The semester has gone by so fast, but next semester will be here before we know it! As our last topic for the semester, we were asked to give advice to the students taking this class next semester. So, here’s my advice:

First of all, be glad that you’re in a client-based class where every assignment isn't a hypothetical, made-up, and “do this to get a good grade” assignment! Believe me, it looks like a lot of work, but you can handle it because the deadlines are very spread out and doable. The number one thing that will help you and make the class a lot easier is if you pick a good group…make that your first priority! There will be one day in class set aside for you to pick your groups. Really take advantage of this and find out with whom you want to work with. The most important thing is scheduling. Make sure you have similar schedules because you submit your proposal to the client with that group and do numerous class activities with them. Secondly, go to class, and go to your group meetings. For some reason, this is difficult for a lot of people! Also, be sure to stay on top of things and try to work ahead. The assignments are not that difficult, but it's a lot easier if you plan ahead (especially if your group has a difficult time meeting outside of class). Don’t hesitate to ask for help…Angie is always willingly to help you with anything. Finally, have a good attitude about the class. Colleen Barrett once said, “Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun.”

So that’s my advice for all of the students taking this class next semester. I have really enjoyed working with a client, and the class has definitely helped me improve my business writing skills. I probably learned the most from the mock interview--that was my favorite assignment! Of course, I’ll never be able to watch another PowerPoint presentation again without being conscientious about format and capitalization! In the end, having a client and working with them was a great learning experience that made the class even more interesting!


I would like to end this blog with a poem by Mary Schmich called "The Best Advice I Ever Had":

Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists,whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy.
Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.
Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life.The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them whenthey're gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.
Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or ofwhat other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll everown.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, becausethe older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians willphilander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen.

The Virginia Tech Massacre

On April 16, 2007, a shooting occurred on the campus of Virginia Tech. I am sure that by now everyone has heard about what happened. On Monday, 33 people were killed and many were injured in two shootings. The rampage ended when the gunman killed himself. It's hard to even imagine what kind of person would do something like this. It is an American tragedy that will never be forgotten.

Right now, I think that I am still in shock that something like this could happen. The scariest part for me is that it could have easily happened here in Clemson or any other campus. When I found out that the second person killed by the gunman was a resident assistant in the dormitory where the first victim lived, I was speechless. As a resident assistant here at Clemson, I had a lot of strong feelings about this. I've confronted situations--situations with emotionally unstable residents--and not for one moment did I ever think my life was in danger. You never expect to be killed trying to help someone. As a resident assistant, we are trained to refer people to counseling services, but that's about all we can do. We can't force people to get help--only they can do that. We are trained to confront situations with caution, but you can only do so much. You can't prepare for the unimaginable. I think my role as a resident assistant will be changed forever because of this.

People continue to debate on what could have been done and what should have been done by VT, but the fact of the matter is that they did what they could. To blame them is unfair. I mean, there's probably not too much protocol written about how to handle a massacre. I can totally understand why the emails were delayed and why classes weren't cancelled until later. The first incident seemed like an isolated incident, and people claimed that they saw the gunman leaving campus. They never expected the gunman would go on to kill more people. They assumed that there was motive in the first incident and that other students were not in that much danger. I do admit that they could have sent out an email to inform the campus of what had happened and that everyone should be cautious, but how much could they really do? Email is not very reliable. Most people only check their email about twice a day. Yes, there are some, like myself, who keeps Eudora open at all times and listens for the sound of incoming mail. There is no way that VT could have warned the whole campus of 26,000 students (9,000 on campus)...that's like trying to warn a whole small town.

Then there's the whole discussion on how this could have been prevented. Even though the gunman was a very disturbed and emotionally unstable man, there was nothing his professors or peers could have done to prevent this. You cannot force someone to get help if they don't want to get help. And, if VT's counseling services are anything like Clemson's, no one can do anything for someone else unless *THEY* want to get help or they actually threaten someone.
I think that we can take a lot from this. We can't walk around being paranoid all day, but we can be more open-minded and pay more attention to people. Maybe a siren could be used to warn campuses of a dangerous situation, like sirens are used to warn towns of bad weather. Of course, the two sounds would need to be distinctly different. Something else that we can do to help prevent future events like this from happening is to be more aware of our peers. You can learn a lot about someone if you just listen to them. A person who needs help doesn’t usually ask for it—you have to show them. And, last but not least, don't think that this can’t or won't happen again. Just remember that we aren't guaranteed anything--life is the most precious gift we are given, so live life to the fullest and be thankful that you've been given another day.

Isaqueena Falls

I went hiking this weekend about 8 miles from my home in Walhalla, SC, and I just thought you might enjoy this picture:

That's the view of the waterfall after hiking down to the bottom of it. After we hiked at Isaqueena Falls, we visited Stumphouse Tunnel. I'm ashamed to say that after living in Walhalla for 21 years, this was the first time I had ever been to Isaqueena Falls and the Stumphouse Tunnel.

"Rivers are magnets for the imagination, for conscious pondering and subconscious dreams, thrills and fears. People stare into the moving water, captivated, as they are when gazing into a fire. What is it that draws and holds us? The rivers' reflections of our lives and experiences are endless. The water calls up our own ambitions of flowing with ease, of navigating the unknown. Streams represent constant rebirth. The waters flow in, forever new, yet forever the same; they complete a journey from beginning to end, and then they embark on the journey again." (Tim Palmer)

The End is Near

As Phase 2 comes to an end, I know that the end of the year is almost here. It's hard to believe that our class will only meet seven more times(counting tomorrow). Only seven more times?!?!Where did the semester go? Next week, the class will not be meetings like normal; we will be meeting with our groups individually while our professor is out of town. During those meetings, we will work on our part for the final project and help each other finish up our web porfolios that are due next Friday.


For this week, we were asked to blog about what our individual contribution will be as we finish the final project for the Anderson Sunshine House. Since Tiger Web Design's homepage design was picked (yay!--I'm really glad that I changed the picture and logo at the last minute because that is what they really liked about it. If you're confused about what I'm talking about, go here: Anderson Sunshine House.) I will be working on most of the design of the "template" pages. I will also be involved in the organization of the links. We have decided to change the navigation of the site, so I have been doing some research on the different kinds of ways to organize the links. So that's what I'll be doing for the next three weeks!!

Oh, I almost forgot...Happy Easter!

Dual Coding Theory

Dual Coding Theory is basically a “cognitive memory model.” To put that into words you can understand: It is how our mind processes everything we see. It helps explain the importance of visuals. Even though this is a psychology topic, it is very important in business to realize how people react to visual information.

According to the theory, there are three systems that work together. The first processes the language, the second processes the visuals, and the third puts them together. For our blog this week, we were asked to discuss dual coding theory and talk about some examples in the media.

Until we learned this in class, it never occurred to me how much CNN and other news stations use dual coding theory. When you watch a news report, not only is the reporter talking about the story, but a blurb and ticker appear at the bottom of the screen telling you about the story. Your brain processes the verbal information and the visual information at the same time. Another example of dual coding theory is when a PowerPoint presentation is being made. The brain must process the speaker and the slides at the same time.

Why does dual coding theory work? We discussed in class how the yellow Anderson Sunshine House Logo and a picture of clouds work well together in presenting the information for the proposal. Not only does your mind read the text, but it associates those visuals with that text. This is why a resume with color or an unusual design gets an interview and why the template resume gets overlooked. The employer remembers the resume being associated with the nice visual images.

Isn’t it amazing what your brain does and that you never even know it’s doing anything!

Fired for Blogging?

Even though I posted on the team blog this week, I still wanted to make a few short comments on the discussion that we had in class about the woman who was fired for putting a picture of herself in her work uniform on her blog. In the blog, she also talked about her job. When the company discovered the blog, she was fired. After hearing about this, I did some research and found even more stories about people being fired for their "online diaries."

I was completely shocked at the amount of stories about people being fired from this. Do I think this is right? Absolutely not! I mean, whatever happened to free speech? I think we all should have the right to say what we think and how we feel. Whether we are talking to our friends in a local restaurant or talking to a million people online, isn't it the same thing? Cicero once said, "Freedom is a possession of inestimable value." You can't put a price on being able to say what you think.

Even though I think being fired for blogging is wrong, I can understand the employers point of view. The employer is thinking about their own reputation. Negative comments by employees can cause the company harm. The ironic thing is that most companies have their employees sign contracts about this kind a of stuff, but the majority of contracts say nothing about blogging. I think that companies need to address this problem BEFORE hiring someone. If you can be fired for blogging about your difficult day at work, then you need to be informed from the beginning about it!!

Team Blog

I posted on the team blog this week. Click here to view my team blog!