Module 25

This module is about the importance of using visuals and how to use them effectively. You should know howw to use them to tell stories, match  the visual to the story, you definitely should know how to design them and make visuals ethical. It is very important to use visuals while you are making presentations so you can catch the audiences attention. You want to make sure that your visual draws their attention but at the same time you dont want them to be distracted. You want to focus on a topic, simplify the data on that topic and convert the numbers to simple units especially on a graph and you want to look or relationships and changes. When dealing with numbers you want to use graphs and charts so that can better understand them. By using the graph or charts you can explain what you are talking about better and the audience wont be lost or confused. You should use color but you want to use them carefully. Also when it comes to clip art you want to be careful as well. When presenting memos and business presentations you most likely want to avoid using clip arts. I have experience using visuals and it makes it a lot easier to explain you topic and keep the audience interested.

Module 20

This module talks about making oral presentations which is a very important aspect in the business world. If you are unable to make a good oral presentation than it will be hard for you to be successful in the business world. ou want to be able to develop a good speaking voice. When giving presentations you want to make sure that the audience can hear you clearly and make sure that they can fully understand what you are saying. You dont want to make the message too complicated because you dont want to confuse the audience by any means, you want to keep their full attention. In order to keep their full attention you want to talk about something that you know they will be interested in. You dont want to get off topic too much because that will cause you to lose the audiences attention. You want to choose the right presentation, there are monologue, guided, and sales presentaions. Also Informative presentations inform the audience or teaches them, persuasive presentations you are trying to persuade them to do something, and goodwill presentations entertain and validate the audience. When presenting you want to create a strong opening as well as a strong closing. A strong opening will catch the audeinces attention immediately and keep them interested during the presentation and a strong closing will help them remember your presentation. There are five ways you can organize your presentation, chronological, problem-causes-solution, excluding alternatives, pr-con, and 1-2-3.

Module 3

Communicating across cultures is very important especially once you enter the business world because you will be dealing with different people everyday. You will come in contact with people from different cultures/religions and you will need to know how they communicate so you won;t do anything to offend them or disrepect them in anyway because what we find respectful could mean something totally different to other cultures. You want to consider diversity as part of audience analysis, begin to be aware of the values, beliefs, and practices in other cultures and become more sensitive to verbal and nonverbal beavior. You first want to understand what the meaning of culture is, which is our understanding of acceptable actions and beliefs.  You have high-context and low-context-cultures. Culture affects business in every aspect. It shows you how to show politeness and respect, how much information to give, how to motivate people, and how to talk to people. Nonverbal communication is very important, things like body language can be misinterpreted just as easy as verbal communication. For example eye contact is very important in America but in other countries it is respectful to drop your eyes when you are speaking to a superior. You also want to give people their personal space so they dont feel uncomfortable. I have some experience in communicating with people from other cultures and it is very different. I have to make sure I dont do or say anything that would make them feel uncomfortable so I go out of my way in order to please them and make them feel comfortable.

Module 24

Module twenty four is very important because it shows you how to write long reports and also talks about the importance of them. It shows you how to use your time efficiently when you are writing long reports, it shows you how to set up parts of a full formal report and how to keep a proffessional image in the process. Organization is really important, you want to write parts as soon as you can and spend the most time on sections that support your recommendations. A full formal report may consist of a cover page, title page, letter of transmittal, table of contents, list of illustrations executive summary, and report body but they do not have to include all of them. You first want to find out what you recommendation will be cause that will determine what your title page and transmittal will say. The introduction of the report contains a statement of purpose and scope. In the statement of purpose you want to identify the organizational problem, the technical investigations it summarizes and the rhetorical problems. In the scope you want to identify the topic the report will be covering. You want to include limitations, assumptions and methods as well. I dont have any experience writing long reports but this sections really helped me and will be a great reference if I ever need to write one and it wills erve as a great reference.

Module 27

This module is very important because it is all about resumes. Resumes are very essential in the business world because it is something you must have in order to find/career that you want. Businesses look at these very well and make sure everything is there how it is supposed to be because they pick the people they are going to hire based on what they have in their resumes and how they look.  You always want to choose the right kind of resume for your qualifications, make you experience relevant to the employer, and you definitely want to write the strongest possible resume. First a resume is basically a persuasive summary of your qualifications for eomplyment. In order for the employer to pay attention to your resume you want to show how your qualifiactions fit the job and the company. There are different resumes you can choose from. A chronological resume summarizes what you did un a timeline start with the most recent and going backwards. A skille resume empphasizes the skill you have used rather than just the job. Some of the points you always want to include in a resume is a career objective, summary of qualifications, education history, honors and awards, employment history, and references although references can be optional and you can offer them upon request.
I have a lot of experience with resumes. I have a resume that I always carry with me and I had to put a lot of hardwork into it because you want to impress the employers. I have written some for classes also to improve writing skills.

Module 22

This module is about analysing, findng and being able to document information. You should be able to find information online and in print, write questions for surveys and interviews, analyze information, document sources and be able to use the internet for research. You need to know how to identify keywords, which are the terms computers search for in a database or on the web. Writing questions for surveys and interviews are very important because you want to word them in a way that they will good you good, honest information. The easiest way is to create a questionnaire which is basically just a written list of questions. An interview is just a structured conversation so you want to write your questions in that type of form as if you were to have a conversation with somebody. You want a number of open questions and not so many closed questions so the respondant can go into detail when they answer the questions.On deciding which one to use you should take this into consideration, if its a survey use a random sample and if its an interview use judgement samples. A random sample, each person in the population has an equal chance of being chosen, there is no bias views. With a judgement sample people's views seem useful. When analyzing information look for answers to your research questions, patterns, and interesting nuggets.

Module 21

Proposals and progress reports are very important in the business world and it is very important to know how to write them and write them well. A report is a long document and they can also contain numerical data. There are different types of reports. A formal report contains formal elements such as a title page, a transmittal, table of contents, and a list of illustrations. Informal reports may be letters and memos or even computer printouts of production or sales figures. If they collect data they are known as analytical reports. When writing a proposal you definitely need to know what to include. They suggest a method for finding information or solving a problem. In a proposal you need to answer these questions, What questions are you going to solve? How are you going to solve it? What will you provide for us? Can you deliver what you promise? What benefits can you offer? When will you complete the work? How much will you charge?
You should also know how to write an effective progress report. They are used for more than reporting progress they also enhance your image, float trial balloons, and minimize potential problems. You need to let the reader know what they have done, why it is important and also what the next steps should be. I don't have any experiece writing progress reports but I have received them but I have written proposals for different organizaation that I am in on campus. I have written proposals to receive money and also to schools so my fraternity can do programs with them.

Module 17 and 18

Listening is very important, probably the most important part of communicating. You always want to pay attention to what is being said, or pay attention to whatever you are reading. There is also a difference between just hearing what somebody is saying and actually listening to them. You also want to listen actively. Listening means to decode and incorporate them correctly. When you are actively listening, you actively demostrate that they've heard and undertsood a speaker by feeding back either the literal meaning or the emotional content or both. I always try to listen because I feel it is the most important thing. You want to make sure you understand everything that is being said so you won't be lost or mess anything up if things like instructions are given. You can show people that you are listening to them by providing good body language. Body language show a lot and if you look like you are listening than the speaker will believe you are listening. Asking questions also shows that you are listening as well.
Working and writing in teams is also very important. It is great when you are able to work with a lot of people. Part of this is being a productive leader.  Some messages groups attend to would be informational, procedural and interpersonal. There are many different roles that people play in groups. Some rols include seeking information and opinions and also giving them, summarizing, evaluating and coordinating. These are very important and if you can work in groups it is a very positive thing in superiors eyes.

Module 15 and 16

Module 15 is all about choosing the right words. This is very important especially depending on the person/people you are talking to or writing to. First you want to know how to choose words precisely and ethically, choose words with appropriate connotations. You usually want to use accurate words, appropriate words, and familiar words.  Accurate words mean what you want to say. Appropriate words convey the attitudes you want and fit well with the other words in your document, and familiar words are easy to read and understand. Depending on who you are writing to you want to use different kinds of words. When speaking to superiors you would want to use more appropriate and accurate words but if it is a co-worker you can usually be comfortable using familiar words. You also want to use more positive words as possible, if it is possible avoid using negative words altogether and replace them with positive words.
Module 16 is also very important because it goes in detail on how to revise sentences and paragraphs. This is very important because you want everything to flow together. I have experience with this because I usually have to go back and revise my own messages because my sentences sometimes don't really flow together like they should. You want to build a forceful style, choose between active and passive voice and make your writing tight and concise. It is good to get your peers to help revise especially the ones that will give you their honest opinion so you can have legit revisions and a good message in the long run.

Module 8 and 13

Module eight talks about the importance of using reader benefits. Reader benefits are benefits or advantages that the reader gets by using your service, buying your products, following your policies and adopting your ideas. Reader benefits improve the attitudes and behavior of the people you work with. Reader benefits are important because as the writer you want the reader to be happy and benefit from somethin at the same time. Reader benefits also help develop healthy relationships between the writers and readers. It helps build trust between them because they are trying to help each other. It is also important how detailed the reader benefits are. You want them to be at least three to five sentences long. If it is too short than you won't have strong vivid details and it won't be effective. It is important to decide which ones to use. To choose you should, use at least one benefit for each part of your audience, use intrinsic benefits, and use the benefits you can develop most fully.
Module thirteen is about web writing and e-mail messages. It is very important how you set up e-mail messages. You definitely want to use a subject line so the reader will know that the message is important. You can treat e-mails as informal or memos. You can also use blogging but just keep it proffesional. I have experience with blogging. I have had classes in the past and including this one where we had to keep blogs and although it was for the classroom we had to keep it professional at all times.

Module 11 and 12

Module 11 goes into depth on how to write a good negative letter. A negative message is a message where the basic information is bad news and also expect the reader to be disappointed or angry. Some of the primary purposes for writing a negative message is to give the reader the bad news, have the reader read, understand, and accept the message, and to maintain as much goodwill as possible. The secondary purposes for writing a negative message is to build a good image of the writer and its organization and to reduce future correspondence on the same soubject so basically makin everything clear on the first letter so you don't have to keep going back and forth. It is very important to use subject line when writing negative message so they wont get over-looked. The organization of a negative message is very important. The reason should go first, then the negative but just state it once, present an alternative if there is one available and end with a positive, forward-looking statement.
Module 12 is about persuasive messages. The primary purpose for perssuasive messages is to have the reader act, provide enough information so that the reader knows exactly what to do, and to overcome any objections that might prevent or delay action. The best persuasive pattern would be to use the direct request pattern. You use this when the audience will do as you ask wihtout any resistance and you need a response only from the people who are willing to act. Also the problem-solving pattern is useful when the audience is likely to object to doing as you ask, you need action from everyone, you trust the audience to read the entire message and you expect logic to be more important than emotion in the decision.
I dont really have any experience with either one of these types of messages but I would love to give some insight or some example if I did.

Modules 9 and 10

Module nine goes into depth on how to write good letters and memos. First the salutation is very important when writing a letter especialy if you and the recipient aren't on first name bases or are very formal with each other such as a CEO of a company or a potential client. Subject lines are important when writing letters also, especially emails. A subject line tells what the letter will be about. It is important to make the subject line appealing to the reader so they will open and read it. A lot of times if the subject line doesn't catch the readers attention they probably wont look at the letter because they dont feel like it is important. Also thing like spacing, headings and indentions are important as well, you must know the proper way to set up a letter or you may not look as professional as you should. Memos use a lot of the same rules besides salutation and the close. You still must be very professional as well.
Module ten talks about imformative and positive messages. It is very important to establish goodwill when sending positive messages. You want to stay in good standing with the people you are in contact with and you want to be able to keep that trust that you have established with that person and/or organization. Also positive messages have good news it is still important to organize them properly. You should give the good news and summarize the main points, give details, clarification and background, present any negative elements as positively as possible, explain any reader benefits, and also use a goodwill ending.

Module 4 and 5

Module four talks about the importance of writing and gives a lot of helpful tips on how to become an expert writer. It first talks about planning. Planning is very helpful in anything that you do especially in writing. When you plan your thoughts and ideas out before you start writing you become more organized and your thoughts wont just be everywhere on your paper and everything will flow more smoothly. They give you techniques such as brainstorming, free writing, clustering, and communicating with your audience so you can get a better feel of what they want to hear. Also another important aspect in writing is revising. Revising is very important because without it you most likely will have an incomplete paper. Revising makes sure your paper is in great condition and there aren't any mistakes in the paper. I know when I was younger and in school I would get my papers back from the teacher and they would have a lot of marks on them from mistakes that I made because I didn't take the time out to plane or revise myself.
Module five talks about the importance of making a presentable web page, power points, etc. It talks about certain things like spacing within the main topics and their ideas so the audience know where the main point is. Also things like choosing a good background so you can grab the audiences attention but at the same time not lose them and have them distracted.

Website Analysis

www.drjays.com

            The website that I decided to analyze is www.drjays.com. This website is a special site for people who like to wear urban style clothes. This website has all of the newest clothes and the best name brands that are out and offer a discount to anybody who visits their website. One technique that they use is offering extra percentage off of products if you spend a certain amount of money. They use a lot of pictures to catch the audience’s attention. They have pictures of models wearing items that they have on their website so people can see how it actually looks on people. The website has a lot color that attracts different people and to draw them in and as well as a lot of different fonts so the website won’t be plain and lose visitors which means a loss of money.

            There is a lot of white spacing to make important words from the website pop out such as the title. On the left side of the main page as well as other pages there is a list of all of the brand names that they carry. They have different tabs on there as well to show that there are more products that vary for different customers, like males, females, and younger people.

            This website is mainly geared toward a younger audience. It could be directed toward older people as well who like to wear urban clothing but mainly younger people. You can tell by the models who the audience is because they all look around the 18-25 age range. You can also tell by the font because the font is more youthful and they have a lot of designs that would attract a younger audience.

www.lids.com

            This website is for people who like wearing caps or anything sports related but most specifically it’s for hats. Just like the other website I analyzed they use color schemes to attract their audience. On the home page they show a variety of different caps so they can attract a wider variety of audiences. They show a wide variety of different teams, colors and styles as well. They use something different and use a slideshow on the home page. In this slide show they show different discounts that they offer as well as the different style of hats that they carry to get more visitors to the website.

            The font that they use shows where the important parts of the website are. They use bigger sized font to show where these things are and also different colored fonts as well. They use white spacing as well but they don’t use it to a great extent. At the bottom of the home page they have a list of different services for the visitors of the website. They show a range of different things so the visitors can become more comfortable with the site and continue to visit the site.

            I think the audiences they are trying to attract are people who enjoy watching sports and attending sporting events. They have a lot of athletic apparel for people who like sports and they can get things with their favorite teams on them.