Category: Uncategorized (Page 17 of 22)

Looking back on the News Release project, I found it to be a very informative and interesting practice as I hadn’t encountered this type of writing before. We made sure to match the tone of our product with the formula-like style tone that goes with the news release, and that was a great opportunity to look at how to separate a very promotional-driven brochure content from a reporting/professional style of a news release. Our group also appreciated the class time reserved for peer review, as we were able to change some formatting to make our information easy to read and more digestible for the audience. We also added more quotes which helped readers and prospective customers feel we have more credibility. The group work went well, and I always appreciate our willingness to openly communicate about how we can improve on the project and what our strengths are. For me, it was interesting to see all the work that goes on for just a seemingly simple one-page news release.

Chapter 16 on Group Presentations focuses on the concrete and specific formulas to ensure that a group presentation – prevalent in the business/professional world – is persuasive, effective, and consistent. With an emphasis on the etiquette portion of the presentation, I found that some crucial elements included strong group coordination and communication, such as formal dress, introductions, and well-practiced and timed transitions. Another central point is to follow the AIDA model even in a presentation, especially relevant to our class, where the aim is to sell a product. For example, the chapter discusses having a clear idea of what we want our audience to feel, think and do after the presentation – creating attention, interest, desire, and action. As with both group and individual presentations, it is essential to rehearse and practice as a team so you feel confident and your audience will regard you as an expert on your topic – that practice portion also helps ensure less fidgeting, excellent eye contact, and a calm persona. 

Quote: “How light and free I felt! When man first set woman on two wheels with a pair of pedals, did he know, I wonder, that he had rent the veil of the harem in twain? I doubt it, but so it was. A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering. I felt it that brisk May morning as I span down the road with Tam o’Shanter on my head and my loose hair traveling after me kike a Skye terrier. “This,” I thought to myself, “is truly my Odyssey…”(Allan 42-3). 

Comment: There are so many ideas here about the ‘new woman’ – freedom, mobility, adventure, not attached to a man – as well as this connection she has to the Odyssey and casting out on her own adventure. I also thought that the idea of the bicycle as this new form of liberation was interesting; as she mentions before, it opened up more than just physical distances, but women were wearing pants to ride them, had their hair loose like her own, and it feels to me a very definite break among her young character. Compared to the young women we have seen in previous novels, the ideas surrounding their duties and societal roles seem very different. Especially this “no man hindering” her gives the feeling that she is not worried about this safety or ‘covered’ aspect of a woman’s life (significant to the Married Women’s Property Acts’ newfound expansion of a woman’s ability to engage more freely in society). The shift in norms surrounding what a woman could be in life makes for a new adventure-like story – previously which had been reserved for boys (I am thinking of the didactic novels for young girls in previous decades centering on domestic life and internal virtues versus novels like Treasure Island that show boys learning through external experiences) can now take on a youthful and explorative tone for the young, educated and wild woman of this new age. 

Question: I am thinking about the masculine-like qualities of Juliet as she is, in a way spanning between these two rigid binaries of the time, but is it more that she is emulating men or claiming masculine-centered situations as feminine? This also plays into the idea of her not really believing the rumor that a woman wrote the Odyssey but entertaining it in that new sphere in a way that is not categorically masculine or feminine. Also, her remarks about her Aunt showcase a strong generational divide, common to the ‘new woman’ trope, as the youth tend to embrace change more readily. I want to know more about the family situations of other women who want to embrace this new liberated mindset and face family circumstances where they are not allowed. To what extent were young women able to do the things Juliet does, and what is exaggerated?

After completing my resume and working through the project process, I feel that I have a solid, working document and the knowledge to continue improving it. A significant point to me throughout was the one-page minimum; previously, I used references from resumes of people who have been in the professional sphere for a while, and therefore they were longer than a page. Being able to practice that concise, specific, and attention-grabbing language, I found I had a powerful ability to make that one page the best it could be. The peer review workshop was helpful for me in regards to formatting, there are so many options, and I know that I will most likely change mine as I get more experience and want a different look, but seeing two or three different resume styles was a great chance to experiment with mine. I also learned the importance of the reference section of a resume. In the future, as I near my Junior year, I will prioritize getting a set list of references and explicitly asking them. The work overall for this project was well-paced for me, and like with the cover letter project, spending time in class looking at samples and discussing strengths and weaknesses was an excellent tool for me as I was drafting. Our discussions in class, in general, offered many essential ideas for resumes, such as verb tenses, format, white space, detailed descriptions, and making sure to be specific and professional.

The peer review workshop for the resume project was super helpful, and my group was efficient, kind, and thoughtful in giving and receiving feedback. Our group went through the checklist and found that we hit all the essential points of grammar, spelling, etc., so we focused on formatting. For instance, my group helped me figure out how to format my experience and skills section, and it looks so much better now – they helped streamline the dates with the name of the organization/event, and we played around with bold vs. italics. We also helped each other ensure that the tenses were in order and that the dates were easy to find and correct. It was also helpful to see how my other group members worded their skills and embedded them into different sections to make better use of the space, and I will try to do that with mine as well. As always, it is crucial to have a couple of people who don’t know every detail about your life like you do to make sure that the relevant information stands out and is portrayed in the best way possible – they will catch things and provide insights that I would not have otherwise known.