Friday, April 25, 2008

Advice to Future 304 Students

I’m going to start out saying that this is definitely not going to be the hardest class of your life, but you do need to stay on top of things. There are a lot of little assignments that may seem insignificant, but in the end they add up to make up a good portion of your grade.

My second piece of advice would be to find a good group of people to work with for the semester. As with any group project, you want people who are responsible and capable of getting their work done in a timely manner. It’s especially important in this class because the project runs throughout the whole semester.

Lastly, I would just say have fun. Go into the class with a good attitude. Angie is a great teacher and when she gives you creative freedom, take it. Not many teachers are going to allow that. Regular classes can get boring, but she always tries to mix it up and I think that’s why so many people like her class.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Ethical Lapses

There is a lot of corruption in the world today, and this article goes to show how common ethical lapses are in the workplace. Sadly, I’m not too surprised by the frequency of the occurrences. Even though this article is rather short, it does a good job of putting into perspective the amount of time that is consumed by worrying and dealing with ethical issues instead of spent working. I was surprised to read how badly a problem can affect colleagues who are not even directly involved in the issue.

I also agree that companies who do not attempt to pay attention to the small issues shows that the company is willing to tolerate a level of questionable behavior. By not addressing the minor issues, the company is showing that they do not hold their employees to a high level of performance. It is most likely that if more companies addressed ethical problems, even minor ones, they could increase the performance and productivity of their company.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Paper v. Web

I think the two ways of writing (writing on the Web compared to writing on paper) are much more similar than they are different. They are similar because they both involve using the same thought process. However, I personally think and therefore write less formally when on the Web than I do when I am hand-writing something. I think it is because I associate the Web and writing online with emails and instant messenger, both of which I am usually very informal. When writing papers by hand, I associate it with essay tests and formal documents. Thus, I think I am unconsciously more formal when I hand-write things.

The biggest difference between the two ways of writing is the format. When I am writing on paper, I almost always use paragraph format and indent the first line of every paragraph. On the Web however, the format I use varies with the program I am using. When typing on the Web I am also conscious of the audience. For instance, formats and colors show up differently on different computers (e.g. Mac versus PC).