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Kim ChiangWeek 1: Journal #1

January 17th and 19th

Writing 118: Management Communication is a class that has stimulated my excitement for graduation and the prospects of pursing a business career post-college. The content of this course, based upon the syllabus, has been captivating to me because the course material emphasizes on public speaking, presentations, and developing my writing skills. Throughout the course of my undergraduate career, the bulk of my major requirements were based upon economic and mathematic classes, which felt completely outside of my immediate interests. Although I found some elements of those courses to be helpful, each class seemed to be irrelevant towards my career goals. In my completion of college, it would be safe to say that 75% of, my education never motivated me because it never tapped into my strengths. During my last semester in Merced, I am looking forward to learning skills that would help me broaden my skill set for the Business-Management major. In the future, I hope to pursue a career in marketing, sales, and/or public relations and this writing class helps to prepare me for future “real life” situations.

Developing skills to help me communicate effectively through public speaking particularly through presentations and writing are all areas in which I could improve on. Doing impromptu speeches and conducting presentations are both areas that I hope to thrive in because I have a natural love for speaking in front of large audiences. I hope to improve my writing skills by using shorter, concise sentences and use appropriate grammar to minimize confusion for my readers and better promote my thoughts and opinions. I hope to learn how to communicate both informally and formally in the business environment, which will increase productivity and decrease barriers. One weakness I have personally is the use of excessive jargon in my communication. There is a natural tendency for me to use jargon to be impressive and has proven to be counterproductive when I try to convey something. Through this semester, I hope to adopt an effective writing style and break some old habits that might have stopped me from communicating effectively.

The goal I have set for myself this upcoming week is to learn how to communicate properly within my everyday circles: classes, work, leadership team, and my housemates. I would like to identify moments of miscommunication and learn how to troubleshoot instances of barriers and misconceptions.


January 24th

This week’s material was particularly engaging for me as we learned about the writing process, specifically with planning our business messages. In writing our business messages, it’s important to identify the objective and locate the target audience. This process is somewhat familiar to me because of a marketing class that I took a few semesters prior, but composing the actual message is an area where I need to improve on. Naturally, as a writer, I tend to be too thorough in my explanations for fear of losing my audience and missing details. Although written media [emails/letters] helps to reach a larger audience and gives me time to adjust my message to perfection, it is extremely difficult for an expressive person like myself to capture the full depth of my thoughts with passion and emotion.

In the selection process of choosing the right medium, I currently feel the most comfortable with oral media and it is my goal to continue to sharpen that skill as we continue to develop different techniques to sharpen our communication. In communicating with my audience, learning about the “you” attitude was helpful towards getting to know my audience’s wishes, hopes, interests, and preferences. I believe there is a genuine way to express interest towards my audience rather than pitching desperation and manipulation. As I think about Corporate America, there is a negative stigma that seems to say that being conniving is the sure win for an audience’s affection. This week, I learned that when the audience gains rapport, not only is your idea endorsed but credibility is simultaneously established. In all three possible mediums: written, oral, and electronic, my hopes are to work on my

word choice as I plan business messages. I want to learn to develop a natural ability for strong words, yet keeping an accessible vocabulary. In the exercises that we completed both in class and at home, I felt the most difficult exercise was revising the memo about the new office move. One of the main struggles that I identified was the need to capture all the elements in the initial sentences. After hearing from my fellow classmates, it gave me a new perspective on how to restructure these types of “problem” sentences. Overall, the more that I practice these types of skills, the more it will become muscle memory.

Kim Chiang Week 3: Journal #3

January 31st and February 2nd

There were many revelatory moments during this week’s lessons because of how relevant it was for me as we went through negative, positive, routine, and persuasive messages. The most helpful portion of this week’s lesson was revising the negative and persuasive messages. These two types of messages took extra work and care as we crafted these revisions. One of the goals that I made this week is practicing how to write negative messages because in order to be a firm communicator, it is helpful to open with a clear statement of bad news, providing reasons, and closing on a positive. In my everyday life, I have felt the need of delivering negative messages and this skill is relevant to my day-to-day happenings. I generally spend way too much time on the initial buffer because I am a person of peace and despise giving bad news even if there is goodwill within the message. Learning how to say no and possibly offering alternatives is an area where I need to be more direct and succinct. I was raised to be a passive aggressive communicator so learning how to convey bad news is simply unnatural.

Because I am a visual learner, it was beneficial when we went through the examples on the Elmo machine of each type of message. Discussing how to reformat the messages together as a class was a concrete way to help me identify the elements that needed revision. When we were reading each of the paragraphs, I really got to see the potential of each message and how a couple of tweaks would create a significantly more powerful piece. I really enjoyed seeing how real world people use these types of methods to implement them in their work because it made my learning experience relevant.

I want to practically use these tips when I draft up my club emails, particularly when I am writing persuasive messages. In this class, it was the first time I was introduced to the AIDA indirect approach which I find to be a very helpful. For first point “A,” it is important to remember to attract the audience’s attention, as I should work towards being brief and captivating. One thing that I worry about if I enter the corporate world is the element of manipulation used in order to seal a deal or win over clients. I feel that in order to be truly persuasive when I don’t believe in what I am selling is the need to lie, manipulate, or exert false excitement. I love motivating my readers and being positive, but I wonder what it would look like when I don’t believe in the product or have a hard time seeing how it may benefit the buyer. I want to make sure that I don’t sell my integrity for the sake of sealing the deal or gaining profit for the company that I represent.

There were a lot of helpful moments throughout this week when I referred back to the PowerPoint slides because I wanted to remember which method to use for some work related emails. I am looking forward to developing my business communication skills because my everyday life is littered with moments that give space to excercises what I learn.


February 7th and February 9th

It is very rare that I enjoy doing homework assignments but to my surprise, I had such an enjoyable time completing the 3 messages assignment. I was so intrigued by this assignment because it gave me a genuine taste of what the business world might look as I assumed each respective role when I wrote the memo, letter, and email. Completing this assignment took me hours because the perfectionism in me made me want to re-work each of the three pieces over and over again. Among the three messages, the hardest component to create was the memo for the new dress code. It was hard to offer up solutions to Samantha Jones because I felt like a demanding woman who wanted change, but didn’t know exactly how to offer up helpful solutions. I want to work towards writing in a more persuasive manner and I believe this can be done as I read more examples on how it is done well.

One of my noted strengths is the ability to communicate, so my goal is to continue to work towards effective communication both on paper and in person. I want to build upon my grammar skills, usage of words, and memorize the appropriate formatting for letters/emails/memos. In my peer review, some of the comments that were given to me is the need to simplify my thoughts and condensing my sentences for the audience’s sake. In retrospect, I may agree with my peer reviewer but it was hard to find a balance between wanting to meet the 1 page requirement and my simple desire of wanting to incorporate all the elements in the instructions. As we continue to do peer reviews, I would like to see my classmates offer up more concrete feedback rather than just stating that I did well and nothing needed to change. I would appreciate that they would write more than the 25-50-word minimum and share thoughts that could help me produce a better final draft.

In class on Thursday, we were asked to brainstorm ideas to allow us to get the brainstorming process going on the ‘Dynamic Selling Presentation’ idea and I was so stuck. I was having such a hard time thinking about a marketing idea or policy change because it takes me a lot of time to generate concrete ideas. I was forcing myself to create a strong idea right off the bat because I knew that I needed to carry out this idea throughout the next couple of weeks in order to complete the assignment and it made me really weary towards committing to my initial idea: pain within the financial aid system. Having space to articulate my thoughts aloud and externally process the financial aid idea was helpful because my classmates were able to point out some areas that I needed to research deeper. I realized quickly that the financial aid system had so many facets to it and I needed to spend the weekend to look into the fullness of it rather than using my dislike for it and believing that would be substantial enough.


February 14th

In class this week, we had our impromptu speeches on Act 1 based out of ‘The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.’ Because we had ample of time before this speech, it didn’t catch me off guard when I was asked to share my thoughts and reflections of the last scene of Act 1. Although I was able to share my thoughts on this scene, I would like to be able to learn how to communicate more effectively because there is still a sense of apprehension when I have to stand up and share with the class (even when I was given fair warning). I generally don’t get nervous within public speaking settings, but I do hope to sharpen my ability to regurgitate what I read, take better notes when reading, and sharing confidently in the instance that I am not given advanced warning. When I am asked to share my personal opinions, I never want to share anything that is controversial, incorrect, or would ‘rock the boat.’ Coming from an Asian American background that has a shame-based culture, we were told to never speak out of turn, be vocal in our thoughts, which paralyzes me in thinking that my thoughts are valued.

In Act 1, I appreciate the comment that stated that every good leader should be passionate about what they do which stems from a desire of improving someone’s life. I need to learn how to draw a better road map with my idea for the dynamic selling presentation assignment. It would be beneficial to continue to develop the three major message points that will help me sell my need for a policy change. I have the antagonist and “pain” point identified, but I need to continue to develop my conquering hero. It’s simple to determine something that is wrong, but so hard to develop my solution(s). Steve Jobs also offers that unless you are sold to your conquering hero, it is hard to find the perseverance to stick it out and I feel that I may need to develop my idea more (or narrow it down) in order to create an effective solution.

Lastly, doing the exercise for brainstorming was extremely helpful today because of how free it was to write my idea down. It was helpful to have a fellow classmate point out the areas I need to develop because he found elements that I overlooked (need for more examples/ developing my audience). Not only do I like receiving feedback, but also I like spending time reading other people’s ideas and helping them develop their thoughts by giving constructive criticism.


February 21st and 23rd

As we were preparing for our practice dynamic selling presentation, the realization of

needing to know my topic was crucial. Not only was verbal delivery absolutely crucial, but also it was extremely crucial to be savvy in the presentation of visual data. This week, as a class we discussed and reviewed the Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs Act 2 and 3 and did an activity that helped us reflect and give feedback to our classmates. We spent a portion of our class period storyboarding and free writing about our topic and I quickly realized that I was in a rut.

In heeding the advice given to us in our PSSJ text, I was aiming to deliver the experience to my audience (UC Merced Student Body) by creating a strong emotional connection between my audience and myself. Breaking out of the bullet points and minimal word count per slide is a strategy that is so effective, but old habits do die-hard. It is incredibly difficult for me to think simple and to have clear space. As I was brainstorming what my slides should look like as, I realized quickly that I needed to work on my financial aid topic. I kept repeating the same information over and over again, but tried to re-word it each time hoping that it would bring a different perspective. I found myself wanting to put a lot of text into my PowerPoint slides because I simply didn’t know the topic well enough. Two points that I want to focus on for my presentation is “dressing up numbers” and “using zippy words.” There are two areas that I need to focus on because it is so relevant to my topic. In my need to use many numbers, I needed to place them in a context that is helpful for my audience. I find that numbers are used sometimes to bring credibility to the presentation when in reality; it just overwhelms the audience and excuses the listener to zone out during the presentation.

In the delivery of the presentation, I have been taught for years that I need to use fluffy, impressive words to make my speech sound intellectual. From what we learn from Steve Jobs, he uses simple, clear, and direct language to present his products. My goal is to use strong adjectives as I explain the pain point and the conquering hero. I hope to use Twitter-like headlines to rally up my audience in my desire for them to take action or remember my mission statement. There are many elements that I could potentially incorporate into my final presentation and throughout the next two weeks, I will continue to be mindful of this assignment so that I could work my way towards display the “holy shit” moment to my audience. I want to present my topic so well that they will never forget the way that I made them feel and they will be emotionally charged towards action.


March 28th and March 1st

This week, I was really looking forward to seeing the presentations from my classmates after all the planning we had done in the previous weeks to prepare for the practice and final delivery. I was really glad that I got to present on Thursday rather than Tuesday, so I could get a grid of what was expected and hear the feedback of the entire class. I was really excited about my new topic, but it was quite the scramble to switch from financial aid to homelessness within three day. Even with the time crunch, I found so much more passion as I was researching my new topic. As we were launching off presentations this week, I could feel the anxiety in the room arise as we all sat nervously as each person went up to share their material. I could without a doubt feel the camaraderie in the room as we “cheered” on our colleagues.

Prior to delivering my practice presentation, I had spent hours making my presentation, practicing my speech, and trying to gather all the data. I quickly realized that my presentation was geared towards how we can help our personal Merced community and much of that information would be gathered from local shelters that seemingly never responded to calls and emails. Because of the lack of communication with outside sources, I knew that I needed to build my “pain” better for my audience. I realized that I need to do more research on how homelessness affects our Merced neighborhood and I needed to be more specific in defining what homelessness meant in the nation.

In preparation for the final presentation a week from today, I have made a goal of being more intentional with gathering data from the specific Merced centers that are currently helping out the homeless community. It is not enough to just make phone calls and send emails since I have gotten no responses in the last week and a half. I need to take alternative avenues as I pursue the Salvation Army, Merced Community Agency, and the Merced rescue mission in hopes of gaining current information and perspective from the shelter employees.

In preparation for the final presentation, I spent time watching my recorded video in Drop Box and found that there were moments that I stumbled to find words to say. As I present, speaking with a dynamic voice and proper speed is not my ultimate weakness. I found there were moments where I could share more factual data with my audience which will naturally happen as I gather more relevant information to help me deliver my “conquering hero” (ie: explaining the needs of the shelters, how to donate monetarily, and the urgency for permanent housing). There are a couple elements that I want to incorporate into my final speech such as a 30 second interview from a homeless person, more photos, and a more interactive opening in my presentation to help my audience connect with the “pain” relating to homelessness. Doing the practice presentation was helpful to me because I realized that there were elements to the PowerPoint that made sense to me, but could loose my audience. There were moments where I was stumbling in my head to find words, but through more practice I will definitely be able to iron out all the kinks. I will be spending some time looking at my recorded video prior to the final presentation, so I could critic myself and improve my delivery. I really hope to perfect my presentation so that I could define my pain point and conquering hero while keeping my ‘audience’ in mind. In gathering more information from the different shelters and community organizations, I feel that it will naturally help me gain a better grip on my topic.


March 6th and 8th

There was a lot of space this week to be reflective as I continued my process in preparing for my final presentation. I was very intentional to not space out during my classmate’s presentation and gather perspective as each person presented his or her information. I was looking to pinpoint some of the strengths and witnesses and use their experience to assess my performance. I was curious to see what types of questions would arise as they presentation so that I could tackle some areas of confusion that might surface. As I assessed my classmates, I was assuming that the final presentations would be top notch and each presenter would factor in all the feedback from the practice rounds taking into consideration of all the different tips and advice. What I realistically found was during the final presentations, some classmates might have over complicated some of their presentations in hopes of making their presentation better.

For some tangible goals that I have outlined for myself, I am making it a goal to factor all the feedback that was given to me especially not forsaking the points we learned in Secrets of Steve Job’s text. I was realizing that my demeanor and personality might play a heavy factor into my presentation than I thought. Because I am so uppity and cheery, the pain of homelessness is not conveyed properly. I found that engaging the class is going to be a point that I need to be cautious of. I want to look like I am enjoying the platform while I am presenting and I realize that stage presence really sets the tone of the 10 minutes. With incorporating Steve Job’s text, I am looking to incorporate simple slides and create an unforgettable experience. In practicing my speech prior to sharing my final presentation, I was realizing that there are keywords that need to be used to help my audience engage and remember the “holy sh** moment.” Although I wasn’t debuting something that was related to electronics, I wanted our UC community to realize the urgency that needs to take place to aid the homeless communities and local shelters.

Overall the sentiment that was felt was a high amount of desire to well for my final presentation because we spent so much time preparing for this moment: class discussions, one page narrative, story boarding, practicing, and outside of class time to work on our slides. I did not want to squander all the prep work that I had channeled into this assignment, which naturally motivated me to do well. I was anticipating that final presentations would all reach 10 minutes, display the pain, audience, and conquering hero well but the first batch of presentations were quite under those standards. During this whole process, I think I might be the hardest critic on myself because communicating in the business sense is so important to me as I pursue a career in the corporate world post college.

Kim Chiang Week 9: Journal 9

March 13th and 15th

In the process of preparing for the final presentation for our Dynamic Selling Presentations, I was setting myself up for great achievement because we had worked for so many weeks in preparing for this very moment. As I was preparing, there was one goal that I wanted to accomplish which was using the feedback that I had received to create a phenomenal presentation that was engaging, accurate, and cohesive (touching on all three elements). In my preparation process, I realize that I didn’t have to fabricate my compassion towards the homeless community in the Merced area but I really felt the pain that existed within our community. The more that I spoke to the local shelter supervisors and volunteers, the more that I gained perspective that would help me to effectively communicate to the class.

I realized that beyond trying to get a good grade on this presentation, I was really hoping to advocate for awareness on our campus and I desired to make a change within our Social Justice programs for more active service. In my preparations, I spoke with many UC Merced faculty members and liaisons for clubs and it helped to exercise my promotion of the pain and conquering hero. I was really focused on creating slides that would be aesthetically captivating, engaging my audiences while having minimal text. One key moment in my practice was using my housemates as my primer and gaining their feedback helped to alleviate my nerves and gain perspective on where I could improve.

As I was presenting, I found that sharing all information that I had prepared was extremely natural. All the weeks of preparation had paid off because I knew my topic so much better than during the practice run and I believed in what I was presenting to my classmates. There was not an ounce of nerves because the topic became an area in which I cared for. I area that I wish to improve is incorporating more elements. If I were given the time and technical skills, I would personally videotape a Merced homeless man and incorporate him into my presentation. I am a strong advocate for the mantra of “practice makes perfect” because I watched my presentation multiple times before going up to present.

In Thursday’s class discussion on Fraser and Getting Past No, there were many take home lessons that will help in negotiations. Firstly, stepping onto the opponent’s side and acknowledging their points and feelings. I love the tip on using “yes and” rather than “but.” Utilizing I statements rather than “you” statements has personally helped in a volatile situation that I had to deal with this past weekend. There are so many helpful reasons on why we should tap into the other side and see it from the other person’s perspective to better understand their needs and eventually solve the negotiation efficiently.


March 20th and 22nd

The week prior to Spring Break is always a busy time as we plow through midterms, papers, and homework assignments. This week in the world of Business Communications, we were extremely blessed to be given Thursday (3/22) to use as a workday on our weekly journals. One thing that I have learned throughout my time in college is the importance of budgeting my time. I realized quickly that if I had let the journal entries pile up, I would have a hard time recalling back to each week and analyze myself. I was able to budget my time well and spend time each Friday to do a self reflection so I am not scrambling at the end to properly analyze myself. In writing my journals, I found quickly that I really valued class time and in these past couple of weeks, I have gained invaluable knowledge on the gift of communicating.

Getting Past No has been a great “textbook” because of relevant the tips and advice was to my personal life. This week, we read ‘Don’t Build them a Golden Bridge.” After reading this chapter, I found so many points of improvement that I should be mindful of. I really don’t like the idea of retreating to the opponent’s side in hopes of finding an agreement. It’s really hard to negotiation to the point of contentment rather than victory. In order to result at effective negotiation, it is important to guide them step-by-step and break the journey into small stages. As a hasty person, it’s so much easy to rush to the finish and craft an agreement on my own. Many of the tactics that were given seemed to be common sense, but in its full reality, there was so much to learn that can help me get past the “no.”

One of my biggest struggles this week was contributing to the Fraser study. I was working hard to recall who said what, figures, dates, and possible deals. I really appreciate the way that Harvard Business School decided to share this case with their readers because there was a lot of valuable insight that was offered up. I never realized that the television industry was so intricate and complex. I was surprised to see the back and forth that went on between the networks and how each network at the end was only satisfied rather than victorious. Generally when I am in the midst of negotiation, I am looking to find complete victory rather than contentment. It seems that sometimes at the end of the day, finding common ground and meeting the opponent half way is the way to pacify a situation. Reading the entirety of the text, I am hoping that I will become a better annotator and I hope to improve my reading skills by physically taking notes on the case rather than trying to jog my memory and taking mental note of all the important moments. In the Luna case, I will be printing off the case so that I could read, highlight, and annotate and keeping in mind the arguments that come from both sides, why they think the way they do, and what types of steps they used to come to an agreement. I realized quickly in my college career that learning how to ask good questions is important and the only way to do that is to know your material very well. In offering good questions, you can gain perspective and it’s proof that you are well engaged. The intricacies that were displayed in the Fraser case study is enjoyable to go through especially since we did not know the end result of the negotiations until Tuesday.

WEEK 11: SPRING BREAK


April 3rd and April 5th

Going through the Luna Case as a class was an unique experience as a whole, although I wish that it was a real case and not made up by the Harvard association. Because of the nature of how Harvard created the case and giving you a sense of needing to know what Erika G. did kept intensity to the whole learning process. One of my favorite parts to the whole case was learning about my particular negotiation style. There was not an ounce in me that question that I was accommodating. Because I love the idea of killing people with kindness during my negotiation, it seems to be a wonderful tactic that will always win but it really challenged me to want to become more aggressive my strategies.

I really enjoyed hearing how the class wanted to deal with Mr. Feng and it was neat to see everyone’s negotiation styles come to surface as some of us were accommodating, aggressive, direct, and etc. I would really like to receive more training on how to deal with people that are from a different culture. It’s important to learn how to deal with a particular culture’s tendencies and be reminded of what is acceptable. I found that Getting Past No was a really helpful resource. Because my personality is more of a feeler than a thinker, it is normal for me to be guided by my feelings rather than thinking rationally. An area of improvement is learning how to educate myself while going into an argument. The idea of aiming for mutual satisfaction and not victory is so painful because I never want to shortchange myself. In a recent negotiation, I used a third party to help promote a negotiation and immediately it stopped attacks and helped both sides to be educated. By agreeing whenever I could, it was helpful to acknowledge the other person and their authority as we aimed to create and build a lasting relationship.

Overall, the Luna Case was a complex case with many aspect to it and it was good to be able to break apart the case to identity what Erika did that was effective and ineffective. Negotiation is a skilled that is learned and there is a lot that I could continue to learn. All in all, as an Asian American woman it’s important to speak directly, with respect, and learn how to reframe moments to keep us from striking back, giving in, and breaking off. It was helpful to write the summary for the Luna Case because it helped to give a brief overview of what I thought and be able to create my own judgments away from what my classmates thought.

Kim Chiang Week 13: Journal 13

April 10th and 12th

It is incredible to find that we are in the process of winding up the semester and that there is only one more assignment left in our Business Communications course along with our weekly writing journals. When we were first introduced to our Social Media assignment, I was looking forward to working on it because of how much social media dictates my life and how I do desire to get into Marketing for a career whether it be in a full time position or an internship with a company. Because I have seen the direct benefits of social media, I believe in using the mediums of social networking to draw in customers, to build a strong business model, and to get feedback from customers.

In honesty, I have never been a fan of group work because I really don’t like to pull the weight for people who slack off or are unmotivated. In my whole time of being at UC Merced, I found that our University absolutely loves group work (even in Math classes which I think is totally ineffective) to stimulate the real working environment. Because of my nature to be a leader and assume leadership roles, I find myself always taking the reigns during group projects and really stressing out about the quality of our work and the timeliness of when it gets completed. It’s hard to know how the presentation will turn up and whether or not my group members practice or care as much as I do. Even though May is so many weeks from today, I am really concerned that my group members are going to freeze during our presentation day. As we were discussing group dynamics during our lecture on Tuesday, I found myself to really be concerned about end goals and my wish to be paired up with strong teammates. An area of improvement I need to work on this week is to trust in my teammates and work with a heart full of grace. I find that the male and female dynamic that we had talked about in our Luna Case is really taking a role as I navigate my group of 3 men. I don’t know how to maneuver through the male dynamics, as I desire to really lead the group as the single female. What is socially acceptable?

Because I have been taking school really seriously during this last semester, there is little room for error from my groupmates and myself and when I have to trust in others, it’s really hard for me not to micromanage. Even in deciding the topic of corporations, I had told my group to send their top two choices to me and there was no sort of initiation that had happened which led us to go back and forth between the list. Finally, we agreed on Visa and I am looking forward to seeing my group set up as we start to work on the group outline. As we work towards presentation day, I would love to work with my groupmates to develop them as public speakers and start to identify the strengths and weaknesses that are within my teammates.


April 17th and 19thIn all honesty, it’s been so hard to find joy in doing the Business Report for our Social

Media project. I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t want to leave and I’m not ready to give up my college years or if I’ve just physically lost steam to pump our assignments. This particular assignment is quite interesting and this Writing class has been a great learning curve for me as it has shown to be the most relevant course throughout my Undergrad experience.

Tuesday’s lecture was extremely helpful for me as we got a grid for what this assignment was going to entail. Since I’m a concrete learner, I need to see x, y, and z directions and I would have a better understanding of what is asked of me. Since I have never done a Business Report before, nor have I physically seen an example, I was quite overwhelmed at the length and detail this report. Not only is it suppose to be 15 pages long, there was added pressures because of the short amount of time that I had to accomplish it. I am battling between whether we (as a group) should be spending time working on the Business Report itself or practice the presentation. In order for my group to be familiar with our parts, we need to make sure that our material is set, our presentation is made, the parts are split up properly, and there just seems to not be enough time in the week to finish all these types of goals. In trying to work in a group, there was a lot of back and forth dialogue with the purpose of our proposal. As we were trying to decide on a corporation, we spent much of our resources on trying to decide which company would be the best for research rather than channeling our resources into researching itself. Using the PowerPoint lecture as an instructional has been helpful for my group as we try to tackle the Team Report Outline. Because we did not have a grasp on the “body” portion of our essay, we were not able to clearly define the report organization. I would like to improve on my ability to communicate and better lead my group in a way that would maximize everyone’s potential. There are some group members who would do a great job with researching the information and I would like to be in charge of putting the report together (format) and spending time fine-tuning the text of our Business Report.

During class on Thursday, it was quite intimidating to hear everyone do their report presentations. It had seemed that our group did not prepare enough and everyone went above and beyond to complete their Business Report. I know that my group puts their best foot forward and I was hopeful that my group meetings would be more efficient, but I feel that I’ve reached a wall in communicating with my group members because of everyone’s hectic schedules. In such a short amount of time, I feel very pressed to finish all the assignments that were given in these last three weeks. There is a great deal of work that needs to be accomplished and when we have to mesh four people’s schedule together, there is only a small window of time to do so. I do appreciate my group members because for the many times that we have met up and it has been rather productive. I have high hopes for what we can produce on Tuesday during our presentation and I am looking forward to seeing how we can gel as a group and really put forth our highest quality of work.


April 24th and 26th

Since the last class meetings regarding our social media project, there have been many times that our group has come together to produce more material for the Business Report and practicing for our presentation. In order to produce a really effective PowerPoint that will sell to Visa, it is important to gather all of our material and create a compelling argument on why Visa should improve their presence on social media sites. In creating a social media campaign for Visa, we are confident that we have a selling argument.

Even in the midst of all of our classes, we were able to pull together four meetings as a group in the span of three days to get our PowerPoint slides created and practice as if we were presenting to the class. We were able to give feedback to one another and use a clicker to change the slides being mindful of stage presence. This social media assignment has proved to be one of the greatest learning experiences for me as I work with strangers and learn to trust my group mates. In my natural instincts, there is a huge desire to micro manage my group mates because there is a large reality that tells me that they are holding a portion of my grade. I have allocated my energy into writing the Business Report, but it’s been quite difficult because I do not know the exact format of what it is should look like. I have been trying to follow along the PowerPoint to make sense of the bullet points, but I need to see the physical format of the report before I could continue along with writing the body of the report and the executive summary.

During our Team Workshop, it was helpful to see a physical copy of what a Business Report should look like. During our lecture on learning how to write proposals, it was all-theoretical for me until I saw the physical copy. There were a lot of elements to our presentation that were good to go because it laid out a great foundation and we were able to identify the problem, create solutions, and action points for Visa. In creating our report, we needed to work on rearranging some of our key points and creating a flow that was helpful to displaying our three solutions. I had reached out to a couple people that had written Business Reports before so I could see their examples of formatting and content. The more that I go through school; the more I have found that I am truly a kinesthetic learner needing to see and feel things. In the last week leading up to our final presentation, we have spent time creating our PowerPoint slides and communicating with one another on how to format the presentation along with how to deliver the information in the most effective manner.


May 1st and 3rd

The approach of the last week of the semester has come so soon and not only am I thinking of graduation day, future job positions, but the prospects of finishing my last group project in college and I feel emotions that are extremely bittersweet. The Social Media project started off as a grueling assignment that required a high level of dedication, research, and ability to work together as a group. In the last two weeks, my Visa teammates spent a great deal of time together in preparation for the final presentation along with putting the finishing touches on the written Business Report. After doing the run through, we had a couple of minor details that we needed to figure out and it was so incredible to see the unity within my group. Everyone was eager to integrate the feedback and work tireless hours to finish up the assignment and practice for the presentation.

The final presentation was such a great experience. It was such an honor to be able to work with my teammates and see everyone perform so exceptionally. We were able to position everyone on our team in positions where they were able to excel and genuinely felt excited about doing our final presentation. An area where I was really proud of my team was the ability to provide information on the cost analysis along with more details towards the blogs portion.

Because this is the end of the semester, there are many take away “action” points that I want to walk away with as I enter into post graduate life. I have a desire to become a better communicator as I enter the real world and start my first job. I would love to be able to continue to make the front stage a place where I am comfortable in and I know that I can apply many of our class content into work presentations. In my reflections of this semester having taken this course, I have gained an invaluable amount of information and I look forward to applying these modules into the work world. I really enjoyed writing the three messages and doing the selling narrative.

In putting my portfolio together, it was a good experience to be able to create a Wordpress and get a handle for how to create my own webpage. I felt that overall, I was able to produce some quality pieces and I feel accomplished to be able to display all my work into a Wordpress. A goal that I made for myself is to be sure to produce quality work although every part of me desires to give in and throw the towel in early as graduation day approaches.

Overall, as I look back on college, I have learned how to work well with team members and to budget my time in a manner that is efficient and effective. I look forward to the next season of life and will be excited to see how I am able to apply these theories and concepts in the real work world. There are many moments in this week that I tell myself to really relish these last days and it’s surreal to see that it is the finale. It has been a good run!

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