Week 7, Assignment, Why blogging is good for your career

Read this article from CNN/Career Builder: "Why blogging is good for your career" at http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/08/03/cb.blogging.good.for.career/index.html

What is your reaction? Why or why not would you recommend blogging to someone who is new to the online communication forms Twitter and blogging? Do you think you'll follow the article's advice and start your own blog?

Note: since Monday is Labor Day, your response to this assignment will be due by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, September 8.

Extra Credit, Author Event discussion

For those of you who attend Mary Pierce’s event on Wednesday, 9/2, enter your comments on it here for 10 points extra credit by 9/9.

There is another extra credit opportunity available through Week 8. Participate in the Writing Lab for 10 points each for a maximum of two times. You can use any assignment from any class. Just let the tutor know to email me that you have completed a session.

Don’t forget to check back here on Tuesday, 9/1, for the next weekly blog assignment.

Week 5, Wiio’s Laws of Communication (revised assignment)

Note: the deadline for this week's assignment is extended to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, August 26, thanks to Murphy’s Law of Blogging, which is, “If anything can go wrong with a link, it will.”

Read this article co-authored by two lieutenant colonels in the Air Force at http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/au-24/pine.pdf on what can go wrong in communication. What part of the article interested or surprised (or amused) you the most? Describe a communication you have either engaged in or observed that illustrates any of the four laws or the four corollaries identified by Osmo Wiio.

Week 4, The importance of email today

Read this article about email etiquette by a professional career planning consultant at http://careerplanning.about.com/lr/email_etiquette/57869/1/ (note that it is four pages long, so be sure to click on each page number when you are done with each screen).

Think about emails you have received and that you have sent. Does one stand out as being an example of good email etiquette? If so, describe the email and what made it good. Now, does another email you have received or sent serve as a bad example? If so, describe it and what should have been done differently.

Week 3, Communication across cultures

Give an example from your own life, either personal or professional, where you interacted with someone from another culture. Was the interaction effective, i.e. did the message result in appropriate action or response? If no, how could the communication have been improved? If yes, what made the communication work?