Tag: week of 7/20

Posted on

Project Proposal – Mike

As I hinted to in my Week of 7/20 Discussion post, I’m going to create a PowerPoint presentation about the power of consumer activism.

Having sat through countless web-conferences and meetings filled with mind-numbing PowerPoint slide decks, I feel I have a good sense of what not to do. My biggest pet peeve is when the presenter simply reads the text directly off of the slides. I could do that myself! Why am I having to sit here and listen to you read it to me? Tell me what you want me to take away from this information. Why did you think it was important to include? What do you want me to do with what you’ve shared?

To that end, I did some Google searching. Using the term “powerful powerpoint presentations”, I came across an article from SlideModel.com called “23 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Creating Engaging and Interactive Presentations”. I felt immediately vindicated when, about three paragraphs in, I saw the following sentence highlighted in bold: “The key thing to remember is your presentation is there to compliment your speech, not be the focus of it.”

With all of this in mind, what I’ll end up sharing with everyone is not only the slide deck itself, but also my speaker’s notes. As I mentioned earlier this week, my intended audience is a company or organization’s executives. The deck will be no more than ten slides and will feature graphics which support the text and vice versa. My speaker’s notes will expand on the concepts presented on the slides, include some additional details or perhaps a quote from one of my resources. This is to help add context to what I’m presenting, and to increase the likelihood that my message is being understood by my audience.

So, what do I hope to achieve with this presentation?

I’m going into this “meeting” with the intent of highlighting the changing habits of consumers, focusing on the shift away from direct involvement in the political process to engagement via their pocketbooks. Once I’ve set the scene, I’ll demonstrate examples of successful companies who are attracting and retaining customers and creating loyalty because of actions and initiatives they’ve taken to be socially and environmentally conscious. Combining the two, I’m hopeful the executives will recognize the value and potential positive return on investment to be had by taking such steps.

Thanks to the research I did in Unit 2, I have plenty of material from which to draw. The key will be picking the right ones to resonate with the audience. I have a feeling Jessica Stewart’s essay from Shopping For Change will be particularly powerful. In comparing consumer attitudes toward Wal-Mart and Target, Stewart points out that both businesses are nearly identical in how they’re run, with a few key distinctions which have affected public opinion of the two for years.

I recognize I’ve got my work cut out here. With Arsenal in the FA Cup Final next Saturday, and my birthday the following day, I’ll want to have my draft finished well before next weekend! Seems like a busy week is in store!

Posted on

Week of 7/20 – Discussion

  1. One reading I’m choosing to focus on is on Mollie West’s “How To Create a Culture Manifesto (And Why It’s a Good Idea).” As the title already begins to suggest, the author is giving the reader/ audience a direction of where her blog post will lead. It’s an effective way of attracting an audience that may be skeptical or may just want simple and direct answers. Throughout the entire reading, I see West realize this and use it so that her message can easily reach large audiences in a short amount of time. From the beginning paragraph, which defines and explains the context of the article, to the end, which offers a do it yourself (DIY) template to approaching a manifesto, West is strategically tailoring an audience platform in mind.  Its a very linear reading structured with a brief general intro, main headlines, and bullet-listed points. She strengthens her position on “Why It’s a Good Idea” by giving real-world examples of companies (she lists a diverse pool of companies too) who have applied this approach and succeeded. Similarly, she’s choosing to highlight these companies’ evolution with time (i.e. Warby Parker) which aligns with the trends we see in today’s workforce “to increasingly value meaning work.” All this considered, West’s article serves to push/ employ an audience that can take direct actions for creating organizations that have a good workplace culture and environment.
  2. The second reading we were assigned this week on ethical culture really inspired me to want to include clean/ graphics-oriented supporting evidence. Given this text was lengthier and intended more for a different audience (i.e. a HR manager looking at detailed case studies or alternative data methods for improving their workplace culture), I still liked the way the authors structured the text having easy to read diagrams (like the Pyramid figure chart) followed up with statistics and discussions on the latter end. With respect to what I’d like to discuss on language diversity in the workplace, I could see myself readopting this kind of approach but in a sort of reduced magazine format. It wouldn’t be as long of a written publication/ research issue as the article we were given presents, but rather a platform that introduces users to a field they may not be aware of. My reasoning behind this would be to quickly engage a reader with the topic, reflect on their own experiences, and channel them to open a conversation with friends, family, colleagues, etc. Since most researchers and authors on studying language diversity stress that there is not enough attention on the issues it can potentially create, including short-read text blurbs summarized with graphic diagrams would be a good place to start. It’d look to have the same purpose Mollie West does in her article for raising awareness and pushing her audience to look further into a specified subject.
Posted on

Discussion Week 7/20

  1. I decided to focus on “How to create a culture manifesto for your organization” article by Mollie West for the prompt. It was easy to identify how author Mollie West turned what she had learned about creating culture manifesto and turning it into something the reader can learn as well. Throughout the article she values and product breakdown of notable companies Etsy and Warby Parker as they were prime examples to display this culture manifesto she had learned. The audience, from my own understanding, is most likely individuals who are involved with business promotion or working to promote other non-profit organizations. The author is able to subsection each business and then target her understanding of how the said business was able to create their own culture manifesto. Providing evidence and bullet pointing key values and principles makes it easy for the audience to identify what draws consumers and the public in. I think the author made the article as organized as she did so the audience can then go back and easily be drawn to reread the values and reasons why the businesses Etsy and Warby Parker were able to develop and use these said values to bring in a consumer base. The organization of the article is extremely helpful, in my opinion, to guide the audience through each of the tactics the companies use to target and build their consumer base, without this organization of the process it takes to create this culture manifesto, it would be much harder to pull away from the reading the key factors as to what brought each company success.
  2. After focusing primarily on the LGBTQ community, I think it would be best to focus my research writing on the topic as well in regards to organizational culture. My target audience would be those who associate with the LGBTQ community and others who are advocates for them as well. This would involve educating not only the LGBTQ community members on the research I have learned, but also turning the research to implicate what others who do not identify as such should learn. The purpose of my research would be to advocate for lessening the heterosexual norm within the office, as it is stereotypically thought of as a straight male working in these environments. Promoting gender diversity would encompass not only women but others who identify as transgender, non-binary, etc. I think there are plenty of options when it comes to how I would encourage gender diversity in the workplace and this can range from individual work to group work, and even so with whole organization work. Most of the texts I want to look for are those who feel targeted or vulnerable in the workplace and what they have experienced. I am a strong believer of learning from past mistakes and taking those moments of ignorance and turning them into a learning lesson, this is primarily what I would try to do with these stories I find. I think what would be interesting is looking into social media outlets, and seeing what influencers or the public have shared with their own experience being a minority in the workplace. I want to get into a good amount of detail, really trying to elaborate and paint a picture for the reader so they can place themselves within these stories. I would prefer the texts not to be too long, but powerful enough that the reader remembers the detailed account read. My writing style I would aim for a casual conversation, because through so many articles authors demand a change but I think that this instead should be an ongoing conversation that implements the reader as well. My purpose is to educate the reader, inform them of what others experiences in a day to day setting in the workplace, it wouldn’t be a “blame game” per say where the reader or anyone who is heterosexual is at fault because this gender discrimination is not experienced by everyone. My citations would be quoted such as “ – John Doe, 20, non-binary” so then the reader can better understand who is telling this story and where do they fall in terms of in the LGBTQ community.
Posted on

Discussion Posts Week of 7/20

  1. The article I chose to focus on is the article titled ““How to create a culture manifesto for your organization (and why its a good idea).” The author does a great job at conveying her message to the reader. With the use of subheadings, West is able to highlight key companies that had mission statements, but would not necessarily follow them. West begins by explaining how mission statements have been guiding non-profit organizations for a while now. However, instead of focusing on internal ways of working, they often focus on the. external goals. A manifesto is meant to create a a better working environment and create a place where everyone is equal and no one is discriminated against. This article is really informative and people who are in a position of power in the workplace, as well as people who work everyday, will benefit from reading this article. The questions she raises under the subheading “how to create a manifesto,” are questions everyone should ask themselves when going into work. This article is a great addition to the conversation on organizational culture. West does a great job at using certain strategies to appeal to certain audiences to convey her point of view.
  2. For my own research piece, I would like to continue my conversation on the screening process in schools by creating a news article. Websites and news articles, along with scholarly articles, have been at the forefront of my research. I found the most information there and I am going to continue to use those to show why diversity and inclusion is so important in education. I’m going to continue to look at scholarly articles done by professionals in the field as well as websites and news sources as a. format for my own research piece. I feel that there are many audiences that can benefit from this kind of writing. First and foremost students and parents who are going through this process and experiencing some kind of discrimination. In addition, faculty and staff at schools who are the ones admitting and declining students. The News article would be a good way to get this information across because it would be easy to read, yet still showing the importance and the problem with screening. I can incorporate quotes from some of the research I have done before and even add pictures that can be relevant to the topic.
Posted on

Thinking some more about genre

In our discussion work this week and next, I’m asking you to think about genre and what shape your final project will take. You’ve got a lot of latitude here to decide that shape, and it’s worth thinking some more about how genre connects to audience and purpose as you do so.

First off, while it’s useful to think of genres as different types or categories (such as we use for sorting movies or music into meaningful ‘buckets’ or groups), genres are not static. Rather, genres are adaptive and organic. The pop music of today does not sound like the pop music of the 1960s. The circumstances, expectations, and preferences have shifted, and what is popular now is different from what was popular then.

Secondly, while genres have conventions and expectations (people come to a particular genre of movies expecting them to follow certain ‘rules,’ for example), these genre conventions aren’t written in stone. Users challenge them all the time, bending these notions to come up with something new. Think about the film Get Out–it was a comedy right? or was it horror? or was it something else altogether?

When it comes to writing, I think it’s helpful to think of genres as usable responses to recurring writing situations. Need to apply for a job? A cover letter gets the job done. It’s not fancy or exciting, but it contains the elements that a hiring manager would want to know, and in a pretty usable way that lets the reader go about their work efficiently. That didn’t just happen–the genre evolved as this situation (people applying for jobs) kept happening, and people kept responding in pretty consistent ways. Over time, this type of text took on a pretty predictable form. Now, people know what to expect from it (the writers and the readers), and that makes it pretty functional for the readers.

It’s important for writers to consider their readers’ needs as they write. This is all the more true outside of a classroom setting. A teacher reader has to read students’ texts–that’s literally their job–but outside of the classroom, readers seldom have that same requirement. Instead, we make choices about what, whether, and how well we read. When we bump into texts that don’t seem to meet our needs and interests, we often just don’t read them. Or we only skim them.

In your project proposal (due Sunday), your task is to settle upon an objective that you think matters–you’ve learned information that you really want to share with people whom you think need it, and if you’re going to accomplish that goal of information delivery, then you need to think carefully about what your reader will expect, value, and want in a text. That’s why you’ve got so much latitude to determine the genre you use, and it’s why you’ll need to think carefully about it.

As you’re settling on a genre, it’s really valuable to look for examples of that type of text that you think work really well, and then to read them closely, paying attention to things like

  • what kind of tone does this author use
  • how long is this text
  • how does the writer talk about/point to evidence
  • what role do graphics play here
  • what kinds of style and syntax does the writer employ
  • how formal is the voice
  • what level of detail does the text provide
  • what sorts of word choices does the writer make

So start poking around to look at some of your options. For next week’s readings, you’ll be looking at sample texts in a variety of different genres, but I’d like you to keep looking for models, as well, so that you can see the above considerations in action and be able to draw lessons for yourself. Next week’s discussion work will ask you to share something you’ve found, so start looking now.

Posted on

Discussion Week of 7/20

  1. In the article “How to create a culture manifesto for your organization (and why its a good idea)” the author processes what she has learned by breaking down the article into subtopics of three companies, and ending with how the readers themselves can create their own humanifesto. The targeted group would be those entering the workforce or those who are starting up companies. The author utilizes smaller paragraphs that are easy to read while writing in a format that is more conversational. This information is more usable for readers as it is easy to find what they are looking for, and quick to understand. I believe the author writes the article in this way in order to keep the attention of the reader, while also using well known companies as examples to have the reader relate to the article. I believe the author also wrote in this format to relay themselves as a friend giving advice, as the author relays specific examples but not quoted and ending off with what the reader can do to create their own. By ending with how to create your own, it makes the reader feel as though they are talking to the author in person, while the author makes it clear to the reader that they are important in the article. For this audience, I feel as though this is the most effective way to engage them and create a compelling article.
  2. For my writing, I want my purpose to be a call to action for those who are entering the work force, which is the reader I would want to engage with.  The kinds of texts this sort of reader would be likely to engage with are first hand accounts from those with disabilities and information from studies. I see them getting this information on blogs, buzzed or other social media outlets. My readers would have a high expectation for level of detail, as providing the most information possible is something that attracts them. For writing style, they would tend to prefer a conversation style of writing as it feels more friendly and relatable. The length preferred of text would be short and to the point. Time spent read would be less than 5 minutes as it would coincide with the short and too the point method. Citation would be a nice flow in the sentence with an easy transition as it would make it easy to read. The types of evidence and sources would be credible and reliable as they make it easier to be reliable
Posted on

Week of 7/20 Discussion

  1. In the article, “How to create a culture manifesto for your organization” the author speaks to the audience and provides knowledge on how to grow an organization and simple methods that can allow its mission to be effectively spread. She speaks to those with their own company or who have an idea that they wish to produce on a grand scale and catch the attention of others. She tries to persuade them into using some of the valued manifesto methods  to share ideas and influence in an effective and friendly manner. In order to show the audience how beneficial this practice would be to each company she models some highly successful business that have used the technique and have reached the utmost success. She calls on companies such as etsy, warby parker and b corps which created a manifesto and were able to not only draw in numerous consumers but create a safe and compassionate environment for each employee. The author is very effective in showing the audience that any idea can be mass produced as long as it has the right environment and it’s marketed the correct way. By using this technique any company will be able to expand its ideas and establish a positive work culture.
  2. For my unit 2 assignment I did my research on the discrimination faced by school kids and workers in each environment and how bias and stereotypes can keep them from establishing successful lives. I presented some ideas on how to make environments more exclusive places and how many lives are truly disproportionally affected by discrimination. So many young kids are put through terrible education systems and are exempt from gifted programs because their teachers fail to see their potential and never push them forward. It is important to me that opportunities are created for minority students and that teachers are held accountable for racially profiling their students. So many schools and workplaces fail to set each individual apart and fail to see them for what they can bring to each environment. In my project I hope to spread awareness on the discrimination faced by each student and make it that no child is ever kept from receiving a proper education. I think that when trying to engage with the readers they would mostly connect to first hand accounts of kids dropping out of school due to discrimination or racially charged events. This type of request or statement would most likely be distributed on the pages or sites of companies and organizations that strive to make change for each minority. In order to truly attain the respect and sincerity of the readers it would have to be a well calculated and authoritative speech that would effectively attain the readers sympathy but also convey the message.

 

Posted on

Week of 7/20 Discussion, Aaron

  1. In Mollie West’s article “How To Create a Culture Manifesto for Your Organization (And Why It’s a Good Idea)” she uses her introduction to talk about mission statements and what can be used to build a manifesto for your organization very clearly. From here she uses testimonials from a few different organizations (that we can identify because of their success and popularity). This makes it easy to have a concrete image in our head about these wildly successful companies building their manifestos around the values and views that their employees as a whole care about and strive for. The bullet points that West writes down, capturing the list of what the employees wrote down for what they wanted to outline their workplace culture is sufficient enough to make me feel like I was right there in the meeting room with all of those people while they took part in this exercise. The audience is anybody who is part of a company that is looking to develop their own cultural manifesto, as outlined in her last paragraph that gives us a road map to create this. I think this can be a very productive, healthy activity for businesses to work through.
  2. In my own research piece, I will be writing about implicit bias in the field of education. The types of sources I am relying on are book chapters from larger volumes dealing with diversity and inclusion, and studies that have been conducted by professors and psychologists.  In the broader sense of my subject matter and what i think fellow readers of this topic would look to read, I would have to say they would key in on magazine articles (maybe educational journals and other teaching professional writings), newspaper articles dealing with teachers and their bias against minority students, and other studies that have been documented. Most (but not all) of the people who would be interested in reading this sort of thing are already involved in the fields of education and diversity studies, or are in the process of going into these fields. The studies tend to be a little longer than a normal article,  but I think a good length for these readings would be between 5-20 pages in range.
Posted on

Discussion – Week of 7/20

With “Shaping an Ethical Workplace Culture”, Steven Olson has written much more than an article. He has put together a handbook. Written for an audience of Human Resources professionals, “Shaping…”  provides these professionals with a clear set of instructions for creating, maintaining and sustaining an ethical workplace culture.

I immediately noticed Olson’s frequent use of graphs, charts and other graphics. One of the things I was taught early in my career was that the higher up in the organization your audience is, the fewer words you should use to make. your point. PowerPoint decks which include graphs, charts, etc. which are well designed, requiring little explanation, are consistently proven to be most effective in driving the conversation, while still prompting the questions you’d expect to hear.

In this case, Olson isn’t going to be receiving real time feedback from his readers, but he is thinking of his audience when he includes those images. In so doing, he’s mitigating the risk of the reader only skimming the text, by re-phrasing it as a graph, chart or table.

I really enjoyed reading “Shaping…”. Olson inspires his readers by breaking what is admittedly a huge undertaking into manageable chunks. With the focus areas and steps clearly defined, HR professionals can take action armed with a proven method, and examples of other successful organizations to emulate.

I can’t believe I’m about to type this, but I think I’m going to create a PowerPoint presentation about the power of consumer activism. I tend to get a bit anxious when creating slides when I know they will be shared with executives, who are the audience I think I’d most like to address in this exercise. Given my topic, I want to use the data and learnings I’ve gathered in an attempt to influence corporate behavior.

Knowing my audience will be made up of executives, it’s best to keep the deck short. I’ll be lucky to get thirty minutes of their time. I’m thinking that ten slides should do the trick. The text and graphics on each slide should reinforce one another. Citing the resources via quote boxes, etc. should be particularly effective. The text can feature links to sources where appropriate, but I think adding an Appendix featuring a full list of citations would be best.

Posted on

discussion 7/20, isaac

  1. The focus of the article “How To Create a Culture Manifesto for Your Organization (And Why It’s a Good Idea)” is clearly mentioned through the title. In this informative article, Molly West goes over examples of manifestos created for varying organizational cultures and goes over the positive role a manifesto can have in an organization. West introduces us to the topic with the realization that mission statements usually have nothing to do with the workforce behind the statement, and this helps the reader to make the inference that a companies plan should include the goals internally, not just on the exterior. There are no negatives affecting the persuasiveness of the article, making the idea of creating a culture manifesto seem like a no-brainer. Which, in fact, it is; the manifesto is purely meant to improve the environment and culture of an organization by creating a collection of shared beliefs throughout the workforce to help unify and boost morale in the employees. West’s perspective is that a culture manifesto is a necessary step in creating a positive organizational culture, rather than an extra step. After West went over the example organizations, she informs the reader on how to create their own culture manifesto. This section shows that a short list of questions and ideas, followed by a series of steps is all it takes to create a draft manifesto for an organization. The questions she uses and the conciseness she is able to describe the instructions with help solidify the idea that creating a culture manifesto is a simple, and very helpful addition to your organization’s culture.

 

2. Since the start of this research project, I have only read scholarly articles that range from nine to thirty pages in length. They are able to go into great detail and include experiments and studies that back up their research and analysis. At first, I thought this would be the best method for me to add my perspective to the conversation, although after developing a deeper sense of my topic I noticed I simply don’t have a strong enough grasp, or enough information to share to write a scholarly article. My main option now is to write an informative op-ed. It will be shorter compared to my sources, and can only feature quotes from peoples experiences and firsthand accounts, but it will have the same critical focus that my sources all had. Quotations from preservice teachers, early education teachers, and professors will be a main source of perspective on the complex issue, while the experiences of my close friends and my own will help me personalize papers attitude and stance. 

I want to inform the misinformed and the uninformed, the ignorant, and the arrogant. Misinformation has become a tool of the powerful to create masses of uneducated followers. It has also become the effect of leaders and influencers of our culture being given undeserving power over the people. In hopes to bring harmony between people, I plan on writing my research paper as an opinionated article thats focus is on the removal of the discriminatory and unjust cycle that ethnically and racially diverse people are forced into; primarily the beginning of the cycle that takes place in the education system.