I decided what to focus on in my Unit 2 body of material, by researching something that hit home to me. There are a lot of sub topics one could explore that fall under organizational culture. However, studying neurological diversity in the work place caught my attention more than any other potential sub topic I had. I chose neurological diversity in the work place, because neurological disorders is something I can relate to. My little brother was a slow developer as a baby and a toddler, and at one point we were worried that he may be on the spectrum. Thankfully he was just a slow developer and eventually began to progress into the wonderful young man he is today, but at first we had this scare. This is why I feel closely connected to my sub topic, hence why I chose it. I decided what would make it into the project by selecting research that was straight to the point and closely related to my topic.
I learned a lot and got a lot out of this project, that I put together throughout the course of our class. Primarily, I learned a ton about people with neurological disorders and how they can benefit a company. Before I started collecting my research on this sub topic of organizational culture, I had the opinion that people with neurological disorders were not fit for the workplace. That perspective definitely changed as I gathered research for my project. I learned that people with neurological disorders definitely have their limitations, but they also have unique abilities that outweigh their limitations. They have the ability to hyper focus on a task more than someone who does not have a neurological disorder. I learned a lot about how to take information, digest it, and then write about it. Some of the writing I learned during this course, was writing to help explain my research to my audience or more so, introduce my gathered research to my audience, so it would be easier for them to absorb all the information that I would be throwing at them in my research project. I learned that giving and receiving feedback is a crucial element of developing a research project. The feedback I received on my work definitely benefited what made it into my final portfolio. I learned how to engage a target audience. My targeted audience is professional with the responsibilities of hiring new employees and people with neurological disorders. I learned to engage them, but cutting out the excess writing of the research I gathered, and presenting my audience with the straight forward writing that would bet educate them on my sub topic.
This assignment had a lot of value for me. The most important bit of value I got from the course, is more than just how to conduct research. The value I received is how to conduct research tailored for a specific targeted audience. My targeted audience is professionals in the workplace who are responsible for hiring new employees, and people with neurological disorders. I learned how to present information in an organized way to people that need to see it. That’s the value I gained, gathering research and organizing it in a way that best suits the audience that it is intended for.
Final Reflection
From the research complied from Unit 2, i had ultimately decided to continue focusing on the LGBTQ community. Fascinated by the amount of information I had been exposed to, I knew that likewise my fellow counterparts would have not known much about the information I had acquired. What surprised me the most was the statistics, the numbers that only amplified the change that needed to be made within our society. Although movements for more inclusion of the LGBTQ community have picked up attention and support, learning statistically how far we are from equality for all sexualities was eyeopening. Most certainly, I wanted to share these statistics with as many people as possible in a way that would capture the audience as much as it did for myself. I really focused on my rhetoric when pursuing this project/unit, really creating a piece that would strike a wide audience of people and not just target one demographic. I tried to implement some of the teachings from “They Say I Say” as I pulled for strong information that would impact someone whether or not they were part of the LGBTQ community.
From this work I learned a vast amount about the discrimination towards the LGBTQ community. Furthermore, I took away from this project the strength and value of writing structure. The suggestions made on the rough draft of my infographic allowed me to challenge myself to compile a project that had more power. My sentences were very wordy and too much for an audience to read and want to learn more about. I was then challenged to fixate on what fragments made the biggest impact and supported the overall premise of what I was trying to promote within the infographic. Before, I was prioritizing the amount of information on the infographic, and that later changed to prioritize the strength of the information I had. There is no debating that a statistic is a statistic, but for one to be strong it needs to sucker-punch the audience with a hit at the current reality to have them reconsider their stance and understanding of a topic. When addressing the audience I wanted this infographic to hit home in a way that was not blaming something or another, but instead was focused on a conversation about education. Sharing statistics that counter the common belief that the LGBTQ movement is on a way to equality, which is true it is just the road ahead is long and not as short as perceived by those who are not identifiers of the community.
I really took away from this assignment how to manage and prioritize what is going to push my point across. Instead of honing into what an educator or professor may want to see, I had to reconsider my audience and who I was writing for. This audience was not someone who overlooked the progression of the project or had any idea about the assignment, it would be people stumbling upon this on social media and feel inclined to share with others the staggering information on it. Looking forward into the future I definitely want to continue practicing the projection of my purpose to the audience and focusing on the goal of the project, and less on the progression and grade. Improving this mindset will only make my writing stronger as I pretend to write to my intended audience instead of writing for the approval of a professor.
Final Reflection
From my unit 2 research, I found a lot of overlapping themes particularly on the lacking level of awareness language diversity has amongst other diversity competencies. Leading into unit 3 I wanted to focus on why this subject isn’t as openly discussed and how I could convince more of the public to listen to what was being said. I wrestled with what I wanted to use in my project in the end because of the vast research there was written on the topic. Eventually what it came down to was reflecting on the sources I’ve looked at from when I first began up until the end. For me that included revisiting the work I did from our unit 1 assignment, note-taking exercises, and some of the last discussion posts we shared as a class. From there the sources I focused on were those that initially caught my line of interest and kept the horizon open (without getting to specific or technical). The exercises we did throughout unit 2 really helped me organize my thoughts on the page which became very useful when it came to applying this to my own writing style. I found it easier to get words on the page because of the direct connections I made prior. The course also enlightened me on genres and specifically different writing styles. Some of the skills I learned we’re being able to critically analyze the sources and either pick out the content I wanted to use for my research or rhetorically understand the author’s purpose, target audience, and writing strategies.
For one, the work I did enlightened my knowledge of diversity and inclusion. Prior to taking this class I hadn’t fully appreciated the degree and significance conversations on this subject had. I learned ways I could directly take what I learned and apply it in everyday realities. Furthermore learning about language helped reflect on my own experiences inspiring to want and engage in more meaningful conversations with others. It also helped explain the thought process that goes behind communication and dig a bit deeper into how the brain works. What this course helped me do is practice my writing skills and find ways in which I could get more comfortable in doing so. The templates we learned from TSIS and familiar/ friendly style of writing in our blog posts eased the anxiety I would often get before writing. Also because I was writing a lot more than usual, I found myself get into the swing of things (flow) instead of dreading and waiting last minute to submit writing assignments as I did in the past. It felt easier to engage and enter other conversations which I found myself do a lot through the comments and feedbacks we would give to our peers and later help reflect on my own work. It made me excited to see other people’s posts and compare/ see where their lines of interest fell similar or different. Likewise, it reassured me I was on the right path and understanding of what was being said and why we were saying things in return. Regarding audience, the rhetorical argumentative analysis we did throughout the course exposed me to a lot of different writing strategies for targeting interest groups. It served me as inspiration for my later research having seen many examples and analyze their success. Similarily understanding my audience helped shape what I was eventually going to include in my final project. I did this by imagining myself with no knowledge of the subject prior and trying to capture their attention through the text style, visual media, and overall structure of my project.
Just as understanding target audiences helped shaped my research, it equally guided what I wanted to deliver and say in my final assignment. I was able to pick up different strategies for how to incorporate mixed media sources and use them to not only strengthen my argument but retain the reader’s attention and give them the freedom to look closer or further into subtopics. Finally, the greatest value I gained was becoming more confident in my abilities as a writer and public speaker because of the strategies I learned to communicate my thoughts across more effectively.
Final Reflection
For my unit 2 project I researched a blend between the discrimination faced in the workplace and the underrepresentation of minorities in gifted programs. Although I wanted to dive deeply into both subjects I found that it would be easier to focus on the topic of minority gifted students. Not only was I able to fully research the project but I was able to explore the ideas and methods that could be used to solve some of the issues. When I was completing my presentation I applied skills from the course that incorporated clearly laying out information and ideas and broadening them to the readers as a whole. By precisely formatting my research I was able to truly convey to the readers my ideas and lay it out in a way that would compel them towards my ideas.
Not only was I able to lay out a presentation and research on a topic that I’m really passionate about but I was able to truly entice the readers towards my argument. Through this course I learned to adequately convey a message and share it with an audience looking for guidance. Through the use of articles, diagrams, and multiple slides I was able to show the readers how truly important the topic of racial bias is within the school place. Although the problem has been identified, there have been no true strides established in making schools more inclusive spaces in poor areas. Through the use of my research, minorities will have the resources and opportunities needed to create futures for themselves despite their opportunities.
Through giving and receiving feedback with my peers I was able to question and access my own work and reflect on the mistakes I made. I was also able to use the responses to improve my work and make the presentation more formatted to reaching critiques and an audience. Just by sharing my work with my peers I was able to interpret the reviews and specify my work more towards a specific audience. With the use of these ideas and writing tools I was able to perfect my writing and not only make it useful to myself and the individual reading it but to the audience of readers that will be interested in the topic in the future.
This assignment was valuable because the topic plays a monumental role towards the real injustices of the world. Children are continuously mis-valued in terms of education and although inequalities were constantly identified within the education programs it was important for me to learn them first hand. Students are constantly being misjudged because of their race and face bias in their education programs. Although I knew minority students were constantly unrepresented in gifted programs it was scary to see the true scale of students being kept from new opportunities. I learned how to take new information and the important things I learned and spread them on a large scale. It is important to know that in order to make change we must reflect on the issues within each problem and work towards making a positive change. I hope that with this assignment and with the work I’ve done I will be able to make vast improvements upon my writing and truly make a difference.
Final Project
For my presentation I created a powerpoint centered towards schools with minority underrepresentation in their gifted programs. My presentation aims to provide information and opportunities for students with poor backgrounds to secure higher educations. I am able to lay out opportunities and different assessments for screening minority students and new methods on how to forgo racial bias within school systems. With these new methods schools will be able to ensure equal representation for all students and make schools more nourishing environments.
Dan final project
For my final project I have created a blog post with my intended audience being individuals who may not have given much attention to accent discrimination in their lives. The intent of my paper is to create awareness amongst these individuals so that they may identify situations where accent bias is present. I have done this by including a few stories from people who have suffered through scenarios of which they were discriminated against. I then included some information on why this may occur from a psychology standpoint and some various findings from studies of this topic. A link to my PDF file is below
Thanks,
Final Project – Samantha Danylchuk
The audience for my final project are college students who are about to enter the workforce (for example, Millennials and Gen Z). The purpose of this assignment was to explain and propose advice that these students can take for how to impress their elderly employers and ways to improve the generational gap in the workplace. Basically, I created a series of Facebook posts which are put in a PDF Format so as you take a look, pretend like you’ve just discovered this on social media and are scrolling through each post, which essentially adds up to 6 different posts (but they’re all included in a single profile). The evidence of where I received my information from are cited at the corner of the posts. I wanted a detailed social media post that would both quickly catch the attention of college students while also being informative. I took the feedback I received from my classmates and Professor Oakes to improve from my draft, so I hope you are intrigued!
Final Project-Michaela Reis
For my final project, I created a presentation discussing empathy and perspective in the workplace. The audience for my presentation is college juniors and seniors that are entering the workplace. This would be a resource for them as they prepare to graduate. This resource would be available on LinkedIn’s platform slideshare a popular website amongst those in college. The purpose of it is to show those entering the workforce how empathy and perspective can be a tool for them to create a healthy workplace culture helping increase diversity and understanding.
Mike – Final Project – “Corporate Responsibility: Responding to Consumer Activism”
I had hoped to share this PowerPoint presentation as a .mov file, but it turns out it was just a few MBs too large. I’ve used the “Share” feature in Office365 to create a link to where the actual .pptx has been uploaded. I tested it a few times, so I believe you’ll all be able to access it.
To hear my narration, you’ll have to click on the audio icon on each slide. Not as easy or fun as the .mov version, but it’s still preferable to having to read the speakers’ notes as was the case with my draft version last week.
Despite the few technical hurdles, I had fun putting this together, and hope you enjoy watching.
Thank you!
Jackie Final Project
For my final project, I decided to use a blog site as a way to access information about my topic of universal design within the disability community. I used a series of studies, first hand accounts and magazine articles to collect my sources to create a call to action for those who are entering the workforce.