August 2021 – WRT 205 Summer 2021

Kayla Ramos Reflection

When brainstorming ideas for my Unit two research portfolio, I decided I wanted to focus on a marginalized group that I do not consider myself to be a part of. I believed that this would allow me to have a completely unbiased approach to the types of sources I decided to use, and honestly reflect on what I had learned. I also aimed to completely walk my readers through my research and have them experience the breakthroughs that I had while building my portfolio. In the end, this decision benefited me greatly because I ended up with a wide variety of sources that focused on the perceptions of Queer individuals in the workplace. When I started finalizing information I wanted to include in my Unit three final project, I was able to decide which pieces of information had the biggest impact on my own ability to connect to a group of people that I might not have considered had I written about something that I had a prior knowledge about. The readings from “They Say, I Say” helped me to understand the importance of a well-rounded research portfolio and the impact it will have on my audience. The templates for countering arguments aided in my use of sources that did not directly support what I was trying to convey but instead rounded out my argument.

Throughout all of the units, being able to receive constructive feedback on all of my assignments ahs helped a lot. My favorite part about collaborating with others was being able to see how my writing affects different audiences. Even though I was only publishing my writing for my peers to see, I gained a deeper understanding of the types of rhetorical decisions I should make when trying to persuade, inform, argue, or produce any other type of text. Multimodal media has also had an impact on my growth throughout this course. In my Unit three project I made use of an infographic to express my claims. Some writing classes can place an excessive focus on the more traditional forms of literature but this course opened my eyes to how useful all of the ways we convey information are.

Honestly, prior to this course ,I had not put much consideration into my ideas with regard to members of the LGBTQIA+ community let alone focus specifically on their experiences in corporate America. Unit one opened my eyes to impacts that discrimination have on various groups of people. Unit 2 made me shift that understanding into a specific group of individuals and the distinctive forms of discrimination they faced. Unit three helped me to reflect and share what I had learned and ultimately made me a stronger ally for the LGBTQIA+ community and helped me understand the importance of equity for all people.

I just want to end off by thanking all of the other people in teh class for helping me grow throughout the course. I really appreciate all of you taking the time to read my work and provide useful feedback. I also enjoyed being able read your writing and learn about new things. Lastly, I want to say thank you to professor Oakes for all w the support and guidance. Have a great semester everyone!

Reflection Joanna Vines

For each unit assignment, I have researched a different topics. However, still focusing on the core themes of our course: organizational culture and workplace. For Unit 1 I expanded the canon by researching how LGBTQIA+ individual face challenges in the workplace, for Unit 2 I compiled a portfolio regarding the role of racial/ethnic identifies and how that affects the level of income and the connection that has to health statues, and for Unit 3 I unpacked an issue that I can relate to which is the mistreatment of women in the workplace. All of these topics were interesting to explore, and I have gained a deeper understanding on the struggles people with different backgrounds could experience and, on the importance, and ways of allyship. These assignments served as a great opportunity to understand the world of work which is quickly approaching for me. I will take what I have learned and continue to educate myself and apply it into future fields. Additionally, I like how I did not stick with one topic the entire way through this course because it diversified new perspectives I have developed. This course was such a great experience because I developed writing skills and exposure to important topics. Additionally, the feedback I received was always so detailed and insightful. I will take everything I learned to future work. I also am going to utilize “They Say, I Say” in my future writing. I loved this book and it helped guide me through so many assignments through the duration of this course. I like the templates and examples because it helped me get started with writing when I was stuck, as well as craft arguments and conclude my thoughts.

Unit 3 was my favorite because of our final project. I enjoyed having the freedom to choose my own topic and media form. It made the assignment way more interesting and engaging. I found the different steps through all the projects a very effective way to organize, plan, and think about what I was trying to accomplish with my work. Normally, I do not take all of those steps before completing a writing assignment. However, this year (and going forward) I am going to use the templates and techniques in my assignments.

In my project for unit 3 I did an infographic about identifying & addressing sexism and sexual assault in the workplace. This infographic’s audience was men entering or currently in the workplace. The infographic could be distributed online or posted in public settings. I included the problem, provides “Do/Don’ts”, highlights the importance of training and supporting victims, points to data/statistics, and offers additional resources (through links and a QR code). As a woman entering the workplace soon, I think this information is important to share with male collogues so I (and other women) can feel safe in the workplace.

Thank you Professor Oakes for a great summer semester!

Austin and Pisano Summary

Austin and Pisano’s book on the importance of the employment and potentials of neurodiverse individuals opened another door to the diversity issue that goes beyond gender and race. In the very beginning of the book, the authors used the example of a man who is part of the autism spectrum, with extraordinary skills in the IT department, yet he suffers from lack of employment for a long time due to his behavior not accepted in the communication-normative environment of large corporations. Austin and Pisano also showed how larger tech companies such as Microsoft have already begun neurodiversity hires with great success, and that what they bring to the workplace includes sets of skills that the “neuro-normal” person do not have.

Discussion Questions Week 3

Response #1

I will definitely want to look into the lack of diversity in the history department as well as history curriculum. History classes in general are very Eurocentric and while the US is a global player, the historical content on African and Asian history is significantly lacking. The sources that I will pick are journal articles, mainly dealing with education and previous examples of diversity in history. Since the topic is so specific, I will mainly search for articles written by historians. For the tools that I will use, I think that I will try to go for the SU student library.

Response #2

Kaplan and Donovan’s views are that the intention of diversity hire matters, while Austin and Pisano’s writings emphasizes the action itself. Personally, I find that one cannot escape from the other. I believe that the act itself does not come into fruition until the will to act upon it is there. If your intention is to merely look better in terms of equality hire due to pressure or you only hire a very specific minority group because of your assumptions, then the whole idea of diversity hire is not in the right place.

History lessons: inequality, diversity and the national curriculum

The sense of belonging of an individual coming from an ethnic minority background is usually quite complex in their newly adopted country, and Claire Alexander and Debbie Weekes-Bernard present the obstacles that Britain faces with their introduction of their new curriculum. In 2014, the revised history curriculum became a controversial issue due to what many perceived as a nationalistic and ethnocentric take on the long history of Britain. This was mainly reflected by the receivers of this curriculum, the student population, being increasingly diverse. Statistics have shown that in the UK, students from Indian and Chinese backgrounds consistently outperform native White British students academically, and that demographically speaking, around 20% of England and Wales’s population are of non-White British minority backgrounds. When the British government is trying to create a sense of belonging for the younger population, is it the right choice to solely focus on the past of the native population? Over the course of Britain’s history, it went from a Celtic island conquered by continental Germanic-speaking Anglo-Saxons, went through a Latinization process with the Norman Invasion of 1066, and created the largest empire in history encompassing most of North America, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent. This means that when students learn about the legacy of the British Empire, instead of just the minority the native British became in this commonwealth, the students should learn about the contributions and affects the colonized African and Asian populations created for the empire.

Alexander, C., & Weekes-Bernard, D. (2017). History lessons: Inequality, diversity and the national curriculum. Race Ethnicity and Education, 20(4), 478–494. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2017.1294571

5 Rhetorical Moves

The first paragraph of the article is a personal anecdote about Webb’s life experience at the airport, and already there is a clear narrative. Bogost wishes to use these experience stories to explain his point about diversity in tech, and this is the best way to have the reader sympathize with an issue. In the second paragraph, the reader finds out about Webb’s background, and more information is provided. This serves to give credibility to the identity of the subject in the writing.
The second is the rhetorical question asked by Charles Isbell, “Are we interested in diversity, or are we interested in integration?”. Readers are forced to reconsider their assumptions about the basic necessity of inclusion or whether there is more to the reasons for having a wider range of talent as well as ethnicities that can benefit the market.
Another rhetorical move would be idiom, where Kamau Bobb talks about how in Silicon Valley, the primary concern for diversity is so that it fits within the current system and not to upset it, and that if there are any bonuses for social and moral responsibility, that would just be gravy. If only the last part is mentioned, the reader would not understand the wider context.
Metaphor is used when Webb stated her concern with the idea that every kid has to learn to code, using the term of nuts and bolts to describe the actions of basic coding. The reason for that use is to demonstrate the poor quality with the problem of too many young coders.
The final rhetorical move that I chose is the oxymoron. Bogost wrote about how the tech industry is improving with its diversity, but that overall it is still terrible. That gives the reader the sense of progress that the tech industry still needs to make even with that small glimmer of hope.

Unit 3 Reflection

This course took me through a range of emotions. Initially, I was very excited to find out that this writing class on organizational culture would have a focus on diversity and inclusion. After all, I am very involved in my company’s DEI committee. How exciting! However, when I learned that we’d be sharing our work on the blog, I was horrified! I hadn’t shared my “in-progress” writing with a group in a very long time. It’s so personal! Nevertheless, it is extremely valuable to give and receive feedback. It makes us all better writers. I also learned so much from my classmates about some issues I knew very little about. After a couple of weeks of reading very interesting articles on diversity and inclusion, I started to feel fatigued by my involvement in both work and coursework as it related to racial equity. So, I turned my focus to non-racial D&I. I wrote about AI and its effects on people who are neurodivergent or disabled and seeking employment. I thought it was an important topic that not many were aware of. It was also an emotional respite for me. Later, after recharging, I knew my research project would need to focus on Black equity and inclusion because it was a part of my life experience. I understood that I would need to make a case for why it was particularly necessary for Black people and would need evidence. This was especially important because I envisioned corporate leaders, who are often data-centric, reading my article. So, I concentrated on seeking out sources that provided data and first-hand accounts showing disparate treatment.

Tackling what many might see as a controversial topic, was going to need planning. For most of my life I just sat down and wrote. I didn’t always have a plan. I wrote, then edited. I didn’t think about all the steps, I just did it. This course forced me (in a good way) to break down my writing and research into pieces and plan it out. I found that the Focusing flowchart, Rounding out the Conversation and Notetaking exercises really helped me. All of these were visual representations of my thoughts and enabled me to see at a glance what I needed to do to firm up my ideas, as well as what wasn’t necessary for my final piece. This course assisted me with honing my skills. I must write grievances when I am acting in my role as a union representative. A grievance generally outlines all the wrongs committed against an employee by management, along with a request for restitution. It’s important to amplify these offenses so that the evidence for restitution seems overwhelmingly in the employee’s favor. I think my time spent on this coursework, and practice with case building, will certainly enhance my grievance writing skills. I have also learned about endurance. I don’t think I’ve ever written this much in such a short period of time, and now I have a new appreciation for those who do it for a living! I have always enjoyed telling a story on paper (or maybe I should say “having a conversation” on paper). A much-loved interest has definitely been reawakened!

Unit 3 Reflection

Initially when I was searching for a topic in Unit 2, I was unsure of what exactly I wanted to research just because I didn’t know if I would be able to find a lot of information. I eventually decided to research the difference between diversity and inclusion because I thought that I would learn a lot through my research, and it would be very important knowledge to have currently and further along in my life. I looked back on the assignments that we had done in this course, and I found that I particularly really enjoyed the ones where we wrote about D&I. I also had a little bit of previous knowledge because last fall I took an African America studies course where we briefly spoke about the differences in the workplace when it comes to minority and majority groups.

To collect my research in a more efficient way, I used the research tips that I learned in this course such as the subject searching and the cited in methods, we used in our complicating research activity. This was very helpful because prior to this I wasn’t sure how to go about finding relevant sources. I was also able to consolidate the information that I found and connect them to common ideas within my topic. I’ve learned a lot through doing this work. I was always taught that research had to be precise, everything had to connect and that it should be put together in an essay format. After doing this project I’ve learned that there isn’t and shouldn’t be one set way to convey a message. I was able to see the various methods that my classmates used like creating memos, posters etc. I was able to create a Kahoot which was fun figuring out how to do. I also really enjoyed getting feedback from all my peers and being able to give them feedback as well because it allowed me to see the different points of views and how everyone interpreted the assignments and readings differently.

This assignment is very valuable to me because it has taught me a lot about diversity and inclusion and how to make sure everyone has the proper support, they need to do great things. This is especially helpful to me now since I am an RA and my residents all have different backgrounds and experiences so I need to be aware of ways to make sure everyone feels valued and seen.

This class has taught me how to work with getting advice from other peers so I can make my work better. Taking this class over the past few months has been a great opportunity for learning and growth. The things we learned in all the units we have covered has provided me with a lot of insight into topics that I never really thought to much about before. The articles that we read about diversity, inclusion, neurodiversity, organizational culture etc. have been very enlightening.

I also enjoyed getting to see little bits of my peers, summer through the “highlight of the week” questions. It made this asynchronous class feel a lot more personal and live in a way. Thank you Professor Oakes for your great feedback and encouraging words. Thank you to my peers for your detailed and very helpful feedback this summer. Wishing you all the best and good luck this fall! 🙂

Unit 3 reflection

Moving from Unit 2 to Unit 3, I realized that I had previously focused all my research on looking into the many issues women tend to face in the workplace and how those experiences tend to negatively affect mental health. I am very glad that I looked into these important matters, but I noticed that I ignored the mental health issues that men often face which, unfortunately, many other people also ignore. For Unit 3, I chose to solely focus my research on men’s mental health issues and encouraging males, specifically Syracuse college students, to find help if they need it. Through my investigations I found a wide range of information on the subject due to my focus being very broad. Therefore, my infographic consisted of imploring men to acknowledge their mental illnesses if they recognize the mentioned symptoms that I included. After, I put different ways to find help to guide the readers in the right directions to show how accessible the aid can be.

A lesson that I learned through my work was to utilize the free resources that we as college students have the privilege to access. Freshman year I never did my research through the Syracuse Library Database because it was an unfamiliar tool, and I did not feel the need to try it. I regret this decision after using the database this entire summer and quickly finding very helpful articles and scholarly pieces that otherwise would have taken me much longer to find.

Something else that I took away from this course is that in some cases, a conversational tone in writing can create a better impact compared to an essay that sounds very professional. I would say that the best advice I received from this unit was to know your audience. I say this because if the writing is for fellow college students, then there would be no need to make the language more complicated then necessary.

This assignment held a lot of value for me because I have seen two of my brothers struggle with mental health issues and neglect to reach out for help until it got much worse. I think that by researching the stigmas behind mental illnesses and why there is a disparity between male and female mental health helped me understand what they went through and are still currently going through. Writing 205 was very different compared to some of my previous writing classes because we were actually allowed to research things that held interest to each of us individually instead of being forced to write an assignment on something that I did not care about. For all of my projects I was allowed to narrow down each topic into something I wanted to research and look further into. The next time I have flexibility in choosing a subject, I will make sure that I pick something that interests me and that I want to learn about more.

Unit 3 Reflection

I have always liked doing research, whether searching for scholarly sources in the library databases for a school project or doing research online for personal reasons. But for any kind of big project, I always enjoyed the hunt for information much more than organizing it. I had never annotated or summarized documents before or thought logically about why I was including one source or another. As we went through the summer, I learned how to categorize and prioritize my sources. I think the “Rounding Out the Conversation” worksheet was helpful because it did reveal some holes in my research as well as some areas where I had too much. Each of the units gave me more tools to try out and habits I will try to continue in the future.

They Say, I Say also changed my way of thinking about writing. I had never thought of writing as a conversation that I was joining. That was eye-opening. I have used sentence starters before, so I loved having a lot more examples of them at my disposal. I will keep that book as a reference for a long time.

One of the things I struggled with in units 1 and 2 was the huge scope of topics like organizational culture or diversity and inclusion. These are important topics, but they also felt overwhelming to me. In the assigned readings, every writer seemed to be making the same argument, only on behalf a different group of people. The only way I could see getting involved in the conversation was through one of my identity categories, which I didn’t feel comfortable doing.

When I read Sherri’s article summary on the ways that online personality tests can be biased, I saw a way into the conversation. Coincidentally I had recently taken one of those types of tests for an online job application, so I could really relate. Like most people, I am simultaneously excited about new technology and scared of it. Artificial intelligence sounds like the perfect solution to so many problems, but will it really turn out that way? I just had to learn more about how it was being used in recruiting and selecting employees, which then led me to see that it is becoming more widely adopted for all kinds of HR functions. I didn’t come into the summer with this interest, but now I’m hooked on it. I saw the AI in HR Resource Center blog not only as a project for this course, but something that I could potentially continue to work on, or at least use in a portfolio someday.

This summer, I feel I took some big steps towards becoming a better researcher and writer, and I got an interesting side project as well. I was impressed by my classmates, their choices, and the passion they brought to their work. I learned from the ideas in their work and the feedback they gave me on mine. We formed our own supportive community, and I was glad to be a part of it.

Thank you, everyone! Have a great fall!