*There is no ONE WAY to write a resume or cover letter. The templates should only be used as a guide. You should adjust your resume according to the job.
*Recruiting manager will be the toughest audience because they hear everything, have seen it all, and they all differ.
*In studies conducted, nearly all managers say that they looked at the appearance of the cover letter and application first and just scanning the following:
*written and oral communication skills
*computer skills
*interpersonal skills
*self-reliance and initiative, as demonstrated by the ability to work alone
*a sense of what the world of work demands in terms of dead lines
*specific skills in at least one business or technical area
*Put yourself in the employer’s position and talk to them about their needs rather than your wants.
*A resume is a good way to outline facts, but a cover letter is beneficial because prose can develop analogies that cannot be explained in short phrases.
*Edit, edit, edit. Take out any unnecessary words. Pg. 283
A good pattern to use (but not limited to this):
1. The first paragraph should state who the write is and what he/she wants.
2. The second paragraph, sometime the third, indicates why the writer wrote to the employer and mentions areas f mutual interests, special talents that night be of interest to the employers, or other factors relating to qualifications that could be better described in a letter than in a resume.
3. A final paragraph that suggests a course of action.
*Hard work and attention to detail make for a good letter.
*Don't say that you are willing to learn if someone can teach you. It goes without saying that there will be on-the-job training. You don't need to include that in your resume/cover letter.
*Don’t delegate the job of letter writing. It will sound fake.
*Sometimes a resume is not as beneficial as a cover letter, but still make one because it will help you outline the facts. The value of a resume is frequently more in its preparation than in its use.
*Use double-spacing to emphasize important things and use single-spacing to cut down on emphasizing the less important items or items that you might not want to highlight.
*Beware of misleading headlines. When you use a headline, think about what you are preparing the reader to anticipate. You don’t want to let them down with the following information.
*Ask yourself, “What words will catch the reader’s eye? What words will put the reader off?”
*Prepare your resume for a specific job. The best way to do this is to go through the job description and step by step develop your letter/resume from this.
*The functional resume allows you to develop a different message for each job or type of job you wish to apply for. Different functions can be highlighted, depending on what the job requires, and your specific experiences rearranged under different headings. Put the most relevant information at the top, not by date.
*A curriculum vitae (CV), literally, “course of life” in Latin, is a resume of academic positions. It does not need statement of goals or interest. Unlike the usual resume that focuses on the employer’s needs rather than merit, a CV should heavily highlight the applicant’s merit because faculty is often looking for the prestige that the applicant can bring to the department more so than their teaching ability, etc.
*Suggest using “career interest” rather than “job objective.”
*Try to keep it to one page. Take out any extra fluff and remember that the employer has very little time to scan your resume. Respect their time. However, do not make the resume fit on one page just for the sake of following a rule. An outline needs white space to make it easy to read.
*Get friends, especially ones in the occupation that you are applying for, to critique your resume.
*Get a friend to look at your resume from a few feet away and ask for comments on its appearance.
*Make sure the primary question of the person doing the critique is “What message do I get from this?”
Monday, October 27, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Project Multimedia Component
For the multimedia component of our project we are going to film a video of the top 5 rated restaurants of our restaurant database. We will go around to each of the five restaurants and take brief segments of the restaurants along with quotes of customers and employees. The goal is to make the website more interactive as well as make the restaurants more personal for the audience. It will also be a tool to highlight the top-rated restaurants.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Ethics (Dombrowski) pgs. 81-121
Nazi Records: The Origen and Use of Information
*genocide was coined after this horrible time of massive killing in Nazi Germany
*When technical objectivity is emphasized, sometimes ethics are compromised.
*Therefore, technical documents are not as ethically neutral as you might think.
*In the case of the Nazi regime, “science” was not actually science, but a means to obtain an end result: racial supremacy.
*When determining whether a document is ethical, you must consider not only the content, but also how and from where the information was obtained.
Controversy in the Present
*Due to the unethical “scientific” or pseudoresearch of the Nazi’s, scientific research in Europe and America is scrutinized much more closely by the government and objective panels.
*Recently, the Israelis have protested that some universities in Germany are using human organs from the Nazi prison camps for research. They protest because these people did not have any informed consent or choice about this, not to mention there was no reason for their execution, and therefore it is unethical to use them.
*The New England Journal of Medicine took a strong stance against using the hypothermia research of the Nazis even though there could be possible medical implications because the research was unscientific, gathered by unsound methods.
*In Journal of American Medical Association Jeremiah Barondess stated that the there was a huge reversal that happened in the Nazi regime, from medicine as healing to medicine as killing. It became a means to justify and carry out mass genocide rather than aid in helping sustain life.
Values in Nazi Medical Science
*Physicians held a lot of power in the Nazi regime. Reasons for this: the unemployment of medical school graduates in bad economy and the need for the regime to “legitimize” its foul practices.
*Facts should be seen as things that can be severely altered by social circumstances and are not completely certain.
*Masked language become prominent:
*Physicians were seen as killing with reason when the people were seen as “already dead” or in other words “not worthy of life”
* “Euthanasia” is known as mercy killing but is suppose to be by the knowing consent of the person. The Nazi’s termed their killing as “Euthanasia” but their people had no consent, no choice.
* “Special treatment” is usually very strong treatment used in extreme cases with the purpose of still helping the person. The Nazi’s used this for mass killing.
Nazi Antiscience
*Some say that the “science” of the Nazi’s was indeed science and shows how its objectivity is inhumane and impersonal and the enemy of human values.
*Others argue that what the Nazi’s were doing was not at all science, but the exact opposite. They opposed traditional science and its objectivity, its formal logic, its emotional neutrality in order to bring about their desired end result.
Research in the United States
*There are strict standards that not only must the information of research be accurate but the means by which it was obtained must meet specific guidelines. If not, the evidence is inadmissible, no matter how “beneficial” it could be to society.
*An example if the Tuskegee syphilis experiment in the 1920s where only African American patients were treated with placebos and effective drugs.
*Another instance is the research of the effects of radiation on humans by the utilization of unknowing humans.
*Another point of controversy is the utilization of animals in research.
Nazi Technical Memorandum
*science has become the goal, the end, itself instead of a means by which to obtain a goal
*expediency and efficiency is a top priority, some say it even surpasses the content of the research being done and the goal of which the technology is being used for
*the Just memorandum is full of masked language, ellipses (the glaring absence of key words), and technical purpose
-disguises the true subject and meaning of the document
-takes away any emotions that could be associated with the subject
-for instance there was a ellipsis of the subject because people are never mentioned.
-people are referred to as "subjects" or "cargo" but never people
-the purpose is solely technical and has no care for people
*the Dr. Becker excerpt is all about the the soldiers chosen to clean the death vans
-the soldiers are treated with care in the document but the people being killed were treated as nothing
*circular self justification of Nazi Germany- "What we can do, we should do, largely because we can do it."
-There is no room for critisism.
-The genetic engineering industry has taken this stance on cloning.
*in the Hirt document the purpose is to secure the skulls of Jews
-once again completely technical and scientific with no regards to ethics.
-uses term "induced death" instead of cold blooded murder
*Report on Experiments Concerning X-Ray Castration is a highly technical document that is so technical that is "masks" the true purpose of the technology
Graphical Images
*Social Darwinism developed in the late 1800s and it was used by the Nazi's to justify that the Aryan race was the dominant race and therefore only they should survive because they were the fittest
*The Nuremburg Race Laws required that one's race be clearly identified and used the chart (pg.110) to clearly establish who was Aryan
*tons of overlap in science and politics
*Facial features were also measured to determine the race (pg. 111)
Aristotle
*would not have agreed with Nazi Germany because ethics are based on honesty, virtue, fairness, compassion
*on the question of using technical information obtained from that time, he would say use it
Kant
*assumes that all people are equal and you should treat everyone the way that you want to be treated so he would not approve of the Nazi Germany
*on the question of using the technical information, he could go either way. On one hand, some would benefit from it, but on the other hand families of victims would not benefit
Utilitarianism
*did not agree with racial differences in worth
*would say to use the technical information because it would benefit the most people
Feminist and Ethics of Care
*Authoritarianism is the opposite of feminist beliefs so they would not at all agree with Nazi Germany
*and they were so uncaring towards their victims which is completely opposite to the ethics of care
*on the question of using the technical information, if it could care for the people of today, then they would say use it
*genocide was coined after this horrible time of massive killing in Nazi Germany
*When technical objectivity is emphasized, sometimes ethics are compromised.
*Therefore, technical documents are not as ethically neutral as you might think.
*In the case of the Nazi regime, “science” was not actually science, but a means to obtain an end result: racial supremacy.
*When determining whether a document is ethical, you must consider not only the content, but also how and from where the information was obtained.
Controversy in the Present
*Due to the unethical “scientific” or pseudoresearch of the Nazi’s, scientific research in Europe and America is scrutinized much more closely by the government and objective panels.
*Recently, the Israelis have protested that some universities in Germany are using human organs from the Nazi prison camps for research. They protest because these people did not have any informed consent or choice about this, not to mention there was no reason for their execution, and therefore it is unethical to use them.
*The New England Journal of Medicine took a strong stance against using the hypothermia research of the Nazis even though there could be possible medical implications because the research was unscientific, gathered by unsound methods.
*In Journal of American Medical Association Jeremiah Barondess stated that the there was a huge reversal that happened in the Nazi regime, from medicine as healing to medicine as killing. It became a means to justify and carry out mass genocide rather than aid in helping sustain life.
Values in Nazi Medical Science
*Physicians held a lot of power in the Nazi regime. Reasons for this: the unemployment of medical school graduates in bad economy and the need for the regime to “legitimize” its foul practices.
*Facts should be seen as things that can be severely altered by social circumstances and are not completely certain.
*Masked language become prominent:
*Physicians were seen as killing with reason when the people were seen as “already dead” or in other words “not worthy of life”
* “Euthanasia” is known as mercy killing but is suppose to be by the knowing consent of the person. The Nazi’s termed their killing as “Euthanasia” but their people had no consent, no choice.
* “Special treatment” is usually very strong treatment used in extreme cases with the purpose of still helping the person. The Nazi’s used this for mass killing.
Nazi Antiscience
*Some say that the “science” of the Nazi’s was indeed science and shows how its objectivity is inhumane and impersonal and the enemy of human values.
*Others argue that what the Nazi’s were doing was not at all science, but the exact opposite. They opposed traditional science and its objectivity, its formal logic, its emotional neutrality in order to bring about their desired end result.
Research in the United States
*There are strict standards that not only must the information of research be accurate but the means by which it was obtained must meet specific guidelines. If not, the evidence is inadmissible, no matter how “beneficial” it could be to society.
*An example if the Tuskegee syphilis experiment in the 1920s where only African American patients were treated with placebos and effective drugs.
*Another instance is the research of the effects of radiation on humans by the utilization of unknowing humans.
*Another point of controversy is the utilization of animals in research.
Nazi Technical Memorandum
*science has become the goal, the end, itself instead of a means by which to obtain a goal
*expediency and efficiency is a top priority, some say it even surpasses the content of the research being done and the goal of which the technology is being used for
*the Just memorandum is full of masked language, ellipses (the glaring absence of key words), and technical purpose
-disguises the true subject and meaning of the document
-takes away any emotions that could be associated with the subject
-for instance there was a ellipsis of the subject because people are never mentioned.
-people are referred to as "subjects" or "cargo" but never people
-the purpose is solely technical and has no care for people
*the Dr. Becker excerpt is all about the the soldiers chosen to clean the death vans
-the soldiers are treated with care in the document but the people being killed were treated as nothing
*circular self justification of Nazi Germany- "What we can do, we should do, largely because we can do it."
-There is no room for critisism.
-The genetic engineering industry has taken this stance on cloning.
*in the Hirt document the purpose is to secure the skulls of Jews
-once again completely technical and scientific with no regards to ethics.
-uses term "induced death" instead of cold blooded murder
*Report on Experiments Concerning X-Ray Castration is a highly technical document that is so technical that is "masks" the true purpose of the technology
Graphical Images
*Social Darwinism developed in the late 1800s and it was used by the Nazi's to justify that the Aryan race was the dominant race and therefore only they should survive because they were the fittest
*The Nuremburg Race Laws required that one's race be clearly identified and used the chart (pg.110) to clearly establish who was Aryan
*tons of overlap in science and politics
*Facial features were also measured to determine the race (pg. 111)
Aristotle
*would not have agreed with Nazi Germany because ethics are based on honesty, virtue, fairness, compassion
*on the question of using technical information obtained from that time, he would say use it
Kant
*assumes that all people are equal and you should treat everyone the way that you want to be treated so he would not approve of the Nazi Germany
*on the question of using the technical information, he could go either way. On one hand, some would benefit from it, but on the other hand families of victims would not benefit
Utilitarianism
*did not agree with racial differences in worth
*would say to use the technical information because it would benefit the most people
Feminist and Ethics of Care
*Authoritarianism is the opposite of feminist beliefs so they would not at all agree with Nazi Germany
*and they were so uncaring towards their victims which is completely opposite to the ethics of care
*on the question of using the technical information, if it could care for the people of today, then they would say use it
Friday, October 10, 2008
The Ethics in Tradition (Dombrowski) pg. 38-81
Arisotle
-living by the "right thing to do"
-You are responsible for your own character, not the circumstances.
-Ethical behavior is reasoned behavior, not out of instinct. It is thought about for a long time, the options are weighed, and a decision is reached out of reason. It is practical in all senses.
-Goodness is an inherent quality in human nature.
-You can't have ethics if you don't have a choice. Ex. If you kill a person, but don't have a choice, then is it an ethical decision?
Kant
-living by deontology, an ethical system empahsizing obligation or duty to do the right thing
-self-interest, material gain, and greatest good for the greatest number are not important
-there is moral reason that surpasses our senses and "moral feelings"
-his fundamental principle: catergorical imperative "Act in such a way that, if you had your way, the principle guiding your actions would become universally binding law that everyone must act inaccordance with."
-Think of what others would do in your situation; that tells you what Kant would do.
-The strongest view on how society should be organized was collectivism, not individualism. This is probably why I tend to disagree with it because we are more individualistic.
-Decisions should never be self-serving or egocentric but thinking of everyone.
Utilitarianism
-emphasizes usefulness
-th emoral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall utility.
-cost-benefit analysis usually plays a role
-weigh ethical judgements on the basis of accomplishing the greatest good for the greatest number of people ex. killing rats in a laboratory in order to test a drug and helps millions of sick
-its rise corresponded with rise of science and modern technological industrialism. How can this principle be "corrupted" in the use of advertising?
-the "calculus" of ethics. Why?
-ex. Federal Aviation Administration decided not to require fire safety devices in airplanes because they are so expensive. Of the FDA must decide if the benefits outweigh the costs in new drugs.
-ex. Saving Private Ryan, the cost is losing the eight soldier but the greater benefit is proving that the army is not heartless and helping the mother.
Feminist and Care Perspectives
-Modernism deals with rationalism, individualism, logical analytic thinking, the advancement of science and and technology, and progress.
-Postmodernism challenges all of this and challenges authority. It is socially conditional, not absolute. This is a reaction to modernism.
-ex. atomic bomb. Science and technology are being used to kill massive numbers.
-Feminist Perspectives on Science
-it is an ethical consideration to take gender into consideration when writing
-don't try to pretend that you aren't biased, when you really are. It is better to be upfront with your bias and then strive to be unbiased in your work.
1. It has been traditionally taylored to men. ex. experiments and investigations have traditionally focused on the parts and analyzing rather than the organic whole.
2. ex. the purpose of science is to gain "control" of nature which is named "Mother" nature
3. In technical communication, be sure to avoid sex-related terminology, discrimination of women in the profession, and devaluing the voice of women.
-living by the "right thing to do"
-You are responsible for your own character, not the circumstances.
-Ethical behavior is reasoned behavior, not out of instinct. It is thought about for a long time, the options are weighed, and a decision is reached out of reason. It is practical in all senses.
-Goodness is an inherent quality in human nature.
-You can't have ethics if you don't have a choice. Ex. If you kill a person, but don't have a choice, then is it an ethical decision?
Kant
-living by deontology, an ethical system empahsizing obligation or duty to do the right thing
-self-interest, material gain, and greatest good for the greatest number are not important
-there is moral reason that surpasses our senses and "moral feelings"
-his fundamental principle: catergorical imperative "Act in such a way that, if you had your way, the principle guiding your actions would become universally binding law that everyone must act inaccordance with."
-Think of what others would do in your situation; that tells you what Kant would do.
-The strongest view on how society should be organized was collectivism, not individualism. This is probably why I tend to disagree with it because we are more individualistic.
-Decisions should never be self-serving or egocentric but thinking of everyone.
Utilitarianism
-emphasizes usefulness
-th emoral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall utility.
-cost-benefit analysis usually plays a role
-weigh ethical judgements on the basis of accomplishing the greatest good for the greatest number of people ex. killing rats in a laboratory in order to test a drug and helps millions of sick
-its rise corresponded with rise of science and modern technological industrialism. How can this principle be "corrupted" in the use of advertising?
-the "calculus" of ethics. Why?
-ex. Federal Aviation Administration decided not to require fire safety devices in airplanes because they are so expensive. Of the FDA must decide if the benefits outweigh the costs in new drugs.
-ex. Saving Private Ryan, the cost is losing the eight soldier but the greater benefit is proving that the army is not heartless and helping the mother.
Feminist and Care Perspectives
-Modernism deals with rationalism, individualism, logical analytic thinking, the advancement of science and and technology, and progress.
-Postmodernism challenges all of this and challenges authority. It is socially conditional, not absolute. This is a reaction to modernism.
-ex. atomic bomb. Science and technology are being used to kill massive numbers.
-Feminist Perspectives on Science
-it is an ethical consideration to take gender into consideration when writing
-don't try to pretend that you aren't biased, when you really are. It is better to be upfront with your bias and then strive to be unbiased in your work.
1. It has been traditionally taylored to men. ex. experiments and investigations have traditionally focused on the parts and analyzing rather than the organic whole.
2. ex. the purpose of science is to gain "control" of nature which is named "Mother" nature
3. In technical communication, be sure to avoid sex-related terminology, discrimination of women in the profession, and devaluing the voice of women.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Reports and Other Long Documents (Harty) pg. 207-275
Designing and Integrating Visuals with Text
Two Questions to Consider:
*Why include your visual? Explain specifically in the text the purpose of putting in the visual, not just simply explaining what it is.
*Is your visual focused? If not, eliminate anthing (arrows, boxes, lines) that does not contribute or deters from your purpose.
Important: In order to use images or tables from printed materials or the Web, you must obtain written permission from the copyright holder. Simply copy and pasting is unethical and plagarism. If there is no copyright, written permission is not required, but citing is essential.
Tables and graphs both present numerical data in visual form but graphs are usually easier to read in order to see the big picture or trend. Typically both are presented together so that you can reference the table for specific values not shown in the graph.
Important: Distorting visuals, graphs, etc. in order to persuade the reader decreases your credibility as a writer and in some cases may bring about lawsuits.
Line graph: show relationship between two or more set of data.
Bar graph: show relationship between:
1. differen types of infromation during different periods of time
2. quantities of the same kind of information at different periods
3. quantiites of different information during a fixed period of time
4. quantities of the diffreent parts that make up a whole
Pie chart: show relationship between parts of a whole
Picture graphs (pictograms): bar graphs that use pictures instead of bars
Dimensional Column Graphs: bar graphs that are three-dimensional; can be misleading
Drawings: optimal when you want to be specific and eliminate or add things that would be in a photograph
Flowcharts: use to show a series of steps in a process
Organizational charts: shows how the various components of something are related
Map: show geographic features of a location or relationship among things in an area
Photographs: only show the surface of the subject and should not be used to show internal explanations
Strategies of Persuasion (David W. Ewing)
Rules Every Persuader Should Know
1. Consider whether your view will make problems for readers.
2. Don't offer new ideas, directives, or recommendations for chage until your readers are prepared for them.
3. Your credibility with readers affects your strategy. Given vs. acquired. How can you acquire credibility? Through citing already credible sources.
4. If your audience disagrees with your ideas or is uncertain about htem, persent both sides of the argument.
5. Win repsect by making your opiion or recommendation clear.
6. Put your strongest points last if the audience is very interested in the arguement, first if it is not so interested.
7. Don't count on changing attitudes by offering information alone.
8. "Testimonials" are most likely to be persuasive if drawn from people with whom readers associate.
9. Be wary of using extreme or "sensational" claims and facts.
10. Tailor your presentation to the reasons for the Readers' attitudes, if you know them.
11. Never mention other people without considering their possible effect on the reader.
It is important to "size up your readers." Think about how interested they are in your report and how much they already know about the subject or your report. Also think about what their preceeding opinions are before they read your report. All of these things will help you write according to the audience.
Proposals (Philip C. Kolin)
1. Approach writing a proposal as a problem-solving strategy.
2. Regard yoru audience as skeptical readers.
3. Research your proposal carefully.
4. Prove that your proposal is workable.
5. Be sure that your proposal is financially realistic.
6. Package your proposal attractively.
Internal Proposals are within an organization and offer solutions to make the work of the organization more efficient, more cost-effective, etc. They are often more informal and vary in length of one or two pages. However, although informal, you still must be very careful in sizing up your audience because you do not want your solution to sound like an attack or an act of superiority over your superiors.
Sales proposals are external proposals intended to sell a product to an outside audience. This includes a section devoted to the description of the proposed product. In this section you want to describe the product in detail and explain how it benefits the audience specifically.
Writing Proposals with Style (Richard Johnson-Sheehan)
Cicero and Augustine defined three styles:
1. Plain style instucts in simple terms.
2. Middle style if for persuasion.
3. Grand style is for motivating people to do something they already know they should do but may be reluctant to do. Not used as often because it seems extreme.
Plain Style
-Generally used in Situation, Plan, and Qualifications sections.
-Use active voice, put subject early in sentence, eliminate excess words, eliminate redundancy, make sentences short.
When is it appropriate to use passive voice?
-the readers do not need to know who or what is doing something in the sentence
-the subject of hte sentence is what the sentence is about
Two Questions to Consider:
*Why include your visual? Explain specifically in the text the purpose of putting in the visual, not just simply explaining what it is.
*Is your visual focused? If not, eliminate anthing (arrows, boxes, lines) that does not contribute or deters from your purpose.
Important: In order to use images or tables from printed materials or the Web, you must obtain written permission from the copyright holder. Simply copy and pasting is unethical and plagarism. If there is no copyright, written permission is not required, but citing is essential.
Tables and graphs both present numerical data in visual form but graphs are usually easier to read in order to see the big picture or trend. Typically both are presented together so that you can reference the table for specific values not shown in the graph.
Important: Distorting visuals, graphs, etc. in order to persuade the reader decreases your credibility as a writer and in some cases may bring about lawsuits.
Line graph: show relationship between two or more set of data.
Bar graph: show relationship between:
1. differen types of infromation during different periods of time
2. quantities of the same kind of information at different periods
3. quantiites of different information during a fixed period of time
4. quantities of the diffreent parts that make up a whole
Pie chart: show relationship between parts of a whole
Picture graphs (pictograms): bar graphs that use pictures instead of bars
Dimensional Column Graphs: bar graphs that are three-dimensional; can be misleading
Drawings: optimal when you want to be specific and eliminate or add things that would be in a photograph
Flowcharts: use to show a series of steps in a process
Organizational charts: shows how the various components of something are related
Map: show geographic features of a location or relationship among things in an area
Photographs: only show the surface of the subject and should not be used to show internal explanations
Strategies of Persuasion (David W. Ewing)
Rules Every Persuader Should Know
1. Consider whether your view will make problems for readers.
2. Don't offer new ideas, directives, or recommendations for chage until your readers are prepared for them.
3. Your credibility with readers affects your strategy. Given vs. acquired. How can you acquire credibility? Through citing already credible sources.
4. If your audience disagrees with your ideas or is uncertain about htem, persent both sides of the argument.
5. Win repsect by making your opiion or recommendation clear.
6. Put your strongest points last if the audience is very interested in the arguement, first if it is not so interested.
7. Don't count on changing attitudes by offering information alone.
8. "Testimonials" are most likely to be persuasive if drawn from people with whom readers associate.
9. Be wary of using extreme or "sensational" claims and facts.
10. Tailor your presentation to the reasons for the Readers' attitudes, if you know them.
11. Never mention other people without considering their possible effect on the reader.
It is important to "size up your readers." Think about how interested they are in your report and how much they already know about the subject or your report. Also think about what their preceeding opinions are before they read your report. All of these things will help you write according to the audience.
Proposals (Philip C. Kolin)
1. Approach writing a proposal as a problem-solving strategy.
2. Regard yoru audience as skeptical readers.
3. Research your proposal carefully.
4. Prove that your proposal is workable.
5. Be sure that your proposal is financially realistic.
6. Package your proposal attractively.
Internal Proposals are within an organization and offer solutions to make the work of the organization more efficient, more cost-effective, etc. They are often more informal and vary in length of one or two pages. However, although informal, you still must be very careful in sizing up your audience because you do not want your solution to sound like an attack or an act of superiority over your superiors.
Sales proposals are external proposals intended to sell a product to an outside audience. This includes a section devoted to the description of the proposed product. In this section you want to describe the product in detail and explain how it benefits the audience specifically.
Writing Proposals with Style (Richard Johnson-Sheehan)
Cicero and Augustine defined three styles:
1. Plain style instucts in simple terms.
2. Middle style if for persuasion.
3. Grand style is for motivating people to do something they already know they should do but may be reluctant to do. Not used as often because it seems extreme.
Plain Style
-Generally used in Situation, Plan, and Qualifications sections.
-Use active voice, put subject early in sentence, eliminate excess words, eliminate redundancy, make sentences short.
When is it appropriate to use passive voice?
-the readers do not need to know who or what is doing something in the sentence
-the subject of hte sentence is what the sentence is about
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Final Project Proposal
Executive Summary: Clemson students, residents, and visitors are unaware of the unique, local restaurants in the area. In order to inform them, we will create a restaurant database website. The website will include our standardized reviews of each restaurant. As a group of three college students from different backgrounds, our reviews will be diverse and offer different perspectives on the types and quality of food available at each restaurant. Our website will help the Clemson community become knowledgeable about their dining options and enhance the quality of their overall dining experience.
Although Clemson students, local residents, and visitors frequent restaurants in downtown Clemson, they are unaware of the remotely located, less commercial restaurants in the Clemson area. They need to know about these restaurants in order to make well informed, appropriate decisions when dining out. We will help them become ideal, knowledgeable consumers by creating a restaurant database website detailing locations, prices, and menu items of local restaurants. Students tend to pick the most convenient, closest restaurant without any regard to the cuisine. Due to the fast paced culture of the college-based community, we seem to settle when it comes to meals. However, help is on the way. As three Clemson college students ourselves, we plan to provide a solution to this dining dilemma. In our project, we plan to visit a variety of restaurants all in different price ranges with various atmospheres. On our visits, the three of us will formulate separate ratings for each restaurant based on a standardized system. In order to make our views on each restaurant open to the public, we will create a website with menus of all of the restaurants as well as a write up of our reviews and ratings. The website will be a restaurant database. To add to the creative nature of our idea, we will include a multimedia presentation in the form of a video on the website. We feel as though we are qualified to present our ratings to our audience, because we are three different people with three different perspectives and backgrounds. We all have different tastes and will be sampling a variety of the cuisines offered in all of the restaurants. Most important of all we are all three Clemson college students ourselves; therefore, we understand the atmosphere of Clemson and the mindsets of our viewers when it comes to price, time, and distance. As typical college students, time is always an issue when it comes to projects. Therefore, in order to ensure that our project is organized, we developed a timeline to help guide us in our steps. The goal of our project is to help Clemson college students, residents, and visitors become aware of the many different options open to us when it comes to dining out and to help us become knowledgeable about the different types and quality of food available at these restaurants.
Due to this lack of awareness in the Clemson community, there is a definite need for a restaurant database accessible to Clemson students, residents, and visitors. There are many restaurants in Clemson, Seneca, Anderson, and Central that are completely unknown to campus dwellers and alumni. In the small town atmosphere of Clemson, SC, restaurants are found in several remote locations. It could take years for a student to become aware of some of the most delectable restaurants in Clemson and the surrounding area. Since Clemson is a college-based town, nearly all students live on campus or close to campus. Therefore, most students tend to eat at nearby downtown restaurants very frequently because they are not aware of others. Some hidden treasures of ultimate cuisine are unknown to the majority of Clemson residents.
Also, when people visit Clemson to tour the school, spend time with their children, or attend a sporting event, they are unsure of where to eat. Most people only eat in the most obvious restaurants downtown. Alumni also return to visit Clemson and are unaware of new restaurants that have recently opened or been renovated. Alumni and visitors are also interested in dining in restaurants that are unique to Clemson, not necessarily chains that they can find in their home towns. A website would be an ideal way to lead the consumer to the most appropriate restaurant for their dining occasion. Students are looking for economical, quick choices for their daily meals. An upscale restaurant may also be desired when students are going on dates or dining out with their relatives. This website would meet these needs by allowing students to navigate through our price range categories to find a restaurant that is delicious and appropriate for their occasion. Our rating system and reviews of the restaurants would also help students choose a restaurant that they know will be tasty, have great service, an enjoyable atmosphere, and appropriate formality for the occasion at hand.
In order to achieve our goal of helping the Clemson community become knowledgeable and aware of different restaurants, we have laid out a developed plan. First, we will begin by visiting each of the sixteen restaurants that we have selected to review in this project. These include: Goober's, Calhoun Corners, Sardi's, Pixie and Bill's, Paw's, Mac's, Monterrey's, Mellow Mushroom, Atami, Blue Heron, Friend's Cafe, Mainstreet Cafe, Seneca Family Restaurant, Ancheaux's, Tigertown Tavern, Copper River Grill. At the restaurants we will all order a different meal in order to get a good representation of the restaurant’s food. We will review each restaurant on the quality of food, wait time, service, etc. according to a pre-established rating system. We will choose a widely-used and accredited rating system before visiting the restaurants after much research. At the restaurant we will get a menu in order to scan and post on our website so that the audience has easy access to prices, location, and the type of food offered at each restaurant.
In addition to our own opinions, we will get reviews from others who have eaten at each restaurant. In order to have a variety of reviews, we will collect information from on-campus and off-campus students, faculty and staff, alumni, and visitors. We will ask those that we encounter at the restaurant. We will combine our reviews as well as the reviews of others in order to give each restaurant an overall review.
During this time of restaurant visiting, we will also be setting up the website to feature all of our gathered information. We will attend a website workshop at Clemson Computing and Information Technology (CCIT) in order to learn how to set one up and how to add different components to it so that it will be professional. We will have a home page that describes exactly what our purpose is, who we are, who our target audience is, and how we went about obtaining our findings. There will also be a table of contents. The restaurants will be organized into price ranges because we figure that this is the best way to technically organize the types of restaurants and the most useful way for the audience to navigate the page. We will divide the restaurants into low, medium, and upper price ranges. Each restaurant will have its own link and page. Each page will have a written review by the three of us as well as the combined calculated rating of our scores and the scores of others. The pages will also feature quotes from customers, a copy of the menu, and pictures in order to make the page visually attractive and interesting.
As we finish with the restaurant visits and continue to revise the website, we will also make a video highlighting the top five best-rated restaurants in order to incorporate a multimedia component. We will upload the videos onto the website for the audience to view. We will continue to revise the home page and each restaurant’s individual page until we are satisfied with the end product.
As Clemson University students, Brittany Jones, Brennan Palazola, and I are qualified to prepare this end product of a restaurant database website, which will help others choose a great restaurant. Brittany is a South Carolina resident and her parents regularly visit Clemson. Brennan is from Tennessee and has two siblings that attended Clemson. I am from Tennessee and both of my parents and grandparents are Clemson alumni. As three students with different backgrounds and experiences, we can rate the restaurants objectively as they best suit our experiences and needs. Also, as third-year students, we are familiar with restaurants that may be well-kept secrets and student favorites. We also know which restaurants are great for game days, special occasions, and everyday dining on a student’s budget. Also, we have lived on-campus and off-campus and know which restaurants are convenient for both living styles.
We are planning to visit and rate sixteen restaurants before the completion of this project. We have already visited one restaurant, and we are beginning to acquire menus and price lists. Our first step toward completion of our project will be to learn how to create a website by meeting with technicians at CCIT on Wednesday, October 1. We will have the website completely designed by October 16. Although we may not have dined in every restaurant at this point, we would like to have them all loaded on the website, with or without ratings. We will have all of our ratings completed by the end of October. We will spend the first week of November working on the multimedia aspect of our project. We will film, edit, and post videos from our top five restaurant picks. We would like to interview managers, customers, or employees if possible. We will spend the rest of November revising and tweaking our website to make it most convenient for users. Our project will be complete and refined by the final due date in early December.
In early December, the Clemson community will have a great resource to help with all of our dining out decisions. Due to a lack of awareness and knowledge, Clemson students, residents, and visitors often have difficulty in making the best decision when it comes to a restaurant choice. However, our website will guide them to the best option reducing stress and opening eyes to unknown eateries. As three Clemson residents, we understand our community and hope to broaden its culinary outlook. Once our website is complete, Clemson students, residents, and visitors will never have to fret over where to eat again because the ultimate guide to quality and choice of restaurants in the immediate area will just be a click away.
Although Clemson students, local residents, and visitors frequent restaurants in downtown Clemson, they are unaware of the remotely located, less commercial restaurants in the Clemson area. They need to know about these restaurants in order to make well informed, appropriate decisions when dining out. We will help them become ideal, knowledgeable consumers by creating a restaurant database website detailing locations, prices, and menu items of local restaurants. Students tend to pick the most convenient, closest restaurant without any regard to the cuisine. Due to the fast paced culture of the college-based community, we seem to settle when it comes to meals. However, help is on the way. As three Clemson college students ourselves, we plan to provide a solution to this dining dilemma. In our project, we plan to visit a variety of restaurants all in different price ranges with various atmospheres. On our visits, the three of us will formulate separate ratings for each restaurant based on a standardized system. In order to make our views on each restaurant open to the public, we will create a website with menus of all of the restaurants as well as a write up of our reviews and ratings. The website will be a restaurant database. To add to the creative nature of our idea, we will include a multimedia presentation in the form of a video on the website. We feel as though we are qualified to present our ratings to our audience, because we are three different people with three different perspectives and backgrounds. We all have different tastes and will be sampling a variety of the cuisines offered in all of the restaurants. Most important of all we are all three Clemson college students ourselves; therefore, we understand the atmosphere of Clemson and the mindsets of our viewers when it comes to price, time, and distance. As typical college students, time is always an issue when it comes to projects. Therefore, in order to ensure that our project is organized, we developed a timeline to help guide us in our steps. The goal of our project is to help Clemson college students, residents, and visitors become aware of the many different options open to us when it comes to dining out and to help us become knowledgeable about the different types and quality of food available at these restaurants.
Due to this lack of awareness in the Clemson community, there is a definite need for a restaurant database accessible to Clemson students, residents, and visitors. There are many restaurants in Clemson, Seneca, Anderson, and Central that are completely unknown to campus dwellers and alumni. In the small town atmosphere of Clemson, SC, restaurants are found in several remote locations. It could take years for a student to become aware of some of the most delectable restaurants in Clemson and the surrounding area. Since Clemson is a college-based town, nearly all students live on campus or close to campus. Therefore, most students tend to eat at nearby downtown restaurants very frequently because they are not aware of others. Some hidden treasures of ultimate cuisine are unknown to the majority of Clemson residents.
Also, when people visit Clemson to tour the school, spend time with their children, or attend a sporting event, they are unsure of where to eat. Most people only eat in the most obvious restaurants downtown. Alumni also return to visit Clemson and are unaware of new restaurants that have recently opened or been renovated. Alumni and visitors are also interested in dining in restaurants that are unique to Clemson, not necessarily chains that they can find in their home towns. A website would be an ideal way to lead the consumer to the most appropriate restaurant for their dining occasion. Students are looking for economical, quick choices for their daily meals. An upscale restaurant may also be desired when students are going on dates or dining out with their relatives. This website would meet these needs by allowing students to navigate through our price range categories to find a restaurant that is delicious and appropriate for their occasion. Our rating system and reviews of the restaurants would also help students choose a restaurant that they know will be tasty, have great service, an enjoyable atmosphere, and appropriate formality for the occasion at hand.
In order to achieve our goal of helping the Clemson community become knowledgeable and aware of different restaurants, we have laid out a developed plan. First, we will begin by visiting each of the sixteen restaurants that we have selected to review in this project. These include: Goober's, Calhoun Corners, Sardi's, Pixie and Bill's, Paw's, Mac's, Monterrey's, Mellow Mushroom, Atami, Blue Heron, Friend's Cafe, Mainstreet Cafe, Seneca Family Restaurant, Ancheaux's, Tigertown Tavern, Copper River Grill. At the restaurants we will all order a different meal in order to get a good representation of the restaurant’s food. We will review each restaurant on the quality of food, wait time, service, etc. according to a pre-established rating system. We will choose a widely-used and accredited rating system before visiting the restaurants after much research. At the restaurant we will get a menu in order to scan and post on our website so that the audience has easy access to prices, location, and the type of food offered at each restaurant.
In addition to our own opinions, we will get reviews from others who have eaten at each restaurant. In order to have a variety of reviews, we will collect information from on-campus and off-campus students, faculty and staff, alumni, and visitors. We will ask those that we encounter at the restaurant. We will combine our reviews as well as the reviews of others in order to give each restaurant an overall review.
During this time of restaurant visiting, we will also be setting up the website to feature all of our gathered information. We will attend a website workshop at Clemson Computing and Information Technology (CCIT) in order to learn how to set one up and how to add different components to it so that it will be professional. We will have a home page that describes exactly what our purpose is, who we are, who our target audience is, and how we went about obtaining our findings. There will also be a table of contents. The restaurants will be organized into price ranges because we figure that this is the best way to technically organize the types of restaurants and the most useful way for the audience to navigate the page. We will divide the restaurants into low, medium, and upper price ranges. Each restaurant will have its own link and page. Each page will have a written review by the three of us as well as the combined calculated rating of our scores and the scores of others. The pages will also feature quotes from customers, a copy of the menu, and pictures in order to make the page visually attractive and interesting.
As we finish with the restaurant visits and continue to revise the website, we will also make a video highlighting the top five best-rated restaurants in order to incorporate a multimedia component. We will upload the videos onto the website for the audience to view. We will continue to revise the home page and each restaurant’s individual page until we are satisfied with the end product.
As Clemson University students, Brittany Jones, Brennan Palazola, and I are qualified to prepare this end product of a restaurant database website, which will help others choose a great restaurant. Brittany is a South Carolina resident and her parents regularly visit Clemson. Brennan is from Tennessee and has two siblings that attended Clemson. I am from Tennessee and both of my parents and grandparents are Clemson alumni. As three students with different backgrounds and experiences, we can rate the restaurants objectively as they best suit our experiences and needs. Also, as third-year students, we are familiar with restaurants that may be well-kept secrets and student favorites. We also know which restaurants are great for game days, special occasions, and everyday dining on a student’s budget. Also, we have lived on-campus and off-campus and know which restaurants are convenient for both living styles.
We are planning to visit and rate sixteen restaurants before the completion of this project. We have already visited one restaurant, and we are beginning to acquire menus and price lists. Our first step toward completion of our project will be to learn how to create a website by meeting with technicians at CCIT on Wednesday, October 1. We will have the website completely designed by October 16. Although we may not have dined in every restaurant at this point, we would like to have them all loaded on the website, with or without ratings. We will have all of our ratings completed by the end of October. We will spend the first week of November working on the multimedia aspect of our project. We will film, edit, and post videos from our top five restaurant picks. We would like to interview managers, customers, or employees if possible. We will spend the rest of November revising and tweaking our website to make it most convenient for users. Our project will be complete and refined by the final due date in early December.
In early December, the Clemson community will have a great resource to help with all of our dining out decisions. Due to a lack of awareness and knowledge, Clemson students, residents, and visitors often have difficulty in making the best decision when it comes to a restaurant choice. However, our website will guide them to the best option reducing stress and opening eyes to unknown eateries. As three Clemson residents, we understand our community and hope to broaden its culinary outlook. Once our website is complete, Clemson students, residents, and visitors will never have to fret over where to eat again because the ultimate guide to quality and choice of restaurants in the immediate area will just be a click away.
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