This semester, we covered diverse topics from punctuation and formatting to team building and getting a job. You learned how to produce letters, memos, and e-mail. What were your favorite topics? How have your skills and thinking changed? In short, what did you learn and how are you using it?
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Meet Dona,
Dona J. Young is a teacher, facilitator, and writing coach who believes that writing is a powerful learning tool that shapes our lives and careers. In addition to teaching professional writing online, she designs and facilitates corporate training programs on effective writing and communication.
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Good afternoon everyone,
My favorite topic was when we learned about how to write process messages. I never knew how to professionally write an email. I had always just wrote an email to friends and family and never needed to be professional. Since I will be entering the work place I will need to know how to professionally write to my boss, other staff members, and clients I may work with. I also enjoyed the chapter that discussed word that sounded the same but were spelled different and had different meanings. For example affect vs. effect and the difference between there, their, and they’re. I think that my writing skill have improved and become more professional. After graduating college I will not be using abbreviations such as ty or gtg in communication with the staff I work with. I will need to be more professional. I am currently emailing people to find jobs in the field of social work as well as agencies who are looking for employees. I now know how to email those individuals and sound like a professional.
Hope everyone had a great weekend,
Amber Kroncke
I actually really enjoyed taking this class. It was different that any other English or writing class I have taken. I know that pretty much everything I learned in this class, I will use in the future with my career. I really liked learning about all the different types of letters and business documents. I hope to be a hotel manager in the future, so knowing how to format and write different letters and documents will definitely come in handy. Not only did I learn how to write business documents, this class also helped me with my editing skills. Before this class, I really wasn’t big on editing because I just didn’t know how to improve my work. Now with everything I learned, I can say that my editing skills definitely improved and now I actually know how to edit. Like I said, I’m really glad I took this class and everything I learned, I will use in the future!
This class was the most practical writing class I have taken. It prepared me for the workplace and allowed me to review and gain skills that I will be needing in the near future!
I learned how to properly format a business document. I also learned that business writing should be clear and concise.
My favorite topic was the core values assignment. This assignment allowed me to look inward and give myself a self-assessment. It made me realize what I value most at this time in my life. It also helped me gain more insight as to who I am and what my personality is.
I also liked the section about different personalities in the workplace. I never thought about how many different personality combinations there are (introversion vs. extroversion, feeling vs. thinking, talking in person vs. talking through writing, etc.). Knowing this will help me in the workplace. I will now be more aware of my co-workers’ personality types. By placing people in positions that cater to their strengths, the workplace can run more efficiently and smoothly. It will also help me avoid placing people in positions that magnify their weaknesses. It was nice to read about the different personality types and compare them to my own. It helped me get a greater sense of self, which allowed me know my strengths/weaknesses.
My thinking changed about writing. I now know that writing does not have to be wordy, extensive, and drawn-out to be done well. Sometimes the best writing uses the few words. My goal now is to be as clear and concise as possible.
I hope everyone’s week is going well!
Cayley Dunn
Good afternoon everyone,
My favorite part of the semester was learning how to correctly write a process message. I feel this will be of great value to me in the future. It’s beneficial to know how to write one correctly now. The most challenging part of the course was APA style. I still struggle with the formatting. I think this course is very practical, and everyone will apply parts of this course in their careers. I use process messages pretty much daily now.
This class has been very helpful for me and I really enjoyed taking it. Although the class is coming to an end, I will still use what I have learned in the future. For example, writing process messages is not only good for this class. I will continue to write process messages when I am emailing someone.
My favorite topic was the Core Values assignment. It has taught me a little more about myself and where I want to be. It showed me what I thought was most important and what I need to focus on. While thinking about my core values, I realized that some of my values that are toward the bottom, should be closer to the top. Now that I was able to where my values were ranked, I am now able to change the way I think and behave if I want to focus on a certain value more.
My skills and thinking have changed a lot. Before taking this class, I always thought the more I wrote down, the better. In reality “less is more.” Throughout the semester I have kept that in the back of my mind and I will continue to keep it there for whenever I am writing. I have been using punctuation’s a lot better. For example, I did not know that I could use a colon after the salutation of a letter. I used to be confused on whether or not a sentence needed a comma. I am sure I continue to make some mistakes, but I am also improving as well. This class has taught me that no writing is perfect. Writing can always be improved with practice.
I hope everyone is having a great week!
All the best,
Breanna Davis
This class was very helpful. I gained new insights on many things. I learned how to do APA style, because this has been a struggle. The Core Values assignment was also helpful because it let me know that I am getting away from values that I stand by. Overall, this class was a good experience.
This class was very interesting. The mose challenging thing in this class was that APA Style. The most interesting thing I learned in this class was how to be a better professional writer. I will need these skills as I go on to further my career. Even as a entrepreneur, you still need to know how to write professionally.
Hi Everyone,
This class was very interesting to me, because I use to hate writing. I use to hate to see the feedback giving rather it was okay, or bad. After this class I grown to love writing, because I learned so much from writing letters, email, memos, and even giving feedback rather it’s negative or positive.
My favorite topic is letter writing, because I learned how to write a complaint, and denial letter to other people in a way that does not come off rude. Giving feedback was a great subject too, because it helped me to become a better person when responding to others, because I use to be very rude when giving feedback. I know that I need to improve more on my grammar, and punctuation, because my field will require a lot of writing.
I have to also say that the classmates dialog was very helpful. I love that everyone gave examples on assignments rather it related to real life or the book. Our feedback to one another was very helpful, and helped us to learn what we can do in the next writing assignment. The Professor feedback was always nice, and she always made sure we understood everything we needed to know. The first time I took an online class, and it ended up being a great class, and teaching me the things I would need to know going into the Probation field.
Wish everyone a great next semester, and Happy Holidays
J’Kia Blacknell Tatum
My favorite topics were cultural sensitivity and comma usage. Cultural sensitivity is something I need to be more aware of and more appreciative of. I feel as if that is something I need to be aware of throughout the rest of my life. Comma usage was something that I needed to work on. In my previous work I would tend to be comma happy and put those little guys everywhere. Through that specific chapter I learned the rules and how to properly use a comma which enhanced my sentence structure. The main thing I learned was formatting and all the different types of formats. I never paid attention to that, I would just use the default settings on Google Docs or Word and call it a day. That bad habit has now changed. My formatting is no where near perfect even at the end of this course, however I will continue to work and build off the knowledge I have from this class.
I am really sad this course is coming to an end, I have really enjoyed it! I wish you all the best not only next semester but also in your future endeavors.
Allison
Good evening everyone,
I really enjoyed this class and how relevant all the assignments were to what I will have to compose in the future. Before this class, I had never created my own resume or even knew what a real one looked like. I have many improvement to make on my own resume, but now I feel much more comfortable with the correct formatting. Learning how to create letters, memos, and e-mails was my favorite part of this course. I feel more prepared than other individuals who have no experience formatting these types of writing. The punctuation and grammar reviews were a nice refresher on skills that I had previously learned. Looking back, I am glad that I was required to provide my own examples in the forum postings because that helped with the learning process, instead of just reading the book examples. I now understand that writing is a continuous process and I need to keep adding new skills, practicing current skills, and refreshing older skills. I hope that I can continue to become a more confident writer.
I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend,
Amy Russell
Good Evening.
I was so nervous about taking this class. I have never been very proficient in writing, so I had very little confidence in myself. I learned so many new things from this class that I will carry on for the rest of my life. I feel as though my mindset and thinking about writing has improved and changed for the better. Some of the topics I learned the most from were formatting documents, editing, and producing clear and concise material. I had challenges with APA style, but also learned much from the chapter. One of my favorite things in the class was giving feedback and responding to my classmates’ forum posts. I am lacking in the area of giving feedback. I enjoyed practicing my new feedback skills with my team-mates. This area is one in which I have grown the most. I feel as though my writing has changed for the better and that I am set to write professionally once I get into my respective field. Nearly everything that I learned will be applied to my daily writing. The skills learned are ones that you will use often and need to produce daily. I hope that with all my new writing skills, I will be an asset for my current and future employers. Thank you Professor Young for honing my skills and teaching me new skills. I can now say that I am confident in my writing abilities and that I enjoy writing after taking this course.
All the Best,
Chanell
Hello everyone,
I truly enjoyed taken this class, it has improved my writing skills 100% and helped me grow as a writer. I will definitely be using this information in the future, and my book for a reference. Other than that, my favorite topics were writing the business letters and core values. I never knew how to properly write business letters until I took this English class. I did not think it really mattered on the format of them, but it does because companies look at that and it reflects on you as a person. I also really loved the core values assignment, because I got to open up and express my feelings. I never took the time to sit down and write about what I treasure. My favorite topics were writing the business letters and core values. I never knew how to properly write business letters until I took this English class. I did not think it really mattered on the format of them, but it truly does because companies look at that and it reflects on you as a person. I also really loved the core values assignment, because I got to open up and express my feelings. I never took the time to sit down and write about what I treasure.
My skills have improved drastically, especially my grammar and punctuation. I feel like I use less words than needed, like you said “Less is more”. I agree with that 100%, because no one wants to read unnecessary words. As far as my punctuation skills, it is improving every day. Also, I find myself writing more professionally especially when it comes to work. I did not think it mattered about writing a simple email to a co-worker until I took this class.
So thank you for being a wonderful professor and helping me improve my skills!
Everyone have a great week! 🙂
Kara Gonzalez