Blog Assignment #9

For my group project, my group has created a website promoting safety for students here on USM’s campus. Our website includes a lot of different information concerning safety. We have a section dedicated to safety tips for students to utilize. We also have a section that has contact information if a student has safety issues that they need addressed. I created a map of the campus that has shown the areas that are of safety issues due to the lightning on campus.
In our presentation, I think it is a must that we walk through our website. I think it is a good idea to lead the rest of the class through the website together. It will be important to explain what each section is and the different kinds of information that it contains. It will also be necessary for us to explain why we made the decisions that we did. For instance, why we made the background of our website the way we did. Explaining to the rest of the class the reasons why we made the decisions we did is going to be important in giving the presentation. I think our presentation needs to be very upbeat and attention grabbing. By visually going through our website, I think that will be good to show some of the different clips that we have on there. This will keep our audience’s attention more so than one of us just talking. I also think it may would be a good idea to give a few handouts to students on shocking safety statistics. We could also give handouts that have good safety tips for students to use. This will also help to draw our audience in. I think because we chose to do a website this will make it easier to have visual aids. I believe our presentation will go well.

Blog assignment #8

Editorial:
What does the phrase “locally grown” mean to you? For some it’s a phrase that’s thrown around into free-loving hippy connotations. But the truth is that one does not have to be an earthy bohemian to support local farmers. In fact, the whole community needs to be on the bandwagon. It’s America’s farmers who put the bread on the table for us. Most of us do not have the talent, patience, and will to make our own food. We depend on other people to do it for us. Therefore shouldn’t we be more appreciative for those who literally keep us alive? But supporting local farmers also allows for other benefits as well. Buying from local farms allows for less distance traveled to get to your home. This in turn decreases the amount of carbon emissions that releases into the atmosphere. By shopping locally, your also helping out the environment. That’s two birds with one stone. Why not shop locally? When you shop locally, you are actually knowing where your food comes from. You have access to all kinds of information that can be essential to your health like whether or not your food was treated with hormones or chemicals But if your still not convinced how this can really make a difference or what’s in it for you, how about a monetary incentive? By shopping locally you stimulate the economy which in turn means you get a bigger paycheck. Everybody wins. There is a website called Local Harvest. The link is :
http://www.localharvest.org/events.jsp. This is an excellent site that you can have access to all sorts of information regarding farming events and local farms in your area. There is a newsletter that gives recent information. There is even a blog that you can talk to other people about farming related issues. The bottom line is to get informed. Know who your local farmers are. Support them. Educate others. Do something.

Rhetorical Situation:
The reason I chose the topic of supporting local farmers is because it is something I care about. This wave of the green movement is pretty recent. Shopping locally and living greener has been a hot topic. This helped in deciding what my topic was going to be. I also gave consideration in my tone of my editorial. I wanted to write in a way that would grab the reader and to keep them engaged. I did not want to “bore” them. By asking questions throughout, I kept that connection between the reader and I. This drew them in and presented a greater chance of them being persuaded by my editorial to support local farmers. I think that this editorial may appear in a newspaper. I have seen similar editorials like this. The audience that I will be writing to is a wide range of audience. There will be people of all different backgrounds possibly reading this. This is why I addressed to stereotypic image that shopping locally has created. I wanted to address this so open up a broader range of people. I would hope that people would have a desire to learn more about the local farms around where they live. I would hope that at least people would become more interested even if they did not actually shop locally. The ultimate goal would be though to get people to buying locally home grown products. Not only for the betterment for local farms. But for the betterment for the community and environment.

Blog Assignment #7

The website I chose to evaluate for this blog assignment is the website for a garden center I work for. It is the Stepping Stone Rock and Garden Center. It is located in Hattiesburg. The link for the website is http://thesteppingstone.net
I like the web design of this site. It is very brightly colored. This is appropriate for the rhetorical situation. The bright colors remind me of brightly colored flowers. The Stepping Stone uses this as a strategy to make people think of flowers, which ultimately brings the hope of selling plants. Also all the major headings are at the top left. This makes it easy to navigate through the website. I like the fact that there are pictures of the different plants and pictures of the store. This makes me familiar with the store before actually going there. I also like how the store hours are posted on the left. This is very easy to find location.
The website, however, does have some downfalls. I would like to see more information about the store and what products we sell. Under the tab “Products”, there is also sections with information about the plants, stone, pottery, applications, and fountains. The page under each one just gives a short description. There is not a lot of detailed information given. For instance, I think that maybe there should be a plant list of exactly what plants we carry available. This may create more work to do this, but I think it will pay off. Customers want to know what we have. They often refer to the internet to see what stores have before they actually visit the store. I think having a product availability sheet will be beneficial to the store.
On the “Services” tab, there are sections with each of the kinds of services that the Stepping Stone offers: Irrigation, Landscape Design, Hardscape Installation, Rock Engraving, and Creative Containers. Each of these tabs just offer an overview of information. I think there should be more detailed information regarding these tabs. This could be accomplished by having pictures of past jobs that the store has done. Also I think there should be a approximate price list for each type of job done. That way customers will know exactly how much it will cost them. By having this kind of information, customers know what to expect and this is good for the growth of the business.
The “Contact us” tab is pretty good. It gives the location and number to reach the Stepping Stone. It is set up in an easy to read format. Under the “Garden Calender” section, it is actually blank. This suggests that it is not finished yet. I think having a garden calendar is a great idea if it were to be completed. Having a calendar that shows when to do certain garden activities is very useful in a garden business. It gives customers useful information. Under the “Home” tab, it gives a link that says “joomla web hosting.” This is pretty confusing and I am not sure what purpose this brings. I think these kind of things need to be cleaned up.
Overall the website looks good. I think more detailed information needs to be given though. Especially in the product line. Since this is a business that is directed at selling plants and services, more information needs to be addressed within these topics. I think by supplying the website with more informaition it will help in boosting sales. I also like the fact that they have a place where one can “like” their page as it links to facebook. This uses the idea of social networking and that is really important for a local business.

Blog assignment 6

 Our group project is to inform students about public saftey issues on campus. We are designing a website that is going to educate and notify students about the potential safety dangers on campus. In particular we will be emphasizing the lack of lightning on campus and how that causes safety dangers for students traveling on campus at night. Creating the website is the technical component of our project. It is also the bulk of our project as well. We will also be conducting a skit to put on the website as well. Our website will have information about ways to protect oneself if you are attacked or mugged. It will also provide information about recent crime activities on campus. We will also create a map that students can use to avoid traveling in non-lighted areas. The website will provide contact information for students to use if they have any questions or concerns that they would like addressed. There will be a petition for students to sign to advocate for more lighting on campus.

 My group has a lot of great ides. We have created a website, but now we have got to start adding things to it. We have researched some things to put on there. Now it is just a matter of doing it. We have met once outside of class, but the rest of our meetings have been in class. We are going to have to really put more effort in to getting it done. The majority of our time is going to be researching information and editing the website. I feel like we at least need to start meeting more often to really get the website done with. I estimate that we could get the website done within 5 hours after doing sufficient research. I hope that within the next week or so the majority of our website will be done. Then we can spend time making our skit.

 I think the majority of my groups’ issues are time conflicts. We can’t always all get together. This is all the more reason that each individual member is going to make sure to do their share of work. I think each of us should have different tasks. We can also add information to the website individually as we acquire new information. In this way, the website would easily be able to be completed in a timely manner. I know we may be some what behind schedule, however, I am not freaking out yet. I still know that we have time. As long as we start now to really dedicate ourselves to the project, we should be fine. There are some great ideas being tossed around so I know our project will be a success right in time.

blog assignment #5

            My career goals are to work for a botanic garden, plant nursery, or a nature center. I want to work somewhere with plants. The good thing about my career goals is that they are very attainable for me. It is also good because I am willing to travel and that increases my chances to land a job. One job that interests me is at the New York Botanical Garden as a botanical garden aide. A link to this job is http://www.nybg.org/employment/listing.php?id_employment_listings=895. This would be a great experience. Another job that interests me is at the Denver Botanical Gardens. A link to this job is http://www.botanicgardens.org/career/gardener-full-time-part-time. This is for a gardener position. Another job that interests me is actually a summer internship this summer. It is with Highlands Biological Station in Highlands, NC as a botanic garden assistant. The link to this job is http://www.wcu.edu/hbs/HBSPositions.htm. I have actually applied to this job already. I will be finding out soon whether I get this internship. Another internship that I have already applied for is at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont in Tennessee. The link for this is http://www.gsmit.org/jobsCitizenScienceIntern.html. This internship is for a citizen science internship. Another job I would be interested in is at the Chicago Botanic Garden as a Horticulture intern. The link is http://www.chicagobotanic.org/internship/hort1.php. In all of these jobs, they require to have experience working with plants and horticulture. They also require that I be in school or have already graduated.

            I have my Associates Degree in Horticulture. I do have experience in working with plants. I also am currently working for the Biology department here on campus in the Teaching Garden and in the greenhouse. I have had experience with other jobs in landscaping. So as far as experience I do have experience. I also have the education to back up my experience. Not only do I have my associate’s in horticulture, but I am about to finish my B.S. in Environmental Biology. I have chosen all my elective classes studying plants, such as Botany, Plant Ecology, and Plant Systematics. I feel I qualify for all that is required of me in these jobs.

            If I had to choose one of the jobs I would want to apply for or get, it would be the one in Highlands, NC at the Highlands Biological Station as a botanic garden assistant over the summer. I have actually already applied for this internship, and I have an interview on March 4^th which is next week. I want this job very badly. The reason I want this internship is because it is going to be great experience and a great opportunity to learn more about my field. Not to mention it is located within the Blue Ridge Mountains. I am hoping to move to the area once I graduate in December. Because it is a Biological Station, there are many different areas other than just botany. My job would entitle working in the botanic garden, but there could be possibilities of learning other topics. Getting this internship would give me the hands on experience that I am looking for and I believe this would look fantastic on my resume for my future career aspirations.

            If I had the opportunity to redo the resume that I had sent to this job, I would definitely have changed a lot of things. I would have redone my cover letter for sure. In my cover letter, I would have really expressed my enthusiasm more so than what I did. I would have tried to express how excited and how much I really wanted this opportunity. I would have also wrote about my personality more. Not just a repeat of what my resume stated. Just a few weeks ago, I had to turn my resume for my senior capstone class. If I could turn back the hands of time, I would have used the resume I turned in as my resume for this internship. I would have also reorganized my actual resume better. Organization needed to be improved in my education and experience section. However, what’s done is done in terms of this job. I just can only hope now. But now I know how to write one for the future.

blog assignment #4

If I had actually received an email like this I would have been upset. This was a very harsh email. Regardless if it was not Mr. Pyrzblo’s departments fault, he did not have to be so rude in his response. In revising this email the first thing I would do is not put the subject in all caps. The subject itself is screaming. “Incorrect payroll checks” sounds much better than “INCORRECT PAYROLL CHECKS”. The first sentence really sets the tone of the whole email. When he used the quotations around errors, he seemed to be very sarcastic. I feel this could have been left out. Instead he could have stated the first sentence like this: I have been analyzing the errors concerning the payroll checks in the computer files. This sounds very neutral and does not seem to lash out. In the first paragraph he pretty much does not hold back from saying that it is the other person’s fault. I think it would have been better if would have used different language to get his point across. He used the word “insinuated” and I feel this was a bad word to use. This comes across that he is completely innocent and that no blame is to be put on him whatsoever. I think he would have been more effective if he would have actually used evidence to make his claim. Simply saying that it is not his fault is not enough. I think he should have phrased it like this: After analyzing the computer files associated with 37 payroll checks, I have found that 35 of the  payroll checks have errors that have been made by the clerks. In this way he would be stating the truth without coming off too brash.

            He also goes into the fact the he does not have time to correct problems made by the clerks. I think he could have worded this better here too. For instance he could have stated: Due to time and money constraints my department is already facing, it is impossible for them to correct all of the errors that are sent to my department. I think this reads better. The last statement he made was not entirely bad. He could have said something to this effect: My department will work thoroughly to review and correct changes they see. However if your department would also be willing to thoroughly review their work before sending it to my department, I believe we would be able to solve the issues at hand. By working together we can overcome these mistakes for the betterment of the company.

            I think it is important when writing it is important to keep your tone in mind. In this email he did not do a good job. Ultimately he was trying to convince the other department that they needed to check their work more carefully. This may be true, but with the attitude that he presents he will not be able to win over anyone. So especially when you are asking something of someone or trying to persuade someone else, having a good tone is important.

Blog Assignment #3

My major is environmental biology. In order for my brochure to be effective, I need to think about my audience. My audience is undecided majors. This encompasses a large diverse culture. So in knowing this, I want my brochure to be enticing to diverse individuals. Most people may not realize all the different kinds of job opportunities for biology majors. Biology covers a very wide range of studies. My brochure needs to highlight the fact that biology is not a narrow job field. I want to create a fun brochure, not dull and boring. Even though biology is a science, I do not think that writing scientifically in a brochure to persuade undecided majors would be very effective. This is because the audience plays such a huge role in how we write. If I were to use scientific language in my brochure, I automatically alienate those readers who do not understand what I am writing. Thus the possibility of persuading those readers decrease.

             One example of a university biology department that seems to want to recruit students is the biology department at Missouri State University. Here is a link to their website: http://biology.missouristate.edu/. The one thing I like that they do here is use a light color. I like this because it creates a light atmosphere. It also uses pictures and images that stand out. This attracts readers more effectively. Another thing I like about this website is the fact that they have a question, “Why study biology at Missouri State?” This is followed by links that individuals can click on to learn more about the program. It appears that Missouri State is concerned about persuading students to their biology program. Now an example of a university that does not seem to effectively try to persuade students is Texas State University. Here is a link to their website: http://www.bio.txstate.edu/. I feel this website is just plain boring to look at. The text is not very enticing at all. The colors seem to not really flow well with one another. Nothing stands out. I do not want my brochure to have this affect.

            In writing my brochure, I want to attract first and foremost. This is going to be done by a couple of things. I want to use font that is a bold, large, and fun for a cover statement. This will grab attention. I also want to use pictures and images. I want my text to be simple and to the point. Since I only have about 10 seconds to grab a reader’s attention, I do not need to incorporate lengthy paragraphs or sentences. I want my audience to be engaged with me. I just want to briefly highlight what all biology students can do as a job in their major and what kinds of skills these jobs require one to have. Time is definitely a limiting factor. I can’t go into much detail of biology simply because of time. This affects what approach I take in writing this brochure. Because of the shortness of time and space, I have to decide the most important things I want readers to know about my major. By looking at the two different web pages I have learned that appearance is so important. I want my content to flow together. I do not want a dull brochure. I want one that is vibrant, fun, and exciting because these are the types of brochures that will persuade individuals more effectively.

Blog Assignment #2

I wrote a paper last semester for my plant ecology class. We had to write it on any article or research related to plant ecology. In this type of writing, I had to analyze and summarize the scientific research the author(s) had conducted. The research paper that I summarized was called “The Effects of Timber Harvest, Forest Fire, and Herbivores on Regeneration of Deciduous Trees in Boreal Pine-Dominated Forests”. I chose this research because I am interested in trees and the factors that affect tree growth and survival. This research was conducted and written by three people, Michael Herder, Jari Kouki, and Vesa Ruusila. These writers are very credible sources of this topic. Michael Herder and Jari Kouki are both faculty of forest sciences at the University of Joensuu in Finland. Jari Kouki is a researcher at the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute in Finland. This research was published in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research which is a very credible source of forest research. This a prestigious scientific journal. This journal publishes many scientific research experiments. It is a very rigorous task to get research to be published by this journal. The audiences that this publisher targets is mainly the scientific community.

            This research was conducted and written in Finland. These authors attempt to describe the many factors affecting the boreal forests known as the “taiga”. This is important because these forests span a large area of the world’s landmass. The main point of this paper is that the species composition of these forests are changing and it is important for us to understand potential causes for the changes. Some major issues that these authors bring to attention is the fact that species diversity will continue to decrease if we neglect the effects that these factors have on some of the pioneer species these forests contain. By understanding these factors, better conservation practices can be enforced and thus protecting these ecosystems. The call for these authors to write is for research and to share what they have found in their research. Each of these authors are experts on forest research. Since they all live in Finland, it would seem logical to conduct their research there, which also contains the largest forests in the world. They seem to have a concern for the current state that these forests are undergoing, and are also concerned for what the future may hold for these boreal forests. The actual research took 6 years to conduct. So the authors were not concerned with urgency, but more on quality. They realize that the topic at hand is slow process. However it is important, and by doing more long-term research will potentially aid in finding long-term answers.

I think the audience targeted is the scientific community, but in particular those who interact with these forests and who are working on conservation research. Maybe the authors would hope to spark interest and concern with those who work in these forests to come up with better conservation mechanisms. The tone of this paper is very scholarly. This adds to the credibility of the authors. I think the tone is important because it would be easy to say, “We need to conserve the boreal-pine forests”. However, by giving scientific data to support this thesis it gives this topic a more justifiable reason for conservation efforts. The authors use scientific wording, assuming that the readers are approaching this topic also from a scholarly viewpoint.

I believe the authors presented this research in a very clear manner. This research was scientifically written, but it was also easy to follow. In the past I have read research papers that were really hard to understand, but the authors in this paper did a great job of keeping my attention. I would have liked to read about more facts in general about the forests that they conducted their research on. I made an A on the summary that I wrote. But if I could have done it over, I would have also presented more generalized facts to grab the reader/audience attention in order to relate the topic more.

Blog Assignment #1

  My name is Erika Selman. I am 25 years old, and I am an Environmental Biology major here at Southern Miss. I currently work for the biology department as the gardener for the Biological Sciences Teaching Garden. I love plants and gardening, and I hope to one day work for a botanical garden or nature center. I enjoy the outdoors. I like to hike, go camping, and travel in my free time.

  To be honest, I have never really enjoyed writing. English has never been a favorite subject of mine. Although I do not particularly enjoy writing, it does play an important role in my field. Science is all about research. In doing research, writing is crucial. One academic document that I frequently do have to write is research papers. I take someone else’s research experiment that they have conducted, and I interpret and summarize into a paper. In my present employment circumstances, writing in my workplace is very rare. I basically just work with plants all day, and they can’t read! However I do sometimes make lists of what needs to be done. I also email my professor frequently, as well as text on the phone. Email is the most frequent way writing is incorporated into my workplace. I have engaged in writing in the public sphere. I have done this is a variety of ways. I recently posted an ad to sale some items. I work with children at my church, and I have made posters for their room. There are numerous other examples, each seem to have a different audience.  

   

  One type of writing I really find myself enjoying is writing music. I recently wrote my first song. I loved that experience. It was very liberating. One the contrary I do not like to write long research papers. I often find that when I am forced to write something that requires a set number of pages, I have trouble coming up with things to say. Sometimes I think writing “fails” as a way to communicate because you can’t tell just by words sometimes the true emotions that are behind the words. For instance, I have gotten into an argument with a friend over a text message and took what she wrote out of the context that she meant to send it. Sometimes it is hard to put feeling into words. This semester I hope to get my resume together and become better at writing workplace documents. That is really my ultimate goal.