While taking my Leadership and Communication course, the Professor challenged our abilities to effectively and persuasively present ideas. At the time of taking this course, many students lacked any real experience in this department. During the opening phase of the term, the Professor made sure to hit us hard with assignments that many students found unfamiliar. In this same early phase, I assume a large fraction of these same students were less than satisfied with the feedback that they had received towards their performances. However, this was all part our professor strategy. Through the feedback that he provided us and through the lessons and materials that he taught over the course of the term, he was able to expand our capabilities in this department. As a result, most students saw great improvements in their work during the later phases of the course. I was one of these students who had a rusty start, but then ended up leaving the course with a greater understanding of how to present my ideas both formally, and persuasively through a variety of different methods.
Early on in my Leadership and Communication course, I discovered that I had some difficulties in comprehending the business format of writing. My lack of any experience in this style of writing became pretty clear when I had received graded rough drafts of both my Memo and my Resume. In my original Memo, I had received a ‘y’ score, which was an indicator to go back to the drawing board. Not only was my idea not feasible for the assignment, but feedback also suggested that I had to improve on my business formatting and structure. The same could be said about my original Resume, where feedback stated that I was “out of focus with some of the main objectives” as well as lacked some of the proper formatting. I had received a V- on this draft out of possible V++.
I did demonstrate through my final draft of these assignments that my abilities in business style writing had advanced. Though, still not perfect at that point, my final grades and feedback indicated that I had demonstrated an improvement in effectively writing in formal-style as well as in making a more persuasive case. Though improved, I would still have to work at refining these abilities. I received a mid B on my Final Memo, and a V on the Resume. By observing some of my other works in the course, you can see a very similar pattern to that of my memo and resume.
When comparing the different feedback that I had received on the segment I completed on my teams’ Business Proposal. As a member of the CreativitO group, I was assigned to do the Situation Analysis segment for the rough draft of our business proposal. When feedback was presented for this rough draft, I observed that though my formatting had improved over that of my earlier Memo, I was still struggling with making my argument persuasive. Feedback suggested that I had to work on backing up claims with supported evidence to make my points more persuasive and meaningful. Although the final draft of our proposal was edited as a team, my segment remained relatively the same, but with the inclusion of greater evidence. The score that we received in our final draft was significantly higher than that of our original.
Although I had improved in my abilities to structure formal writing and present a more persuasive case by the end of the term, it was still hit or miss at that point. My cover letter for my resume, which was turned in later in the term, did a fairly poor job at making a persuasive case. I had failed to sway a solid case due to not having connected my own abilities with those desired from the employer. Judging by my lower score on the assignment, I would more than likely have failed in obtaining the interest of the employer.
Though this does departure away from the writing aspect, I was able to effectively and persuasively present ideas through my presentation performances in this course (aka speech). You can view the power-point to this presentation here. I never had the opportunity to speak during our first business proposal presentations, but I was able to perform during our final one in this same course. Though I had nothing to compare it to, feedback suggests that I was far more effective in presenting a solid and persuasive case in person than I was through my writing. My grade was very solid and the feedback that came with it was very positive. The only real flaw that was mentioned from the professor was that I should have left my notes at the table, for I would sometimes wave them when speaking. This is made all the more funnier when considering that I had accidentally grabbed a feedback form instead of my presentation notes. Feedback that I had received through classmates suggested that I did an excellent job at making a persuasive case and that I was exceptional at responding to questions professionally.
As I left this course I felt that although I had gained a great deal in terms of knowledge and experience, this course also made me realize that I still had much to learn. I must continue to apply efforts towards betting the attributes that I had mentioned above. More in particular, I will be focusing a lot of attention towards improving my ability to make a more persuasive case (and one that’s ‘focused’ on the topic at hand), through my writing abilities.