Advice to Eng 304 Students

My advice for future English 304 students with Angie would be to stay on top of your work. His class is very manageable, and the assignments are interesting but not too tasking. The work load is distributed equally throughout the semester, so as long as you complete assignments on time, there should be no build-up of work. The blog is a great tool which enables you as a student to express your ideas and opinions about a lot of aspects of the business world.

I benefited greatly from a lot of the activities and assignments in this class, particularly when we were required to create and then revise cover letters, resumes, and follow up letters. I suggest especially making the most out of those assignments, as I have already used the knowledge I gained from these in applying for internships. It will be invaluable to your professional life. Also, for the group assignments, I would definitely plan ahead for those as well. You do your biggest assignments with your group, so it is a good idea to meet in advance of deadlines, as your group will probably have very different schedules than you.

Lastly, the second life program that you meet through for class is very interesting and a really great foresight into the future of technology and perhaps business. I advise you to explore second life before your first class meeting in the program, as you probably have never seen anything like it. It is fairly easy to use, but it takes a little getting used to. Explore it and the different features and places it offers. A lot of it is really crazy!

Watergate Scandal

The Watergate scandal involved a series of political scandals during Richard Nixon’s presidency. It started with five men being arrested after breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate hotel complex in 1972. The scandal was traced to the top levels of the government, and the cover-up ultimately led to Nixon’s resignation. Investigations of this crime resulted in a reveal of other crimes and abuses by Nixon and his staff, including campaign fraud, political espionage, illegal break-ins, improper tax audits, illegal wiretapping, and a secret slush fund in Mexico. The investigation lasted two years. It finally came to a close after a taping was discovered of Nixon which proved he had obstructed justice and attempted to cover up the break-in.

This is one of the most notorious political scandals in U.S. history. Clearly, the actions of Nixon and his staff were highly unethical and illegal. In my opinion, history has proven that the more power someone has, the more likely they are to commit ethical lapse. The most serious ethical offenses seem to occur within the highest levels of the government and corporate world. It may be also, however, that these are just more known to the public because of their prestige. I tried to find documents from the Watergate scandal, but most of what I found was legal documents from after the scandal, and during the time of conviction.

Ethical Lapses

I found this article on ethical lapse in the workplace to be very interesting and also pertinent to my studies right now. I have completed two assessments of ethical cases for my accounting class this semester in which I had to analyze two situations that were violations of ethics and then suggest a course of action.

I believe there are many unethical situations that occur in the workplace, and not just in a corporate environment. I have witnessed several in the place that I used to work during the summer, a conference center where I was a server. I witnessed sexual harassment, theft, favoritism, and more. I did not address the situations, although I am a little ashamed to say, because they did not affect me personally or I did not view them serious enough to cause conflict. I do believe, however, that in a corporate environment these ethical issues become more serious.

When I start my career and enter the corporate world, I will definitely be aware of maintaining a sense of ethics in the office. If I were put in a situation where I felt as if I had to address an issue, I would try and confront the person creating the ethical problem directly first. Then, if the issue continued, I would address it with upper management.

These ethical issues can be small, but they can also amount to huge scandals, such as the notorious Enron scandals, to name one. What many employees might fear is that reporting an ethical problem could result in job loss or pay cut. These employees should be notified that their job is protected by SOX, an act passed to encourage good character in the workplace.

Web Writing vs. Paper Writing

Writing on the web and writing on paper have several stylistic differences and similarities. First, in both writing the writer should write concisely, because readers are always looking for useful information quickly. A reason that conciseness is important on the web and not necessarily for paper, however, is that prolonged reading from a computer screen can strain the reader’s eyes. Reading on the web is also 25% slower than reading on paper, which adds to the length of time. Both types of writing typically also require that you state the most important information first, and go into detail later in the piece. It is important in both types of writing to cite sources accurately.

When you write on the web, paragraphs should not be indented and instead separated into blocks of text. Writing on paper should be separated into indented paragraphs. Another difference is that web writing allows the creator to use links to other text or images, and writing on paper does not. Bulleted lists are also an effective tool to use in web writing because it puts important information into lists and easy to find. This is normally not recommended, however, for paper writing. Web writing often involves directional cues and key words to let the reader know where to look for certain information. Web writing is more informal than paper writing, and the writer can be more creative and get away with more because the reader is looking for something to catch his or her eye and needs to kind information quickly.

To submit a formally written document onto the web, there are a few things to remember. You must inform the site users if the web paper is abridged or different from the paper version. If the text or graphics are copywrited, the creator must obtain permission to publish that work online. It is also a good idea to observe the work on the web before posting it to check for errors. If the document is long, it is a good idea to provide a printable version option in case the web users wish to print it.