Spring 2009 Students:

How to make the most of English 304:
This class is client based and is great preparation for life in the "real world." I have learned many things that I am sure will be beneficial to me in the near future. When choosing your teams for the client based project, make sure you get with people who are hard workers and wish to succeed as much as you do. This is very important, because this is the group you stick with for majority of the semester. Maybe when you read this, you will be new to the "bogging" world like I was, but hopefully soon you will realize that it's pretty cool! You will also learn how to create a portfolio which will be helpful when searching for a job, because you will have all of your best work in one convenient place to be seen. Make sure to come to class, because the daily grades points do eventually add up to either hurt or help you in the long run. Also don't forget about your blog each week. This is a good chunk of your grade, so it is an easy A if you keep up! I hope you will find Angie as helpful and creative as I did, and you will for sure enjoy this class. Overall this class has been a very good experience for me, and I hope it will be for you as well!

Client Project

As the semester is coming quickly to an end, so is the client based project that we as an English 304 class were assigned. I feel like this project has been helpful in many different ways. First of all it gives us as students a chance to interact and work in teams on something that will eventually be helping our fellow students. My team has been the best thing about this project. We have all gotten along, and have done our seperate parts. We also work well together, and feed off of each others' ideas to improve the project for the client. Our biggest challenge has been the client actually. We know that they are extremely busy, just like us, but we have gotten very little feedback from them. On the whole, I think that our class can still pull of the renovation of the website, but it might be lacking in places where, if we had a little more information, it could have been better. I have definitely learned group communication is a key to sucess. Also, being able to work closely with your professor is also a plus, when you are dealing with a real client. Overall this has a been a very positive experience for me, and I am sure I will use the skills I acquire now, many times in the future.

Miscommunication

When I was in high school, I worked as a hostess at Carrabba's Italian Grill. Working in a restaurant is a fast paced job that requires a lot of communication. Hostessing may seem like a minor job in the restaurant industry but in reality it is not. I was in charge of running the seating "board" for the entire restaurant to run smoothly. One night when we were extremely busy, on an hour wait at least, my boss freaks out on my for not reason! I had been managing the board well all night, so I had no idea what the problem was. Of course we couldn't speak about it with all the guests around, so I followed him into the kitchen. Apparently, unknown to me, a party of 30 had called earlier in the week and made a reservation and they had just arrived anxious for their table. The whole restaurant was packed and everyone already had their estimated wait time. The reason for this miscommunication was that the new hostess had failed to write down the reservation when it got called in, so of course I got blamed! To make a long story short, I had to bump up every one's wait time, including the party of 30, which ended up getting 15% off of their meal because of the fiasco. Needless to say, this could have all been prevented if the new hostess had written the reservation down! It was a learning experience for her, and I bet she won't make that mistake again!

Mock Interview Reflection

This week I had the opportunity to practice a job interview with a real person, which was a huge help to me. I kind of knew what to expect going into the interview, but overall I was pleasantly surprised with myself. I felt like I was a confident interviewee and the interview flowed smoothly. I was actually not nervous at all which was a little surprising because I figured I would be. Maybe this was due to the fact that Angie was the interviewer, and I know she has nothing but constructive criticism to give me..instead of a possible rejection! If I could do the interview again, I would be more prepared in my questions for the prospective employer. This question threw me, because I was so focused on telling about myself that it was difficult to switch gears and ask about the company. Overall, I feel confident in my interviewing abilities, I need to fluff up/extend my resume a little before the next one and I think I will be fine. I am excited to know that the real world is just around the corner, and I am now one step closer to my dream job! (I hope..ha)

Free Topic

Hey everybody I saw something this weekend that I thought was hilarious and I wanted to share it with you. On Saturday night, Saturday Night Live did a skit from the last presidential debate that was in Nashville TN. The SNL cast did a great job of imitating not only Obama and McCain, but also the narrator of the debate Tom Brokaw. If you happened to see the debate last week then you will get a kick out of all of the punchlines. Even though it was only a joke I am curious to see if these jokes on the canidates will have any affect on the way people vote. If you missed SNL you can check out the video clip at:
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/update-thursday-debate-open/742065/

Powerpoint Presentations

I really enjoyed class this past week because of all the cool presentations. A few stood out to me more than others, but overall everyones was great. I really liked Barbara's PP on the Polish dance. It was cool to see how people from a different culture express themselves through dance. I also enjoyed the marble cake that went along with her presentation :-). Another powerpoint that I enjoyed and found amusing was Andy's on how to give a 5 minute presentation. I liked the use of his pictures and also how he took the assignment, and turned it into his own powerpoint! It was a good refresher on how to do a short presentation, and was also funny! My last but not least favorite was Kit's presentation on cheescake. Cheesecake is my favorite dessert of all time, and it was a great surprise getting it in class! I also think the receipe handout was a good idea, beacuse I definitely think it will be of use for me. Your cheescake was delicious Kit! These are just a few of the powerpoint presentations that I really enjoyed, but I thought everyone did a great job with creativity and presenting.

Free Topic

A current event that has hit close to home for many of us is the gas shortage. As of right now, I think that western NC and Georgia are a little worse off than SC, but overall the whole situation is not good. After the hurricane hit Texas a few of the major oil refineries were totally shut down, leading to this crisis. Yes, I am worried about running out of gas, but I am eveb more concerned with the victims of the hurricane. So I guess putting this in full perspective, as we are gas-deprived, there are many who are house-deprived. I have been trying to keep up with the news on this situation, but it seems to change everyday. As of now, AAA is reassuring the upstate that the situation is under control and that gas supply is on the rise. As of now, I think that everyone should just get what they need for the week, instead of refueling everyday just to keep it on the F. This will hopefully stretch our supply a little longer until the problem can be resolved.