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| Community
Unfortunately, SCMA was holding leadership academy for me people who would like to work for 2016-2017 SCMA Executive Board. Students who were in the leadership academy, acted professionally and all dressed up. Most of the students gained some leadership experiences before, so that their speeches were organized and they were really confident about themselves. In public relations field, there are nine factors of effective persuasion. Audience analysis is one of them. Audience analysis is to analyze your targeting audience's age, gender, lifestyle, personal values, etc. Audience analysis can lead speakers to adjust their styles. So in this leadership academy, students did good job on using normal language to target their audience's needs. When they spoke in front of the public, they were really energetic and confident.
People may act differently in different contexts. The person who may not have enough confidence in normal time, but they have to overcome the fair of facing to the public and be confident and professional when they give a speech. Communications in real life can be casual and also can be professional. Different styles can be determined by the contexts.
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Sunday, February 28, 2016
Prompted Post #5 Observing Community: MSU SCMA
For this prompted post, I went to MSU SCMA (Supply Chain Management Association) to do some observation. I used to think about managing in Supply Chain Management instead of Finance, so I joined in SCMA in order to know about the major. Most of academic associations usually invite professional people who work in to filed to come and give students speeches. Also, they have their general meetings every week. Sometimes associations organizes special events for community members, like volunteering in Ice Skating, in order to build up some relationships in MSU community.
Open Post #5 Learning the language of our field
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| Learning Your Language |
Communications' style can be determined by the context. For the talk topic response assignment, I chose the TEDx video in the folder as my resource. It is important for people to know how to translate their professional ideas or opinions in normal language in order to let their targeting audience understand them. In TEDx website, this program is defined as "The TEDx Program is designed to help communities, organizations and individuals to spark conversation and connection through local TED-like experiences (TEDx Program)." Communication can be a powerful tool for people to build up connections with each other. People prefer to stay in their confer zone, so that we are more likely to make friends with the person who can really understand us.
In the video "How I Taught Myself to Code," the speaker Litha Soyizwapi explained every point he made in details and examples. He also used lots of visuals and figures to help audience understand him and make his points more supported. In normal life, body language or hand gestures can be consider as "visuals." When people can not understand what we are talking about, we can help them to understand better though body language or by showing images. Examples and explanations should be necessary and related to the topic. Unrelated explanation can mislead audience to the opposite direction that we want them to go with.
Works Cited
"TEDx Program." TED. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. <https://www.ted.com/about/programs-initiatives/tedx-program>
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Sunday, February 21, 2016
Prompted Post #4 Concidering Delivery and Sytyle
For this prompted post, I picked up one scholar article written by Michael, C. Jensen, who is from Harvard Business College; and a blog post about tax refund.
The title of the blog post is "3 tips to help you make the most of your tax refund." The content can be clearly seen just by looking at the title. In this post, the author used lots of "You." The style of the post is more likely having a conversation with the public. The language is very casual so that people can easily understand. The post is not very long comparing with the scholar article I found on Google Scholar. Every paragraph begins with topic sentences. The author does not write down every detail, instead, links followed after topic sentences. If readers are willing to know more details and information about IRS (Internal Revenue Service) or the tax refund program, they can go to these links and read through. This blog post is targeting variety of audiences who need help with their tax, like senior citizens or people who can only speak limited amount of English. The content of the post is easily to understand and instructions are easy to follow.
However, the style of the scholar article is totally different from the blog post. The author of this article who is from Harvard Business College, is a profession in finance field and has more authorities than the writer of the blog post. The person who wrote the blog post could be one of the employees in Internal Revenue Service, to sell their service by writing this post, so that the person is not really required to have professional knowledge. But "Agency Cost Of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers" is different. It is a research project to analyze the conflicts and problems with the financial system, which is much more professional and more convinced. It is 15-page long research paper with a good list of resources and in-text citations. Lots of footnotes have been used in the paper in order to make the article more detailed and accurate. Scholar articles are more aim to the group of professionals who work in their special fields, so that some of the terminology and concepts are not easy for the public to understand.
Works Cited
SIEMINSKI, DAVE. "3 Tips to Help You Make the Most of Your Tax Refund." Web log post. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. N.p., 18 Feb. 2016. Web. 21 Feb. 2016. <http://www.consumerfinance.gov/blog/>.Michael, C. Jensen. Agency Cost Of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers. Social Science Research Network. N.p., 25 Mar. 1999. Web. 21 Feb. 2016. <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Papers.cfm?abstract_id=99580##>.
Open Post #4 Women in Business
Nowadays, it's very normal for women to run for business. But before a few decades, women were identified as "Housewife." The TV show that I have been watching for a week makes me think about why women start involving in business and how they success in this field.
In the scholar article "Research on women business owners: Past trends, a new perspective and future directions," says "However, differences between male and female business owners have been found in educational and occupational background, and approaches to business creation ."(Brush, 1039) Women started to realize that they should be educated too. I personally agree that women should be independent, which means we should be able to earn money by ourselves. Education is a powerful tool that helps women succeed in their careers. Scientific studies show that women have stronger study skills than men do. Education is not good enough, moreover, women should have great communication skills and know how to work with men. Even people accept women can work like men, in some companies, bias still exist. In my generation, more and more women choose to get married at their early 30's or decide not to have a family. This may be due to the competition in the society. Some women give up the responsibility of being a mom in order to succeed in the competition among men.
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| Women In Business |
In the scholar article "Research on women business owners: Past trends, a new perspective and future directions," says "However, differences between male and female business owners have been found in educational and occupational background, and approaches to business creation ."(Brush, 1039) Women started to realize that they should be educated too. I personally agree that women should be independent, which means we should be able to earn money by ourselves. Education is a powerful tool that helps women succeed in their careers. Scientific studies show that women have stronger study skills than men do. Education is not good enough, moreover, women should have great communication skills and know how to work with men. Even people accept women can work like men, in some companies, bias still exist. In my generation, more and more women choose to get married at their early 30's or decide not to have a family. This may be due to the competition in the society. Some women give up the responsibility of being a mom in order to succeed in the competition among men.
Works Cited
Brush, Candida G. "Research on women business owners: Past trends, a new perspective and future directions." Small Business: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management (1992): 1038-70. (https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=eiJKwGspuQ0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1038&dq=reasons+of+women+success+in+business+&ots=230SBqgsRo&sig=xPXMow3TTkXlm9jdtQiEBE6B0Vs#v=onepage&q=reasons%20of%20women%20success%20in%20business&f=false)Sunday, February 14, 2016
Open Post #3 Talk like a professional
I will continue discussing the topic--communication for this open post. Some people think that Public Relations is an art, but some people say that PR is scientific. There is not an absolute definition for this subject. There are at least five different words to define what Public Relations is. For instance, PR can be called corporate communications, communications, community relations, marketing communications, etc. We can see that the word “communication” is in every different terms. We are doing daily communications among our friends, classmates, group members, etc. every day. But communications in our professional fields can be challenging and scientific methods may be required. In PR field, “listening formula” can be one of our examples.
The content of the formula is that “listen+
question+repeat+refine+question again.” This formula actually shows the process of how we start communicating and it can be a useful tool for us to communicate with the people in our professional fields. This formula just gives us a big frame and we need to change the content in this formula to target at our audiences. So that it is always important for writers and presenters to be clear about who they are talking to.
Communications can be challenging sometimes, but communication is like writing that we need to know how to target at the right audience so that we can present ourselves in our fields successfully.
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| Active Listening |
The content of the formula is that “listen+
question+repeat+refine+question again.” This formula actually shows the process of how we start communicating and it can be a useful tool for us to communicate with the people in our professional fields. This formula just gives us a big frame and we need to change the content in this formula to target at our audiences. So that it is always important for writers and presenters to be clear about who they are talking to.
Communications can be challenging sometimes, but communication is like writing that we need to know how to target at the right audience so that we can present ourselves in our fields successfully.
Prompted Post #3 Exploring Communication
Because I haven’t taken any course that is related to my major yet, I did interview with my economic professor for this prompted post. Mr. Ballard is the best professor I had in college and I had his class last semester. He did not use slides like most of the professors did and the way he taught was pretty straight forward. He really cares about his students and he wants his every student be succeed in this course.
I did this interview with him during his office hours. I only had fifteen minutes to talk with him because he had a meeting that he had to attend. He is a professional economist and there is no doubt that he majored in economy back in college. By observing the way he talked in class, I could tell that he really paid attention to the verbs, nouns, etc. he used and thought about his audience all the time. I asked him that “ It must be very important for economists to know how to present your ideas and understanding to your audience and have some advanced writing skills, right?” He didn't answer me right away, instead, he asked me about my major. “I’m majoring in finance,” I answered. And Mr. Ballard said to me “It doesn't matter which field you will work in, it is always challenging for everyone to see the same picture as you see by writing or expressing in words.” I agree with him and it it always important for writers to know who they are writing to. Professor Ballard told me that he always thinks about who he is targeting to when he is writing in order to make sure his audiences understand him easily. Writings in his professional field is more academic. Jargon will be used a lot in professional writings. Presentations, meetings, media interviews can also be the way how economists communicate and display their ideas.
Word choices and audiences are very important for writers to think about before they start writing. Writing can be challenging and hard for us to do, but writing is another way for us to communicate with each other.
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| Business Talking |
I did this interview with him during his office hours. I only had fifteen minutes to talk with him because he had a meeting that he had to attend. He is a professional economist and there is no doubt that he majored in economy back in college. By observing the way he talked in class, I could tell that he really paid attention to the verbs, nouns, etc. he used and thought about his audience all the time. I asked him that “ It must be very important for economists to know how to present your ideas and understanding to your audience and have some advanced writing skills, right?” He didn't answer me right away, instead, he asked me about my major. “I’m majoring in finance,” I answered. And Mr. Ballard said to me “It doesn't matter which field you will work in, it is always challenging for everyone to see the same picture as you see by writing or expressing in words.” I agree with him and it it always important for writers to know who they are writing to. Professor Ballard told me that he always thinks about who he is targeting to when he is writing in order to make sure his audiences understand him easily. Writings in his professional field is more academic. Jargon will be used a lot in professional writings. Presentations, meetings, media interviews can also be the way how economists communicate and display their ideas.
Word choices and audiences are very important for writers to think about before they start writing. Writing can be challenging and hard for us to do, but writing is another way for us to communicate with each other.
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Open post #2 Exploring the relationship between Public Relations and Business field
For this open post, I would like to focus on the relationship between public relations and business filed. It is important for business people to know how to communicate and coorperate with their business partners well. So I tried to use this post to explore more about communications in business and learned some communication skills from it. This is also the reason why I decide to take a PR class for this semester, in order to learn more about communications in pubic and problem solving. Professor Robert Kolt is the instructor for this course, who is PR professional and very experienced in this area. And he has his own PR company as well.
Commonly speaking, public relations are used in building up the trusted relations between companies and the public, or solving public conflicts. Technology and media can be involved in public relations. In the field of Finance, "Financial relations involves communicating not only with a company's stockholders, but also with the wider community of financial analysts and potential investors." Like I mentioned in last open post that attending meetings with clients is paper of financial analysts' job. Financial Analysts should be able to know how to engage themselves with the public in formal presentations or meetings, especially "Annual reports and stockholder meetings are the two most important public relations tools for maintaining good investor relations." So that some of the PR techniques will be used. "RACE" stands for research, action, communication and evaluation. RACE is an important concept for PR people. Financial analysts can start with the "R." Research can be done by different forms, For example, personal interview can be one of the methods to do research. Base on the information financial analysts get from the research, take some actions or make some plans. Then communicate with clients again to evaluate and test the plan financial analysts made.
The relationship between PR and business field, especially in the financial relations, some of the methods or techniques that being used in PR will be used in finance filed to help clients solve the problem and build up trusted relations with clients.
"Public Realions." Reference for Business. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2016.
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| Communicating With Co-workers |
Commonly speaking, public relations are used in building up the trusted relations between companies and the public, or solving public conflicts. Technology and media can be involved in public relations. In the field of Finance, "Financial relations involves communicating not only with a company's stockholders, but also with the wider community of financial analysts and potential investors." Like I mentioned in last open post that attending meetings with clients is paper of financial analysts' job. Financial Analysts should be able to know how to engage themselves with the public in formal presentations or meetings, especially "Annual reports and stockholder meetings are the two most important public relations tools for maintaining good investor relations." So that some of the PR techniques will be used. "RACE" stands for research, action, communication and evaluation. RACE is an important concept for PR people. Financial analysts can start with the "R." Research can be done by different forms, For example, personal interview can be one of the methods to do research. Base on the information financial analysts get from the research, take some actions or make some plans. Then communicate with clients again to evaluate and test the plan financial analysts made.
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| Public Relations |
The relationship between PR and business field, especially in the financial relations, some of the methods or techniques that being used in PR will be used in finance filed to help clients solve the problem and build up trusted relations with clients.
Works Citation
"Public Realions." Reference for Business. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2016.
Prompted post #2 Defining Ethics
Base on the information I searched online, there are no specific ethics in the field of finance. But an interesting concept, which is called "Mosaic Theory," was discussed on the website I found online.
"The mosaic theory states that analysts are free to use public, material and non-material information during the course of their professional research, and any conclusions they reach can be considered 'fair game'and can be attributed to their research and not to insider information." We all know that "mosaic" has been used a lot nowadays on social media, TV or even on pictures, to hide something from the public. In business, companies in order to sell their products or services can trick their customers by not telling the truth. For instance, we all had the experience of shopping online. Because we could not see the product in real, we preferred going through the comments made by the customers who had already bought the product before we actually decided to buy it or not. Comments are the only way for customers to evaluate products to make their purchase decisions when they shop online. So that some of the companies use their inside employees to write ideal comments about the product in order to make a lot of profit. But it will be win-win for companies and customers if companies are honest with their products and services.
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| Ethics in Finance |
"The mosaic theory states that analysts are free to use public, material and non-material information during the course of their professional research, and any conclusions they reach can be considered 'fair game'and can be attributed to their research and not to insider information." We all know that "mosaic" has been used a lot nowadays on social media, TV or even on pictures, to hide something from the public. In business, companies in order to sell their products or services can trick their customers by not telling the truth. For instance, we all had the experience of shopping online. Because we could not see the product in real, we preferred going through the comments made by the customers who had already bought the product before we actually decided to buy it or not. Comments are the only way for customers to evaluate products to make their purchase decisions when they shop online. So that some of the companies use their inside employees to write ideal comments about the product in order to make a lot of profit. But it will be win-win for companies and customers if companies are honest with their products and services.
Works Citation
"Standards and Ethics for Financial Professionals." Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2016. <http://www.investopedia.com/articles/financialcareers/09hey/professional-standards-ethics.asp>.
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