Free Topic

The semester is starting to get busier than ever and I feel like I have so much stuff to do. My presentation is scheduled for tomorrow and my interview will be on Friday. I am not very shy about speaking in front of a group of people so I'm not too worried about the presentation. I also feel like I don't have to worry as much about the presentation because I am doing it on local waterfalls. I love to be outside and go hiking and camping and when a waterfall is involved the trip is so much better. There is just something about how the land forms like it does out of nowhere that is amazing to me. Waterfalls are found in the most unsuspecting places as well. Being able to go hiking on a warm day is always worth it but when you know there is a 50 foot waterfall at the end of your trek with a pool you can often swim in at the bottom the trip gets a little better and I seem to walk a little faster. My favorite waterfall that I have ever been to is probably Thompson Falls (Big Falls) in North Carolina. The hike was a long one that included literally sliding down the side of a very steep hill holding on to trees and whatever else I could grab to keep myself from sliding too fast then walking over huge boulders. Once the hike was over out of nowhere is this beautiful waterfall with a rock to slide on into the water at the bottom and a rock face on the side with enough room to jump off the into the pool of water at the bottom. My other favorite waterfall has to be Pulhapanzak in Honduras. Ive been able to walk underneath the sheets of water falling off this 140 foot waterfall on slippery rocks praying that the guides and other people with me would keep me from slipping and falling possibly to my death but all of this was such an adrenaline rush. After walking halfway under the falls we managed to go into a cave with a tiny opening but big enough for a about 10 people to fit into.

Cover letters

I don't agree with all of the advice, but most of it is worthwhile I believe. Even though they say that mass e-mailing doesn't do much good I still think that it may be worth it for some people because the more people you can get your resume and cover letters to the more prospective job offers you can potentially have. I feel that they made a good point of stating how you must be able to sell yourself and make yourself look like the best person for the job. I think that the "Best Use of a Cover Letter" section was the most useful because it provided a lot of helpful information.

I wasn't aware that it is seen as a turn off to write "to whom it may concern" and for the mock interview I will make sure that I have a specific name to put on the cover letter. The addition of P.S. at the end of the cover letter is also an interesting idea that will definitely make it stand out while showing off the best attributes. Using testimonials is also a great way to let your attributes show, but this way you are showing them what other people think not just things you are saying about yourself. I will try to include a testimonial in my cover letter.

Interview Articles

The first article I read was "A Crash Course in Interview Preparation." This was a good article about the basics. Reading it pointed out some things I already knew such as preparing ahead of time and wearing nice clothes. But it also pointed out some things I hadn't thought about such as having a neutral color umbrella and always writing with a pen. Having a Q and A session the night before with a friend or alone was good advice because this would make me feel better during the actual interview. It also talked about having your resume and portfolio organized and ready to show the interviewer.

The second article that I read was "Six Common Job-Interview Questions." This article provided a lot of good information on how to answer common interview questions. Some of these would be tough questions to answer without having practiced or thought out possible answers so having the advice from recruitment professionals on the best ways to tackle these questions is helpful. The one I found to be the most helpful was how to address your weaknesses. By pointing out how I have improved in the past I would be showing past weaknesses and how I was able to overcome them. The advice on how to answer the question about the ideal work environment was also very helpful.

Persuasive Writing

Persuasive speaking can be a hard thing to do, especially against an audience with the opposite views. The example of persuasive communication that I found on the Web to use was a statement from the Canadian Council for Refugees to the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights which can be found at the website http://www.web.net/~ngoun98/interchurch.htm. The purpose of the statement given to the committee was to persuade them to look at the rights of refugees in Canada. They are asking that they stop the injustice that the refugees are having to go through in Canada despite the Covenant of laws. All three examples of persuasive speaking that I have looked at have ethos, pathos, and logos, but to start off with all of the speakers have ethos due to the fact that they are all experts in their fields. Having ethos starts them off as being reputable authors. All three examples also used pathos in that they were appealing to the audience's emotions. The "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and the speech to the UN use more appeal to emotions than did the speakers in class. The letter uses pathos in the last paragraph of page three by writing about all of the hardships that African American's are enduring such as describing how children get upset and cry when they are told that they aren't allowed to go to a water park that was just advertised on television or you hear the news of one of your friends being lynched. This evokes strong emotions from readers. In the speech to the UN the speaker uses pathos to describe the refugees that aren't being given the opportunity to get an education because they don't have the proper paperwork from their home country or children born in Canada to refugee parents still can't get the universal health care that is written in their Covenant due to the status of their parents.
All three of the examples also had logos in them because they appeal to the audience's sense of logic. When MLK Jr. referred to the clergymen condemning the actions of MLK's followers as precipitating violence even though their acts are peaceful the same as "condemning Jesus because his unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion." The later of the two doesn't make sense so why should the former. The speech to the UN has logos by referring to all the parts of their Covenant that they are breaking by denying health care to the refugees along with not allowing them to pursue and education. The speakers in class had logos when they talked about how the Army gives people money to pay back student loans. This could be enticing to people that have a lot of debt. Overall all three of the examples have ethos, logos, and pathos, but I believe that the MLK Jr. letter was the best example, followed by the speech to the UN, then by the recruiters who came to class.