Critical Reflection

This semester in my Writing For Business english class at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, we were given an applied learning project.  We spent the majority of the semester building up to this project, learning about effective ways to communicate and collaborate in a business setting, how to conduct and evaluate research, and the best ways to prepare business reports.  Our project required us to work in groups with a local real estate company, Nest Realty Wilmington, to analyze their social media presence and prepare a report on our research based analysis as well as provide suggestions for improvement.

Before completing this project, I wrote an intention essay on what I intended to learn from this service learning project.  I listed strategies to collaborate with colleagues in an online environment, and the best strategies to use (and not use) when writing to an audience on social media as my main learning outcomes.  Consequently, they both relate to the two learning outcomes from our course syllabus that I found to be most applicable to our project:

• “Employ fundamental rhetorical principles to analyze the persuasive and communicative strategies of business writing in multiple contexts, using multiple genres.”
• “Learn strategies for collaborating with colleagues in online and culturally diverse environments”

I learned that a large portion of a company or individual’s online presence revolves around the rhetorical choices they make. This includes the way their posts are written as well as the images associated with them.  Rhetoric includes logos (logic), pathos (feelings), and ethos (ethics).  Our group used what we have learned about rhetorical appeals to audience to evaluate Nest’s online presence.  We found that they created a strong ethos with their “new breed of broker” motto, provided market reports that built logos, and did exceptionally well at creating a fun and inviting pathos. Once we interviewed our client and explored their online presence, we gained a better understanding of the types of rhetorical appeals they were trying to make to their audience and offered suggestions for improvement, which you can see in our Nest report.  

To collaborate with the other students in my group, we created a Google Doc page which allowed us to communicate, stay up to date on deadlines, and add to the report on our own time.  We also created a group text message, which allowed for constant communication throughout the project.  We worked effectively as a group because we began the project by identifying our team goals and assigning specific roles to each member.  I think everyone knowing what they were responsible for and what they were working toward contributed to the success of our group.

I plan to pursue a career in operations management, which entails a great deal of collaboration and communication with colleagues and suppliers along the supply chain.  I feel that working on this collaborative project in an online setting provided me with the practice and skills to contribute and communicate effectively in future professional projects.  Additionally the new skills and knowledge I have gained regarding fundamental rhetorical principles will help me create effective and persuasive business proposals. When it comes time for me to suggest solutions to problems or needs in my company’s supply chain, this will be especially useful.