I completed the professional email segment in this
Communication module. More than anything
else, I wanted to see what issues HP has identified as the roadblocks to
effective email communication. As I was working through the exercises, it
occurred to me that this segment is definitely not designed for people with
advanced degrees or for people who entered the professional world before
emoticons, texting slang, and being overly familiar with business contacts was standard
procedure among many people who are trying to start out on a career path.
It just occurred to me –I’m a slow learner—that what we’re
actually supposed to do after this five week boot camp is develop a single
lesson using the information we’ve gained. I was all set to develop an entire
course with segments related to each of the modules I completed. Ha! As if I
could do that in the time between now and next week. So, what I think I am
going to do is focus on this email professionalism segment, because I have noticed
that many of my ATC students could use a little coaching.
I definitely take an email less seriously when the student writes a message without a single complete sentence. It is clear that they just started typing, said good enough, and clicked send without another thought.
ReplyDeleteI think you have a great idea, Brenda. One of my advisory committee members is an HR manager and she asked me to please teach people how to write e-mails and memos. Even their managers can't write a coherent e-mail, and they have a luxury resort property.
ReplyDeleteLet me throw in my two cents! Misspelling, slang, incomplete sentences, etc. have become a problem in digital communication. The current media code, (LMAO, LOL, etc) was prompted by a need to convey a message using abbreviated words/phrases. This style has quickly taken hold and is becoming more and more the rule rather than the exception. It is imperative that we impress on our students that emails, social media comments, and texting are all evaluated by the business community. An increasing number of employers, especially in the public safety field, are requiring access to the social media accounts of their potential employees.
ReplyDeleteI had this conversation last week in my class. I had several students think that by deleting the contents from their accounts they have, in essence, removed the data from existence. This led to a discussion on the old party-lines... but I digress. LOL