Next Year's Students

I have thoroughly enjoyed having class with Ms. Rogers. The Second Life class setting is much different than your normal class. Meeting once a week for an hour leaves a lot of time for you to do other work or work for this class. Unlike a normal class, it is up to you to remind yourself to do your work every week. In my case, I had class on Monday nights and everything was due the following Sunday. If you don't write your assignments down, you can easily forget about them until the last minute. I learned a lot about business writing and it has really prepared me for my jump into the real world. I hope that you all enjoy this class as much as I did. Thanks Ms. Rogers. I had a great semester in your class. 

Ethics

Through my research about the Challenger disaster, I learned that the littlest thing can cause the biggest destruction. It took one little O-ring and the cold weather to destroy millions and millions of dollars worth of a NASA space craft and of course the seven lives of the crew members aboard. Every day people witness breaches in ethical judgment and say nothing. This is how small, almost insignificant things like an O-ring turn into a disaster. It really bothers me that this is happening more and more frequently. The easiest way to prevent this is to hire employees with good character. It starts with recruiting. Another way to help prevent this is a drop box of some kind. It would allow employees to anonymously inform management of any wrongdoings. I just hope that we can all learn from others mistakes and not let a problem in the future "snowball" into a huge issue. 

Response

It is very disturbing to hear that unethical practices are occurring  frequently in the work force. I feel as though there are several ways to prevent this from happening. The first one starts with human resources and selecting good employees. Another good alternative is setting up an anonymous dropbox for employees to write down  concerns or any questionable activities  going on in the workplace. Employees must bring up any questionable activities to someone higher up that can deal with the situation properly. If publicizing the action is necessary then it needs to be brought up to all employees in order to make sure that it does not happen again. Ethical disruptions can be very costly to any company. Managers need to make sure they catch any problems before they cause a major disaster like what happened to Enron or Worldcom. In order to make more money, some people will do anything. You can only hope that you have honest and responsible employees who will not partake in unethical practices or if see them occurring they will report them. 

Paper vs. Web

When comparing the two types of writing, it is important to discuss the similarities and differences between the two. The amount of writing on paper I have done in recent years has decreased greatly due to the use of computers. In my day to day activities, rarely do I ever find my-self writing anything of importance or great length on paper. School work, job related work, applications, and many other types of writing are more common on the web now than on paper. This one of the major differences between the two types of mediums. Fifteen years ago, almost all work, school, and personal writing was done on paper. Now, almost everyone in school or working has access to a computer. When comparing the use of the web vs. paper, the two areas have many similarities and differences as well. One way in which they are the same is that the information does not change. You can read the same newspaper article on a website as you can in the actual paper itself. However, the use of the web has made everything much more accessible from anywhere in the world. It also has made researching for past writings much easier with the use of search engines and other various tools. When transferring from one medium to the other, in this case paper to web, there are several things that are different. One is that with web writing you must keep your wording concise and to the point. Most people just skim through web articles and postings to get the most important information. However, when it comes to reading the paper most people have more time and read the articles thoroughly. 

Of course with any writing, the use of grammatically correct language, writing to a specific audience, and so on are very important in both mediums. 

Clemson Choke Artists

It seems at though here at Clemson University, we don't know how to win crucial games. In football this year, the whole University was pumped up to play Boston College at home for a chance to play in the Acc Championship. Of course we lose to Boston College and resort to the Chick Fila- Bowl where we lose. I am not saying that it was a good accomplishment but it was not fun being let down again. Then just a week ago, the Clemson Basketball team loses to Villanova in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament. The team works hard all year long, beats Duke in the Acc tournament and plays in the Championship game. Then after all this hard work, they lose to Villanova in the first round of the NCAA tournament and are eliminated. Now I have focussed my attention to the baseball team that has not disappointed me yet. They did lose to USC twice but that will be avenged later in the season. I hope that next year we can use our amazing recruiting class in football to propel us to the next level. I love Clemson and I love Clemson athletics but we kind of have a reputation of losing the big, crucial games every year and I would love for that streak to end. 

Why Lie?

After reading this article, I became disgusted. Over %50 percent of applicants have lied in one form or another. Granted that most of the lies are small and sometimes insignificant, this number was alarming to me. I feel like lying on your resume and getting caught could be devastating to the rest of your career or lack there of. You might be able to get away with it but then it could really hurt you down the road once you have been promoted several times and are regarded very highly within the company. I know that my resume is consistent and truthful and it was not that hard. I obviously could have embellished it in certain areas, but why do so? It could only hurt me in the long run. I hope that people seriously consider the downfall of lying before the next time they turn in a resume. It could damage any hope of a career or the one they currently have. 

Our Company

My team has decided to enter into the delivery business. We are not delivering pizzas or late night munchies, but rather full blown grocery lists. We have decided to try and open an online grocery delivery company. Second Life users could enter our store on Second Life, browse the store for groceries needed, and fill out an order form as they checkout. One day later, the food arrives on their doorstep ready to be consumed. One aspect of this operation we have not fully completed is the payment process. Should shoppers be required to pay before the food is delivered, or should they have the payment ready upon delivery? Also, should the use of linden dollars be used or make the payments come from real money transactions? These are two of the questions we have left before we really put our company idea into motion. I hope that this company will thrive in the future. With the amount of users on Second Life, and the numbers growing everyday, I do not see any reason why this company would not succeed.