This semester, we covered diverse topics from punctuation and formatting to team building and getting a job. You learned how to produce letters, memos, and e-mail. What were your favorite topics? How have your skills and thinking changed? In short, what did you learn and how are you using it?
Simplifying writing for businesses and colleges since 1990
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Meet Dona,
Dona J. Young is a teacher, facilitator, and writing coach who believes that writing is a powerful learning tool that shapes our lives and careers. In addition to teaching professional writing online, she designs and facilitates corporate training programs on effective writing and communication.
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Hello Professor Young,
I learned a lot from this class. I was able to incorporate everything I learned into my job. My favorite topics for this class were office communications, cultural sensitivity, and teamwork and conflict resolution. I was able to learn a lot and relate a lot of the information to my everyday work. The way I send emails has changed in a drastic way. I’m even receiving good feedback from my boss about how to relay information in a short and concise to other employees. I learned that keeping your emails short and getting straight to the point is good and more effective. Before, my emails would be very wordy and long and lack direction. Another thing I learned in this class was cultural sensitivity. I’m in International Banking and deal with a lot of different cultures. Making sure I know about other cultures can help me deal with differences that could potentially occur. As mentioned in the book, I’ve been trying to “treat others as they would like to be treated” based on the platinum rule. This was a great class to take and I highly recommend it to other students, especially students who will be working in the business world. Having great communication and writing skills is key to being successful in the business world.
Best Regards,
Guillermo Villagrana
Professor Young,
The resume building was my favorite topic. I was able to get advice from you on how to make my resume more attractive. While reading the book and discussing other people’s opinions I now know what to put and what not to put on my resume. My skills and thinking have changed because I now realize how important writing is. I used to think it was easy and no big deal. Now after seeing how easy it is to make a mistake I know that I need to slow down and pay attention in what I am doing. I have learned that listening to other people’s advice is key. Someone else reading your paper is a fresh pair of eyes. I can read my own paper six times and still not catch some mistakes. When someone else reads it I really need to take into consideration and appreciate the advice they are giving me.
Best,
Tayler Miley
Hello,
The diverse topics from this semester from Professor Young’s professional writing class I have obtained many more skills, and have brushed up on old ones. The writing assignments such as e-mails, memos, and letters have properly prepared me to be successful in the professional world. The books provided for this course give step by step guidance for any writing you could imagine. I benefited from all the writing assignments, but the topics that interested me the most were persuasive communication, conciseness and word usage and also culture sensitivity. In your career, you will have to persuade management to hire you so this assignment was very useful and will help me get a job after my schooling is finished. Conciseness and word usage I believe is really important because if your inconsistent with your writing, or don’t use the correct words that could be what stopped you from being hired. You always want to be appealing with your writing, and give whomever a acceptable reason to hire. Also, this world is very diverse, you never know what could offend a patient, doctor, or guest by something you didn’t intentionally mean to say. This section provides details on what to be conscious of and be neutral with your writing or speaking.
My skills and thinking have most definitely benefited from this course. My skills were rejuvenated and modified to apply towards professionalism. I will continue to use my books provided, and use them for future references because they really have helped me become a better writer and speaker. The formatting steps for every chapter and section really just go over the top on how to correctly complete a professional writing task. Everyone in this world should be required to take this class, Its very beneficial and would lead to a more professional acting world.
All the best,
Brianne Robertson
Hello Everyone,
This semester we covered a lot of different topics that will be useful in our careers. I remember receiving messages from Professor Young stating that we have write a resume. memo & etc. I would wonder to myself that there is no point in doing these different writing assignments. I noticed that as we began to go through the semester that it was all for a reason. I think that my favorite writing piece was the Denial Letter because I really had to think like a manager. I also liked the reading assignments that we were responsible for like for example apa formatting, punctuation, and even verbs and pronouns. The assigned textbooks that we had did a great in breaking down examples for each. There is something else that I would to point that made this class successful for me is Professor Young. The constructive feedback that she gives her students allowed me to be a better writer. I really noticed a big difference in my writing from the beginning of this course and now. I can definitely say that my skills and my way of thinking has changed and I am truly proud of myself. I learned so much just within these 16 weeks that will benefit me in career field. I learned to control my run-on sentences, my punctuation, even how to use the right formatting for different writing pieces. I learned how to write a very professional and effective email , which I had no clue how to do before I start this course. I would highly recommend anyone that is required to take ENG W 231 please take it with Professor Young you won’t regret it !
All the best,
Shandisha Darey
Hello Everyone,
This semester we covered a lot of different topics that will be useful in our careers. I remember receiving messages from Professor Young stating that we have write a resume. memo & etc. I would wonder to myself that there is no point in doing these different writing assignments. I noticed that as we began to go through the semester that it was all for a reason. I think that my favorite writing piece was the Denial Letter because I really had to think like a manager. I also liked the reading assignments that we were responsible for like for example apa formatting, punctuation, and even verbs and pronouns. The assigned textbooks that we had did a great in breaking down examples for each. There is something else that I would to point that made this class successful for me is Professor Young. The constructive feedback that she gives her students allowed me to be a better writer. I really noticed a big difference in my writing from the beginning of this course and now. I can definitely say that my skills and my way of thinking has changed and I am truly proud of myself. I learned so much just within these 16 weeks that will benefit me in career field. I learned to control my run-on sentences, my punctuation , even how to use the right formatting for different writing pieces. I learned how to write a very professional and effective email , which I had no clue how to do before I start this course. I would highly recommend anyone that is required to take ENG W 231 please take it with Professor Young you won’t regret it !
All the best,
Shandisha Darey
Hello Ms. Young and fellow classmates,
This semester has been a challenging semester for me. The thing that made it the hardest was biology. I do like writing and I know writing correctly is important part of making oneself look competent. I think that once things slow a little bit, I want to review some of the things we have learned this semester. I have wanted to be able to publish a book. I have enjoyed being able to express myself in this class. My writing skills have improved and I feel more competent than at the start of the semester. I am a work in progress; the journey is better than the arrival. There will always be a new goal.
Best of wishes,
Barbara McEachern
Hi everyone,
I have learned a significant amount of information about editing and professional writing over my time in this course. My favorite topics were about group work and leadership. In other classes, we worked in learning teams all semester and I was appointed “team leader,” so I was really able to apply what I learned. It was very interesting learning about what specific features of groups make them effective. I also liked that we learned about what to do if conflict comes up in a group. Finally, I liked learning about different types of leaders and when each type of leader was appropriate for certain situations. My skills and thinking have changed a lot because I now think about business writing and school assignments in terms of professionalism. I think about what the best responses to certain things based on what we have learned about communication. I have used most everything that we have learned this semester whether it was used in assignments, letters, or emails.
Best,
Shaina Daniels
Hello Class,
My favorite topics this semester dealt with getting a job and preparing professional documents that can be used in the workplace. The application of these documents to getting or maintaining a job in real life made this class very rewarding for me, and allowed me to get the most out of the learning experience. I also believe that my skills have improved over the course of the semester, as well as learning the true value of proofreading and editing. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Young for always being readily available to answer any questions or concerns I had this semester. I wish you all the best on your future endeavors.
Best Regards,
Lance J. Pisowicz
Hello Professor Young,
I learned so much information during this course. I absolutely enjoyed each moment. My favorite topic was learning the differences between memos and emails in the work place. I use much of that in my job and it comes in handy. You have to be careful how you address to your staff because your tone is key. In order to be a leader in the workplace, you have to respect your coworkers and give them motivation. My skills have changed in the workplace due to learning the appropriate way to address my staff members.
Best Regards,
Jazmin Prieto
Hi Professor Young,
My favorite topics this semester has been: email, the paragraphs section, and style and tone. My skills and thinking has changed by taking the feedback I have received. I applied it with my last paper of the semester with paragraphs and my style and tone. Email is something that is not going away and is used now more than ever. This class was rough at first for me but, with each week I could see the improvement. I am not done yet with improving my writing and will always go back to these lessons in the future for guidance.
Enjoy your break,
Demario Hathorne
Hi Everyone,
My favorite topics that we covered in this course were the ones dealing with producing our own business documents, such as e-mails, memos, letters, etc. It was nice to be able to practice editing and formatting these documents because I have not had a lot of exposure to them in the past. I also think the practice we did with them is very applicable to our future professional lives. There is a great chance we will have to produce one of these documents in a professional setting one day and now we know how to approach the tone and format of the document.
The biggest skill I took away from this course was word usage and conciseness. I have a habit of getting a little lengthy and wordy with my paragraphs and a lot of the exercises we did brought this to my attention. It is now in my conscious mind that the more concise a document is, the better off the document will be. This is something I will continue to be mindful of, further enhancing my writing skills.
Best,
Kaitlyn Gilbert
Hi Professor Young,
I learned a lot in this writing class. I was able to take for what I learned in this class and use it for my other classes. I learned how to communicate better on my job and how to send a memo I know it may not be a lot to some but for me to know how to send something as simple as a memo was a great accomplishment for me. I also learned how important it is to be overly friendly with your boss just because you think you can. I had to catch myself one day being overly friendly and speaking to my supervisor like she was really my friend. I have learned so much from this class and I will continue reading and practicing my writing to become more of a professional. I know having good communication and writing skills are a must have in the field of social work and it can make and break you.
All the best,
Irene
Hello everyone,
I have learned a tremendous a lot of valuable information this semester. I honestly wish I could’ve taken this class way earlier in my college career. I feel this way, because it has definitely would’ve helped me when I struggled writing papers. I have learned how to effectively write resumes and business letters. I feel this is necessary information to know, because it will be encountered in our professional careers.
I learned to keep information simple and concise, because if there is too much information the reader can become lost. It is better to have accurate information, rather than just to continuously rumbling on. I struggled with this before this class, but know now how to address my audience. This information is important to know for business letters.
I enjoyed learning about APA writing style, because I know it will be used when I enter my college program. There should be two spaces after a period in an APA paper. The paper should be double spaced with Times New Roman font, size 12. I knew nothing about APA before this class, I always used MLA.
One of my favorite assignments was an assignment that we interviewed someone that was in our desired professional career we want to enter. I found this really beneficial, because it gave us insight to what we can look forward in our careers. This was also very helpful to show how to be professional when asking questions, and even how the question should be answered.
Overall, this class has taught me a lot and I will continue to learn information with the help of Professor Young’s books. I think this class has been the most beneficial I have taken in college so far, because of the important lessons I will use in college and in my professional career. I will carry the information I have learned for years to come and even can help me continue to learn. The feedback Professor Young provides help to determine your errors and how to fix them. Great class for building my communication and professional skills.
All the best,
Dana Grimes
Hello Professor Young,
We have covered so many different topics this semester, some just being a refresher and some tips I have not learned. A lot of these skills will be and are right now useful as far as my job and future career. My favorite part of the class was being able to improve my resume as well as improve my punctuations.
Taking a writing class such as this returned my confidents when it comes to writing and it now I am even more knowledgeable about composing and editing my writing. as far as the e-mails, letter and memos I use those a lot at my job right now so having the chance to better improve in those areas was great it looks a lot more professional.
One way I think I have changed as far as my writing is that I have had the chance to expand my knowledge and sort of get a refresher, when it comes to grammar. With todays technology it’s easy to forget proper grammar and writing skills. Of course I will not stop trying to import my writing. So something I really want to work on is that, I know I have a creative mind but putting all those ideas on paper and organizing and detailing them so everyone else can understand me is something I still want to work on.
All the Best,
Dajana Pavic
Hi Professor Young,
I learned a lot about office communications in this course. This course has taught me different office communication skills like ways to compose e-mails, Memos and business letters. This course has also taught me conflict resolution and how I can use conflict resolution skills to defuse difficult situations. I believe that what i have learned in this course will help me in my future career choice and life in general. The skills that I have learned are already benefiting me on my current job. I have to communication with a lot of my co-workers and supervisors orally and written. This course has also aided me in making my writing look more professional. I think my skills have changed a lot for the better, I hope that my writing skills continue to grow now and in the future. I enjoyed this course very much and I would recommended this course to anyone who would be interested in improve their writing skills.
Best regards,
Johnny Neely
Hello Mrs. Young,
I learned a lot this past semester, and particularly in this class. The one section that I enjoyed the most was tone and how we should present ourselves both on my paper or in person. I work retail on a sales floor, so picking up on a few new things such as diversity, proper length when speaking to someone, and tone was something I could adjust at work. But not only that, I’d like to mention my editing on the resume and cover letter has been a huge success. As you mentioned when I submitted it too you earlier this semester, it needed a lot of fixing and tuning. Well now, with a complete new structure too the resume, I managed too get a new job. And not to mention, the job I applied for required a cover letter. The employer mentioned too me that the letter was spot on and they enjoyed reading it! So the writing skills that I have acquired this semester have been beneficial in many ways.
Best Regards,
Ty Grissom
Hello Professor Young,
I have really enjoyed this course. I can say that I have learned a lot. I like when we learned how to write using the “you” point of view. I agree that it helps to write this way. I also liked when we learned about tone. I think that making sure to use the proper tone is an excellent tool to have. Using the correct tone when writing or speaking to someone can help build long term relationship with people. You wouldn’t want to come across as being a rude a nasty person simply because the tone that you spoke with at the time came off that way.
Again, I really enjoyed this course. It was an honor to have you for my professor. You have taught me so much. I wish you continued success.
All the best,
Jackie McElroy
Hello Professor Young,
I want to start by saying what an honor it was for me to be a part of your class and learning methods. I actually learned a lot throughout this semester and throughout this course that it is kind of difficult for me to even narrow it down to one thing I learned, but I will break it down into my two favorite topics. First off the “Getting a Job” chapter had to be my favorite learning process because not only did we learn how to get a job but all the basics that come before that such as preparing your resume or cover letter which coming into this class I had no clue how to do. I now know how to professionally write a resume and cover letter without having any mistakes which I know will help me in the near future. In this chapter we also learned how to conduct ourselves in a professional matter during an interview and what to expect in such situations. After learning those little things I have the up most confidence in my next job search.
Secondly, I learned how to write better. I can see it now that I have grown as a writer and my skills have increased since the beginning of the class until now because coming into this class I wasn’t too good but now I can see that I learned a lot and actually use a lot of your writing methods in my writing which is cool because it gave me a little insight on where to start. All in all this was probably one of my favorite online classes because I actually learned a lot of useful information that I know I will never forget and forever use as I grow.
Best Regards,
Mahmoud Shuaibi
P.S. Thank you for all of your help and guidance; I appreciate it greatly.
Hello Everyone,
I have learned how to properly use commas in a sentence. I am no longer throwing random commas where they do not belong. I have also learned how to properly format business letters. I always found it difficult to properly format a business letter. I never understood the proper use of white space. This class helped me understand the proper format and amount of spacing between paragraphs. While formatting business letter I am now conscious of using a colon instead of a comma after the greeting.
My skills have improved greatly throughout the course of this class. I really appreciate all the help and feedback from Professor Young and fellow classmates. I no longer struggle sending memos or faxes at work. My favorite topics were the chapters reviewing how to properly format documents and the leadership chapter.
My thinking has changed, because my confidence in my writing is improving.
Best regards,
Katie Miller
Hello,
Over the semester I have learned a lot. My favorite part of the course was when to use commas, semicolons, dashes, and ellipses. I have always been bad at grammar but this course helped me out a lot. There are many different times you would use a semicolon instead of a comma. The examples in the book helped a lot, when to use the proper punctuation. Also, how to properly format business letters, and when to use best regards, over sincerely. Culture sensitivity is key when in business. It is better to know the background of the person you are dealing with, so you don’t offend them.
The feedback the professor has given me over the course was very good. It helped me understand what I did wrong and how to fixed it. I struggle a bit with wording of the memos, letter, etc. I can fix that by having multiple people proofread it and help me change things, if needed.
Best Regards,
Kristen Steliga
Hello,
This semester, I learned a great amount about a variety of topics. Through each weeks’ assignments, my confidence in my writing ability grew. This class helped to clear up many questions I had about grammar usage. I now have a much better understanding of comma and punctuation rules, also. It was most beneficial to learn about formatting business letters; I learned from my errors and assignment corrections. The forums helped me rediscover my love for writing. I thoroughly enjoyed this class and highly recommend it for those seeking a step-up in the business world.
Thank you, Professor Young, forbetter preparing me for my professional career.
Best Regards,
Nicole
*Nicole Skopelja
Hello Everyone,
This semester was full of diverse skills of formatting and punctuation. This all will be beneficial in my future career and I plan on using these skills continuously. We all covered the resumes, letters, emails, and memos and I never heard of half of them. Before this class, I have never thought to ever know how to construct denial letters, memos, or even how to punctuate correctly. After taking this class, I have gained a new perspective that is more formal and manager like. My favorite was constructing letters. For example, denial,thank you, and rejection letters were all my favorite. These really made you think on how to word correctly. I have always thought salutations were followed by commas and learned that they were actually followed by a colon when writing letters. I was also surprised on the formatting and how the spacing should look on a letter. I have been making letters wrong all my life. I am truly grateful for a class like this to make my writing more professional. I have always thought my writing was weak, but taking this class makes me more confident. My thinking towards writing is more professional and confident. I can’t wait to keep applying these skills throughout my professional career. Everyone should get a chance to take this class!
All the best,
Stefanija Gligoroska
Hello Everyone,
This semester was full of diverse skills of formatting and punctuation. This all will be beneficial in my future career and I plan on using these skills continuously. We all covered the resumes, letters, emails, and memos and I never heard of half of them. Before this class, I have never thought to ever know how to construct denial letters, memos, or even how to punctuate correctly. After taking this class, I have gained a new perspective that is more formal and manager like. My favorite was constructing letters. For example, denial,thank you, and rejection letters were all my favorite. These really made you think on how to word correctly. I have always thought salutations were followed by commas and learned that they were actually followed by a colon when writing letters. I was also surprised on the formatting and how the spacing should look on a letter. I have been making letters wrong all my life. I am truly grateful for a class like this to make my writing more professional. I have always thought my writing was weak, but taking this class makes me more confident. My thinking towards writing is more professional and confident. I can’t wait to keep applying these skills throughout my professional career. Everyone should get a chance to take this class!
All the best,
Stefanija Gligoroska
Hello Everyone,
For this final forum, I’d like to thank Professor Young for providing very practical and useful information that I will actually be able to apply to real-world situations for my professional career. In Professor Young’s Bio it states that she “believes that writing is a powerful learning tool that shapes our lives and careers” and this is so true.
I learned so much more than I originally had expected from the proper form of writing a resume to proper templates of business writing. I learned that I really needed to break my writing down to the basics, actually thinking about what I want to write, how I want to write, and how I want to plan for what I’m about to write.
I was indeed dreading taking an advanced writing course my senior year at IUN as I had done my fair share of tedious writing and felt I never wanted to write a single paper again. However, I’m truly glad that I did and I wished I had taken this course sooner. I plan to continue working on my writing just because I know that I can do better now.
Best of wishes to you all,
Thaddeus Bilski
Hello Everyone,
For this final forum, I’d like to thank Professor Young for providing very practical and useful information that I will actually be able to apply to real-world situations for my professional career. In Professor Young’s Bio it states that she “believes that writing is a powerful learning tool that shapes our lives and careers” and this is so true.
I learned so much more than I originally had expected from the proper form of writing a resume to proper templates of business writing. I learned that I really needed to break my writing down to the basics, actually thinking about what I want to write, how I want to write, and how I want to plan for what I’m about to write.
I was indeed dreading taking an advanced writing course my senior year at IUN as I had done my fair share of tedious writing and felt I never wanted to write a single paper again. However, I’m truly glad that I did and I wished I had taken this course sooner. I plan to continue working on my writing just because I know that I can do better now.
Best of wishes to you all,
Thaddeus Bilski
Hello Professor Young,
This has been the most intriguing class that I have taken since returning to school. There were times when the assignments for the professional writing class, along with assignments from my other classes, were overwhelming. However, I did not drop the class because I felt that this was a class that should be required for all majors. To go further, I believe this class should be a prerequisite for other classes. If I had taken this professional writing class prior to taking some other classes, I am confident that I would have had a better interpretation of professional writing.
Professor Young, I would like to say that there are many individuals who identify with a particular topic. However, many are not proficient to teach. I applaud you for your dedication and proficiency to teach the Professional Writing Class.
My writing skills have improved tremendously. Better understanding of formatting, sentence structure, word usage and punctuation, has afforded me the knowledge to be able to write a professional letter. I also learned that editing should be done after a document has been completed rather than during the process of writing. Some of the other skills that I learned about were how to write a business letter, memos, and how to write emails.
The most important topic that I learned in this class is how to produce a cover letter and a resume. I confident that a prospective employer will look at my cover letter more favorably and will be anxious to see what my resume portrays. Prior to taking this class, I did not realized that a cover letter matter Another important skill that I learned is that the best way to be assured that a paper is sufficient, is to print the paper and proofread it. The task that I have had the most difficulty in was citations. I will continue practicing on everything that I have learned in class, and with hard work, I too shall become proficient.
I appreciate you Professor Young. Your professionalism, along with your availability and feedback means a lot to me and I wish you the best.
Regards,
Alice Cross
Hello Professor Young,
This class was so beneficial to my future. Learning how to correctly format and compose letters, emails, memos, etc. has been a huge learning experience. I learned a lot about myself and my writing in your course, and I never realized that I was writing incorrectly.
All of the concepts I have learned in this course are easily relatable to my career, and the journey to my new career. Even just learning how to communicate better has greatly improved my life and my relationships with others. I learned how to properly format a cover letter, and what should be included. This is such valuable information that I have been using over the past few months to ready my resume, and cover letter for future employers.
My favorite part of this class was the cultural sensitivity chapter. In our generation, culture is only exploding around us. Every day we are becoming more and more diverse, and it is important for us to learn when and how to appropriately communicate with others. I work in a hospital where there is a vast majority of patients and employees that are different races, and different religions. Knowing how to communicate with these people appropriately and professionally is a tool that I will use for the rest of my existence. Another part of the course that I enjoyed was the fact that the course focused on life as well as in the professional setting. We communicate everyday with people, not just our co-workers and bosses, but people in the world. Having the skills and knowledge of appropriate communication will take us far in life.
I enjoyed this class very much, and would recommend it to anyone. As we are entering different fields of study, it is important to know when and how to communicate. This course teaches you exactly that and more. This course teaches you how to have respect for others, and how to respond when you encounter a difficult situation. This course teaches you life skills that you will remember forever.
Thank you Professor Young for all you do, and the time you take to make sure we know what we are doing. Your class is very beneficial, and I appreciate the time and effort you take to make it perfect.
Best wishes,
Britney Nawracaj