Advice

I have really enjoyed this semester with Angela Rogers. It has been a fun experience through which I have learned a lot about business communication and correct methods for communication. By no means was it a hassel to go to class. After the last day of class, me and a few of my classmates were talking about how much fun we had working with each other throughout the semester and how we looked forward to the class!
If I could give any advice, it would be just to keep up with the assignments. There are a good many assignments that are really helpful and teach you a lot. It is important that you just keep up with the weekly "To Do" lists as Angie posts them each Sunday night. The work was never too much to complete in one week, but some of the assignments did require some thought and preparation.
Because this is a client based class, the big assignment is going to be your group proposal project. My group and I had a great time working on this assignment. It is a process, but as I mentioned earlier, as long as you keep up with the work, it will not be too stressful. On the topic of groups, this is a very important factor in this class. Make sure that you really do get to know your classmates during the "speed dating" exercise you will do within one of the first couple of class meetings. My group clicked extremely well and had a great time during our meetings. This group cohesion really made the proposal, along with the other group assignments, enjoyable and stress-free.
Angie makes this class very enjoyable in a relaxed atmosphere. You can not be relaxed on the workload, but during classtime, it is very easy to talk and interact as a class. Our class really got to know one another and enjoyed the time we spent together each class period. Enjoy this class and just make sure to keep up with the assignments!

PG&E Water Contamination

Our group chose to do our ethical research on the water contamination in Hinkley, CA during the 1960s. It is a topic that one may recognize because it is addressed in the movie "Erin Brockovich". I really enjoyed researching this case study and found out some very interesting information. According to the facts of the case, the movie did a very good job in portraying the sequence of events accurately. Basically, PG&E is a plant located in the Mohave desert, right near the little town of Hinkley. PG&E was dumping million of gallons of cancer-causing agents into unlined ponds as well as vaporizing the chemical and releasing it into the air. The chemical was chromium 6. There are 2 forms of this chemical, one that can be beneficial to one's health in small amounts, and the other deadly. They claimed that they were releasing the beneficial chromium 6 and that it was safe and the residents of Hinkly had nothing to worry about. The chromium 6 was being used in the plant to help reduce corrosion through the factory. Once the chromium 6 had gone through the system, the plant would dump the waste products into unlined ponds as well as evaporate the liquid and disperse it into the air. Test results proved that these chromium levels were thousands of times higher than the legal and healthy levels, but PG&E stuck with their story that the water was safe and there was nothing to worry about. Residents nearby and employees of the plant began to have multiple cases of cancer and other ailments such as headaches and nosebleeds. PG&E willingly paid for doctors to check the patients, but surprise, they stated that the water was not the source. Turns out that once the evidence was too damning for PG&E to deny anymore, they stated that they were unaware of these outrageous levels of chromium until the 1980s, yet employees and records state that they had knowledge of these deadly, cancer-causing chromium levels as far back as 1965.

Response to Ethical Lapses Article

I found the article on ethical lapses to be interesting. I think that the percentages and other statistics use are very powerful evidence. I found it particularly interesting that so many U.S. workers experience ethical lapses in the workplace and the reasons why or why they do not report those ethical lapses. I cannot imagine working in a place where there are numerous distractions multiple times a week and not reporting them! I have always felt at home at my work place, and as with any business, there are always distractions or conflicts, but the purpose of higher authority is to provide comfort and structure to your place of employment!
I believe that it is very important for the upper management of a company to make the rules and ways of the company very clear from the first day in order to avoid these ethical lapses. If one were to occur, I also think that it is extremely important that the company have an action plan set out for the employees as a means to reporting such an incident.
The reasons as to why people do not report such problems are what I expected. Not wanting to cause more problems, put yourself or others at odds, or just not knowing how to report problems are legitimate reasons for not reporting an ethical lapse; however, as mentioned earlier, I believe that it is the company's duty to provide support and guidance in these situations.

Writing on the Web vs. Writing on Paper

Writing on the web and writing on paper share many characteristics. Writing, in general, requires the use of correct grammer, spelling, diction, and other tactics to target your audience. It is important that writing on the web and on paper flows throughout the document with emphasis on your purpose and goals for the piece of writing. In order for your writing to have the greatest effect, it is vital that you organize your thoughts before hand, use plain language, and fully research and understand your subject.
Writing on the web is more difficult than writing on paper because of the different uses for which people may be using the web information. Many people use the internet to scan about information. Your web writing must be formatted in an appropriate way so that your audience can scan the document and get information they are seeking quickly and efficiently. When writing on the web, you are writing for the rapid consumption of your information; most people spend about 10 seconds on a page looking for what might interest them.
A good strategy to use while writing on the web is the inverted pyramid. You should begin with the bottom line (your conclusion) before stating all the data, facts, and logic. By placing this information at the beginning, you allow the readers to find what is most significant to your writing. Of course, you still need to provide the background information in order to prove those conclusions stated at the beginning. Another great benefit of writing on the web is the availability of hyperlinks. You can use these links to outside information to give further proof to your claims and provide additional information to your subject.