Reference no: EM13664708

Journal Handout

Objectives
• Students observe and become aware of the extent and impact of business issues occurring at local, state-wide, national, and international venues.

• Students learn to write and comment fluidly about issues involving business.
• Students learn to tag information with a source / provider and date.
• Students integrate course and study information with current business events.
• Student journal/log observations furnish training for tasks and skills needed in professional work settings.

• Students utilize complex thinking that investigates ideas arising in sudden and intuitive contexts and develop them with constructive research.
A single Journal submittal having seven entries will be reviewed and graded. The Journal exercise has a purpose and format.
Purpose
The world's media daily release their version of business, political, and social messages that impacts our global societies. These dynamics reveal who we are and what we are about in our era. Business students must be alert to this stream of information that shows both norm and change in broad categories of activities. When attending classes, students can learn to recognize intriguing ideas, jot them down, and investigate them further in a journal manner. When outside of the classroom, they can snatch ideas from conversations, gatherings, viewings and broadcasts. The trick (and effort) is to get the idea entered into a journal format.
The private business journal (log) is a professional tool. There can be two versions: the At-work log/journal and the At-home journal. The At-work log has notes that tell what you were occupied with during mornings and afternoons every business day. It is similar to a vehicle log kept while on the road doing appointments. The private journal at home is the place for commentary about activities, opinions and reservations about current business issues, as well as modeling your personal profile and development. It exists for the final comment about that day.
Journals help keep you sharp and alert. Writing down and further researching an idea establishes it in memory. Retrieving and drawing from that memory allows a professional to gain notice through reasonable discourse about relevant issues moving through the work place. Older journal entries (histories) can furnish background important to current discussions in the business place. Merging history with current issues helps "sell" a position you take on an issue.
Journal observance is more than note taking and simple reporting - it is a medium that merges insight with problem arrangement / ordering and solution. It can be a force that leads to business solutions and entrepreneurial vision. Journal experience is a critical communication tool.
Journal/Log Notation Formats
The journal/log can be strictly digital and set up as a continuous word-processing program or a computer document. The old and original style of doing journals is putting hand-written entries into a journal notebook. Of this kind, a successful model used by authors, artists, and scientists is a spiral notebook or three-hole binder and paper. Inside it, bend a blank sheet in half along the vertical axis. On the left side, jot down a business idea or note. Add a date, time, and source for this entry. "Source" is what brought it to your attention. In formal research, this becomes a tagged reference. On the right side, examine the item. For instance, "Why does this thing attract my notice? Is it a simple distraction, or is it more than that? Does this thing have a larger reality that I'm not aware of? Does it affect me?" This examination can proceed to Internet or library research when serious attention begins.
Journal Composition
An At-desk daily log can be a simple annotation done with bullets or short sentences in simple paragraphs, and these logs can be either hand written or digital entries. An At-desk log or journal also can be more involved, as its subject can be an event that has depth and detail and points to more events, consequences, or developments. One example is impending layoffs that move from rumor to actual stages of cutting the workforce. Each stage in this process could be a separate journal entry, as each stage has its own special details, dynamics, and dates.
This way of "seeing" an event applies to any recognition of an idea or event that captures our attention and interest. As business people and students, we daily become aware of business ideas and events swirling around us in the workplace, classrooms, discussions, media presentations, periodicals, internet articles, local events in the business community, and our own inspirations. These business ideas and events, inside and outside the workplace, are topics for the Journal assignment.
Journal Submittal Format
• In word-processing, start a Journal page and save it as a file. Save it in a manner that you can return to and add new entries in it.

• Each of the seven journal entries has an Introductory bar format:

Title Date Source Notation
• Create a Title that effectively points at a main issue in the topic. The Date is when you became aware of this topic. The Source Notation is what presented or brought you the topic. If it's from the Web, either a simple www.Source.com or full URL is okay.
• Write out your impressions and interest about this item of notice. I don't expect any hard research done on an entry! The Journal is an awareness - developing tool!
• Two to three paragraphs per entry may suffice. The first paragraph introduces the topic, gives background, and introduces your viewpoint and interest in it. The second paragraph gives details and briefly explains the issue(s) you deem relevant, and the third paragraph provides your comments and take on the subject, then closure.

• The Journal has seven (7) entries covering three to five pages total. 100 points.

• The Journal style may be conversational, but treat the writing style as formal! I'll mark punctuation errors, misspellings, and junk sentences, and a flow of markings grants a loss of points. This journal shows your business persona, as does every exercise in this course. Get professional and proficient with editing!

Grading Assessment and Rubric
Competence: 0-80 points

• Paragraphs intelligently communicate a business topic to an audience.
• Sentences link and promote topic ideas.
• Each entry is introduced by topic title, observation time, and source.
• Topic is clearly related and relevant to business or a School of Business discipline.
• Writing style is objective and appropriate for explaining a topic.

Grammar: 0-10 points

• Writing is free of misspellings.
• Writing is free of run-ons and modifier problems.
• Sentences show variety and good construction.
• Sentences have clauses and phrases logically connected.
• In general, grammatically correct writing is required.

Punctuation and Mechanics: 0-10 points

• Writing has few or no punctuation errors.
• Writing shows proper capitalization and proper handling of hyphens, dashes, quotation marks, and other mechanic conventions.
• Writing having figures and numbers follows APA conventions regarding their use.

Maximum Journal score: 100 points