Reflecting and Researching

I could not believe that it is the time of the year we need to go over all of the past blog posts and write reflection on them. Also, it is incredible to see I made a great progress by keeping write this blog. There are lists of major things that I learned about researching and my major in accounting.

Three things I learned about myself as a researcher:

1. Having one sort of group as target audience, and then focus on the statement and thesis that I made.

2. Always remember to cite the sources, especially when I use secondary sources, I need to quote and cite anyway.

3. Be organize. Giving examples for all my statement so that my audience can understand the meaning, make it convincible and powerful.

Three things I learned about my chosen field:

    1. I learned that accounting is not just dealing with number and money; it also includes jobs like auditing.

2. There are still many requirements I need to apply in order to get into business board.

3. There are many related information online about accounting I can look for, like personal blogs, scholars, and news.

Questions I have about my field:

1. How many certification and examination I need to take before internship?

2. Is China and the United States have the same accounting system so that I can work for cross-country companies?

Practicing Knowledge: Continuing My Interview Experience

From my open blog “My First Time Interview” wrote on April 17, I wrote my experience about having my first job interview in my life. I think this hand-on experience taught me a great lesson about building leadership and communication. These two skills are the ones that I cannot learned from written sources.

In detail, both sources in having actual experience and writing progress can build my confidence in doing things. Also, I can be more detail and organized by either working in the workplace or writing. However, there are differences between hand-on experience and written sources. As I mentioned in the introduction, the main differences between those two sources are building leadership. Having actual experience like interview, volunteer, work, are things that we can do it step by step, and also, we get power by trying to convince someone and therefore get the sense of leading someone into some situation. To contrast, written source cannot give people the sense of independent. I have to admit that writing is a personal thing that we normally write our own ideas, however, there is not much idea of leadership.

Moreover, when we write papers, we normally learn things by searching and using all kinds of secondary sources. However, in hand-on experience, we learn things when we work with it. Take my interview as one example, I learned that sharing ideas with others are really important, and each one of us can learn from each other. However, in writing, we would not have sort of ideas from everyone.

To conclude, there are many differences shows that hand-on experience are really important for our daily life. We need this sort of experience in any situation like working, volunteering, and living.

My First Time Interview

Like you see the title for this blog post, I recently had my first interview in my life. I had to admit that I was excited but panic along with it. This is a job interview held by school OISS (Office of International Students and Scholars) about hiring orientation leaders for the upcoming international freshmen. Not surprised, I had the time filled out all the applications and resume, and luckily, I was passed on the first step of hiring process. New challenge is here: having interview.

I firstly made an appointment for the interview, and then wait for the day came. Still remember, I dressed up formal, and had all my confidence about taking this interview. Even though it is not the formal interview as I thought, but still I did all the preparations. When I walk into the room, there was one other girl sitting next to me. We were both passed the first step of orientation leader, and were both having interview at the same time. Clearly, the interviewer was just like having a daily conversation with us, and kept asking question about why we decided to be a leader for the orientation, and what can this opportunity help us in the future. However, I have to say that the girl sitting next to me is really good at leadership and communication too. Because next year will be her senior year, and she has the previous experience for doing this job. Thus, I was a bit stressed by having this competitor who sitting next to me.

However,I personally think I did a great job during the interview. I answered all the questions asked by interviewer, and I can saw he agreed with my ideas all the time. Therefore, I think I have a great chance to be hired for this job opportunity. Also, if I am successfully being the leader for the orientation, it will build my working experience and the leaderships, I am looking forward it.(:

Faith and Taboo

(Related link:http://bookballoon.com/index.php/component/content/article/28-dhes-of-yuggoth/45-thoughts-on-the-village)

I recently watched the movie called “The Village”. At the beginning of watching this movie, I truly believed that there was such a monster in the forest near the village and the color red seems terrible for every resident. And the terror of these people is originated from the “special resident” living around them and the thought formed in a long-long time. In my opinion, the reason why some the senior people, like Ivy’s father who holds the top power of the village, made the mysterious story of the monster is trying to keep the village existing and safe. It is a kind of the normal residents’ mental desire. What I mean is the myth is a white lie, but becomes the trammels of the whole village. Is it similar to Jesus in Christian? However, the committee in the village did not create a god or a Jesus, but horrible monster. Who creates Jesus or god in order to make people respect him and follow him; but who creates monster in order to make people feel fear and do nothing over the rules.

Moreover, the best part of the whole movie I think is the appearance of the Forest Border Patrol. That young guy is full of kindness and sympathy. And his role in the movie implies the positive of the real society--- outside of the village and the woods. Although the monster mystery is working for those residents, I believe the structure of the village is not stable. And what equality and justice mean should be announced times more in this small peaceful place.

"The Help"-Truth and Reconciliation

The movie "The Help" is based on a novel written by Kathryn Stockett in year of 2009. It is mainly about stories among some women in Mississippi State to the south of the United States at 1960s, especially those black maids who is working for mid class white women. During that period of time, the famous event was The Civil Rights Movement leaded by Martin Luther King. I think it is a very typical theme of that age and the movie shows the conflict between white host and black maids.

Fortunately, I just watched a film called "Crash" which implies a close meaning about unequal of people's rights in that time of America. But in my perspective, "The Help" is obviously different from many like "Crash". In terms of the poster, bright yellow as background color, actresses are suited in fancy clothes while two standing black maids wearing grey dresses. 

I think the light spot of the whole movie is when Aibileen said to a white kid: You is kind, you is smart, you is important. All the pain and hate she suffered was so real while her kindness was so shining. No matter how other people treat her, she regarded the kid as her own and loved her so much. I was totally moved by Aibileen's pure heart. In fact, this movie "The Help" did not utilize any topic such as "racism", "civil rights" or "equality" to touch everyone while discussing about the inequality of the society. Telling this whole story in those black maids' eyes rather than making Skeeter to state some boring opinions is the best way the author chooses to make it unforgettable and legendary. As the story goes on, maid was becoming the midpoint of white and black people in this movie. For the white girl Skeeter, as one of those well-educated and independent female also became a very important key between normal white people and lower-class black people.

In addition, the name "Help" implied a lot. All of those characteristics were helping each other dominantly or recessively, which leaded to a successful big society. Black maids not only helped their hosts, but rising that whole generation. Those black and white people at that time were helping each other to fight for black people's rights. This positive power is women's power. I've learned from a survey in my economy class that said women are more unwilling to give up while in trouble than men. I believe this is why in the "suffering southern America", women are the cores of every family.

Reading of "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan

(The picture link: http://2centsynopsis.blogspot.com/2012/08/amy-tans-mother-tongue-reading-response.html)

These days, I found an article called "Mother Tongue" written by Amy Tan, she clearly defined how her language is used and affected by her mother. As we can see from the introduction, she was born in California, the United States, and later on years, she and her mother settled in several places. Besides, Tan attended five colleges during seven years, and this is the turning point in which she decided to challenge herself to take English literature as major.

In the main body paragraphs, Tan wrote several stories to show how her mother uses broken English, and how it made changes in her life. On the other side, because of her mother’s “fractured” English, people usually treat her mother differently and did not take her seriously. Thus, when Tan was fifteen, she started pretend her mother talk on phone calls and kept handle several business errands. Besides, “Some say they understand none of it (the way her mother speaks English)…. to me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural.”(Para 7) Therefore, the way her mother speaks had some effects on her writing style. In another words, Tan decided to envision her mother as a reader through her writing, in order to capture the passion and imagination through her words.

Consequently, Tan succeed on her writing career, and one most representative work she wrote is The Joy Luck Club, and now I have start reading one of her another book called The Bonesetter's daughter.Through her words, she complaint about her mother’s broken English, but still, it is her mother, impressed her and gives passion on her writing.

New things learned from The Curious Researcher

As we all knows, researching is one most essential parts in writing, for many papers, we need to find resources and facts to make supports in the arguments. Moreover, how to make outlines and quotes are also important. By reading the chapters from two to four from the book The Curious Researcher, it mainly talks about how you should prepare for the essay outline, set up quotations and how to write the first draft correctly. 

To start a research paper, the first thing is to state your thesis of the topic, and then by doing brainstorming, questioning yourself to come up with several points. Moreover, the second step is to do the research like interview, survey, Note-taking from books. However, there are some issues about how to avoid plagiarism. Firstly, copy words directly from the source to be part of your own work is the most seriously trouble in the college. You should always write work citation when you finish your paper. Also, there are two different methods that you can use for quotation marks: direct quotations and indirect quotations. Direct quotations means to involve other person’s exact words into your own writing. For indirect quotations, you should paraphrase or summarize the words from the source. In this case, it is not necessary to use quotation marks. However, both quotations need to include the proper citation. Moreover, when writing the body paragraphs, provide examples is the most beneficial way to state and prove the thesis. 

To sum up, people should always avoid the plagiarism, learn how to use the direct quotations and indirect quotation. Also, we should make sure we have in-text citation and bibliography when we write a formal research paper. Be sure to provide examples to briefly explain the paper, so that the paper have enough evidences to make it professional.

Remixing Knowledge in Field of Accounting

The link for the brochure: http://www.ashland.edu/documents/pdf/accounting-brochure

The brochure I found in accounting is from Ashland University. It basically provided all the information on the brochure about requirement for the major, internships, career opportunities, facilities and all the advantages be found in major in accounting. About the RAIDS in the remix, revision can be viewed as using all the information and related photos to show the advantages of major in accounting. It is obvious that the editors chose lots of photos, and used the pictures as one part of the brochure and information. It gives people a better view and knowledge of the class in this school, and the field in accounting major. The arrangement is using headings divided the information in ten parts, and for each heading, using bullets points to make description. Invention of the brochure is using all the photographs that related to business and the school, and then show the audience of how successful people could be by choosing this major. The delivery is to design the brochure, and either use printed hard copies or online PDF version for people to look for. The style of this remix is informational brochure and handouts.

For this remix brochure, I think the target audience is college freshmen, and people who interested in this college and major in accounting. The reason is that all the information it provided is about why choosing accounting major, and the requirements college students need to reach for this major. In addition, the overall success of its rhetoric is that the view and contents in this brochure is easy for people to read, also, the information provided in the template gives people a better understanding and clear knowledge of the major in accounting. 

Contemplating Controversy in Field of Accounting

The controversial topic I chose from my field relates to how the economics system affects accounting. The main issue is about whether cultural and economic differences between the US and Japan will prevent US firms from successfully implementing Japanese and Deming management methods. Basically, the current situation in global business is quite different. Like the articles describes, “Critics of the American system contend that successfully competing in today's global economy requires a whole new set of attitudes and assumptions about how to optimize the benefits obtained from economic activity (Martin).” As a result, Americans are too individualistic and competitive to operating the business. On the other side, Japan has less more concerns about failing in the economy. Its culture and economic system fit the requirements perfectly. Also, they prefer to work in groups and teams, in this way, they are more focus on the collective performance rather than the individual performance. The different business concepts in the US and Japan have the different results in business. Obviously, Japan has a better performance and structure in doing business. “Cooperation between individuals, employees and management, departments, companies, industries, and government and business are key ingredients in the Japanese system (Martin).” 

However, the cause of this controversy is because of failing of American business system. This issue, which deals with the ability of American companies to compete with the Japanese, is fairly comprehensive and extremely thought provoking. Also, it concerns about how American can change their system in order to operate the economy better.

The website link: http://www.maaw.info/ArticleSummaries/ArtSumMartin94.htm

Personal First Work Experience

(photo link:http://anaergia.com/news/10-29-2012)

This Wednesday, I had my first work experience in school dining room. To be honest, this job is my first job in my life, and I was super excited about having this work experience. Dining office assigned me as one employee in the Terra Salsa Verde section in Hubbard Dining Hall.

At the beginning, I thought we only need to serve people food, and it is simple. But I was wrong. We have a lot of works need to do, not only serving. Firstly, I learned how to operating the cooking machines for making nachos and quesadillas. Personally, I was not sure if I can make Mexican food for people, even I tried several times of tacos, quesadillas and burritos before. Also, like majority of Chinese students knows, we rarely had Mexican food in China, so I had less confidence about cooking this kind of food. However, after awhile, I found it is not hard, and we only need to memory the name for the ingredients, then follow the instructions shown on the side of cooking machine. During my other half of work time, my job was to help people put toppings on their nachos, quesadillas and tacos. The most amazing part of this job is I would never feel alone, because people were always in the fruit line. Also, when the food gets empty, I had to go back to the cooling room and filled more food in it. It is fun. After the dining room was closed, all the employees had the responsibility to clean the dining area, so that next morning shift can have less to do.

I am really appreciated that I got the chance to do this job. Because in this way, I not only learned how to cook and serve food, it is also a social experience that can practice in my life. Moreover, it is so meaningful that start from now on, I had my own salary and job, and really proud of myself.:)

Critical Reading and Response

This is the poster I found for this assignment.

(picture links to: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-2800311/stock-photo-business-poster.html)

Critical Reading

Preview: All black and blue letters and words covered on poster.

First Impression: The words on the poster use different fonts and size with two colors, black and blue. Also, it is associated with humanity and communication.

Key Ideas: All words are telling people how to be success in business in the society.

Connections: It seems like this poster are trying to encourage people do well in business, and some key ideas about how to be success.

Questions: Why the words on the poster use different size and color? Also, why words composing cross each other?

Summary: The style that ads use is more likely a professional business kind, associated with all the key ideas to get success, and uses different font size to emphasize the importance.

Critical Response

Key Question: Why this poster can have influence to people in business?

Detail Analysis: Words like “Goal”, “Trust”, “Challenge”, “Learning”, are the core concept to make success in business. Moreover, the poster illustrated the most and the least important ideas for people in business, and tells people what should be put more efforts on.

Interpretation: In detail, words the designer chose to use in this poster are related to business. The color in black and blue also gave people a great impression on hardworking and stay confidence.

Synthesis: The poster itself are only combined with words, it looks simple. However, the purpose for this poster design are trying to tell people what are the key elements in business, and it uses capital fonts to emphasis the importance of this elements.

Final Synthesis: As everyone knows, business is something about communication, so that the poster designer uses this key concept, put the words in order, and made a list of importance for these strategies about making success. It can be also seen as people’s experiences in doing business in this society, and how they teach others to be focus.

Ways it can teach people about my field in Accounting:

Accounting, as one core major in business field, I chose this poster to tell people the key element to be success in business. Also, it teaches you the importance of those elements can have influence in your future.

Things Learned During the Spring Break

As everyone noticed that Spring break is approaching to the end, many of my friends went on vacation, but me. During the break, I mostly stay at the room, watch TV shows, do some review for the upcoming exams and homework, and I learned a lot. In detail, first thing I learned is how to choose resources for research paper. In my research process, I realized that I have tons of secondary sources rather than primary source. Thus, what I did is trying to find an interview or survey report to state my research purpose, and then add it into my research paper. Also, I narrowed down my research topic. Like what Kate mentioned me before, I have too much information for my topic, and I only have to focus on one of them. So now, I am clear what I need to write and focus on my paper.

In addition, I found that the book The Curious Researcher is very useful. For example, in book page 157, it introduced five ways to write your topic sentence for your statement. They are thesis from a question of value, a question of policy, a question of interpretation, a hypothesis question, and a relationship question. So I can easily find my purpose of thesis, and use the module sentence it provided to write it.

To sum up, I learned many useful things in this break, and I believed many of you guys learned more than I do.:) 

Experience in BPA Club

(Me with other members in Business Professionals of America)

As an American Foreign Culture Exchange student in the year of 2011, I went to Canyon Ridge High School in Twin Falls, Idaho. Still remember there was one time I was chosen to participate in school BPA (Business Professionals of America)’s activity. To be honest, I was not a member of BPA, the reason my accounting teacher Mrs. Bean wanted me to get involved is that I have great interests in accounting, and I did excellent in her class.

Clearly remembered, this was a fundraiser in business associated with Deb fashion show. Members of the Business Professionals of America (BPA) and few additional models handpicked from my school were helping model the prom dresses. I have to say this was a special experience for me to dress up as a model, and escorted by guys across the stage, with all flashlights blinking under the stage. Chris, the leader of BPA, he mentioned that the purpose for this event was to help out the club running, and it was also a chance for girls to see prom dresses of real models of all ages and sizes. In other words, “girls need to be checking out dresses and figuring our what would look best for their body type and shape. With many types of dresses to choose from, ladies need to see the dresses worn in person in order to get the correct perspective (Marsh).” In my opinion, it can be seen as a non-profit business event, but can still bring customers later after they saw hundreds of prom dresses that dressed on real models.

About this community, “BPA is the leading CTSO (Career and Technical Student Organization) for students pursuing careers in business management, office administration, information technology and other related career fields (Business Professionals of America). Thus, Canyon Ridge High School BPA club was able to practice the ability of students in business management. It is also a great opportunities and advantage for people who want to show their leadership and ability in society, and give chance to add more social experiences in later on resumes.

1. Marsh, Heaven. "BPA Fashion Show." Edition 2 Vol 5. Canyon Ridge High School, 29 Mar. 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.

2. "About BPA." Business Professionals of America. Business Professionals of America, 2012. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.

Deep in Research

I have been noticed that writing an open blog post gets harder for me. As Kate mentioned in the class, after a period of practicing and writing blogs, we would realized that there are not much things we can talk about in the blog. Therefore, I will see this as my weekly study report, and provide as much information as I can.

In today’s WRA class, librarian Sara showed us around in the main library, and gave us many options to find sources for our next coming research paper. In detail, she assumed to take “Tattoos” as an example, let us brainstorming on the topic, and find websites, books, and scholar articles to support the topic. I have to admit this is my first time know how to use the school library web page. We can browse our topics, and find all related articles and books shown on the webpage. Also, one of the most awesome part is we can just click “cite” to create a MLA citation for the source. Moreover, Sara told us the ways to use this library source. Firstly, we need to get online, and type something related to our topic, browse the webpage and find relevant books. Then we can check the book’s call number and whether it is available or not. Lastly, we need to check the first letter shown in the call number, and find the book. Personally, I would never know this is so convenience that we can find a book so easy even we do not have any idea for choosing books.

Thus, I think this lecture really helps me with my further researching on my topic, and gave me more confidence for this project. In addition, I can use this convenience in any courses for my later on study.

Learning Perspective for Week Six

In this week open blog post, I would like to talk more about my learning progress in the writing class and response towards it. As we did in the class, Kate introduced us the second project in which is to write a five to seven pages of research paper associated with American Pop Culture. Before we start on our research paper, she let us to practice more about summary, paraphrase, quotations, and citation. In order to see the differences between them, she divided the class in groups of two. We are assigned to find an article about the Valentine’s Day, and use the article to do summary and paraphrase. In this way, I learned that paraphrase is a more specific task compare to summary, and direct quotes are words that exactly from the source. In addition, we need put in-text citation for all the direct quotations and indirect quotations that wrote in the essay. Furthermore, by taking notes and “My Response” near the “Notes form the Source”, I found it is really interesting to see how those notes can associate with my opinions.  Using this way, it is clearly to give my response either I agree or disagree about the issue.

Also, on Thursday’s class, I learned the structure to write a topic report. Basically, it requires us to give information about our next coming research paper. Firstly, we need to write the introduction paragraph, state the topic. Then in the body paragraphs, we need to specifically introduce the background information of your topic in multiple sources. Thirdly, recap and take away the topic sentences, and ask further questions and observations towards your research. Last but not the least, cite the works in a separate paper.

To conclude, it is handy that Kate taught us these writing strategies to help with our next coming research paper. Also, to make connections with specific days and our class make the class more insightful and joyful.

(picture links to:http://educationalstar.com/an-easy-way-to-write-research-papers/research-4/)

Exploring Writing Process

It has been a great opportunity for me to have Ms. Liu as my interviewer about accounting. Personally, she is an excellent accountant who works in a co-operation company in China. Also, many of other companies are willing to have her works for them, but she refused. Instead, she sometimes having speeches about finance management or house financial keeping all over the China. In this way, she writes her own speech drafts, annual financial announcement, and summary by herself.

In order to know how Ms. Liu writes on papers, she showed me step-by-step strategy, and provided me some examples towards writing major tasks. Firstly, as she mentioned, target audience is the first tasks need to find. For example, if she is giving a speech for families and households, what she writes is mainly towards how to manage their personal money safely and properly, and how important is to journalizing the daily merchandise expenses and revenue. Otherwise, as companies as the target audience, it is more important to talk about circulating fund and fixed funds in order to run the company steadily. Secondly, you need to find the main issues in the groups that you are talking to, and then lists its pros and cons as the solution. Thirdly, if it is an annual summary, the paper should be more likely like a report that talks about the trends during the year, when we met the big bumps and when we had a fluency periods. Also, to write the improvements in the future year is also an important task. Otherwise, companies and households would not have a target aims and high expectation for future years.

Compare to Ms. Liu’s writing process to others we have discussed in class, there are some similarities and differences. Speaking widely, both writing process that I learned is to find the target audience and the facts. Also, it is important to brainstorming and draw conclusion after you find your specific audience. However, in Ms. Liu’s reports and speech drafts, she rarely uses other’s words as part of her paper, and what she does always is to speak to her own experiences and opinions. Oppositely, when we learn how to write the research paper, it is improper to have our own opinions and experiences in the paper. Instead, it would be better if we use information and data that are from official websites, people in profession, and textbooks.

To sum up, Ms. Liu taught me variety of information about her field of working, and strategies to write reports. Also, it is incredible to see how differently and similarly our type of writing process compared to the type that people in profession uses.

Blog Post vs. Literacy Devices

By reading the post Don’t Compete with Your Customers found at AxiomCPA blog page, it is clearly to see how this post is related to the delivery and style. The post is basically talking about how business should be focus on to make success. Specifically, take laundry services as an example: regards to majority of families have laundry room in their house, people can basically do their laundry at home, however, there are still many clothes have to dry clean, and usually people do not have the facility to do this. In this situation, most people would pay money and take their clothes to the laundry services. Therefore, what laundry services business should do is investing better facility to do best on dry clean rather than focus on regular washing and drying. Moreover, take tax return as another example: be an accountant can provide people put together a plan of attack and accountability to meet your 5 and 10 years goal. Oppositely, software like TurboTax can prepare a business tax return for you, but it can never suggest you about further planning. In this way, society requires accounting and some of them are professional on this area.

Now considering the delivery and style of the post, the author uses formal language to develop his personal opinion, and then provides examples to persuasive the audience to consider his understanding. Also, it is clearly to see who is the target audience in this post. By reading the examples he provided, his uses business companies, as the primary audience, and speaking in a friendly way to give reason why do not compete with your customers. Thus, it is the best way to use blog to express his opinion to companies who are still struggle with the management.

In conclude, it is obvious that author target on a specific groups of people, and using examples to make his opinion persuasive. Personality, I think it is a useful strategy for companies and businesses to know what they should focus on and an understanding of “ do not compete with your customer”.

My Weekly Report

(Related link:http://eatinggoodfeelinggood.com/2012/09/29/documentary-reviews-6-days-to-air-south-park-happy/)

In this week, our WRA class assigned us to watch a documentary film called Six Days to Air: the Making of South Park. At the beginning, I do not have any idea why we need to watch this movie. The movie basically was talking about how one episode can be made in six days and the process of producing. However, after Kate let us list the steps to make the episode, she compared this list with our Literacy Memoir “How to” list, see how similar it could be to make one project, and I found the connection between those two.

Firstly, by watching Six Days to Air: the Making of South Park, the first thing they do is choose the target audience, then gathering all the animators together, have conversations and take jokes, in order to come up with funny ideas. Secondly, Matt and his co-operator writes the scripts and get it approved. After that, they will sent the writing scripts to the storyboard room, finish the records, and lastly, finalize it and out on the air. To find the similarity, when I wrote my Literacy Memoir, I generally brainstorming first and choose my target audience. In this way, focus on developing my story and related pop culture can roughly come up with a draft Memoir. Also, RAIDS (revision, arrangement, invention, delivery, style) are the five most important literacy devices can help to develop the story line.

To sum up, it is incredible to see how similarly the movie making and writing process can be compared, and how useful the lesson that Kate taught us. Thus, I would always remember the way to developing a paper.