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Moin Ahmed 14020489 Applied Business Writing and Communication (MGMT 211) Jazib Zahir 2nd December, 2013 Postmortem Paper What did you feel were your strengths and how did you capitalize on them? I took applied business writing and communication because I felt it was important to formally prepare myself for writing business documents and delivering presentations. Though I felt I was reasonably strong at presenting, I realized as soon as I received the critique for my first individual presentation, that small details I had before considered inconsequential were in fact extremely important. For example, I always used to believe that slides were secondary to the actual delivery of the presentation, and hence never put in much effort in thinking about how to present my points in a deck. Similarly, I did not realize the importance of eye contact and hand movement in the delivery of effective presentations. As soon as I received my grade for the individual presentation, I was able to comprehend how objective measures like time management, the use of formal language and relevance of slides all contribute to crafting a better presentation. Since I used to consider myself naturally capable of presenting, the critique of the instructor allowed me to see that I was in fact making critical mistakes which could be eliminated through practice and caution. Therefore, something I had perceived as my strength turned into my weakness, yet at the same time I was in an ideal position to work towards giving better presentations in the future. Knowing how to give a good presentation is important at not only the university level, but in professional life as well. It is important to know what type of

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content to put in slides how to brand them and make them interactive and interesting, it is also important to know how to deliver a good presentation by speaking clearly, making eye contact and using hand gestures. Now that I am aware that these factors can affect a presentation, I am in the position to polish my skills and use them whenever I give a presentation, especially at the professional stage of my life. What did you feel were your weaknesses and how did you improve them? Possessing a flair for using imaginative and descriptive language to drive home my points in a paper, I recognized I would have trouble in composing to-the-point, succinct papers that are written in a distinctly professional style. Therefore I knew I would have difficulties in tackling the email and business plan assignments. The business plan assignment taught me the importance of using business jargon like scalability, sustainability, core competencies etc. in a paper to increase its readability and comprehensibility. It also enabled me to understand how pithier sentences can be effective means of eliminating confusion in a document. Furthermore, the email assignment was an extremely important part of the written portion of this course because it taught me how to compose well-articulated emails that are formal and highlight the important communiqus through bullet points and use of bold text. This is an invaluable skill because emails are the medium of communication in use today and it is essential to be able to shape a well-constructed email from the subject to the content. Effectively, I can utilize the lessons I learnt in applied business writing and communication to compose improved professional documents.

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Critique the course and suggest improvements. The course strikes a nice balance between focusing on written and verbal aspects of business writing and communication. It has written assignment, case studies and presentations, all of which provide the students with a more comprehensive understanding of professional ethic. However I felt that the written portion of the course could have been covered in a different, more comprehensive manner. Both the business plan assignment and the email assignment should have been divided into at least two smaller contributing portions. The business plan assignment could have an initial submission of a draft that could be marked by the TAs/instructor and constitute a percentage of the total business plan grade. Feedback from the initial draft would allow the students to improve on their shortcomings and spot conceptual difficulties. This could lead to a better realization of the objectives of the business plan component of the course. Similarly, the email assignment could be divided into two stages like the business plan, this would allow students to recognize and improve deficiencies in their writing style.