Kum & Go Advertisement Analysis

The purpose of the advertisement that I analyzed is to attract customers to eat at Kum & Go. The post advertises Kum & Go's current promotion: four dollars for a medium drink and a meal (two roller grill items and a bag of chips). While I'm unsure of the author of the ad (there is probably multiple), the audience is surely any hungry Kum & Go customer. When I think of the rhetorical square, it is clear that pathos is used more than any other appeal in this advertisement. There are two perfect looking hot dogs and an ice cold fountain drink next to a bag of chips. The food is the focal point of the advertisement and is designed to make people FEEL like they want to eat a meal from Kum & Go. Additionally, the words “medium drink & meal” are bolded and are in a larger font. The reason for this could be considered ethos or mythos, because the placement of the words is designed to catch the eye of potential customers and to evoke certain feelings associated with refreshments and food. Ethos is also heavily used in the ad and there is a general lack of logos. The ad shows a Kum & Go logo as well as a Lays logo. The entire layout is well done and was clearly put together by someone with solid design and Photoshop skills. All of this adds to the credibility of the ad and will lead customers to believe that Kum & Go serves quality, reliable food.

What Makes a Great Speech?

1. Confidence. Be comfortable speaking in front of a crowd.
2. Preparation. Practice your speech multiple times.
3. Research. Be prepared with accurate facts and statistics.
4. Appearance. Dress up for your speech.
5. Dynamics. Utilize effective body language and eye contact. Change the rate, volume, and tone of your voice at appropriate times.

Conference Suggestions

I think the conference with Professor Paudel was generally helpful. My final draft is a better finished product as a result. I think it would have been helpful for conferences to be scheduled for thirty minutes. If some conferences didn't take that long it would have been no big deal, although I believe my conference easily could have gone that long if it were scheduled for more than fifteen minutes. The comments on my paper were extremely helpful to me in revising my paper, I focused on addressing each comment while I wrote my final draft. One issue I had was that I didn't see the comments on my paper until my conference when Professor Paudel showed me how to view them. While not absolutely necessary, I think it would be beneficial if Paudel would have included directions on how to view the comments. Had I viewed the comments before my conference, I would have been able to ask more specific questions on how to improve my paper.

Major Writing Assignment #1 (First Draft)

Writing in Financial Management


Writing is universal. It is found everywhere in day-to-day life is a key component to many professions. Writing is especially crucial in the field of financial management. Financial management, or wealth management, is often the responsibility of a financial advisor. Financial advisors often work on behalf of individuals and corporations. Financial advisors manage the funds of individuals, corporations, local or state governments, and charitable organizations in order to help all parties reach their financial goals. A job in financial management could be focused in some area of investing, raising capital, budgeting, estate planning, or risk management, or could involve a combination of areas.


As a freshmen finance major interested in financial management, I was curious to learn and inform others about the roll that writing in the profession. In my study I interviewed Ryan Bhattacharyya, president of PREMAC Wealth Management Services, a financial management firm out of West Des Moines, Iowa that manages over one billion dollars in assets. According to Bhattacharyya, “Business credibility hinges on the ability to write well.”


Academic Writing


Although writing ability is crucial to the world of finance, financial professionals rarely engage in technical writing considered to be academic or scholarly. Financial advisors write a variety of reports that are written almost exclusively towards cliental. As a result, ideas are simplified and stated more concisely. For example, Exxon Mobile’s 2015 second quarter report includes phrases such as “Driving down costs and improving efficiency,” and “Leader in exploration and development cost,” but does not dive into the technical and geological reasons for improved efficiency or successful exploration. This simplified language choice helps clarify complex ideas to clients.


While financial advisors rarely write academic reports, they often read academic writing. When I asked Bhattacharyya what sort of reading he does, he replied he does, “extensive reading of scholarly articles, financial journals, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.” He went on to explain that in a world with an ever-increasing level of communication, staying up to date is key. Through these academic sources Bhattacharyya stays current with stock market happenings and market research in order to make informed decisions on behalf of his clients. To understand how the decision making process works, I pulled an article published in The Wall Street Journal on September 14, 2015. The article, written by Daniel Gilbert, Erin Ailworth and Alison Slider, states that, “Drillers are bracing for cuts to their credit lines in October, as banks re-evaluate the worth of oil and gas properties.” This article could influence Bhattacharyya and other financial advisors alike to act in a variety of ways. After reading, one may decide to sell or short sell clients’ shares of any highly leveraged oil drilling companies. Or, one might decide to invest in oil companies that are not highly leveraged, assuming they will have the opportunity for valuable acquisitions of smaller oil companies in the near future.


Non-Academic Writing


While reading to stay up to date is a large component of financial management, financial advisors spend more time each day writing. The vast majority of writing in this profession is considered non-academic. For Bhattacharyya, the main reasons for writing include, “Daily to-do lists, emails to industry partners, clients, and prospective clients, and quarterly newsletters to clients.” Bhattacharyya sent an example of a to-do list which includes short hand writing such as, “E/Thomson/risk,” which means he needs to email a client by the name of Thomson with an updated risk management plan. Bhattacharyya is able to write in short hand on his to-do lists because he is the intended audience. In other words, he’s the only person who needs to understand what the lists mean. This requires relatively no writing skill. On the other hand, writing to others takes well developed writing ability that is vital in such a highly connected field.


The most effective way to stay connected in business is through email. Many financial advisors receive hundreds of emails daily. Writing emails requires a certain adroitness, especially when requesting something from another individual, “Email does not have body language, voice tone, emphasis, etc. I always default to being cautious and tactful when asking others to do something on my behalf,” says Bhattacharyya. Although it is difficult, there are certain email techniques that will greatly increase the chances of having someone do something for you, for example, having an employee work late. According to Dale Carnegie in his article “Executive Leadership,” the best way to win someone to your way of thinking is to “Speak in terms of the other person’s interests.” So, if a financial advisor needed to email an employee about working late, he or she might start by addressing the subject line with ‘Job Opportunity.’ He or she would then proceed to write an email complementing the employee’s recent work ethic and explain that by staying late, the employee will increase the likelihood of future raises and promotions. Financial management is as much about handling people as it is money. Bhattacharyya stresses that when writing to others, “Skills most important are proper use of familiarity, grammar, and syntax.” Having learned English as a second language, he has a heightened sense for what is formally correct in English writing. He also recommends to, “Convey the message succinctly so the recipient has a clear understanding of it with minimal need for further clarification.” These skills are exemplified in Bhattacharyya’s resume, a great example of writing directed at others. In one page he summarizes his educational background, his work experiences, and his certifications all in adequate detail. I suspect he uses this as a tool to build trust with potential clients.


Conclusion


Through my research I learned that writing is a central component to a career in financial management. Every day on the job includes academic and non-academic reading, and writing and receiving emails. The last question I asked Bhattacharyya was how he developed his writing ability, to which he replied, “My writing skills have changed over my career and have become more refined from a business perspective… The base line skills were learned in college while a vast majority of the “fine tuning” has been through professional experience.” This has a large implication for freshmen finance majors: work hard now, make grades, and learn the base line skills of writing so that one day you will earn the job you desire and the opportunity to refine your writing ability.

APA references

Bullock, D. S., Desquilbet, M. 2009. Who Pays the Cost of Non-GMO Segregation and Identity Preservation? New York, NY: Agricultural & Applied Economics Association.

Stowe, H. B. 2005. Uncle Tom's Cabin. New York, NY: Dover Publications.

Source Analysis for Major Writing #1

The sources I found for my major writing #1 are three very different articles. Two of the articles seem to me to be non-academic while the third seems to be academic, although I am not sure on this as I am still trying to figure out how to tell the difference. One source is about writing effective business reports. This one will be very easy to apply to this assignment as it gives clear recommendations on how to improve written documents in the world of business. The second article is about how to avoid various mistakes when writing emails. I think this will also be easy to use for my assignment because such a large number of emails are sent and received by prominent businessmen and businesswomen every day. The last source is about writing Request for Proposal responses. This article caught my eye and I decided to use it because it touches on effectively dealing with other people through written communication. I feel that effectively dealing with others is the most important business skill and that is why I chose my third source.


http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/bsi/detail/detail?sid=95d17596-b087-4621-bda6-471d1a71dbc8%40sessionmgr111&vid=0&hid=118&bdata=JnNpdGU9YnNpLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=5333180&db=bth

http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/bsi/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=62c8ee82-9eca-4ffb-bc12-14cf8c1fabe9%40sessionmgr113&vid=0&hid=118

http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/bsi/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=34&sid=1b3c4248-e234-4bf2-b986-02cb1d7cf771%40sessionmgr110&hid=118

Major Writing #1 Questions

1. How often do you  write and what types of writing do you do on a daily basis?
2. Do you enjoy the writing you do? Why or why not?
3. Describe your position.
4. How often do you write to other people? For what reason do you do so?
5. When writing to request something from others, are you intentionally tactful in the way you write?
6. How often do you read other's writing?
7. How connected is writing in the business world?
8. How has your writing style as well as the type of writing you do changed over your career?
9. Do you incorporate skills you learned in college into your writing or has most of your writing skill been developed prior to college?
10. What is your educational background?
11. Where have you worked over the years?
12. Is there any form of writing you dislike?
13. Do you feel your writing ability is a valuable asset to you and/or your employer?
14. What writing skills are most important to the business world?
15. Do you collaborate with others in your writing? If so, how often and for what purpose?
16. Do you ever have to do research for your writing? Do you site sources? What counts as a reliable source? As evidence?

*these questions are not in order

Major Writing #1 Assignment Analysis

The rhetorical situation of my informational report will be unlike anything I wrote in high school. My purpose in writing will be to establish a solid "A" in business rhetoric and also to learn more about the genre of business writing and how I can apply it to my current and future life. My audience will be my professor (Hem Paudel), myself, and all other college freshmen that choose to read my report. I will do my best to write in the same style as that which I intend to learn about: professional business style/genre. I will take an informative stance and will likely scatter my feelings about my findings throughout the assignment. Lastly, the media through which I will present the finished product will most likely be on paper, unless of course Professor Paudel would rather me post it to my blog.