Archives for the Month of November 2007 on Sean Lojek's Online Journal
Writing for Management Majors
As a Management student, I am involved with many types of writing, mostly research essays, blogs, and short answer questions, for example. However, what types of writing will I do in the next several years at Case? To answer this question, I talked to some of the brothers at the Fiji fraternity house. Though a majority of the brothers are non-Management Majors, there were a few that helped me answer my question.
Communication is key in the workplace.
The first person I talked to was Nick, a Management Major with a focus in Finance. When I asked him what types of writing his major involves, he responded that he does case studies for his classes. For these case studies, he has to analyze a company or the actions of a company and point out its flaws or suggest improvements. For one case study, Nick had to analyze Southwest Airlines’ business strategy after the attacks of 9/11. For other schoolwork, Nick told me that sometimes he has essays relating to financial concepts on tests for classes, but not too many.
After talking with Nick, I talked with two other Management Majors, Kevin and Matt, who are both Accounting Majors. I asked them the same question that I asked Nick, and they responded very similarly; the two are also involved with case studies. They have to analyze a company, suggest improvements, and point out flaws. For these case studies, the three brothers told me that they have to create memos, which are very straightforward and state the analysis of the company and its actions.
As I continued to talk with the guys, I asked them if writing plays a significant part with internships or jobs. Kevin and Matt said that, in these cases, verbal skills are more important than writing skills. To get a job or internship, the person has to have developed communication skills. They told me that writing plays an important part with the resume, but communication skills are key to earning the job. If someone cannot communicate clearly with their coworkers, they will not be effective in the work place.
In the next couple years, I can expect to do some case studies and some essays on tests. More importantly however, I feel that my communication skills will become very important in the near future. I will be applying for jobs and internships, and I will need to communicate clearly to explain why I deserve the job. If I cannot clearly explain my resume and experience, then I will most likely not get the job. Moreover, without verbal communication and an explanation, my resume means nothing. It just appears as words on a piece of paper. Writing skills are important, but in the business world, verbal skills dominate.
Writing and Archiving: The Cleveland Orchestra
When most people think about archives and displays, such as the ones found in museums, they do not think about the writing that goes into the management of these things. After my visit to Severance Hall with Amy Dankowsky, I have gained knowledge about some of the writing that goes into managing archives.
Severance Hall
The type and techniques of writing that go into organizing these collections is very straightforward. Upon entering one of the collection rooms, I could see one of the techniques people use for organization, using dates. In this room, there were programs from Blossom, the summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra. Some of the programs dated back to the ‘60s. Using dates is very effective because they organize the collections chronologically, making it very easy for a person looking for information to go back to a certain time. This also makes it easy for Amy when some one asks about what happened during a certain year or time period.
In another storage area, I saw a different form of writing that goes into the organization of archives. Amy took us to one area, where she showed us a Grammy Award that the Cleveland Orchestra earned, with many large storage cabinets. In the cabinets, there were all sorts of things relating to the Cleveland Orchestra, such as conducting batons and pictures; however, to manage these collections, there was writing on the boxes in the cabinets. For example, on one of the boxes in the cabinet with the Grammy Award, there was a box with some documents relating to the Cleveland Orchestra in it. On this box, there was writing explaining what documents were in the box. Although this type of organization is very simple, it is highly effective.
A Grammy Award
Though the types of writing that go into archives and collections, such as dates and descriptions, is very simple, it gets the job done. Using these uncomplicated forms of managing also make it easy for new archivists who take the place of previous archivists. If someone has a complicated form of organization, it would be silly because others would not be able to find their way around the archives. Another plus of having a simple organizing technique is the fact that the archivist can find if there is information in multiple places in the collections. Amy told us that the size of the Orchestra archives were reduced significantly because a lot of the information could have been found in multiple places. So, using plain, non-difficult organization techniques keeps the size of the archives down and keeps the archives manageable.