Research Synthesis Paper
One of the first research papers I was tasked with creating was one of my own choosing. Having never experienced the ability to choose my own paper topic I was confused on what to do. Until I remembered that I had recently been interested in the movie theater downfall at the time. I started researching about brands of movies that had been losing significant money or fans. This took me into researching more about Marvel and the movie they had been making in recent years.
This research paper was important to my research skills, problem solving, and critical thinking. While I was searching for patterns, I had to come up with ways for the brand to mitigate losses and listen to the people who want to see these movies. This allowed for my critical thinking skill to be further expanded while also giving me insight on the solution side of things.
After having written this paper, I am confident that I can follow trends and patterns to identify weaknesses and the possible outcome of a decision. It was not until recent months where my skill in identifying issues was made more present as what I wrote about somewhat became true. Experiencing this furthered my confidence in the skills that I have when it comes to critical thinking, research, and problem solving. I know these skills will be crucial in any workplace environment I set myself in.
PERT Chart
During a group semester project of my junior year, I was tasked with making a chart of all the duties of people within the group. I had to communicate with my team members to allocate them to certain tasks and positions. The reason we had to make one was so that we could plan for any future bumps in the road. I had never made a chart like this before but took the task knowing that it would help me with my organizational and team working skills.
This chart was important to make so the people in my group and myself knew our duties. The PERT chart was detrimental to our own responsibility within the group as it allowed for all of us to take accountability. Making the chart was also crucial to the communication we had between each other. Letting people take roles and tasks they wanted was vital to the bond that our group was building.
Participating in this group project has profoundly shaped my understanding of essential workplace skills. The importance of working in a team was taught to me by making this chart, it also helped me better understand when it came to balancing everyone’s abilities. I know that having gone through this experience, I have started my journey to better mastering workplace skills that will allow me to do my job better and better.
Housing Proposal
My sophomore year I was tasked with working with two people to create a proposal for an issue that students at the University of Arkansas had. Our group quickly found that we wanted to talk about the housing issue that the university has had in recent years. We decided to split our project into three solutions all being separate from each other. I worked on a solution that offered the use of Public Private Partnership which used bonds to create more housing.
The importance of this work was that as a group we had to make sure we each knew what we were doing and what we wanted to do. While also giving our inputs and feedback when need be due to the synchronicity of our proposal. I quickly had to learn how to communicate with my two other groups members while being respectful of their ideas and time. Having to do an individual part as well as group work was my first experience with certain workplace skills.
Having this proposal be one of my first experiences of group work in college has led me to understanding courtesy and respect for any member of any group I am a part of. Carrying this lesson into newer group tasks, I’ve become better at communication and bonding with my teammates. I plan on bringing all that I learned from this project into my work life and normal life.