Assignment Question(s): Question 1: Critical Thinking Two Phrases That Indicate Your Boss Is Not Listening To You One of the biggest predictors of whether an employee will be engaged at work is the extent to which they feel like their boss listens to them. But sadly, we’ve all had (or are having) the experience of a boss who doesn’t listen to us. And I’m not talking about really blatant situations (e.g. they literally turn away from us or roll their eyes), but rather those situations in which the boss acts like they’re listening but hears nothing we say. I recently witnessed just such a case. An executive, let’s call him ‘Pat,’ was holding a town hall meeting to discuss the company’s recent, and disappointing, employee engagement survey results. About 40 employees showed up to the meeting. He kicked things off by saying, ‘Welcome, everybody. As you know, I’m having this meeting today because I want to hear your concerns directly. I’m here to listen about your issues with your supervisors, so fire away.’ One employee raised his hand first and said, ‘With the recent cost-cutting, I think we’ve all got concerns about whether we’re going to have jobs next year.’ Pat quickly responded, ‘Oh, I hear you. You think you’ve got problems? At least your wages are ones that other companies will pay. But I’m the VP and I’m over 50, so when you combine my high salary with my age, I’m going to have a really tough time finding a job. But hey, life’s not fair, right?’ Then another employee raised their hand. ‘I actually have a different concern. My supervisor tells me that I’m supposed to bring her any suggestions for improvement, but when I do, it’s like she doesn’t listen to me.’ Pat responded, ‘I know how that feels, but I don’t want you to worry, because those feelings will pass and you will get over it.’ Source: Forbes Magazine Think about how well this manager listened in high-pressure situation: Explain how well he did at each of the following active listening skills: paying attention, holding judgment, reflecting, clarifying, and sharing. (2.5 Marks) Suggest some strategies to turn this manager into an excellent listener.(2.5 Marks) Question 2: Writing Exercise Things have been a little tight lately, and you need some money to get you through to the end of the school term. Write two letters asking for a loan of $500 (1) to a friend, (2) to a bank loan officer. How do your approaches to these audiences differ? (5 Marks) Required Text BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: Developing Leaders for a Networked World, Peter Cardon, 4th Edition McGraw-Hill Education. • • • • • • • • The Assignment must be submitted on Blackboard (WORD format only) via allocated folder. Assignments submitted through email will not be accepted. Students are advised to make their work clear and well presented, marks may be reduced for poor presentation. This includes filling your information on the cover page. Students must mention question number clearly in their answer. Late submission will NOT be accepted. Avoid plagiarism, the work should be in your own words, copying from students or other resources without proper referencing will result in ZERO marks. No exceptions. All answered must be typed using Times New Roman (size 12, double-spaced) font. No pictures containing text will be accepted and will be considered plagiarism). Submissions without this cover page will NOT be accepted Learning Outcomes: 1.1 Recognize and memorize concepts of communication theory as they affect business organizations and the individuals in them. 1.2 Communicate better, knowing that good communicators make better managers and that communication is a dynamic process basic to individuals and organizational life. 1.3 Analyse effective business letters, memorandums, and case studies. Assignment Question(s): Question 1: Critical Thinking Two Phrases That Indicate Your Boss Is Not Listening To You One of the biggest predictors of whether an employee will be engaged at work is the extent to which they feel like their boss listens to them. But sadly, we’ve all had (or are having) the experience of a boss who doesn’t listen to us. And I’m not talking about really blatant situations (e.g. they literally turn away from us or roll their eyes), but rather those situations in which the boss acts like they’re listening but hears nothing we say. I recently witnessed just such a case. An executive, let’s call him ‘Pat,’ was holding a town hall meeting to discuss the company’s recent, and disappointing, employee engagement survey results. About 40 employees showed up to the meeting. He kicked things off by saying, ‘Welcome, everybody. As you know, I’m having this meeting today because I want to hear your concerns directly. I’m here to listen about your issues with your supervisors, so fire away.’ One employee raised his hand first and said, ‘With the recent cost-cutting, I think we’ve all got concerns about whether we’re going to have jobs next year.’ Pat quickly responded, ‘Oh, I hear you. You think you’ve got problems? At least your wages are ones that other companies will pay. But I’m the VP and I’m over 50, so when you combine my high salary with my age, I’m going to have a really tough time finding a job. But hey, life’s not fair, right?’ Then another employee raised their hand. ‘I actually have a different concern. My supervisor tells me that I’m supposed to bring her any suggestions for improvement, but when I do, it’s like she doesn’t listen to me.’ Pat responded, ‘I know how that feels, but I don’t want you to worry, because those feelings will pass and you will get over it.’ Source: Forbes Magazine Think about how well this manager listened in high-pressure situation: 1. Explain how well he did at each of the following active listening skills: paying attention, holding judgment, reflecting, clarifying, and sharing. (2.5 Marks) 2. Suggest some strategies to turn this manager into an excellent listener. (2.5 Marks) Question 2: Writing Exercise Things have been a little tight lately, and you need some money to get you through to the end of the school term. Write two letters asking for a loan of $500 (1) to a friend, (2) to a bank loan officer. How do your approaches to these audiences differ? (5 Marks) Purchase answer to see full attachment Explanation & Answer: 1000 words Tags: communication skills Irrelevant speaking is vital User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following our company’shonor code & terms of service.

MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered throughout the MLA Handbook and in chapter 7 of the MLA Style Manual. Both books provide extensive examples, so it’s a good idea to consult them if you want to become even more familiar with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.

BASIC IN-TEXT CITATION RULES

In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations. This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.

General Guidelines

• The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1) upon the source medium (e.g. print, web, DVD) and (2) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited page.
• Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page.

IN-TEXT CITATIONS: AUTHOR-PAGE STYLE

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author’s last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author’s name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (263).

Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth 263).

Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. Oxford UP, 1967.

IN-TEXT CITATIONS FOR PRINT SOURCES WITH KNOWN AUTHOR

For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.

Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as “symbol-using animals” (3).

Human beings have been described as “symbol-using animals” (Burke 3).

These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. University of California Press, 1966.