Purdue_ME's blog

During week 7, we spent time editing and proofreading our paper. We started passing the paper around making editing changes, but Google Docs seemed to be a much easier way to use things because it's always the latest copy. We had good peer reviews so we used all of those to help shape our paper and make it a better draft. I found a graph that was good for our group to use because our paper was "text heavy." Also, we added our sources into the document because we left that out on the rough draft.

Attached is our rough draft for Project 3. We compared Microsoft Word to Google Docs. We will attach our references for the final draft.

-Group 2-

Meredith Ervin
Andrew Garland
Jason Jerger
Dan Kleinbaum

We are moving forward in our project at a good pace. We have split up the paper into sections and now everyone knows what they should do. Email seems to be the best way to communicate with everyone. AIM is very useful because it helps get problems answered quickly, rather than waiting for a response. We use that when needed. We have set a deadline of noon on Monday to have all of our sections done, since we all had a busy weekend. We are going to have a group chat session then so we can write the executive summary together since it should be written at the end of the paper.

I was unaware on how to write a white paper until I read these sample articles. They really helped me learned how to write white papers. They obviously need to have very good structure. They have a title page, an executive summary, and introduction, a body, a conclusion, references, and appendices. In ME 263 they taught us that the executive summary should be a one-page version of your entire project. It is more than just an introduction or a conclusion, it basically states all of the necessary and important information into one page.

For this weeks project log, we have all exchanged information through email, which included our AIM accounts, email addresses, and phone numbers. We have also all posted on the Wiki. I am not familiar with Google Docs, so I am trying to learn more about that. We are currently trying to figure out the best way to complete this project, and we've decided that we need to split the project up into different parts. We have created an account on Google Docs. Email is probably the best way that we can communicate. AIM works well for some members of the group.

Attached is my resume and cover letter. It is for an Architectural and Engineering firm in Roanoke, VA. For more information on the job posting, you can go to http://jobs.collegegrad.com/Jobs/Student-Intern---Mechanical-Engineering... or visit the company website at http://www.hsmm.aecom.com/index.html. Please tell me what you think on both of these and how I could improve on them because I have minimal resume and cover letter experience, and this is a job that I actually like and could want next summer as an internship if a position like this is still available.

I found all of the OWL readings to be very helpful. Each one had multiple tabs at the bottom to further explain more information. That being said, most of it just sounded to be an echo of the blog that we just read and responded to the other day. I liked the tabs at the bottom that were 'How do I read job advertisements carefully?' and 'How do I research corporate websites?' Those types of articles I found very helpful because I have never really thought how to read job advertisements carefully or how to research corporate websites.

Attached is my T-letter for project 2. I chose to choose a company that I found on collegegrad.com that is an Engineering and Architecture firm. I chose this company because that is the kind of job that I want once leaving college, and gaining experience in it now would help strengthen my resume. I chose to do an internship rather than an actual job position because I will only be a junior in the fall of next semester.

The job that I plan on applying for is one that will help further my career goals of being in a business that designs buildings. I wanted to do Architectural Engineering, but I do not believe Purdue offers that. Structural Engineering was the closest thing. My main job experience is being a manager for the past two years. This will help show the company that I will be able to not sure stay an engineer, but move up in the company ladder so that I can hopefully spend my whole career there. In my resume I will include that I am pursuing an Entrepreneurship Certificate.

My usability test for my instructions of how to use an iPod was done by my father. He was in the target age range that I was going after (baby boomers) and he was also new to the iPod, which was another one of target requirements. I would say that overall the test went well. In my instructions I wrote the basic controls of the iPod, how to use them, and included a troubleshooting guide. My dad is very computer literate, but using an iPod is brand new to him. He could follow my instructions with relative easy. Some comments he had were to make sure that I wasn't skipping steps.