STUDENT SAMPLE LETTER OF THANKS FOR INTERVIEW
PO Box 95
Southlake ID 84095
May 20, 2013
Jake Warner
Globe News
30 Wright Way
Southlake, ID 84098
Dear Jake:
Thank you again for allowing me to interview you for my communication assignment. You took the pain
out of this assignment. You were fun and easy to talk to, and you provided me with so much information
about your field.
It is easy to see why you are a success at what you do! You know how to tell a story! I came home and
told my husband all the interesting things you shared with me. You have helped me realize the huge
impact reporters have and the responsibility they hold in our society. It definitely had me thinking when
you said that reporters can be compared to historians. I also appreciate the advice you gave me to read,
read, read, and to learn how to tell a story. You made me recognize that reading can help me develop my
individual writing style.
I know your schedule is crazy, especially with having a family at home. So thank your wife also! It was a
pleasure to meet you. I am sure we will run into each other in the future, and not because I am taking your
job! ☺
Sincerely,
Jessica Smith
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STUDENT SAMPLE COVER LETTER
123 Sunnydale Lane
Westerdale, WA 97777
March 18, 2013
Joseph Vandermin
Human Resources
Vandermin Industries
543 Cloudy Ave
Westerdale, WA 97772
Dear Mr. Vandermin:
I saw your employment ad on the Monster web site for a Facilities Coordinator. After reviewing the
duties and qualifications listed, I feel that I would make an excellent fit for the position.
As my resume states, I am currently working as a Safety Specialist, Accounts Receivable clerk, and
Customer Service Representative at Hoyle Manufacturing. Working there, I built a user-friendly website
for help and specifications of our products for employee use. I created the site to act as a help source for
employees as they handled customer calls. I have extensive computer skills as well as customer service
skills. I have experienced ongoing training for all three of my job areas, which has enabled me to grow
and learn as the company moves forward. I am responsible for complying with and reporting to OSHA
and the EPA, as well as for developing, writing, and implementing safety and accounting procedures.
Thank you for taking the time to review my resume. You can e-mail me at dayju@aol.com or phone me
at 905-000-0000. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
June Day
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STUDENT SAMPLE RESUME
June Day
123 Sunnydale Lane Westerdale, WA 97777
Phone: 905-000-0000 E-mail: dayju@aol.com
COMPETENCIES
• Extensive research and organizational skills
• Effective leadership and team capabilities
• Excellent customer service skills
• Strong accounting abilities
• Experienced at reporting to and complying with OSHA, EPA, and NFPA
EXPERIENCE
Safety Specialist/Accounts Receivable Clerk/Customer Service Representative
May 2012-present, Hoyle Manufacturing, Westerdale, WA
Establish procedures and processes to assure regulatory compliance; Develop, implement,
monitor and manage safety programs and procedures; Evaluate facilities for improvement;
Report and investigate accidents; Manage collection procedures such as negotiating with past
due accounts and referring accounts to collection agencies; Set up new customer accounts;
Resolve customer issues and maintain customer relationships.
Administrative Assistant
September 2011-May 2012, The Training Place, Westerdale, WA
Worked in various office environments as a temporary employee; Handled consumer complaints
about a product recall; Worked with the government on recall procedures; Developed training
manuals; Helped redesign a filing system.
New Patient Assistant
September 2010-September 2011, Doctor Cee’s, Westerdale, WA
Met with patients to establish medical histories; Aided during examinations; Performed physical
therapy with patients, under supervision; Contributed to goals of the office; Assisted in patient
billing.
EDUCATION
Westerdale Community College (Emphasis in Finance), August 2010-present
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STUDENT SAMPLE : GROUP IMPROVEMENT PROPOSAL
(submitted by each student individually )
Individual Proposal
Submitted by
Ima Smart
River City Community College
Communication 101
October 23, 20xx
Contents
Overview 2
Project Description 3
Group Assets 4
Group Limitations 6
Recommendations 6
Conclusion 7
Overview
Our group investigated how we as students with limited time and budgets could best help the food bank.
Our group developed an effective solution to the food bank problem. We were successful because group
members were committed and creative in generating new ideas, and because we structured our meetings
with a step-by-step problem-solving method. This method gave structure to our meetings and made the
whole process seamless.
Our group did have some limitations, however, which I would change in future group projects. I learned
that our chat room meeting venue restricted our ability to analyze ideas thoughtfully. I also learned that
nonverbals are essential for building positive group interaction. For these reasons, I would recommend
arranging in-person meetings whenever possible. A second choice would be telephone conferences.
Project Description
Our task was to decide how we, as a group of five students with limited time and budgets, could best help
the food bank. During this project I learned that having a step-by-step problem-solving method was
invaluable. This method gave structure to our meetings and made the whole process seamless.
Using the reflective-thinking sequence, we first identified and expressed the problem as an open-ended
question: “How can we best help the food bank?” We researched the nature of the food bank problem in
River City so we would have a more thorough understanding of what needed to be done. Next, we
outlined criteria that we wanted our solution to meet. These are specific assessments that we would use in
Step V to evaluate our potential solutions.
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We then started brainstorming to come up with as many ideas as possible. I was fortunate to have a group
that was committed and creative in generating new ideas. While brainstorming, we not only tried to come
up with solutions, but we also tried to find creative ways to execute those solutions. For example, we
thought we would want to print fliers to advertise the food drive. However, because we didn’t have any
money, we had to figure out how to get the flyers printed. We determined that we would be able to get
printing, boxes and other advertising donated because it is for a good cause. To verify these assumptions,
we each did additional research and reported the results in subsequent meetings.
At that point we narrowed our solutions to our top ten. We then constructed a chart listing our solutions
and criteria. We graded each solution to find out which ones best met the criteria. Several of our ideas
ranked high, so we devised a combination of these ideas as our final solution. We then asked ourselves
what could go wrong, and we created a backup plan in case of the worst. Based on this information, we
set up a timeline and assigned specific tasks. In this way, our group ended up with a workable solution
that could bring about good results.
Our group’s process showed some strengths and some weaknesses, which I will analyze in the following
pages.
Group Assets
Our group demonstrated two outstanding assets that our text identifies as elements of effective small–
group communication: commitment and brainstorming.
According to Chase and Jones: “Commitment is the desire of group members to work together to
complete their task to the satisfaction of the entire group” (p. xx). Not everyone in the group exhibited
commitment, but the five of us who really made the project happen attended and contributed in every
meeting and worked each week to prepare his or her portion for the next meeting. Our facilitator
contacted the noncontributing members several times. When we had not heard from them in two weeks,
she asked the professor to drop them from the group. In this way, we maintained a positive momentum.
The second asset our group exhibited was exceptional brainstorming. The text describes brainstorming as
a powerful generator of ideas (p. xx). Almost everyone in the group came up with creative ideas. Several
times in our chat sessions the ideas were flowing by as fast as you could read them. When a silly idea
came up nobody was ridiculed, but we all laughed, had a good time, and continued on. This made for a
good creative and humorous environment that I think we all enjoyed and that made us feel comfortable in
sharing our ideas. This lack of instant evaluation also prevented groupthink from occurring (text, p. xx).
Groupthink is a tendency for everyone to seek concurrence instead of thinking for herself or himself.
Through brainstorming, we came up with some ideas I never would have thought of alone. This is the
best part of group work.
Group Limitations
Unfortunately, our group also had two important limitations that detracted from our doing the best we
could: meeting as a virtual group and lack of paralanguage. We were not able to meet face–to-face
because one of our group members lives in Alaska. Besides, most of us had difficult schedules, so we all
wanted to meet online, even though the professor had warned us that it’s much easier and more satisfying
to complete a group project face-to-face (COMM 101 Web page).
We chose to conduct all of our meetings in the online chat rooms. This ended up being a bad choice. It
got really confusing when ideas were flying quickly. It was common for multiple questions to be asked or
multiple conversations to be taking place at the same time. It was almost impossible to maintain a sense
of chronological order. People were getting confused because they weren’t sure who was responding to
whom. We lost a lot of time because we had to keep backtracking and repeating to make sense of
everyone’s ideas.
The confusion was even worse because in an instant message environment we usually try to condense our
entire thought process into a few short words (Ivancevich & Duening, p. xx). We lost the depth of thought
we could have had if we’d been able to pursue our ideas one at a time. This got frustrating. It also
affected the quality of our solution.
A related problem resulting from our choice of chat room as a venue was the lack of nonverbal
communication, which created some tension. When we are chatting online there is no paralanguage.
Paralanguage is the study of all cues, which include sound or silence, other than the content of words
themselves (text, p. xx). Without paralanguage it is very difficult to communicate tone, inflection, and
attitude in a message. For example, during one of our meetings I kept bringing up a topic that I thought
was being overlooked. I didn’t think this oversight was intentional; rather, I assumed it just happened
because when several questions are posed at once, sometimes one is missed or overlooked. However, two
of the members interpreted my repetitive questions as being rude or dominating. I’m quite sure that if they
could have heard my tone of voice we would not have had this problem! Chat rooms are definitely not
very suitable for substantive interaction (COMM 101 Web page).
Recommendations
I have learned a lot from this project about the strengths and limits of virtual communication. If I could do
this project over again, I would use a variety of modes of communication, not just chat rooms.
Virtual communication does have some advantages in group decision making. For example, due to our
busy schedules and distant locations, our group members couldn’t have completed our task without
technology. I have also learned that people who are timid are more willing to participate in virtual groups
than in face-to-face groups, because they are less self-conscious (Ivancevich & Duening, p. xx). This
might have been one reason why our group members participated so evenly.
The chat rooms worked fine for simple items, such as choosing a problem, brainstorming, and assigning
tasks. Asynchronous (i.e., not every member is online at the same time) virtual meetings would have been
better for steps that required more thought, such as reporting research results. We would have had more
time to think about these ideas. However, asynchronous discussion areas aren’t a fruitful forum for debate
or negotiation, which require the immediate give-and-take of an interaction process. For this type of
interaction, we should have used telephone conference calls. Conference calls also would have given us at
least some ability to notice one another’s paralanguage.
In future projects like this I will try to choose a group that has the ability to get together in person for at
least a few of the meetings. If that’s not possible, then I will assign different technologies, depending on
the nature of the task.
Conclusion
Our group came up with an effective solution to the food bank problem. We showed high commitment
and creativity. We needed to improve our use of technology and nonverbal communication. This
experience has illustrated for me the need and importance of matching the technology to the task. It has
also shown me the value of nonverbal communication. I will apply these lessons in future group
assignments.
References
Adler, R., & Elmhorst, J. (2013). Communicating at work (11th ed). NewYork: McGraw Hill.
Chase, R. & Jones, S. (Eds.). (2006). Elements of Effective Communication. Boston: Pearson.
COMM 101 Web pages. Accessed October. 20, 2012.
Ivancevich, J., & Duening, T. (2006). Management: Skills, application, practice, and development.
Folsom, CA: Atomic Dog Publishing.
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STUDENT SAMPLE INFORMATIVE SPEECH OUTLINE
(TO SERVE AS S PEAKING NOTES)
[Student Name]
Submitted to [Instructor Name]
COMM 101-00
Informative Speech Draft Outline
[Date]
Background Information
Specific Goal: My audience will learn how to throw a softball.
Intended Audience: high school girl athletes
Pattern of Organization: I will be using a chronological pattern of arrangement.
My experience with this topic (ethos): Played softball in high school; volunteer to help coach young
athletes.
Number of references I’ll cite out loud in my speech: 3
Title: Practice Makes Perfect
Introduction:
Hook: Have you ever been told you throw like a girl? Today you’ll learn to throw like a girl and be proud of
it.
Ethos: I played on my high school softball team. It was such a valuable experience to me, that now I
volunteer to help coach young athletes.
Thesis: I learned that when we play softball, we tend to make our worst errors when we’re throwing the
ball. But we can decrease our errors significantly if we learn and practice proper technique.
Preview:
1. hand grip and release
2. arm and body position
3. practice drills
Transition: In softball it’s important to get the correct grip.
Body:
I. How you hold the ball determines how far, how accurate, and how fast you can throw it.
A. 4-seam grip (Brent Mayne)
i. Ball forms C
ii. Use fingertips
iii. Thumb beneath
iv. Don’t palm
B. Release
i. Ball always away (bad breath)
ii. Palm facing away
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iii. Backspin
iv. More torque when snapping
Transition: The way you position your throwing arm is extremely important; and so is learning to throw
properly to avoid developing bad habits.
II. Throwing arm position
A. Elbow up
i. Elbow forms an L
ii. No dropping elbow
iii. Shoulder height
iv. Non glove side pointing at target (scope)
v. Newbies (bow and arrow technique)
B. Body and feet (Di Maggio)
i. Batting stance
ii. Form a T
iii. Instep facing target
iv. Pull elbow back into body as you release
Transition: Now Let’s put it all together.
III. You can use this practice drill to fine-tune your skills. (Softball Drill Book)
A. Grab ball and find grip
B. Reach back for L position
C. Point non-throwing arm at target
D. Lead with elbow and pull glove into body
E. Snap wrist to throw
Conclusion:
Throwing a softball isn’t that difficult. If you practice you’ll be able to throw a softball with accuracy
and velocity. And this will help you reduce the errors in your games and have more fun when you
play.
References
Dimaggio, Joe. Quoted in ‘Mind Training. Net.Greatest Sports Champions Quotes’. Accessed on 11/6/12.
Available at http://www.mindtraining.net/motivational_quotes
Mayne, Brent. Mayne Stream Inc. 2011.Accessed on 11/4/12. Available at http://brentmayne.com/todays-
tip-the-four-seam-grip
Walker, Kirk. 2007. The Softball Drill Book. Human Kinetics Publishers.