Notes on Chapter 8- Writing to convince

• Persuasive writing focuses on an issue and provides enough evidence to convince readers that the issue is correct or at least worthy of respect.
• When you write to convince, you need to draw on material from other sources by conducting research
• Be aware of the audience- because you are trying to convince, it is crucial to be aware of thier needs, situations, and perpectives
• To be effective-you need to acknowledge and deal with possible objections from the other side
• If you think that the other side has merit, you need to acknowledge it and conced that it is valid
• The goal of persuasive writing is to convince the reader to change their minds about an issue or to give your view serious consideration. Often, you want to get your reader to act in some way.

Leadership... It's not for Wimps!

Many people believe that leadership is about being the biggest or most powerful. A leader is interpreted as someone who sets the direction in an effort to influence people to follow that direction. How they set the direction and influence people depends on a variety of factors.
There are different leadership styles and leaders carry out their roles in a variety of ways. These examples would include: autocratic, democratic, participatory, laissez-faire, etc.
The leadership style depends on the situation and the organization.
There are many theories about leadership. Examples include: Servant leader, democratic leader, principle-centered leader, group-man theory, great-man theory, traits theory, visionary leader, total leader and situational leader.
Employee engagement is essential in promoting a productive work environment and retention. It has been proven that engaged employees do a better job. It is important to have engaged leaders in order to support this type of environment. Leadership training is at the heart of why employees want to come to work. This is usually why they stay. It's about work environments and their supervisor. Employees don't leave their jobs, they leave their bosses. Employees want to come to a place where they feel they have a purpose, are doing worthwhile work and can truly make a difference. They want to feel engaged, recognized and appreciated.
The Manager or Supervisor holds the key to high employee retention. Results of turnover include:
High turnover rates incur costs that cannot be measured.
The average employee turnover is 14.4% annually, according to the Bureau of National Affairs. Turnover rates are on the rise and vary among different industries
The result of high turnover creates an affect on employee morale and increased job stress for the remaining employees that are burdened with the distribution of the departed employee's workload.
Replacement costs for a departing employee are estimated at one-third of their salary. Even at minimum wage, the cost to replace an employee is $3700.
Often, there is future turnover for employees that leave to join their friends.
The cost to replace a registered nurse is 1.2-1.3 times their salary.

What can be done to drive employee engagement? The top priority action item is "Rounding for Outcomes." Purposeful rounding and talking to staff is essential. Asking questions such as, "What is working well today?", "Is there anyone that we should recognize?", "Is there anything that we could do better?", "Do you have the tools and equipment to do your job?" When leaders round, it is key for the leader to recognize the employee's needs. The most important thing that can be done is to build a relationship with the staff.
Leadership Development is essential in increasing employee engagement and producing an environment for productive employees to work.

References:
"Hardwiring Excellence" by Quint Studer
"Free Management Library"
"Employee Retention Strategies"

Writing response to Chapter 6- Writing to Inform

Many newspaper articles are examples of informative writing.
The goal of most informative writing is to be as neutral as possible. (espec in college)
It is the writer's responsibility to present the info in an impartial manner.
Consider what your reader's might already know about the topic, as well as what you have learned through research. Decide what genre will help you get your point across.
Info needs to be presented clearly and accurately, so that it is easy to understand, for those readers who do not have any background knowledge of the subject.

Synthesize- explain to the reader the most important points and how the info in one text agrees/disagrees with the info in the others. Compare/Contrast and relate various pieces of info to another.
Most writing done in the professional setting is to inform and to teach.
Civic writing- designed to provide info to residents, voters, neighbors and other citizens to help them decide on issues or to take advantage of programs/resources.
Personal writing- notes to family members or email conversations.
Informative writing- purpose is not to convince readers about your opinion, but to inform them in neutral terms. Qualities: a strong focus, relevant, useful info that is provided in an efficient manner, clear, accurate explanations that enable reader to understand the info easily.
At the conclusion, think about what you would like your readers to do after they finish reading.

Writing Process:
invention activity-research-more invention work-first draft-more invention work-more research to fill in the gaps-revise your draft..... (circular process vs a linear process)

Organizing your info and research:
See ?? on Pg. 228-229.

Responding to drafts:
Ask ?? of other's writings and respond to their ideas. Give your reactions and responses to their thoughts. Give the writer's strengths and where they need to develop their ideas more fully. See additional ?? on Pg. 236-237.

Same format as other writing: Intro-body-conclusion- title

Writing to an unknown audience

It is very interesting writing to an unknown audience. I chose to be informative and explain my future goals on a personal level. This of course, would change if I were applying for a job or even writing a performance improvement plan. With an unknown audience, the writer is left to choose the format or preference. When the audience is then known, the entire paper could change focus or formality.

Where I would like to be in Five Years

I am very satisfied with my personal goals. I am happily married of 18 years with my High School sweetheart (after we married other people first!) and we have three wonderful daughters. Their ages range 12-20-22 years. Our oldest daughter was married 1 1/2 years ago and we all "lived" through planning her wedding. My family is extremely supportive of me and whatever goals I set before me. This includes my parents and two sisters. We have an extremely close and supportive family.
Professionally, I have successfully worked as a Registered Nurse since 1984 and worked in the Emergency and Endoscopy Departments. I became the Nurse Manager six years ago of the Endoscopy Department after serving as a staff member for eleven years. While working in this role, I discovered that I have the God-given talent to lead others. I didn't have to read books or take a lot of classes to learn this, I just have always tried to treat others with respect and guide them in the way that I would like to be treated. In doing this, our department became one of the best nursing departments in the hospital with a great reputation. We are known for our outstanding staff members, no employee turnover and for the exceptional care that we deliver to our patients.
This position has opened up several opportunities for me to consider advancing in my career to lead a larger group of staff members and departments. In order to do this, I need to achieve additional education beyond my nursing license. This would be my next academic goal: to achieve a Master's degree in nursing. Presently, I have a Diploma in nursing and can "bridge" to a Master's degree program and skip achieving a Bachelor's Degree. I am interested in going to Walden University. It is an on line program that will take approximately three years to achieve.
In order to apply to this program, I need six credits of English.
With achieving a higher level of nursing degree, I will be eligible for an Administrative Director position. I have actually most recently been promoted as a Director of several departments; Endoscopy, Angiography, PreAdmission Testing, OR Holding and the PACU (Recovery Room).
This position is teaching me a lot about leading multiple departments. The challenge that has been the greatest thus far is the fact that we are building our leadership teams in this area. We have most recently promoted a staff RN to Supervisor and are interviewing for the Nurse Manager position of three of the departments.
My Administrative Director of Surgical Services is supporting me in this role and helping me prepare to eventually become an Administrative Director of Surgical Services myself. My greatest challenge is the fact that I have never worked in the Operating Room. The plan for me is to work on supporting and leading the departments that I am working with and be responsible for Leadership Development of our new leaders within our divison. I am very excited about this challenge and striving to maintain some type of stability within these departments for the staff.
I am uncertain if there will actually be a position upon the conclusion of my studies or where this will lead me. I am told that there are multiple opportunities within our Bon Secours Health System that would be qualified to apply. So, I am not quite sure where this educational achievement will lead me, but have faith that God will place me where he would like for me to work and influence others.

Minute Paper on Chapter 5

Exploratory Writing allows you to explore the subject, while in the midst of writing about it. The author has the ability to explore on a variety of perspectives on issues,, concepts, places or people while writing. This assists the writer to work their way through the ideas and problems in the professional, civic and personal areas of their life.
When you write to explore, you gain a greater understanding of the topic in a new way and assist in gaining additional understanding.

Notes on Chapter 5- Writing to Explore

Explore various perspectives on issues:

• concept



• places



• people

This will help you to work your way through ideas and problems through:

• professional



• civic



• personal

Rhetorical Knowledge- when you write to explore, you can gain greater understanding and how you can help your readers understand your topic. As the writer, you decide what medium and genre will help you communicate in the most effective way to your audience. Also, what information you might need to include, how you would describe your exploration, what visuals, or examples you might use.

One of the most powerful ways to use writing as a tool:

• write to learn



• write to discover



• often your first response to or thoughts about a particular situation are not the best ones



• writing can help you discover new and sometimes better options

Rhetorical considerations for Exploratory writing:

• Audience- YOU are part of the audience along with your professor and classmates. Others may learn from your research and ask ?? and think of ideas that you had not considered



• Purpose- your purpose is to exploare various aspects of your topic in enough detail/depth to increase understanding



• Voice, tone, point of view- you already have your own ideas, knowledge, background and experiences. As you explore your topic, consider whether your preconceptions are accurate. You should be objective and open to different possibilities and then you will discover. You should be ?? what you can learn. Your tone can range from humorous -serious.



• Context, medium and genre- since you are interested in the subject, you will have the incentive to learnmore as you research and write. The knowledge you gain may benefit you later. Consider your audience as you write on the most effective way to present your info.

Critical Thinking, Reading and writing: Effective exploratory writing is based on reasonable options and uses info from solid research.

Learning the Qualities of Effective Exploratory Writing:

• Focus on a concept/question- more open ended. Try to answer a ??, lay groundwork for a solution to a problem or redefine a concept.



• An inquisitive spirit- ask ?? that you really want to answer and let the answers lead you to further ??



• Consider a range of perspectives in a subject- be willing to see it from different vantage points and consider its negative/positive anspects.



• Coverage of the subject- examine all aspects of the topic, often developing a profile of its subject.



• When considering and examining multiple viewpoints, you have the responsibility to the readers to present viewpoints as accurately as possible. You can express your opinions, responses and reflections; do not misrepresent the viewpoints of others.

Research to Explore your subject:

• you need to answer the ?? that you raise



• Answer who, what , where, when, why and how



• determine what kind of research you need to conduct to gather that information



• it's not about getting and giving information and simple answers



• exploration involves the hard work of experiencing and understanding different perspectives.



• you can conduct several kinds of research- web sites, newspapers, interviews, search and read blogs

Writing processes: writing is recursive ( you might start with an invention activity- conduct research- more invention work- first draft- more invention work- research- revise your draft. Writing is more circular, than a linear process. You keep coming back to your earlier work, adding to it, modifying to make it more accurate as you conduct further research and become more familiar with your topic.

Invention: to discover what you already know about the subject, utilize some of the activities on pg. 160

Reviewing your invention and research: review your work and think about the information that you have collected from outside sources. Decide on a thesis statement that summarizes the main point of your exploration. The thesis comes from your exploration. (Try listing, brainstorming, cluster, etc. )

Working with classmates: See pg. 165

Organizing your ideas and details: ask these ??

• Who is your audience?



• Why might they be interested in your writing or how can you make them interested?



• What is your purpose for writing?

Deciding on your organizational approach:

• you might want to ask a number of ??, then answer them in logical order



• you might present a situation and then follow with an understandable, chronological order



• you might define multiple perpectives and then explore the possibilities of each one

Constructing a complete draft: you are organizing your thoughts and research into some coherent form. Review the information you have gathered from your invention and research. Write your draft, exploring your subject in as much depth as possible and using the organizational scheme that works best, with as much detail as possible.

• Introduction- needs to grab and hold the reader's attention a) take the reader on a journey b) ask one or more ?? c) establish multiple perpectives



• Body- leads the reader through your exploration process. You can choose several different kinds of organization. a) classification- grouping ideas in like categories b) comparison/contrast- discover both similarities and differences c) cause/effect- xonsider whether one event has caused another event


• Conclusion- leave the reader's feeling "satisfied". a) if in your exploration you discover that there are consequences, you may choose to present these. b) if you discover that your exploration has led to even more ?? that need to be researched. c) if your exploration leads you to a reasonable conclusion, state that conclusion, explaining how that was reached.


• Title- it is often more useful to get a first draft down on paper/computer, then consider possible titles

Revising- reseeing and rethinking your exploratory text. The most effective way is to read it as though you are reading it for the first time. Be sure and include a questioning, probing and exploring attitude. You can also ask the ?? on Pg. 173-174.

Responding to reader's comments: first, consider carefully what your readers have to say about your text. You may reject some comments.

Knowledge of Conventions: when effective writers edit their work, they pay attention to conventions that help the reader move through the writing effortlessly. This includes genre conventions, documentation, format, usage, grammar and mechanics.

Editing: the final polishing of your document. Make changes to the sentence structure and word choice to improve your style and make your writing clearer and more concise. You also check your work to make sure it adheres to conventions of grammar, usage, puncuation , mechanics and spelling.

Genre, Documentation and format- fluctate these according to whom the writing is intended for.