Before I came to MSU, I got a lot of help from a campus organization which is formed by many Chinese students. The name of the organization is called MSU We54. The members in this organization always help the students from China who are freshmen. They gave me lots of information about the school before I came here, they also picked me up at the airport of East Lansing. I appraciated them, and many of my friends have joined this organization.
One of my good friends is now the vice president of the organization. He has participated in many big events. I think his job is somewhat similar as my field. For example, recently, the organization is hiring some new members. I interviewed my friend about this event, and asked him what the process of hiring new members is. He told me that as a leader of the group, he needs to think about some questions for the students who come. He made an examination paper by himself, and every student who come to enlist should fill out the paper. After that, the students that pass he exam should be interviewed by the leaders of the group. My friend and other leaders would consider whether the organization is short of the students that have particular talents. Thirdly, the students who pass the second step should make a speech of what they could do for this organization. Eventually, a little amount of the students could be hired to this organization. After being hired, the new member's specific work would be arranged by my friend and other leaders.
In my opinion, this event is very similar to hiring employees in a hotel. Since my field is hospitality management, the job that my friend does is like a hotel manager would do. When hiring some new staff, the managers should consider roundly whether the person is proper for this job.
The MSU We54 is a very popular group among Chinese students in MSU, I think their work are meticulous and interesing. The purpose of the group is to help new students to accommodate to the new circumstance more quickly. I think the organzion is meanful and helpful to us foreign students.
2/24/2013
2/21/2013
Researching is Fun
In this week's writing class, we have already started our second paper. It's a research paper about the artifact and the community that has something to do wih the artifact. I didn't like writing a research paper before, so I think it would be a big challenge for me.
Our class went to the main library of our school on Thursday. We first took a tour in the library, it was a lot bigger than I thought. I have only been there once since I usually went to the library near my dorm. There are so many books in the library, and the book shelves are very advanced that we could move it by the buttons on the shelves. Then we went back to the reference instruction room, the librarian used tattoo as an artifact to show us lots of different ways to find the resources. We were divided into groups and asked to find different types of sources about the tattoos. I found using the website of school's main library is a useful way to find sources, and there are some electronic resouces that we could read online instead of going to the library. During the break, we were asked to find a book about our own artifacts by ourselves. I was writing about Michael Jackson, and I first looked for the book online. The book I found was on the fourth floor. When I reached the fourth floor, it was so quiet. Every book is orderly put on the shelf, which makes it easy for me to find the book I need. After only about 5 minutes, I got the book. I used to thought that it's very troublesome to find a book in such a big library, but I was totally wrong.
The experience on Thursday has changed my view about the library. I think I would go to the library more to find the resources on books rather than only on internet. Doing research is not as hard as I thought, I have more confidence in writing the second paper now.
Our class went to the main library of our school on Thursday. We first took a tour in the library, it was a lot bigger than I thought. I have only been there once since I usually went to the library near my dorm. There are so many books in the library, and the book shelves are very advanced that we could move it by the buttons on the shelves. Then we went back to the reference instruction room, the librarian used tattoo as an artifact to show us lots of different ways to find the resources. We were divided into groups and asked to find different types of sources about the tattoos. I found using the website of school's main library is a useful way to find sources, and there are some electronic resouces that we could read online instead of going to the library. During the break, we were asked to find a book about our own artifacts by ourselves. I was writing about Michael Jackson, and I first looked for the book online. The book I found was on the fourth floor. When I reached the fourth floor, it was so quiet. Every book is orderly put on the shelf, which makes it easy for me to find the book I need. After only about 5 minutes, I got the book. I used to thought that it's very troublesome to find a book in such a big library, but I was totally wrong.
The experience on Thursday has changed my view about the library. I think I would go to the library more to find the resources on books rather than only on internet. Doing research is not as hard as I thought, I have more confidence in writing the second paper now.
2/16/2013
Exploring Writing Process
I am asked to interview a professional in my field, suddenly a proper choice came to my mind. Manager Zheng is one of my father's friends, he owns Regal Airport Hotel in Hong Kong, and also he has two restaurants in Hong Kong. One of them is a Japanese restaurant, the other is a Contonese cuisine restaurant. I quickly asked my father about Mr Zheng's contact information.
On Wednesday, I sent him a email to ask if I could interview him, and he agreed. I first asked him what he think hotel management is. He told me that to him, managing a hotel or a restaurant is a lifestyle, it's his everyday life. He thinks he is not only managing a hotel for making profit, but for his own happiness. Then I asked whae he would write in his daily life. He told me that he only writes a little by himself, usually before a meeting, he would write down what the problems are recently and what he needs to talk in the meeting. He would write a report about the hotel in the end of the year to summarize the work for that year and what needs to be improved next year. I asked how he writes it, he said that his secretary would give him many reports and datas about the information for the whole year, he would also consider some big events that happened through the year and whether the staff dealed with them correctly. He sometimes draw on the experience of other good hotels and write them down to teach his staff how to serve guests better. Mr Zheng mentioned that he writes diary sometimes to keep the minutes of some good moments happen to him of his family. He has ever written a diary with photos for his daughter, he started to write it on the day that his daughter was born and ended when his daughter was 1 year old. I think that's pretty cool and sweet.
Mr Zheng's writing process is dfferent from others that we've discussed in class. Th report is similar to our recent paper, he collects the data and information first and make conclusion. We need to collect much information for our research paper too, the difference is we need to write the quote or citation from other's articles, but not only make conclusions. Mr Zheng wrote diary for his daghter every day, it's very different from the writing process we've learned. He also put photos into the diary, I think pictures could be added to our essays too to make our essays more vividly.
Mr Zheng also gave me some advice in my field, he encouraged me to keep working hard with what I am really interested. Suprisingly, he told me he may give me an internship on my summer vacation. I think I get more than I thought from this interview, and I am so excited about working in a hotel or a restaurant.
On Wednesday, I sent him a email to ask if I could interview him, and he agreed. I first asked him what he think hotel management is. He told me that to him, managing a hotel or a restaurant is a lifestyle, it's his everyday life. He thinks he is not only managing a hotel for making profit, but for his own happiness. Then I asked whae he would write in his daily life. He told me that he only writes a little by himself, usually before a meeting, he would write down what the problems are recently and what he needs to talk in the meeting. He would write a report about the hotel in the end of the year to summarize the work for that year and what needs to be improved next year. I asked how he writes it, he said that his secretary would give him many reports and datas about the information for the whole year, he would also consider some big events that happened through the year and whether the staff dealed with them correctly. He sometimes draw on the experience of other good hotels and write them down to teach his staff how to serve guests better. Mr Zheng mentioned that he writes diary sometimes to keep the minutes of some good moments happen to him of his family. He has ever written a diary with photos for his daughter, he started to write it on the day that his daughter was born and ended when his daughter was 1 year old. I think that's pretty cool and sweet.
Mr Zheng's writing process is dfferent from others that we've discussed in class. Th report is similar to our recent paper, he collects the data and information first and make conclusion. We need to collect much information for our research paper too, the difference is we need to write the quote or citation from other's articles, but not only make conclusions. Mr Zheng wrote diary for his daghter every day, it's very different from the writing process we've learned. He also put photos into the diary, I think pictures could be added to our essays too to make our essays more vividly.
Mr Zheng also gave me some advice in my field, he encouraged me to keep working hard with what I am really interested. Suprisingly, he told me he may give me an internship on my summer vacation. I think I get more than I thought from this interview, and I am so excited about working in a hotel or a restaurant.
2/15/2013
Learning Progress for This Week
I would say that this week is a tough week, I had a lot of homework do and I need to prepare for my next economics exam. On the other side, I felt happy and warm last week. It was Chinese New Year's Day last Sunday, I had so much fun with my new friends from MSU. Although I couldn't celebrate it with my families, I think friends here are like my true families too.
As for the learning progress, in this week's writing class, I have basically learned much about how to write a research paper. It was Valentine's Day yesterday, Kate used the special date as an example to teach us how to research for a research paper. My partner and I found many useful sources for the tradition and customs of Valentine's Day. I could now quickly distinguish summary, paraphrase, and quote. Before yesterday's class, I was so confused about the citation in the essay. I didn't know how to quote or cite for the sources I have found in an essay, especially the sources without authors. However, now I am clearly about the citation and how to write a research paper. Since our next paper is about an artifact and the community, we should do a lot of research for the paper. The class gave me many ideas and I am now confident with my topic report, which needs to be turned in next week. I like the way that Kate connected the festival with our class, it's fun. We could not only learn how to research, but also some customs about the popular festival in the United States.
Besides the writing class, my hospitality business class goes on well too. I have learned much about the casinos last week. I found it was so joyful to read the articles which my professor provided to us. At first, my parents didn't allow me to major in hospitality management, but after they knew how much I was interested in it, they agreed. I think we should choose major by ourselves, because the future is ours. Nothing should stop your step on the way to achieving your dream.
As for the learning progress, in this week's writing class, I have basically learned much about how to write a research paper. It was Valentine's Day yesterday, Kate used the special date as an example to teach us how to research for a research paper. My partner and I found many useful sources for the tradition and customs of Valentine's Day. I could now quickly distinguish summary, paraphrase, and quote. Before yesterday's class, I was so confused about the citation in the essay. I didn't know how to quote or cite for the sources I have found in an essay, especially the sources without authors. However, now I am clearly about the citation and how to write a research paper. Since our next paper is about an artifact and the community, we should do a lot of research for the paper. The class gave me many ideas and I am now confident with my topic report, which needs to be turned in next week. I like the way that Kate connected the festival with our class, it's fun. We could not only learn how to research, but also some customs about the popular festival in the United States.
Besides the writing class, my hospitality business class goes on well too. I have learned much about the casinos last week. I found it was so joyful to read the articles which my professor provided to us. At first, my parents didn't allow me to major in hospitality management, but after they knew how much I was interested in it, they agreed. I think we should choose major by ourselves, because the future is ours. Nothing should stop your step on the way to achieving your dream.
2/07/2013
About My Lab Class
I have taken ISB 203 lab this year, it's about the Red Cedar River. When I first went to this class, I have never thought it would be such a fun class. I was only excited about not having any quizzes and exams in this class. However, during these weeks' lab class, we went outside during every class period, and did many experiments near the Red Cedar River. People in my group are all nice and we did the experiments very efficiently.
In this week's class, we went outside first and collected some data of the river, such as the river hight, the PH, and the nitrates. Then we went back to the classroom to do experiment about the groundwater. We had small water pump and different sizes of cobblestones to imitate how to draw water out of the ground. It's interesting, and people in our group cooperated well. I have also learned a lot about the underground water and why we couldn't use the underground water directly. The pollution that people make or pour to the soil would influence the underground water, and in this way, we can't use the underground water anymore. I think environmental pollution has been a big problem to us, people mostly focus on the air pollution or the water pollution. However, the industrial pollution is becoming more and more serious, the soil may be ruined by the industrial pollution. Tying up with the soil, the underground water that could be used by people becomes less and less.
The lab class didn't only teach me how to do the experiments, but also taught me much about the growing environmental problems.
In this week's class, we went outside first and collected some data of the river, such as the river hight, the PH, and the nitrates. Then we went back to the classroom to do experiment about the groundwater. We had small water pump and different sizes of cobblestones to imitate how to draw water out of the ground. It's interesting, and people in our group cooperated well. I have also learned a lot about the underground water and why we couldn't use the underground water directly. The pollution that people make or pour to the soil would influence the underground water, and in this way, we can't use the underground water anymore. I think environmental pollution has been a big problem to us, people mostly focus on the air pollution or the water pollution. However, the industrial pollution is becoming more and more serious, the soil may be ruined by the industrial pollution. Tying up with the soil, the underground water that could be used by people becomes less and less.
The lab class didn't only teach me how to do the experiments, but also taught me much about the growing environmental problems.
Delivery and Style
Recently, I have found a great website which is called "Hotel Marketing Coach". On this website, we could read many hotel news articles, which are written by some professionals in my field. One of the articles interests me most, which is named "Smaller Independent Hotels Should Think 'Big' ".
The article is wrriten by Neil Salerno, who is a hotel marketing coach. The article basically describes how to use the internet and the websites to make a hotel better. In the very opening, the author briefly tells the reason why the small hotels need websites to compete with the franchised big hotels. Surprisingly, some professional words in the article like "GDS" and "talent-base" were just taught in my hospitality business class, and I could understand it immediately. Since it's a somewhat scholarly article, I think the way he uses abbreviations is correct. The audiences for this article are most the learners in this field, so they could mostly understand the abbreviations and some professional words. In this article, he uses many examples to make his ideas more clear. For instance, "There are many hotels out there which have spent $4,000 or more for a very pretty but totally ineffective website." the author uses the numbers to explain why it's ridiculous to use so much money only for the appearance of the website. The numbers have persuasion for audience to believe, and as a scholarly article, I think it's necessary to put some numbers or information into the article. I think the best delivery in this article is that the author uses the bulleted list to show the main mistakes that some hotels would make to readers. It's more convenient for those hotel managers who read the article to avoid the mistakes in making their websites of the hotels.
I also found a blog which is written by a hotel manager, he basically wrote how a hotel works and the rooms in the hotel. Comparing the blog and the scholarly article, the blog is much shorter and the writing style is more casual. Readers would like to read the blog more since there are less professional words in the blog and it's easier to understand the thesis that the blogger wants to expres.
As for the newspaper articles for hotel management, it has more datas, and it's more like a research paper. The dates of the report is on the top of the article. Readers are able to know plenty of information in a newspaper article. In addition, the examples in a newspaper article is far more than a blog. The delievery is also easy for readers to understand, but more professional than a blog.
These three types of articles are different in delievery and style, and they are for different types of people to read. The scholarly article may be suitable for students and learners of hotel management; the blog is fun, and almost everyone could read it; the newspaper article is for some professionals and some people who want to gather information about the field. Since the audiences are different, each of them has its own style of writing.
The link of the scholarly article is below:
http://www.hotelmarketingcoach.com/Smaller%20Independent%20Hotels%20Should%20Think%20Big.htm
The link of the blog is below:
http://thehospitalitymanager.tumblr.com/
The link of the newspaper article is below:
http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/9890/Multi-property-deals-to-spur-Choices-growth
The article is wrriten by Neil Salerno, who is a hotel marketing coach. The article basically describes how to use the internet and the websites to make a hotel better. In the very opening, the author briefly tells the reason why the small hotels need websites to compete with the franchised big hotels. Surprisingly, some professional words in the article like "GDS" and "talent-base" were just taught in my hospitality business class, and I could understand it immediately. Since it's a somewhat scholarly article, I think the way he uses abbreviations is correct. The audiences for this article are most the learners in this field, so they could mostly understand the abbreviations and some professional words. In this article, he uses many examples to make his ideas more clear. For instance, "There are many hotels out there which have spent $4,000 or more for a very pretty but totally ineffective website." the author uses the numbers to explain why it's ridiculous to use so much money only for the appearance of the website. The numbers have persuasion for audience to believe, and as a scholarly article, I think it's necessary to put some numbers or information into the article. I think the best delivery in this article is that the author uses the bulleted list to show the main mistakes that some hotels would make to readers. It's more convenient for those hotel managers who read the article to avoid the mistakes in making their websites of the hotels.
I also found a blog which is written by a hotel manager, he basically wrote how a hotel works and the rooms in the hotel. Comparing the blog and the scholarly article, the blog is much shorter and the writing style is more casual. Readers would like to read the blog more since there are less professional words in the blog and it's easier to understand the thesis that the blogger wants to expres.
As for the newspaper articles for hotel management, it has more datas, and it's more like a research paper. The dates of the report is on the top of the article. Readers are able to know plenty of information in a newspaper article. In addition, the examples in a newspaper article is far more than a blog. The delievery is also easy for readers to understand, but more professional than a blog.
These three types of articles are different in delievery and style, and they are for different types of people to read. The scholarly article may be suitable for students and learners of hotel management; the blog is fun, and almost everyone could read it; the newspaper article is for some professionals and some people who want to gather information about the field. Since the audiences are different, each of them has its own style of writing.
The link of the scholarly article is below:
http://www.hotelmarketingcoach.com/Smaller%20Independent%20Hotels%20Should%20Think%20Big.htm
The link of the blog is below:
http://thehospitalitymanager.tumblr.com/
The link of the newspaper article is below:
http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/9890/Multi-property-deals-to-spur-Choices-growth
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