Reflect


I believe that there is a theme within all our previous blog posts. The blogs focus on situations that are more personal or micro-based. For a good portion of the blogs, we talk about a situation that have happened to us and explain the decisions that were made. We then analyze the choices and determine what might have been a better decision. 
In my opinion I found it hard to connect things that happened to me to course themes. I believe that there are some instances where it might connect to the course is some parts, but the overall event didn’t. The easiest post that connected to the course was the first blog post about transaction cost and being part of a group. After spending more time on other topics, I feel that all decisions in an organization has a transaction cost.


One thing that I realized was that it was hard to submit the post early because the discussion in class ties the readings and the slides together. What I used to do was just write the posts and read them to make sure they made sense, and that it met the requirement. Once we started getting into later weeks, I found myself putting more time into the posts. What I started to do was look at the prompt for the week and then keep it in the back of my mind during lectures. I would then take notes and make a section in my notebook if I thought of something to put in my blog post. Then, at the end of the week, I would do any readings that seemed important in order to better understand the material. Then I would create my post and once I was finished, I would read over other student’s posts. Doing so allows me to compare my work to others and get a better understanding of other viewpoints. For example, I liked reading what others wrote about for the Illinibucks post. Since everyone had a different background, some thought that it would be a good idea while some thought otherwise. I think my writing has evolved throughout the posts. One thing I do need to work on is elaborating more thoroughly. When I write I try to be brief on some of my examples, so it doesn’t end up rambling on. After reading the comments, I need to add more context because even though I know what happened, the reader wasn’t there, and I need to paint the picture for my audience. 
In the future, I would like to see more posts like the Illinibucks prompt. It was an interesting idea that I never thought about. We were able to pro/con and explain our reasoning behind it. The prompts about a specific personal event are kind of hard to write about because most of the stuff I end up writing about events that happened multiple years ago and I found that I can’t really relate the topic to a more recent event. I think it’s more creative in these ‘what if’ situations and better prepare us for future careers.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanOctober 14, 2019 at 7:54 AM

    Based on what i read I can understand your comments about having difficulty making connections. For the first couple of posts, like you I didn't really see the tie-in to the course. You were trying to stay ahead of the curve by getting the posts done early, but you weren't getting much mileage form doing that. Some other students have also said they benefitted from reading the posts of their classmates before writing their own. Obviously, this is not a strategy that would work if every student pursued it. There will be some prompts that have you do some reading and ask you to react to that. It may be easier for you to get those posts done earlier in the week.

    The skill about what background is necessary to provide is something that should carryover well after our class ends. You have to develop a sensibility about the readers - what the reader is expected to know already and what the reader can't possibly yet know. This takes both practice and reading other people's writing to get a sense of how it is done when done well.

    You might try to make your own prompt and write to it, rather than rely on the prompts I provide. That is an option for you to try. It may be riskier. (How do you know whether it is a good prompt or not?) And it may prove to be more work. But you'll likely get more out of it as well, because you've directed it all.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Susan Athey Econ 490 Fall 2019November 10, 2019 at 12:37 PM

    Thank you! I will take your suggestions into consideration for the remainder of course.

    ReplyDelete

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