Our First Guest Speaker

The fourth day of class included going in depth with the letter template on Microsoft Word,earning about PowerPoint, and having lectures on a successful business memo. It was a very long day. Luckily though, Mr. McCarthy promised that after Monday, everything else would be easier. I hope he was serious and that he wasn't playing jokes on the class.

In the computer room, I learned about PowerPoint in detail. We learned about grouping and ungrouping images, and how to use the slideshow master. It was fun, but it was a little confusing in the end of class. It was hard to follow because Mr. McCarthy was going a little too fast. That last part was about themes and animations and graphs, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Later in class, my group went back to the classroom to go over our business memo and our hotel presentations on Monday with Mrs. McCarthy. She helped clarify the hotel presentations, while answering any questions. She would assist us by going on our company website and showing us the facts we could use. In he middle of  class however, there was a sudden burning smell. It took class time as we had to walk out of the classroom and into the hall. Mrs. McCarthy took it very seriously, and called the maintenance crew. This wait lasted for about 15 minutes, and we eventually learned it was only the smell of the welders on the lower floor.

In the last 30 minutes of class, we had a guest speaker. She was a friend of Mrs. McCarthy, and helped us students with the upcoming homework assignment. The memo due on Friday shouldn't be too bad after she explained to us how to write a right memo. It included the principles of business writing: audience focus, formatting, organization, and conciseness. We were told to know who we had to address, as well as using the active voice as much as possible. Finishing off the class, our guest speaker explained the importance of dividing the memos into logical sections, and most importantly, revising memos to focus on key points. 

In the end of class, Eric and I hurried to the dining hall to eat. We wanted to have extra time to start the business memo, partly because we had to research on our hotels for the presentation on Monday, but mainly, we just didn't want to take too long on it and then blog.We went to the Statler Hotel to try to finish our business memo and then left to office hours.


We finished our business memos in the computer class, and the only thing we had left was this blog. I finally could get a good nights rest today.